The Sopranos Ending

as to the ending of the sopranos - looks like i'm the only guy who loved it.

like everyone else, i was on the edge of my seat - waiting for a squib fest.. they're all going to get shot - no, meadow is going to miss the bloodbath.. and then... BLANK SCREEN!

my wife and i both had dropped jaws. and it's not easy to get dropped jaws around here. I had heard they shot 'multiple endings' - or maybe wrote multiple endings - and maybe those will show up on the dvd of the season when its released. but what i liked most about it was:

we create the ending. (i saw the slate blog (http://www.slate.com) last night where he quoted the lady and the tiger ending from a book in the 1880's that was popular - where the reader gets to pick the ending). But this show did a lot of that.. remember when Dr. Melfi got raped, and everyone in the country was hoping she'd tell Tony so that he'd rub out the rapist? It was an interactive show to begin with - and all the heat that Chase took from the Italian American community - complaining about the depiction of Italians - or people weighing in on what the Sopranos should be..

and in this case, like the Time magazine cover Man of the Year - (http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20061225,00.html) YOU are the person who writes the ending. It's whatever you, in your heart of hearts, wants the ending to be. Tony gets arrested by FBI agents. Tony dies in a hailstorm of bullets, Meadow survives because she can't park. Tony takes out a gun and saves his family. You're the author - and that doesn't let us off easy either - because we've been rooting for Tony - and Chase is saying "look what you're rooting for - look which ending you think is going to happen."

It's being reported that Phil Leotardo's son was in the credits as to being in the diner. (Hmm, I don't think the credits tell where someone's scene takes place, but I digress) I think that's great that Phil Leotardo's son was in the diner - and who was the guy who went into the bathroom? (My wife said - he looks russian.. is it that missing russian?) Who were the two black kids coming in at the end, looking like the guys who tried to pop tony in the first episode..? It was like he was having a hit parade of all the hit men who tried to whack him.. it was also a way of saying Tony will never rest easily - every time a door opens, or a guy walks past, he will have to consider - is this the guy sent to kill me? No rest for the wicked.. and no rest for us either - because we're the wicked viewers.

I think killing tony and famiglia would have let us off easily. or pulling back and seeing them dine in their diner would have let us off too easily as well - this way, David Chase (http://www.hbo.com/sopranos) has ratcheted up the tension so that we too - will always be looking up when someone walks through the door - is this a smile for my daughter? or a frown to the guy who's sent to whack us?

anyways, that's what I got out of it.