Posted on 03/11/2019 11:40:39 AM PDT by Coleus
On June 10, 2007, less than five minutes remained in the final episode of “The Sopranos.”
After eight years with Tony Soprano, his family and the Family, viewers of the landmark series sat keenly alert to the final action as Tony waited for his family at Holsten’s in Bloomfield: The bell that sounds each time someone walks through the door. Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin'” playing on the jukebox. The onion rings that Tony, Carmela and A.J. pop in their mouths as Meadow attempts her maddening parallel parking job outside.
Then, nothing. Cut to black.
Those final seconds hit Tony’s native New Jersey — and the entire viewing audience — like the Big Bang, especially when everyone realized the black screen was not, in fact, a cable outage. As the waves of shock expanded outward, “The Sopranos” was never really over. Since that Sunday night more than 11 years ago, fans and TV critics, including former Star-Ledger writers Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz, have debated whether the abrupt end was an indication of Tony’s demise or something else entirely.
So when they sat down recently with series creator David Chase for a series of interviews about the show, they did not expect any monumental clarification. And yet, behold this sentence in their new book:
“I think I had that death scene around two years before the end,” Chase told them.
Yes. “Death scene.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
It’s pretty clear what happened when you look at the sequence of the shots.
The bell indicates that the next scene is from Tony’s POV, the bell rings when Meadow enters and that’s when the blank screen comes, showing that Tony doesn’t see anything because he’s dead.
The show that put HBO on the map. A high quality drama. Very addictive and you just had to see the next episode.
Company has “Game Of Thrones” but it will be remembered for “The Sopranos.”
HBO is premium entertainment for good reason.
Actually the sequence that’s repeated throughout the scene is;
1. Bell rings.
2. Shot of Tony looking at the door to see who came in.
3. The a POV shot showing what Tony sees.
So the ending was you see Meadow entering, with the bell, the quick shot of Tony looking up to see Meadow, then the blank POV shot.
I enjoyed the show but never thought it was anything special anymore than any other gangster show.
Gandolfini was made for that role but was probably typecast and would have trouble duplicating that success anywhere else.
The show had it’s share of interesting characters. I wonder if it would have had the same cache if it had been on a different network rather than HBO? HBO allowed that show to present all the crudeness and ugliness of real life with too much profanity and nudity.
So Tony gets whacked by his daughter... ?
My interpretation of that last scene is that Tony tells his family they are going to Italy to live... They have been happy ever since...
Pulling people down to the lowest common denominator rather being moral and uplifting and showing that crime to an extent pays?
He’s Schrodinger’s Mob Boss. The cat is both alive and dead because the box is closed and will remain closed until Chase decides to cash in with a Sopranos reunion show.
No, by Members Only Guy, it clearly showed him earlier going into the restroom, where he’d have a clear shot at Tony when he came out.
Gandolfini was a pretty good actor. He was great in Last Castle (better than Redford).
He brought the level of play up in anything he was cast in.
Tony got lucky to avoid being whacked multiple times. His luck was bound to run out eventually.
Oh, dats's betta. You had me goin' deah f'a second. Jeesh.
Ask the question, why did they focus so much on Meadow struggling to park the car.
Obviously the implication was that Tony was killed at the precise moment that his entire family could witness it. The focus on Meadow was an indication that something significant would happen upon her entrance.
Yeah, I liked him in True Romance.
But he couldn't hold his fettuccine alfredo.
Oh man, that’s bad.
I think Gandolfini would have done well after the Sopranos.
But he needed to lose the weight. It’s pretty shocking when you see how skinny he was in High School.
It would have been more dramatic if Meadow suddenly had a look of shock on her face - as if she sees what is coming
“The Sopranos” also changed the TV business by pioneering a production model that yields a great deal of control to the creator-writer-show runner. This permits more coherent and sophisticated story-telling that draws and holds viewers. As critics have noted, we are enjoying today a golden era of television that combines great writing, acting, and production values across a whole range of shows. And “The Sopranos” started it off.
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