you guys are making me nervous & i don't get to see it for another hr and a half.

it's probably best if you just make your own ending.

__________________
albert, you are the father

man. if i have to bitchsmack david chase...

GOOD NEWS:

just found out, they're possibly making a movie

I thought the ending was perfect.

__________________
President Bartlet: I don't need a flu shot.
Morris: You do need a flu shot.
President Bartlet: How do I know this isn't the start of a military coup?
Morris: Sir?
President Bartlet: I want the Secret Service in here right away.
Morris: In the event of a military coup, sir, what makes you think the Secret Service is gonna be on your side?
President Bartlet: Now that's a thought that's gonna fester.

where did you hear that?

I loved the ending. Was a bit shocked at first, but I really do think it's perfect. Some people I know think that the abrupt cut to black was because Tony died - he stopped seeing, so we stopped seeing. I don't think so tho - I think life goes on. The show has never been about tying up loose ends or giving a hollywood ending to things, and I love it for that.

I'm gonna miss it, though. there's nothing else on TV like it.

PS - It felt so fucking good to see Phil get whacked, and I don't care who doesn't like that I said that.

__________________
live outside your head
live inside a song

Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too? - Douglas Noël Adams

Too much time spent on AJ on perhaps the most important episode of the series. The past 2 episodes were way better than this. I actually looked at my watch, which is never a good sign. And although it is the artsy fartsy way to leave things open-ended....the whole "we don't want to feed everything to the audience" mentality..which I usually like but do not enjoy it when it comes to ONLY endings. I mean if you are gonna make something obscure, and make the audience question things, then make the whole damn thing like that from start to finish, David Lynch style. I want to say to Chase: "You have fed us everything DIRECTLY so far, this is YOUR story, not ours. Give me the fucking ending like you gave the beginning and the middle. I don't want to come up with a possible ending. I want a definite visual ending, YOUR ending". Well, apparently THIS is his ending, but it felt more like not wanting to disappoint anyone by giving ONE ending, so it was like "OK, you pick whatever suits you, so you won't blame me for it". This was a full-blown tease. It is like a woman seducing a guy with bedroom eyes , sexual-innuendo filled words and a hikedup skirt and just when she utters the words "I sooo want to f...", she ends it with "..forget about it. Use your imagination and go jerk off".

But then on the other hand I did not like Six Feet Under's ending either, as it gave TOO much of an ending in a way.

I am soooo going to miss them. Great-quality-dramawise I don't think there is anything on TV at the moment that can top Sopranos or 6 Feet Under. The writing was superb (90% of the time) on both shows.

well my boyfriend knows about movies years before they happen, it's just his thing, so he told me...and then I typed it in google..and wallah...he wasn't kidding.

You honestly couldn't have said it better....basically everything I felt, every word, including the whole david lynch thing.

In 2006, David Chase stated that it was a *possibility* that he may come up with a "Sopranos" movie idea a few years down the road. I wouldn't hold my breath.

James Gandolfini is ready to be done with Tony Soprano.

James Gandolfini Is Ready to Move on From Tony | theledger.com

James Gandolfini Is Ready to Move on From Tony

By FRAZIER MOORE
The Associated Press

There was no decisive moment, no seismic shift, no ceremony when James Gandolfini put "The Sopranos" behind him. But he has. Comfortably.

"I was told that it would be a transition," he says and shakes his head. "Not much. It's very calming to move on."

Gandolfini, of course, had played gangster-in-therapy Tony Soprano - earning raves, clout and unsought celebrity - since the HBO drama premiered in January 1999.

Now there's only one piece of unfinished business. Tonight's finale will bring to a close a saga as powerful and oddly relatable as anything ever seen on TV. This conclusion, however satisfying or disappointing, will surely leave "Sopranos" fans wanting more.

But not Gandolfini.

"The character has been with me for so long," he says, "it's a relief to let him go."

No wonder. For 86 episodes, Gandolfini submerged himself in that fiendish, tormented character. He channeled the dark world of "Sopranos" creator David Chase. He was regularly summoned to his own psychic danger zone. All in all, the experience was "wearing," he says.

There also was a physical toll. "The Sopranos" revolves around Tony, which meant Gandolfini had an exhausting workload.

"But in a way, being tired helped me play the character. If the guy had to look good and be handsome and happy, the hours we worked would certainly not help. They helped ME a great deal," he laughs. "I was allowed to be grumpy and tired and look like (crap)."

LAID CHARACTER TO REST

That was then. Whatever awaits Tony in the series-ender - prison, death or some sort of escape - Gandolfini has already laid him to rest.

Time after time, Gandolfini felt the end at Silvercup Studios in Queens, and on locations such as Tony's home turf of northern New Jersey. All during April, members of the large "Sopranos" cast would shoot their last scene with him, then leave forever. Then he'd shoot a last scene with another cast member, who would disappear.

"There wasn't any grand finale," he says.

Or was there? Gandolfini suddenly remembers his last scene alongside Steven Van Zandt, who since the beginning played Tony's loyal consigliere Silvio.

"This is no indication of my feelings toward anyone else, but, for some reason, that really hit me when he left. Wow!"

Speaking to a reporter at HBO headquarters last week, Gandolfini, who recently signed a production deal with the network, was taking a break from screening footage for a documentary he's making about U.S. soldiers in Iraq who recover from near-fatal injuries.

Dressed casually in short sleeves, chinos and running shoes, the 45-year-old actor is down-to-earth and deferential, yet remains a formidable presence even without Tony's cockiness and mobster cred. His voice, while reflecting his New Jersey background, is richer, more robust than Tony's astringent delivery.

PRESS SHY

Though famously press-shy ever since "The Sopranos" blindsided him with stardom, Gandolfini has consented to this rare interview. Nursing coffee from a foam cup, he shares nearly an hour in agreeable give-and-take, only drawing the line when one too many questions delves into his acting technique: "Oh, please! Who gives a (crap)!" he scoffs. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be abrupt."

He misses no chance to deflect credit toward his colleagues.

"I might be in a lot of scenes, but the crew is in EVERY scene," he points out. "The crew is there 16 hours a day, every day.

"And the cast totally propped me up in many scenes. After three or four scenes, sometimes I was adrift, and because (the editor) could cut to such other good actors, they were there to help me."

It was a two-way street, according to Michael Imperioli, who played Tony's hothead nephew Christopher, now dead (thanks to Tony's cold-hearted intervention) after a car crash a few episodes ago.

"Every time you go and do a scene with this guy," Imperioli said at the start of the season, "he manages to give 105 percent. That rubs off. That makes YOU work harder."

"I had the greatest sparring partner in the world; I had Muhammad Ali," said Lorraine Bracco, who, as Tony's psychiatrist Dr. Melfi, went one-on-one with Gandolfini in their penetrating therapy scenes. "He cares what he does, and does it extremely well."

Saying goodbye to the crew and his co-stars - yes, that was hard, Gandolfini concedes, even if saying goodbye to Tony wasn't.

Also hard: no more of those magnificent "Sopranos" scripts.

UNEXPECTED PLACES

"Good writing will bring you to places you don't even expect sometimes," he said.

"It's a ride that I was along on, with everybody else," he says.

And, like everybody else, he can't help feeling appalled by Tony's brutish misbehavior. After shooting a scene where Tony did something despicable, Gandolfini would sometimes upbraid his own character.

"I would shake my head and say, God, what a ..." Whereupon he helpfully substitutes his unpublishable outburst with a family friendly version: "What a jerk!"

So what's the truth? Does he like this jerk who was part of him for so long?

"I used to," he says. "But it's difficult toward the end. I think the thing with Christopher might have turned the corner." That was a soulless display: Fed up with his nephew's shortcomings, Tony pinched shut the nostrils of the gravely hurt Christopher, ensuring he would choke to death.

But wait! Gandolfini thinks a moment, and more of Tony's recent misdeeds - not homicidal, but clearly depraved - come to mind: "Maybe the gambling thing with Hesh. And maybe the thing with Tony Sirico (as Paulie Walnuts) on the boat.

"It's kind of one thing after another. Let's just say, it was a lot easier to like him in the beginning than in the last few years."

But back then, maybe it wasn't so easy for Gandolfini to like himself. Early on, he felt a stronger kinship with Tony, mostly stemming from "that infantile temper that I certainly possessed much more of when I was younger."

Meanwhile, the writers fleshed out Tony by cribbing from Gandolfini - in particular, his temper.

"In the first year, maybe they would see that sometimes when I have anger, it's very funny. So they go with that. When I break something, it's funny. So they're gonna put it in again. And then I realize that I'm continually breaking things. So then I'm getting more angry because I have to continue breaking things. And then they decide, 'Well, we've broken enough (stuff).'

"It was a learning process for all of us, I think."

__________________
President Bartlet: I don't need a flu shot.
Morris: You do need a flu shot.
President Bartlet: How do I know this isn't the start of a military coup?
Morris: Sir?
President Bartlet: I want the Secret Service in here right away.
Morris: In the event of a military coup, sir, what makes you think the Secret Service is gonna be on your side?
President Bartlet: Now that's a thought that's gonna fester.

What was really left open-ended?
Phil's dead.
Dr. Melfi punted Tony.
Meadow is going to law school and considering marriage.
The Jersey family and the NY family called a truce.
A.J. is back to normal: aimless and vapid.
Carmela has her remodeling/flipping houses gig.
Janice only wanted someone to support her. Poor Bobby.
Carlo has flipped and Paulie takes over his crew.
Silvio will never wake up and will be subjected to visions of infomercial kitchen gadgets for all of eternity.
Uncle Junior has severe dementia.
Adrianna's mother will likely never know what happened to her.
Johnny Sack's wife moved in with her daughter.
Artie's restaurant is still open.
Tony can expect to be indicted.

It had to come to an end sometime. I would have been insulted if Chase had chosen to end the series with an all war/massacre of either the DiMeo/Soprano or Lupertazzi families.

That is why I loved the ending. In the last few eps, all of the major and minor plots were mentioned and given as much closure as possible. I loved the suspense that Chase built as Tony looked up each time the restaurant door opened and Meadow couldn't parallel park.

Anyway. I loved it.

LOST.

__________________
President Bartlet: I don't need a flu shot.
Morris: You do need a flu shot.
President Bartlet: How do I know this isn't the start of a military coup?
Morris: Sir?
President Bartlet: I want the Secret Service in here right away.
Morris: In the event of a military coup, sir, what makes you think the Secret Service is gonna be on your side?
President Bartlet: Now that's a thought that's gonna fester.

An ending that befits genius of 'Sopranos'

An ending that befits genius of 'Sopranos'
Tim Goodman

Monday, June 11, 2007

No, your cable -- or satellite -- didn't go out. The ending of "The Sopranos" was both perfect and annoying as creator David Chase chose, once again, to upend the conventions of television by cutting (not fading) to black at an unpredictable, tension-filled moment.

Just like that, it was over.

No doubt millions of people around the country leapt to their feet, thinking that the worst possible technical glitch had occurred at the worst possible time. But this was no "gotcha" moment from Chase, who created and nurtured one of the greatest series in television history; it was a director's choice that was something close to perfect. He gave a gift to critics who wished that "The Sopranos" would just end, without melodrama or crisply tied-up storylines, but more like a camera shutting off. And it did.

That it was a pivotal scene, replete with a tense tease worthy of repeated viewings, will only ratchet up some people's annoyance. In an episode that opens like so many "Sopranos" episodes in this final season -- with Tony waking up in bed -- there is an ever-so-slight release of pressure at first. Tony Soprano, hiding out in a safe house after the New York family led by Phil Leotardo wages war on Tony's New Jersey family, wakes up alive. A lot of "Sopranos" fans thought an all-out assault on the safe house would kick off the episode, perhaps led by a tip from a rat in Tony's crew.

Wrong.

But just because Tony wakes up alive doesn't mean he'll survive. And the final "Sopranos" episode never has much in the way of taut, agitating moments. A peace is brokered with New York, Phil is killed (an ordinary whacking followed by a brutal scene where his head is crushed under a car tire), and all that is eventually left is the almost predictable news that the feds have flipped a member of Tony's crew and are typing up subpoenas at a furious pace.

Chase has always let Tony talk freely of what happens to mobsters -- most end up in jail, the others dead. Period. But that didn't stop fans from thinking up elaborate, often far-fetched endings.

Though Tony is fearful of what the feds have and what a member of his crew -- Carlo -- could supply them with, his attorney says flatly that trials are made to be won. So viewers are left with a major unanswered question -- does Tony go to jail or get off?

But that's nothing at all like the question all viewers had on their minds as they entered this last hour -- will Tony live or die? Jail? Who cares? This was a matter of life and death.

And that, precisely, is what Chase preyed on in the finale (which he wrote and directed). As Tony meets his family -- each one driving separately -- at a diner, there is an ominous sense of doom. Tony, alone at a booth, flips through the counter jukebox and selects, appropriately enough, Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'." (Music and lyrics of the songs chosen by Chase have been an integral part of "The Sopranos," and this is no different.) But viewers, wary that something could still happen to Tony -- and no doubt moved to the edge of their seats by the dramatic score that precedes Journey -- have to bear witness to Tony looking up, vulnerable, every time the door to the diner slams open.

It is maddening. First, Carmela (though there is a glimpse of a woman who looks like Tony's sister Janice, and a large number of fans thought she'd be the one to off Tony), then later, son A.J. Except when A.J. arrives, he is slightly behind a man who looks for all the world like he is there to hit Tony. The man sits at the counter and periodically eyes Tony and his family. The tension rises -- highlighted by a beautifully choreographed scene where daughter Meadow arrives but has all kinds of trouble parallel-parking out front, which prolongs the scene. Is she going to walk in just as the guy at the counter kills her father or slaughters her family? Will Meadow be the one to survive?

Before she enters the diner -- still parking, in an excruciating but now somehow funny scene -- the man at the counter walks toward Tony and then ... passes. He heads to the bathroom. Next in the door -- another two characters who could be hired thugs. But no. Then, finally, the camera slows as Meadow marches across the street to the diner, and we see Tony looking down, the sound of the door pushed open is heard, he raises his head (apparently seeing Meadow), then touches the top of the counter jukebox just as Journey singer Steve Perry says, "Don't stop ..." -- and the screen goes shockingly to black, with no sound whatsoever.

The end.

It is like Tony hit the snooze button on an alarm clock. And in some way, he did. Our glimpse into the lives of the Soprano family ends in that instant. But the implication is that life for Tony Soprano goes on, and we'll all just have to guess at the end. Conviction or innocence? Mistrial? He gets hit by a bus or has a heart attack? Who knows? We'll never know. And it's better that way. If you're thinking there's a movie in the works, think again. It was supposed to end like this. Sunday night was not a cliff-hanger waiting for a movie.

The perfect element to the final scene -- other than scaring the bejesus out of most of the country and prompting calls to local cable companies -- is that we don't know what happens. There is no answer. But at the same time, Tony has his family around him -- and "The Sopranos" has always been a show about families.

Carmela is there, slightly agitated, slightly distant. You'd be hard-pressed to say there is anything different about her in that moment than any we've seen in the previous seasons. A.J. is there, having survived his SUV igniting a patch of leaves in the forest just as he was going to have sex (so perfectly random and perfectly A.J. as to need no more discussion). He had temporarily thought of joining the Army to fight the war on terror (a thematic backdrop to the recent "Sopranos" season) but was talked, or lured, out of it by his coddling parents, who set him up with a cush film job and the promise that they might front the money for him to open his own club. Again, perfectly A.J., perfectly Soprano family parenting.

Then Meadow arrives, the last of the brood, having finally and maddeningly parallel-parked the car. She appears headed to marriage with Patrick Parisi, son of one of Tony's crew, with a high-paying job in criminal law ahead of her. It's not the doctor job Tony had envisioned for her, but he's indirectly responsible for that, as Meadow told him over dinner that she wanted to defend minorities mistreated by the justice system: "If I hadn't seen you dragged away all those times by the FBI, then I'd probably be a boring suburban doctor."

And so, we get more or less what was expected, besides the oddly edited ending. Tony's family is around him. Life, such as it is for a mobster facing possible criminal indictment, goes on.

Chase manages, with this ending, to be true to reality (Tony's lawyer says earlier in the episode, "It's not like we haven't envisioned this day") while also steering clear of trite TV conventions. Tony isn't killed in a blaze of gunfire. Multiple plotlines are left unresolved (like life). There is no hugging, no moral lesson, no pat ending.

It just ends. Before a lot of people wanted it to, but with a clever Chase-like nod to the unknown.

__________________
President Bartlet: I don't need a flu shot.
Morris: You do need a flu shot.
President Bartlet: How do I know this isn't the start of a military coup?
Morris: Sir?
President Bartlet: I want the Secret Service in here right away.
Morris: In the event of a military coup, sir, what makes you think the Secret Service is gonna be on your side?
President Bartlet: Now that's a thought that's gonna fester.

Well, at first...I was yelling at my suddenly blacked-out screen - "Fucking David Chase!! Damn you!!" while shaking my fists at my tv. but then, I remembered, we'd been sufficiently warned several times that he would NOT tie this thing up in a pretty little bow and he didn't...not really.

In fact, after the first couple of episodes into this final season, I started to think that nothing substantial would really happen. Like, that was the joke. These guys, who he said in an earlier interview would never leave their homes or go back to school or "find themselves", etc., may NOT in fact do anything mindblowing in the final season here either....or would they?

I sort of accepted that this may be it...they would all simply go about their lives in that neighborhood with the only satisfaction being a motion picture or more "Sopranos" down the line perhaps?

Then it picked up and boy did it!! So did my hopes for a killer ending.

Which landed me in front of the black screen cursing the name of David Chase and every descendent he has. I am hoping for that movie though.

Then, the future suckiness of Sundays REALLY hit home when I tried to sit through that shit called "John from Cincinatti" OMG that was HORRIBLE!!

The very final scene. Imagine Good Fellas or Godfather ending that way. It WAS a tease. And maybe I don't like being teased, especially after so many years of watching something.

Lost is blah. So overhyped. HBO has some brand new series coming up this season. Let's hope they are somewhat good.

"John from Cincinnati" SUCKED ASS!! It was horrible, Tilki. Godawful. If that's supposed to make me feel better about losing the Sopranos, HBO deserves to be cancelled ASAP.