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I UNDERSTAND his perspective in choosing the ending he did. I don't think he understood the audience perspective. And it's not even the fact that he left an open ended ending... but how he did it.

I know he's the type to do things for himself and no one else, which creatively is what you should do MOST of the time. But with something like this, with the type of fans this show had, you owe them too.

He failed in my eyes. I'll go see the movie (I don't care what he said... someone will thorw enough money at him and there'll be one), but this ending was unkind to the viewers.

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Here's a quote found on EW.com from the actor who played Agent Harris:

''In the script, the scene in the diner went a little further,'' Servitto revealed. ''The gentleman sitting at the counter was much more mysterious, almost like he's walking to the table to shoot Tony, and then end of script.” But ultimately Servitto was happy with the way Chase edited the scene. “I thought it was the perfect ending because it's never been linear,'' he said. ''He's kept so many endings on so many episodes wide open — people still ask me, 'Where's the Russian?' That's three seasons ago!''

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Imaging the final screen in Gone with the Wind.

Scarlet runs down the stairs. "But what about me"
Rhett: "Frankly my dear.."

People would deman thier money back.
Well HBO. I want the $15 a month I've paid.
The only reason I got HBO was for the Sopranos.

85 hours and no ending.

This show will go down on one of the "Top 10 over rated shows"
We was being clever, he was just a hack. Plot ends dangling all over. Stories about minor characters that filled an episode

Fuck you Chase.
And fuck you HBO, cancelled.

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C'mon patel don't be so over-dramatic. First off, it's just a show.

Secondly, not many think of it as "over-rated". It truly is ground-breaking TV imo. If it wasn't for The Sopranos I don't think we would have shows like The Shield, The Wire, Rescue Me, Dexter, Brotherhood and maybe even Battlestar Galactica.

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I loved the ending.

the show has always been realistic in a way not many others are... the russian in the pine barrens is a good example. not everything in life is resolved, and we're all left with these threads dangling around us when we die.

I like to think that's exactly what happened to Tony. He was killed right there, never saw it coming, and everything went slient and black. Those threads don't matter anymore, he's gone.

I think (and this is just my opinion) that Chase was really upset that so many people actually liked Tony, when he was portrayed as a pretty unlikeable sociopath. So he decided that too many people would be upset if he actually showed Tony getting whacked, or even that it would be too... i dunno, martyrlike? heroic?
...so hey, he left it for those who liked T to decide that he went on living. But in those last five minutes he showed everyone what it was like to live as Tony Soprano - what it would feel like never knowing if the next person that comes through any door is there to kill you - and if you want to believe they all lived ever after, it sure as hell wasn't happily.

he also seemed (again, my opinion) to be reshaping the family in the final season...

Tony became representative of America today; A rich, fat polluter who really doesn't give a shit about anything but money.

And if he was America, then A.J. was a blue state; he gets all worked up over the messed up state of the world, but he was easily distracted by something shiny and new (a beamer and a paycheck for doing next to nothing), quickly forgetting all about the problems in the world around him.

Making Meadow the red state; in total denial and wants to become a lawyer because of the injustices faced by her dad. You know, getting arrested for breaking the law and shit. Scooter Libby, anyone? Oh yeah, and she's also going to be getting this cushy, high-paying job because of some guy she knows. hmmmm...

I guess that makes Carm... Laura Bush? Hillary? i dunno.

Anyway, Chase owed no one a goddamn thing. He's an artist, and this was his vision... we were just fortunate enough to get to share it for a few years. Thanks, man.

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It's easy for Chase to say that he left the ending open but in reality it was a cop out. He really couldn't think of a good way to end it, so he didn't. I was hoping that he was going to allude to the "silent, dark, and black" (something like that) description of getting killed that some people speculated was the ending. That in my mind would have been brilliant. We don't need to see the blood and guts, we just needed closure. It was the least that they could have done for their audience.

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I like the whole theory that it was the viewer who got whacked, not Tony.

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kel,
The screen went silent, dark, and black... how much more could he have alluded to the "silent, dark, and black" concept of being killed?

"Anybody who wants to watch it, it's all there." - That's certainly not saying that he left the ending open.

well, at least that's not how I interpret it. :)

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People forget this is a mob show.

Once you kill your rivals boss you are safe at least for a year or so.

When Meadow walks in the diner Tony knows everything is well and life goes on.

The ending is open because the only way the story can go is to have AJ become a made guy.

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I've read a number of comments via blogs regarding the open-ended finale, and a lot of the defenders of Chase's position mention that the show was mimicking real life...and in real life there are no pat endings. Even here, someone mentioned the Russion from the Pine Barrens episode, and how there shouldn't have been closure because "that's not how real life is."

The Sopranos is not real life. It's a show. And dramatic entertainments most often have a discernable beginning, middle and end. All novels do. Most plays do. Even all those stories from our childhoods do.

If the defenders are so desperate to watch something mimicking "real life" they wouldn't watch a drama. Because a lot of the time, real life has no dramatic arcs. Or heavy symbolism. Or clever rejoinders and repeatable catch phrases. Or mood music.

Imagine the "real life" Sopranos. Tony clipping his toenails. Going to the bathroom. Sleeping. For hours on end.

I don't think that's what viewers signed up for. So screw real life...give me an ending, happy or otherwise.

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I never thought I'd live long enough to see such quality come from the tube. Who do we think we are to get nasty about the ending? It's all about the journey (sorry), not the destination anyway. The quality of the now-ness of the whole series has offered much. The paradox of being human has always been at the forefront of great literature; this show has been no exception. We got to know Tony in a way that few others did, even Melfi. For whatever divisions that showed us in ourselves, we should be grateful.

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There are two kinds of Sopranos fans...the ones who appreciate how different the show was from so many other. The dream sequences, how so many scenes had different meaning, the way Chase used shots of movies, shows, newscasts, etc. on tv's the characters were watching to illustrate points, plots, themes, etc. etc. etc.

THEN you have the people who only watched to see bloodbaths, the fact the main character just happened to be a mobster and mob movies are "cool", and because their neighbors watched, etc. etc. etc.

The people who enjoyed the ending, and frankly were impressed, are in the first group. People who hated the ending and wanted "closure" are in the second group.

This show didn't have closure. You could come up with hundreds of loose ends that weren't tied up. But the show isn't about that, it's about Tony Soprano and his family, so in the end, most of those loose strands didnt need to be tied up.

If you want closure, watch CSI. or Law and Order. or Without a Trace. Those are shows where the good guy will always win.

Tony Soprano isn't a good guy. Never has been, never will be.

And to those who are saying they are canceling HBO, well.....I guarantee you they fit into the SECOND group.

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I had been interested in The Sopranos at one time, and then lost interest. After the interest in the final episode I began to search the web for interviews with David Chase because I knew the answer would lie in what he believed about his series. He made the statement on NPR in 2004 that he was fairly certain he knew how to end The Sopranos. He stated he also drew from The Godfather and Goodfellas in that both films were about, "The rise and fall, or sin and redemption." He believed that Tony's life contained both elements on a daily basis. Based on what Chase said I believe, "There was no ending, life simply continued for Tony," endless family and endless drama.

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I think a lot of people were drawn to The Sopranos because it broke a lot of the rules of traditional fictional dramas. It had an unredemptive, violent man as its hero; it had very little character growth; and it left a lot of things unresolved throughout its run. I think the ending was fitting of such a show, and if it had tied up all the lose ends into a pretty little bow I would have been very disappointed.

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I'm surprised no one has drawn a parallel between The Sopranos ending and the ending of James Joyce's Finnegans Wake. The last sentence in Finnegans Wake is incomplete. The reader is given two options: he can add his own ending to the story, or he can go back to page 1, where the first sentence completes the last sentence, creating a never-ending story. I suspect this is more-or-less what David Chase was aiming for when he constructed this conclusion.

The "cut to black" ending was also reminiscent of John Sayles' film "Limbo". Three people are stranded, and they have to rely on someone untrustworthy to rescue them. Before the audience finds out whether they are saved or not, the movie ends.

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Hugely over-rated show and I'm so glad that the fans of the show have seen that now. It might have been something years ago during the first few seasons but went down the drain after that. The ending just showed that better.

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"The Sopranos is not real life. It's a show. And dramatic entertainments most often have a discernable beginning, middle and end. All novels do. Most plays do. Even all those stories from our childhoods do."

Except, of course, for all the Irwin Allen shows. The Robinsons never got back to earth, the little people never escaped the Land of the Giants, and Tony and Doug never returned to their own time.....

I loved the ending. I think my first words were 'That son of a bi....'

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Old Timey Wisdom...

It is not the destination, it is the journey.

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"Except, of course, for all the Irwin Allen shows. The Robinsons never got back to earth, the little people never escaped the Land of the Giants, and Tony and Doug never returned to their own time....."

I believe they all were cancelled (Like a million other shows) when ratings dipped, so they couldn't finish out the series'....

"Don't stop beeeeeeee-lievin'"

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I find it funny that we were given a great gift by David Chase with the finale & alot of people don't want to use it. He gave the viewer the opportunity to decide Tony's fate for themselves. The chance to let our imagination run wild. People have been doing this for weeks now telling the world how they would end the series & now given the opportunity to actually do it their way, they turn lazy & complain. Now their brains have turned off. Ironic huh?
I am happy with accepting one of the following. Either:
A) Tony lives on, but at what cost? He may be going to jail. If he doesn't, is he really free? He can't even enjoy a night out with the family without looking over his shoulder. His paranioa has got the better of him & he'll live the rest of his life waiting for the shoe to fall. Tragic.
Or
B) Tony got killed. Members Only Jacket Man killed him. He "didn't hear when it happens". Nor did he see it and neither do we. The audience got whacked with him.
Either way it works for me.
I think the real fans of the show will come around eventually to this end. The whacker fans never really understood the show & they never will. They got exactly what they deserved Sunday evening.
By the way, we did get some resolution in the end.
Phil got his.
Regardless of whether he lives or dies, Tony did too.
Tony made (shaky) peace with Junior (I was personally happy to see that).
Therapy is over for Tony. I know that came last week, but what do you want?
Silvio will most certainly die. They spelled his fate out last week too. RIP
Anyone expecting tidy resolutions to everything really has to admit that they have been watching another show for the past several years.
I will miss this series. It will live on in my DVD collection. I am glad we had it while it was here, and I will appreciate it for what it was. It definitely set the bar for what good television is & what is should be.

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