No, I'm not at all familiar with how it ends. Just that I keep hearing a lot of murmurs about it. I'm excited. I want to take my time with the last 3 episodes. It's been a fun ride.
I finished The Sopranos. The ending was interesting, to say the least. I'm still digesting it. But I also think it was probably trying a little hard to stir up controversy and endless investigating. But I guess that's generally part of the fun, to figure out the puzzle. I guess it's a bit immersion breaking and I can easily see how some people think it unsatisfactorily. I think I'm feeling similarly to the ending of Mad Men. But I think I was a bit more positive towards that one. But I need to ruminate further.
I did lookup some theories, and I hope it's not this one since it's just too on the nose. The scene is similar to the Godfather scene where Corleon goes to the bathroom for the gun and the comes out killing the mobsters. Tony also apparently says that's his favorite movie scene. Even though that's a bit too in your face, Chase obviously set that scene to immediately hint at that. So I guess he's having some fun with the audience, even if I don't think that's the intended meaning. It would be too obvious.
Personally I don't even think it matters all that much. But come to think of it further, I guess I could've done with a different ending. Just cutting immediately feels a bit too provocative. The whole scene builds up intentionally raising tension, and then leaves you blueballed. But thinking about it even further, I'm not sure what else they could've done. Just killing Tony would've also been cliche. So I guess this way they didn't commit to anything, which I can imagine some people being upset with.
Thinking about it even more, I guess I would've loved for the ending to be in Dr. Melfi's office, in a discussion with her. The discussions with the psychiatrist were probably my favorite moments overall.
But they wrapped that thread in the fact she finally realizes that Tony's never going to change. And that she's probably just empowering him to continue doing what he's doing.
Regardless, I also don't want to dissect these too much. I feel it takes away from the moment and it all becomes too mechanical and intentional.
I also think that such an intentionally provocative ending also runs the risk of overshadowing the rest of the series. It makes a lot of the discussion about the ending, when it was really the journey that mattered.
I also think that such an intentionally provocative ending also runs the risk of overshadowing the rest of the series. It makes a lot of the discussion about the ending, when it was really the journey that mattered.
One possible interpretation of that ending is just that... that there is no ending. Instead it's a Vonnegut style "and so it goes", around and around, with no neat conclusion to bring everything full circle. Look at it that way, and that's exactly what Chase and crew were saying with this non-ending of an ending.
Chase has pretty much acknowledged that Tony dies, though. Given that he's angry about fans being angry that they didn't see Tony die, I guess he just didn't want to explicitly show it.
One possible interpretation of that ending is just that... that there is no ending. Instead it's a Vonnegut style "and so it goes", around and around, with no neat conclusion to bring everything full circle. Look at it that way, and that's exactly what Chase and crew were saying with this non-ending of an ending.
Chase has pretty much acknowledged that Tony dies, though. Given that he's angry about fans being angry that they didn't see Tony die, I guess he just didn't want to explicitly show it.
Yeah, kind of stupid to be angry. In Tony's line of work, as he himself said, the ending is clear. You either die or you get arrested. Nothing remarkable about either of those finales.
You need to be in the white-collar crime to not only get away but get rewarded.
I would have no issue with the non-ending ending had it not done so much intentional work to build up tension before that.
But regardless, I don't have an issue with the ending. As I said, for me the ending is generally not the most important thing. It's the journey up until that point.
It's be like disregarding everything about your life leading up to the end, and only caring about how you actually end up or die out.
"Face down in a plate of linguini", as he puts it. To him, they've watched the guy for 7 or whatever years, he thinks it's weird that they want to see him dead. But he's not angry that they think he would or should die. A complicated relationship with his most famous creation, sounds like, haha.
I thought the gist of what probably happened was kind of obvious even before the showrunner talked about it. I liked how he did it though, and I've never understood the people who claim it ruined the finale for them. As the years go by, I like it even more.
That reminds me, I keep meaning to watch The Many Saints of Newark. Anyone seen it? Does it hold its own?
That was on my list to watch next, but the fact I keep hearing very mixed reviews kind of puts me off. But I'll probably watch it at some point.
It feels kind of like the Breaking Bad movie. Kind of useless, but more of story telling in that world is fine, even if not great.
I saw the Many Saints of Newark, it was good to get even more backround on the family and situations yet, overall, it felt average to me. Or slightly less than.
We finished season 1 of Spartacus last night. What a great season. We'll start on season 2 (the prequel) tonight. I noticed its only like half a season compared to the first. If I'm remembering right, I thought it was great when it first came out on Netflix.
We tried The Regime on HBO - like Kate Winslet and a dark comedy sounded fun. Only it wasn't. I didn't mind that none of the characters were likable - but none of them were interesting. The 'satire' look at totalitarian regime that touts it is all about 'love' offered nothing we hadn't seen 40-50 years ago. And the 'comedy' was so telegraphed and mediocrely written and obvious that it felt outdated but not in a way that is then funny. Second episode just dropped, won't be watching.