Don't Stop Believing, or how I'm gonna miss those pesky Sopranos
So the following quoted text was a post at HBO's boards on the frenzy that has resulted in the Sopranos finale last night.
(SPOILER ALERT!)(SPOILER ALERT!)(SPOILER ALERT!)(SPOILER ALERT!)
"My theory is the ending meant that "we" the audience got whacked. Life goes on in Sopranoland, but we are not part of it anymore. While we were on the edge of our seats waiting for something to happen, with the music blasting, someone walked up behind us. Like Bobby said "You probably don't even hear it when it happens"
Did we get whacked?"
And my response was as follows, because I thought that was geniusly put, because, yes, I FELT WHACKED! But after my period of morning, I came up with (SPOILER ALERT!) this:
I think this post says a lot about what happened. I knew that there was meaning, but in the moment of watching it was pure shock and "WHAT THE..?! THAT'S IT?!" Then I thought it's either the best finale ever or the worst. Now thinking of it, it's pretty friggin' cool. And I absolutely LOVE that it's open to interpretation.
Here's the thing, I think either we got Whacked. Or we got whacked... WITH TONY! The whole series is from his perspective, even if we cut to other things happening, the world has always been through Tony's eyes.
And in terms of the whole, the finale didn't resolve anything... that's B.S. For one thing the show's not Lost, so it's not like there were Mysteries that needed to be resolved. It's about the head of a mob family trying to do his job while keeping things together at home, and needing to go to therapy to deal with his issues. Have we forgotten that that's the initial premise of the show in the first place?
So, let's look at where we/they are now, in the diner. Meadow's successful in law school and probably gonna marry that guy. A.J. is seeing SOME kind of direction in his life. Carm will probably get her dream house and still loves Tony after the wringer he's put her through. Janice will NEVER be fully happy, so why force that kind of resolution on her, though she still wants to care for Bobby's kids. And Tony has come to terms that Junior is just an old man suffering from severe dementia instead of being a maniacal sociopath. Not to mention, his crew's issue with Phil Leotardo's clan has been resolved. And Paulie simply wants the easy life and not die, what ever that means in the mob. That's this present moment. There are no loose ends.
I think the beauty of the final scene is that it is set up like some "Godfather" type thing is going to be played out, where in all actuality, they are just a family, eating onion rings in a diner, and we are just feeling Tony's paranoia. So, him getting whacked, or us getting whacked isn't the real issue that needs to be dealt with. That wouldn't fulfill anything. With the great song, "Don't Stop Believing" playing in the background, it's A.J. who says, "Focus on the good times." That's what is really trying to be said here. Through all the piss and s*** this family has been through, and we've been through, we won't see them again. We've seen enough tragedy on the show. If we remember, things were kinda easy in the begining. Nothing serious went down until Tony whacked the rat on Meadow's college trip. It was Tony feeling peace about some ducks and then having a panic attack. We don't need to end with tragedy, because it didn't start with tragedy. Ducks to Onion Rings. I think that's awesome.
(SPOILER ALERT!)(SPOILER ALERT!)(SPOILER ALERT!)(SPOILER ALERT!)
"My theory is the ending meant that "we" the audience got whacked. Life goes on in Sopranoland, but we are not part of it anymore. While we were on the edge of our seats waiting for something to happen, with the music blasting, someone walked up behind us. Like Bobby said "You probably don't even hear it when it happens"
Did we get whacked?"
And my response was as follows, because I thought that was geniusly put, because, yes, I FELT WHACKED! But after my period of morning, I came up with (SPOILER ALERT!) this:
I think this post says a lot about what happened. I knew that there was meaning, but in the moment of watching it was pure shock and "WHAT THE..?! THAT'S IT?!" Then I thought it's either the best finale ever or the worst. Now thinking of it, it's pretty friggin' cool. And I absolutely LOVE that it's open to interpretation.
Here's the thing, I think either we got Whacked. Or we got whacked... WITH TONY! The whole series is from his perspective, even if we cut to other things happening, the world has always been through Tony's eyes.
And in terms of the whole, the finale didn't resolve anything... that's B.S. For one thing the show's not Lost, so it's not like there were Mysteries that needed to be resolved. It's about the head of a mob family trying to do his job while keeping things together at home, and needing to go to therapy to deal with his issues. Have we forgotten that that's the initial premise of the show in the first place?
So, let's look at where we/they are now, in the diner. Meadow's successful in law school and probably gonna marry that guy. A.J. is seeing SOME kind of direction in his life. Carm will probably get her dream house and still loves Tony after the wringer he's put her through. Janice will NEVER be fully happy, so why force that kind of resolution on her, though she still wants to care for Bobby's kids. And Tony has come to terms that Junior is just an old man suffering from severe dementia instead of being a maniacal sociopath. Not to mention, his crew's issue with Phil Leotardo's clan has been resolved. And Paulie simply wants the easy life and not die, what ever that means in the mob. That's this present moment. There are no loose ends.
I think the beauty of the final scene is that it is set up like some "Godfather" type thing is going to be played out, where in all actuality, they are just a family, eating onion rings in a diner, and we are just feeling Tony's paranoia. So, him getting whacked, or us getting whacked isn't the real issue that needs to be dealt with. That wouldn't fulfill anything. With the great song, "Don't Stop Believing" playing in the background, it's A.J. who says, "Focus on the good times." That's what is really trying to be said here. Through all the piss and s*** this family has been through, and we've been through, we won't see them again. We've seen enough tragedy on the show. If we remember, things were kinda easy in the begining. Nothing serious went down until Tony whacked the rat on Meadow's college trip. It was Tony feeling peace about some ducks and then having a panic attack. We don't need to end with tragedy, because it didn't start with tragedy. Ducks to Onion Rings. I think that's awesome.