Rambling Sopranos post, with spoilers
That's right, spoilers. If'n you don't want to read spoilers, it's not very smart of you to be reading this.
In retrospect, it was inevitable that the ending wouldn't do much for me, since the only satisfying ending I could envision involved Tony stranded in the middle of Death Valley handcuffed to Phil Leotardo's corpse. Still, I'm not impressed. People have been talking about how incredibly thought-provoking it allegedly is blah blah, but dude--I don't WANT to think about it. I'm just grateful to not have to (yeah, I LIKE splitting infinitives--bite me) spend any more time with these highly unpleasant people.
Okay okay, obviously, I liked the show. Otherwise, I wouldn't have spent eighty-some hours (jayzuz) watching it over the years. But the ending was still lame. There has been a lot of internet talk about how suspenseful the final scene was, but why? Is everyone else in the world crazy? There was NO REASON to expect that there would be a final explosion of violence in the diner. That doesn't mean there couldn't have been, of course, since random-ass violence has pretty much been the order of the day, especially in this last sub-season--but it just would have been unspeakably lame if it had ENDED on random, unexplained violence, making the other (equally lame) ending entirely predictable.
And seriously, people, what a lame season. Look at all the pointless little subplots that serv no purpose and go nowhere: Vito's son is a fucked-up goth kid! Hesh's mistress dies because what the hell! Some old friend of Meadow whom I barely remember shows up for one scene for no reason! Fuckloads of people we've never seen before get whacked! Because VIOLENCE! David Chase seems to be addicted to surprising people even when there's no rhyme or reason behind the surprises.
Also, whatever internal logic there was to the mob family structure goes out the window. One of Phil Leotardo's men drunkenly makes lewd comments to Meadow when she's out with her new boyfriend. So the next day, Tony goes to a restaurant where the guy's eating, smashes the shit out of him, shoves a gun in his mouth, and ultimately stomps on his head, knocking out his teeth. All of this right in front of another of Phil's guys and at least a half dozen workers. But are there ANY legal repercussions to this act? No, there are not, because the writers have internalized the notion that mob people can get away with ANYTHING unless the plot specifically requires them to be on trial. It's...kind of insulting to those of us who haven't romanticized mob life to that extent.
In retrospect, it was inevitable that the ending wouldn't do much for me, since the only satisfying ending I could envision involved Tony stranded in the middle of Death Valley handcuffed to Phil Leotardo's corpse. Still, I'm not impressed. People have been talking about how incredibly thought-provoking it allegedly is blah blah, but dude--I don't WANT to think about it. I'm just grateful to not have to (yeah, I LIKE splitting infinitives--bite me) spend any more time with these highly unpleasant people.
Okay okay, obviously, I liked the show. Otherwise, I wouldn't have spent eighty-some hours (jayzuz) watching it over the years. But the ending was still lame. There has been a lot of internet talk about how suspenseful the final scene was, but why? Is everyone else in the world crazy? There was NO REASON to expect that there would be a final explosion of violence in the diner. That doesn't mean there couldn't have been, of course, since random-ass violence has pretty much been the order of the day, especially in this last sub-season--but it just would have been unspeakably lame if it had ENDED on random, unexplained violence, making the other (equally lame) ending entirely predictable.
And seriously, people, what a lame season. Look at all the pointless little subplots that serv no purpose and go nowhere: Vito's son is a fucked-up goth kid! Hesh's mistress dies because what the hell! Some old friend of Meadow whom I barely remember shows up for one scene for no reason! Fuckloads of people we've never seen before get whacked! Because VIOLENCE! David Chase seems to be addicted to surprising people even when there's no rhyme or reason behind the surprises.
Also, whatever internal logic there was to the mob family structure goes out the window. One of Phil Leotardo's men drunkenly makes lewd comments to Meadow when she's out with her new boyfriend. So the next day, Tony goes to a restaurant where the guy's eating, smashes the shit out of him, shoves a gun in his mouth, and ultimately stomps on his head, knocking out his teeth. All of this right in front of another of Phil's guys and at least a half dozen workers. But are there ANY legal repercussions to this act? No, there are not, because the writers have internalized the notion that mob people can get away with ANYTHING unless the plot specifically requires them to be on trial. It's...kind of insulting to those of us who haven't romanticized mob life to that extent.
posted by GeoX, one of the GeoX boys. at 1:49 AM
