OK, if you're not all exhausted by the Sopranos talk and examination of that final scene, let me bring up yet another take on the episode, via a friend of TV critic Roger Catlin at The Hartford Courant.
During the scene in the safehouse in the episode, there an an episode of The Twilight Zone playing on the television. An alert viewer figured out that it was the 1963 episode "The Bard," where a TV writer gets help from the ghost of William Shakespeare, who gets angry at the meddling from advertisers and the network and eventually punches an actor (Burt Reynolds).
As Catlin's friend puts it:
One is left to wonder whether Chase was more drawn to the teleplay within the teleplay because of its idea of the impossibility of writing a very, very important script (and pleasing yourself, AND pleasing everyone else too) by non-supernatural means or instead that even Shakespeare sometimes had to be a show biz pragmatist.
You can't have everything.
This is a cute theory, though in the end this is all speculation. But I would assume that nothing in that finale, from the songs on the jukebox to the cat staring at the photo to what's on the TV in the background wasn't thought out carefully. Or maybe we just examine TV too much these days, heh.
Andy Richter: The TV Squad Interview
Have any questions for Vik Sahay of Chuck? Ask them here!
Mike Henry and Daryl Hall on a Cleveland Show Thanksgiving
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-14-2007 @ 5:19PM
David said...
My god, did they just compare the asshole writer of the Sopranos to Shakespeare?!
Reply
6-14-2007 @ 5:24PM
Borat said...
Hah now people are calling Chase an "asshole".
If Chase is such a crappy writer, what does that say about the rest of the TV writers?
There was this story about what other TV writers thought of the finale. Most of them liked/loved it, but only one guy criticized it, and it was....Tim Kring, creator of "Heroes". It made me laugh so hard...the creator of what is probably the most overrated, mediocre show on TV criticizing a guy who has written the most ground-breaking show in recent history.
Reply
6-14-2007 @ 6:04PM
David said...
Actually I called him an asshole because he started this bullshit and now people talk about it like it's the end of the world. Last I checked we still had like 150,000 troops in Iraq but let's talk about the ending! The space station is about to fall out of the sky?! Fuck that story, let's talk about an ending to a TV show that should have ended years ago!
Reply
6-14-2007 @ 6:08PM
J@ffa said...
I don't mean to poke holes, 'David', but you sound just like Anthony Junior in the Sopranos pre-exploding car. Afamboo!
Reply
6-14-2007 @ 6:57PM
John said...
"Actually I called him an asshole because he started this bullshit and now people talk about it like it's the end of the world."
Errr, wouldn't that make everyone *else* assholes? I mean, *they* are the ones talking about it like it's the end of the world. He just wrote the thing.
That's like blaming Johnathan Swift because people thought he was serious about eating babies.
Reply
6-14-2007 @ 7:35PM
Peanut said...
David,
Why did you go to a site called "TV Squad" and click on a link about The Sopranos if you're tired of people talking about the tv show "The Sopranos"?
Reply
6-14-2007 @ 7:37PM
Borat said...
Umm yeah right...it wasn't Chase who wanted all the attention.
Reply
6-15-2007 @ 1:11AM
Walt said...
It's a bit humorous when, instead of having extra scenes you don't want to see in a story's "Director's Cut", the final episode of The Sopranos, certainly a "Director's Cut" was instead missing a scene.
Me, I've never watched the show, so I can't comment one way or the other on the show itself. It's only this controversy that's made me think about how people become vested in a story, and quite obviously with a story's ultimate end.
The goal of any story teller is to tell the story, and any good story has at the very least a decent ending.
Look, putting Jar Jar Binks in the Star Wars franchise was a mistake. A mistake the director made. You live with it.
But you also know not to pay all that much attention to the next project that creator does, unless you're willing to have the same thing happen again.
Reply
6-15-2007 @ 2:06AM
Gary said...
Lets see if Chase puts in all the alternative endings in the DVD. Will make for some high sales me thinks.
Reply
6-15-2007 @ 9:41AM
Gordy said...
I thought the ending was typical. This show has been so inflated, that fans expected great things in the finale. In the end, it was what it always was...lacking and overrated.
RIP Tony.
Reply
6-15-2007 @ 11:45AM
HARVEY MANDELL said...
The final episode was good as watching a Super Bowl that ended in a tie score.....Althought I loved the show,there were way too many boring and forgetable episodes....The whole series run would have made a great two hour movie if you left those wasted scenes on the Cutting Room floor.....Let us fans hope there is a Movie to come and Mr. Chase has a chance to really prove he is the great producer some people claim him to be.
Reply
6-15-2007 @ 11:11AM
Member's Only said...
THIS JUST IN......
Check Out This Article From TV Guide.
http://community.tvguide.com/blog-entry/TVGuide-News-Blog/Todays-News/Sopranos-Clan-Hails/800017014
I think we got an answer. Tony Soprano is dead.
Reply
6-15-2007 @ 11:35AM
Gordy said...
I thought that was common knowledge...hence my 'RIP Tony' remark.
Reply
6-15-2007 @ 9:13PM
Voicesof1 said...
The guy with the made in America Hat was "The Russian"
from the Pines! Nuff said
Reply
6-22-2007 @ 1:05PM
Raindog said...
Carmela tells Tony that the restaurant will take them at 8:00. The restaurant is similar to a diner and isn't the kind of place you need a reservation. Did they shoot the scene with Carmela announcing the reservation and then realize they needed Tony to be able to watch eveyone coming and going through the front from his table?
Reply