Cherokee All American 8264 Posts user info edit post |
lol 6/10/2007 10:10:35 PM |
joe17669 All American 22728 Posts user info edit post |
] 6/10/2007 10:10:36 PM |
optmusprimer All American 30318 Posts user info edit post |
oh shit here is the real ending apparantly there was a time warner cable problem (ironc considerning they own HBO)
http://www.youtube.com/?v=7sK3AqFYAWQ 6/10/2007 10:12:21 PM |
jordanfromnj All American 1177 Posts user info edit post |
dont stop believing... there will be another season? 6/10/2007 10:12:28 PM |
eleusis All American 24527 Posts user info edit post |
Quote : | "Maybe they were there to take him in...or take him out. We'll never know." |
you've never been in a podunk diner before? Half the people in there look creepy as shit, but they're not there to kill you or turn into federal agents.6/10/2007 10:12:43 PM |
Restricted All American 15537 Posts user info edit post |
I've seen some shady shit at a Waffle House at 4 am 6/10/2007 10:13:36 PM |
Republican18 All American 16575 Posts user info edit post |
that was a terrible episode 6/10/2007 10:13:45 PM |
optmusprimer All American 30318 Posts user info edit post |
waffle house by campus is like that actually
[Edited on June 10, 2007 at 10:14 PM. Reason : ^^ beat me to it ] 6/10/2007 10:13:51 PM |
elkaybie All American 39626 Posts user info edit post |
Quote : | "at first I thought my cable went out, and then I realized how great of an ending it was." |
my heart was pounding during that...would meadow walk into it? would they all go? just tony? or was that guy just a nothing and the RICO case would come crashing down? WHAT?!!!
LOVED IT
fantastic ending6/10/2007 10:14:31 PM |
P Nis All American 2614 Posts user info edit post |
^ I agree 100
[Edited on June 10, 2007 at 10:18 PM. Reason : there's no such thing as a terrible soprano episode] 6/10/2007 10:17:40 PM |
jwb9984 All American 14039 Posts user info edit post |
that was a fucking AWESOME ending. loved it 6/10/2007 10:18:18 PM |
mootduff All American 1462 Posts user info edit post |
absolutely incredible. 6/10/2007 10:19:36 PM |
eleusis All American 24527 Posts user info edit post |
mobsters aren't allowed to take out family members of other made guys, so I never was that worried about them. I was sitting there waiting for either FBI agents to pop out of nowhere or for Meadow to get clipped by a passing truck because she couldn't parallel park. 6/10/2007 10:20:54 PM |
sublimechica All American 10847 Posts user info edit post |
Quote : | "I almost had a heart attack" |
me too! it freaked me out. i don't know how i feel about the ending yet, but it had me on the edge of my seat 6/10/2007 10:21:18 PM |
Restricted All American 15537 Posts user info edit post |
That ending was just a microcosm of the shows theme. There is nothing glamorous or exciting about being a gangster. There is no big pay-off or happy ending. 6/10/2007 10:21:30 PM |
BEU All American 12512 Posts user info edit post |
that ending ruled!
the song, "it goes on and on, and on and on and on and ooon"
haha fucking brilliant 6/10/2007 10:21:43 PM |
optmusprimer All American 30318 Posts user info edit post |
stop reading so much into it. ^^
the writer was fucking with us
who was that chick with the cameo appearance, chase's daughter or something? the girl who was in meadows room when carmela came in?
[Edited on June 10, 2007 at 10:23 PM. Reason : sopranlols] 6/10/2007 10:22:07 PM |
mootduff All American 1462 Posts user info edit post |
Quote : | "That ending was just a microcosm of the shows theme. There is nothing glamorous or exciting about being a gangster. There is no big pay-off or happy ending." |
that was wrapped up in the uncle junior meeting
top of the world to not being able to remember that you ever did anything
is it all worth it?6/10/2007 10:26:27 PM |
mootduff All American 1462 Posts user info edit post |
speaking of,
i hope one day when im old
there's not an amazing show on
and i die like, the day before the final episode
cause you know that happened to someone tonight
god id be pissed 6/10/2007 10:27:11 PM |
DZAndrea All American 26939 Posts user info edit post |
I just don't get why the episode was supposed to be 65 minutes and it seemed to end a couple of minutes early. 6/10/2007 10:27:48 PM |
Mr E Nigma All American 5450 Posts user info edit post |
Life goes on, but every guy in a Members Only jacket could be the guy to walk up to you and wack you. 6/10/2007 10:28:31 PM |
Restricted All American 15537 Posts user info edit post |
Quote : | "who was that chick with the cameo appearance, chase's daughter or something? the girl who was in meadows room when carmela came in?" |
She was Meadows friend from wayyy back in the day, like Season 1 and/or 2.
And I am probably reading way too much into the ending, buy my mind is still blown.6/10/2007 10:29:44 PM |
eleusis All American 24527 Posts user info edit post |
Quote : | "who was that chick with the cameo appearance, chase's daughter or something? the girl who was in meadows room when carmela came in? " |
that was Meadow's best friend in high school that always wanted to get crystal meth from Christopher.
I bet half of the people in the diner gave Tony the evil eye because they were pissed at him for playing Journey on the jukebox.6/10/2007 10:29:47 PM |
kiljadn All American 44690 Posts user info edit post |
I always bust on people with Member's Only jackets
I ask em what I gotta do to join 6/10/2007 10:29:56 PM |
scud All American 10804 Posts user info edit post |
so mad............................................ 6/10/2007 10:31:36 PM |
HUR All American 17732 Posts user info edit post |
i am not reading any of these replies but i can't bring my self to watch DVR sopranos!!! i do not want it to be over. think i'm going to hit play shortly 6/10/2007 10:41:39 PM |
packfootball All American 1717 Posts user info edit post |
i dont think thats all from the sopranos 6/10/2007 10:42:00 PM |
AxlBonBach All American 45550 Posts user info edit post |
honestly, neither do i 6/10/2007 10:52:40 PM |
jordanfromnj All American 1177 Posts user info edit post |
fingers crossed 6/10/2007 10:56:09 PM |
drunknloaded Suspended 147487 Posts user info edit post |
Quote : | "eating onion rings and struggling to parallel park is how it all ends?
weak" |
lol6/10/2007 10:59:44 PM |
Mr. Joshua Swimfanfan 43948 Posts user info edit post |
what was the cat all about? 6/10/2007 11:02:57 PM |
packfootball All American 1717 Posts user info edit post |
i'll admit the episode sucked, but it was kind of smart on david chases part because the show still isn't dead. If Tony had died or something it would be completely over, but this leaves it open if the cast wants to get back together in the future. I'd love to see a movie. 6/10/2007 11:03:47 PM |
eleusis All American 24527 Posts user info edit post |
^^the cat was just one more way for Paulie to show how much of a superstitious fuck he is. 6/10/2007 11:06:43 PM |
AxlBonBach All American 45550 Posts user info edit post |
the cat was adriana 6/10/2007 11:09:36 PM |
packfootball All American 1717 Posts user info edit post |
i wish we knew what happened with Sil 6/10/2007 11:11:42 PM |
eleusis All American 24527 Posts user info edit post |
Sil had bed-hair, and that is a fate worse than death to him. 6/10/2007 11:13:50 PM |
Cherokee All American 8264 Posts user info edit post |
Quote : | "the cat was adriana" |
no so far fetched if reincarnation is the reason6/10/2007 11:18:33 PM |
jwb9984 All American 14039 Posts user info edit post |
A NUCLEAR WAR DIDNT BREAK OUT IN THE FINALE
THE SHOW SUCKS
you people
http://blog.nj.com/alltv/2007/06/sopranos_rewind_made_in_americ.html
Quote : | "
WARNING: This column contains major plot spoilers for the "Sopranos" series finale.
Who knew that the music of Journey could be used so ironically?
At the end of an otherwise satisfying "Sopranos" series finale, creator David Chase threw one final curveball at his audience. In his first episode as both writer and director since the series pilot, Chase sent Tony to a family dinner at Holsten's ice cream parlor in Bloomfield. Many previous seasons had ended on a Soprano family tableau -- A.J. even quoted something Tony said at Vesuvio back in the season one finale -- but this one was edited to seem far more ominous.
As the sounds of Steve Perry wailing on "Don't Stop Believing" filled the soundtrack, Tony kept eyeing the door and the other patrons as first Carmela, then A.J. arrived, while we spent an interminable amount of time watching Meadow double park. The camera kept focusing on a shady-looking character at the bar with more than a passing resemblance to the late Eugene Pontecorvo (down to the Member's Only jacket) who was studying Tony, but then his advance on Tony turned out to be a trip to the men's room. Meadow finally parked, dashed towards Holsten's, the camera cut back to Tony in close-up looking at something, Perry sang the words "Don't stop," and...
... nothing. No hint of whether Tony was looking at Meadow or something else entirely (perhaps the feds coming to arrest him after Carlo Gervasi apparently flipped), no music of any kind, just a fast cut to black and then the closing credits playing out in complete silence.
Whether you were waiting for one of the more popular predicted endings -- Tony in Witness Protection, Tony killed by Phil's guys, Furio and/or the Russian coming back for revenge, what have you -- or just for an ending, period, chances are that cut to black had you pulling a William Shatner in "Wrath of Khan," pointing your face at the heavens and bellowing, "CHAAAAASE!!!!!!"
And yet the finale, both the first 55 minutes of it and that sadistic last scene, fit perfectly with everything Chase has done on this show before.
Did we get the violent fireworks of last week? Absolutely not, as the only deaths of the hour were Phil Leotardo (gunned down at a gas station, then, in a gruesome indignity, his skull crushed post-mortem by his rolling car) and A.J.'s SUV (which caught fire while idling near a pile of leaves). But that's been the pattern of every season: the major action goes in the penultimate episode, while the finale is saved for quiet reflection and the odd whacking or two.
So Tony and Butchie DeConcini negotiated a peace treaty -- with the tacit understanding that Tony's guys could eliminate the out-of-control Phil -- a third of the way through the episode, and the bulk of the hour focused on Tony's lower-case family.
Janice faced life without Bacala (and a lifetime of torment for Bobby's kids), and once again invoked the name and memory of Livia Soprano, going about in pity for herself. Janice and Tony each visited Junior in the run-down state facility he was banished to when his cash ran out, but Corrado didn't recognize them.
Meadow planned her wedding to Patrick Parisi and badly wounded Tony (without realizing it) by telling him that she decided to quit med school and become a lawyer because of her relationship to him.
And in the episode's centerpiece -- and the origin of its title, "Made in America" -- A.J. continued his political awakening, only to have Tony and Carmela seduce him back into the same comfortably numb existence he used to have.
When some of the guests at Bacala's wake started discussing "American Idol" and "Dreamgirls," A.J. harangued them for focusing on entertainment fluff.
"The world. Don't you see it?" he complained, then later said, "It's like America. This is still where people come to make it. It's a beautiful idea. And then what do they get? Bling and come-ons for (stuff) they don't need and can't afford?" He talked of enlisting in the Army, though he wavered on whether it was to make the world a better place or just to get a job as Donald Trump's personal chopper pilot.
Yet by episode's end, A.J. had abandoned his newfound morality in favor of a shiny BMW, a job as the "development executive" for Little Carmine's movie company and his parents' promise of his own nightclub to follow.
From the start, Chase has used "The Sopranos" as an indictment of modern American values and how, time after time, we all sacrifice principle in favor of self-interest. Maybe A.J. had achieved enlightenment or maybe not. But Tony and Carmela couldn't have their little boy risking his own life in the military (they wanted him to get the discipline without the risk), so they anesthetized him back into the materialistic lifestyle they understand so well. This is what America makes today, Chase seemed to be saying: permissive, selfish parents and kids who mimic them.
Back to that final scene. Without it, we have a completely reasonable finale, one that provides closure on enough plot threads (the war with New York ends, Paulie is promoted to the captaincy of the Family's lucrative construction business, A.J. finds new direction, etc.) that the few left open (notably whether Carlo flipped and what that means, legally, for Tony) don't particularly sting. It's the "life goes on" ending I'd been speculating on for months.
But then, but then, but then... then Chase has to do what he loves to do more than any other man in show business: completely mess with his viewers' expectations (and their heads). I don't consider it a cliffhanger, something to set up a movie, as I doubt there will ever be a movie (and if there is, it'll be set in the past). He did it because he hates the conventions of TV series narrative in general, and putting a bow on things in particular.
That's why the Russian never came back, why the Melfi rape plotline was dismissed with a single word ("No"), why none of the FBI's previous rats ever amounted to anything, etc. He's convinced the audience doesn't need to be spoon-fed, to the point where he might go for a non-ending like this, something so jarring, so abrupt and so filled with misdirection (my guess is there was no danger at all, that Tony was simply watching Meadow's entrance) that it might come across like an insult to the audience who have stuck with the show through thick and thin.
Somehow, though, it feels like the perfect final note. Why wouldn't a show that's taken such pleasure in rewriting the rules of storytelling -- from making a sociopathic thug its hero on down -- go out in the least conventional way possible? It may be maddening, but it's what David Chase does.
Some other thoughts on "Made in America":
-A theory proposed by a reader of the NJ.com Sopranos blog using the handle Lorbnash: the nine episodes of this season have represented the nine circles of Hell from Dante's "The Divine Comedy." The fourth circle, for instance, is for the greedy and the miserly; the fourth episode was Tony and Hesh's gambling showdown. The seventh circle is where the suicides go; A.J. took his dip in the family pool in episode seven. The ninth circle is for the traitors, and Butchie implicitly betrayed Phil. (For added fun, reader Joe Adler pointed out the similarities between the Eugene Delacroix painting "The Barque of Dante" and the Annie Leibovitz promotional image on the season five DVD set. Google them both if you want your mind blown.)
-Lots of surrogates and callbacks throughout. Junior confuses Janice and Livia (and Janice and Nica). Tony uses A.J.'s shrink (a leggy, coolly professional woman in the Lorraine Bracco mode) as a Melfi stand-in. A.J. quotes Livia's "Always with the drama," and later Tony's line from the season one finale. Paulie believes the cat from the safehouse has some supernatural connection to Christopher and also notes the bad history of the captains in charge of Jersey construction (though he left out Jimmy "The Rat" Altieri).
-Another "Whatever happened to Gary Cooper?" moment: the tour bus drives through Little Italy while the guide explains how the thriving neighborhood is now essentially a single block of shops and cafes -- so tiny that, when Butchie gets too wrapped up in a phone call to Phil, he wanders out of Little Italy altogether.
-Who knew Agent Harris had such a dark side? He's conducting an affair with his counterpart at the Brooklyn field office, and he's actively rooting for Tony to take out Phil.
-Finally, thanks for all the questions, theories and compliments you've sent me over the years as I've written about this show. "The Sopranos" is over, but our coverage of it has a few days to go -- and my work as the Star-Ledger's TV critic has a lot longer than that. Look on Tuesday morning for David Chase's thoughts on the finale (as much as he'll share, anyway), and the "Sopranos" blog will feature at least two reader mailbags as the week moves along, as there's still much to discuss. If you're following me on-line, you can find my columns at nj.com/tv/ledger, and I also have a separate blog called What's Alan Watching where I do analysis of lots of shows (though few merit the kind of rigorous analysis I've devoted to "Sopranos"). This has been fun.
Alan Sepinwall may be reached at asepinwall@starledger.com " |
[Edited on June 10, 2007 at 11:20 PM. Reason : /]6/10/2007 11:19:00 PM |
Mr. Joshua Swimfanfan 43948 Posts user info edit post |
Quote : | "For added fun, reader Joe Adler pointed out the similarities between the Eugene Delacroix painting "The Barque of Dante" and the Annie Leibovitz promotional image on the season five DVD set. Google them both if you want your mind blown." |
6/10/2007 11:31:44 PM |
RevoltNow All American 2640 Posts user info edit post |
Agent Harris kicked ass. 6/10/2007 11:34:23 PM |
elkaybie All American 39626 Posts user info edit post |
imo...the cat was chris
Quote : | "Sil had bed-hair, and that is a fate worse than death to him." |
lol
[Edited on June 10, 2007 at 11:44 PM. Reason : ]6/10/2007 11:38:56 PM |
rwbrantl Veteran 279 Posts user info edit post |
the cat was a snake with fur... i love it 6/10/2007 11:44:23 PM |
elkaybie All American 39626 Posts user info edit post |
paulie at the table was a fucking trip 6/10/2007 11:45:23 PM |
HUR All American 17732 Posts user info edit post |
I thought that was a good way to end the series w/o shutting any doors
Quote : | "my heart was pounding during that...would meadow walk into it? would they all go? just tony? or was that guy just a nothing and the RICO case would come crashing down? WHAT?!!!" |
i was about to freak out b.c i watched Sopranos on DVR and i thought during the "black out" at the end that my DVR cut off the recording right before some big climax. I was just like WTF then the credits started rolling and i was like well damn. I think Tony may have been whacked, the black out was a way to convey death from Tony's perspective.
AJ's girl was fucking banging I may be a dirty old 22 yr old but i'd love to bend her over and show her how it is
[Edited on June 11, 2007 at 12:39 AM. Reason : l]6/11/2007 12:29:17 AM |
ncWOLFsu Gottfather FTL 12586 Posts user info edit post |
ok i haven't read all of the posts so maybe this has been said, but i didn't have a problem with the ending. in fact, i liked it. SPOILERS:
i interpreted it as an homage to the Godfather, in sort of a teasing manor. they showed the guy sitting at the bar looking suspicious multiple times, and then play up the suspense with each family member coming in one at a time. suspicious dude walks into the bathroom and i feel like they want you to be thinking that he'd get the stashed gun and come pop a cap in tony & crew. but then it just ends abrubtly and it's like "gotcha"
[Edited on June 11, 2007 at 1:01 AM. Reason : he'd] 6/11/2007 12:50:29 AM |
HUR All American 17732 Posts user info edit post |
yeah i was actually thinking godfather bathroom gun/restaurant scene also 6/11/2007 12:51:36 AM |
mdalston All American 1028 Posts user info edit post |
Quote : | "i interpreted it as an homage to the Godfather, in sort of a teasing manor. they showed the guy sitting at the bar looking suspicious multiple times, and then play up the suspense with each family member coming in one at a time. suspicious dude walks into the bathroom and i feel like they want you to be thinking that he'd get the stashed gun and come pop a cap in tony & crew. but then it just ends abrubtly and it's like "gotcha" " |
i interpreted it as the worst fucking grammar of all time, ignoring the spelling gaffe.
[Edited on June 11, 2007 at 1:42 AM. Reason : e]6/11/2007 1:42:02 AM |
optmusprimer All American 30318 Posts user info edit post |
in the godfather the gun was stashed for a reason, cause michael was going to be patted down going into a meeting... this was totally different. 6/11/2007 1:56:59 AM |
3 of 11 All American 6276 Posts user info edit post |
I think I know what the final message is... "Women can't drive"
By the way, the first episode aired exactly 8.5 years ago.
[Edited on June 11, 2007 at 2:10 AM. Reason : ] 6/11/2007 2:07:00 AM |
ncWOLFsu Gottfather FTL 12586 Posts user info edit post |
yeah wrong word my bad. tired.
and i get that it was stashed for a reason in the Godfather. it can still be an homage to it though. obviously the guy didn't get a gun and come out shooting, i just think that there might have been intent on the viewers thinking that as it was happening. could be completely wrong though, it was just a thought. 6/11/2007 2:13:46 AM |