Why The Sopranos Finale Is So Brilliant

[Music] [Applause] the year is 2007. george w bush has entered the final two years of his second term in office on january 11th he deployed an additional 20 000 troops to iraq for an increased military surge known as the new way forward our country is pursuing a new strategy in iraq and i ask you to give it a chance to work on april 2nd new century financial court filed for bankruptcy ticking off a stream of events that would lead to the subprime mortgage loan crisis on may 3rd rupert murdoch announced an unsolicited offer to purchase the dow jones stock index for 5 billion on june 9th rihanna's umbrella peaked at number one on the billboard charts and on june 10th tony soprano walked into holston's diner in bloomfield new jersey to meet his family for dinner this would mark the end of the most celebrated television series of the 21st century whether or not you watch the show it's nearly impossible to be unaware of the cultural phenomenon that was its finale the show culminated in an unnervingly banal sequence of the sopranos family meeting for dinner at a local diner accented by journeys don't stop believing only for the screen to abruptly cut to black it was a remarkably daring creative decision that left most viewers checking to make sure that their tv hadn't lost power when my screen went black at the end i thought there was something wrong with the cable television right the cable just break what happened but in the wake of the show's end and its surrounding controversy most of the conversation about the show's final scene was and still is reduced to whether or not tony soprano was killed in those final moments of the show a theory that is largely supported by the presence of an unidentified man in a member's only jacket whose peripheral behavior is reminiscent of the famous scene in the godfather in which michael corleone discreetly retrieves a handgun from a restaurant bathroom and murders captain mccluskey and virgil salozo in plain view of everybody it's a compelling theory considering the visual juxtaposition to the most famous mobster film of all time in conjunction with a number of thematic illusions throughout the season to the inevitability of death you probably don't even hear it when it happens right i understand why people gravitate towards this reading of the scene i don't necessarily disagree with it myself but it's always frustrated me when people's discussion of the finale is focused solely on whether or not tony died rather than what the ending meant in a broader sense the overarching message of the sopranos was not crime doesn't pay chase knew that his audience was smart enough to recognize that a life filled with criminal enterprise comes with some consequence at least he thought so and so any attempt to present the final expression of the sopranos as tony died because he got what was coming to him reduces the show to nothing more than a catholic sunday school lesson but let's consider for a moment the purpose of television in a broad sense yes in little more than a wink of time television has entered our homes our lives imprinted new silhouettes on our skyline and all this has been just the beginning for more than 50 years americans became accustomed to a certain form of storytelling from their couches whether it was archie bunker hawkeye pierce or lucy ricardo narrative television was deeply entrenched in a rigid framework of serialization episodes more or less stood on their own with singular stories that rarely manifested in broader character development shows were often cultivated around specific settings and subcultures that lent themselves to a wide variety of naturalistic and cyclical plots beyond the occasional emotional monologue there was seldom a more meaningful exploration of the human condition that was the job for the cinema after all television was an art form that didn't have the time or means to provide more than basic entertainment the eyewitness news team now eyewitness news it's what i've tried to do for six years it's what i intend to do for two more until the last hour of the last day of my term the year is 1999. the impeachment trial for president clinton has just begun three weeks earlier the u.s military engaged in a bombing campaign in iraq known as operation desert fox its stated goal was to strike military and security targets that contributed to iraq's ability to produce weapons of mass destruction and now the american troops of course are going to spend yet another christmas in kuwait and saudi arabia even though the bombing is over more troops are on their way at the same time the euro was introduced to world financial markets as an accounting currency on january 1st britney spears hit me baby one more time was the biggest song in the united states and on january 10th the sopranos premiered on hbo and it elevated the entire medium of television [Applause] the sopranos was on a macro level about many different things family depression death psychotherapy religion but i think the show could be defined by three main thematic expressions the malaise of modern domestic life the inevitability of death and the fall of the american dream let's consider for a moment that the series begins from an expression of panic in the first scene of the pilot tony delivers a monologue to dr melfi about the anxiety he has towards the deterioration of his way of life i don't know the morning of the day i got sick i've been thinking it's good to be in something from the ground floor i came too late for that i know but lately i'm getting the feeling that i came in at the end the best is over throughout the first season we're inundated with imagery of decline i think about my father he never reached the heights like me but in a lot of ways he had it better he had his people they had their standards they had pride today what do we got with suicide rates rising a booming opioid epidemic and the economy crawling towards an inevitable plunge the crisis of confidence that jimmy carter described back in 1979 had fully calcified within these united states this is not a message of happiness or reassurance but it is the truth and it is a warning the sopranos was the first show to catalog the psychology of american life in such a granular and thought-provoking manner in a recent new york times article chase remarked i think the sopranos showed humans more as humans than what had come before it i think people could feel like tony soprano is more like me than a doctor or a cop or a judge and he was right despite the show focusing on a unique subculture in new jersey the specificity in which the show depicted regular people cultivated a certain attraction from audiences television had never reflected the depressive and unremarkable qualities of domestic life with such an acute sense of minutia and authenticity chase was stretching what the medium was capable of by employing a more artistic visual language and a greater sensitivity towards character but he sought more than just to entertain he captivated audiences by juxtaposing thematic imagery in ways previously unseen on television the sensational violence of organized crime with the banality of everyday life the nostalgic yearning for the past alongside the rotting of america's culture the death of the soul versus the death of the body and unlike the cops and judges of television's past most of the show's internal drama stemmed from the character's pathology let me tell you something nowadays everybody's got to go to shrinks and counselors and go on sally jesse raphael and talk about their problems whatever happened to gary cooper the strong silent type that was an american tony was always his worst enemy battling psychological notions of self and reckoning with what it means to live a fulfilled life this was not a struggle uncommon to the average american watching these characters grapple with their identity offered a certain vicariousness to viewers unlike anything before on television one could relate deeply to a woman like carmella or a guy like christopher because the show offered far richer characterizations than the tired archetypes of criminals and housewives take this scene of christopher in season one when he laments his confusion over his sense of self by literally comparing his life to that of a screenplay i don't want to just survive it says in these movie writing books that every character has an arc you understand where's my ark like christopher when tony reveres the old ways and laments the death of 20th century figures like gary cooper he's reflecting less on the ideals of masculinity and more how psychotherapy has forced him to reckon with his own sense of being and chase always prioritized interior ruminations of character over strong formal plotting the show was more fixated on exploring how characters reacted to certain events than following each storyline to completion melfi's sexual assault was far more about her relationship with tony than showing her attacker behind bars meadow's engagement is less a plot development than a device for carmela to reckon with the state of her own marriage pine barrens is far more about paulie and chrissy confronting the ambiguity of faith and predestination than what happened to the russian these loose ends frustrated audiences at times but chase always felt that it was a greater reflection of the peculiarity of real life the sopranos chose to ponder the unanswerable mysteries of life and an idiosyncratic sense of tone and mood were integral to achieving that chase was deeply inspired by the works of film auteurs like kubrick and david lynch both of whom were masters of using potent imagery and sound design to spark emotional catharsis david sought to develop similar emotional resonance by imbuing the cinematography and editing with a similar contemplative mood while most television tracked along a strict narrative arc the soprano's approach to plot more resembled that of a triangular fractal individual episodes operated as their own mini movies narrowing in on unique stories that would coalesce to form greater thematic shape upon broader inspection characters and plot lines were only featured when necessary while other times plot developments would be presented with little or no context demonstrating a greater emphasis on dramatic tonality than rigid exposition the end result was a show that was far more distinguished and cinematic than the bulk of contemporary network television [Applause] but by the final seasons the show developed a stronger sense of aesthetic foreboding its tone became more evocative of death and misery in nearly every form colors were far more muted and drained of life and there was a greater emphasis on nature and the meadowlands in a near spiritual way sit-downs took place in increasingly cold and dark places emphasizing the further decay of organized crime what the [ __ ] is happening to this neighbor as the socio-economic conditions of the country grew more fraught the show began to reflect the increasingly anxious disposition of american citizenry with a sharper eye than ever made in america premiered on june 10 2007 a full decade had passed since the pilot was shot and as tony navigates the aftermath of the violence with new york there's potent imagery of decay that illustrates truly how much america had changed tony visits with agent harris who's far more preoccupied with counter-terrorism than the dying breed of organized crime when visiting with janus tony remarks how much of the wooded property around johnny sacks house has been developed a subtle mourning of the sprawling forest so present throughout the show when talking to phil on the phone buchi finds himself in chinatown decrying how much of little italy has disappeared right before we see a bus tour driving through the neighborhood the commodification of the italian experience but despite being a series finale the plot explores a wide array of new and old story lines tony communicating with the fbi the war with phil aj wanting to join the army meadow all but cementing her path into the family with patrick breezy silvio in a coma at the hospital janus attempting to steal portions of junior's money harlow flipping to protect his son inciting anxiety that tony himself may get indicted paulie refusing to take over the sanitation crew for superstitious reasons none of these storylines reach any sense of emotional catharsis but rather they linger in the background of tony's life his never-ending list of stuff to deal with but the tone of the episode is overwhelmingly preoccupied with death and the malaise of confronting what has already passed and this feeling is calcified in the show's last moments so let's take a look at the final scene tony enters the diner to meet the camera in a rigid symmetrical frame the camera cuts to a close-up of his face but as we cut to the point of view we view tony already sitting in his seat skipping the beat chase uses this editing trick throughout the episode citing the finale of 2001 a space odyssey as an inspiration for the effect but by shortening the point of view cut each time the result is increasingly disorienting and creates a subconscious clenching in the viewer's stomach this pattern of tony almost viewing the path before him invokes a sort of waning in his future a state he's reached in which his life has become a series of cyclical interactions as tony settles in the camera anxiously establishes the life around him the periodic chime of the doorbell signifying a new visitor has a religious feeling to it almost beckoning the work of ernest hemingway or monty python he searches through the jukebox a proverbial playlist of his youth and settles on journeys don't stop believing as the lyrics begin carmela enters in a near identical frame as tony's and as the song swells there's an increasing sheen of americana to the images that feels almost ceremonial the proverbial diner of the garden state strangers dancing up and down the boulevard as aj enters behind the cover of an unidentified man in a member's only jacket as the music continues to grow meadow arrives and struggles with parallel parking her car ratcheting up the tension at this point the audience has become acutely aware that these are the final moments of the show we watch the unidentified man pass the family and enter the bathroom tony clocks this on an internal level a natural surveying of his surroundings the chorus of the song crescendos loudly as meadow finally runs into the restaurant signaling the bell one last time [Music] part of it is a [ __ ] you all we know is that their life continues and we are no longer privy to it so you answer that what it was you know have you ever seen a show all of a sudden just go blank never a series finale at its most basic function is a showrunner's final opportunity to leave its audience with an image or feeling that will represent the show as a whole at its most successful it delivers upon and calcifies the thematic expressions that have been explored for the entirety of its run but often what american audiences respond to most is a clear-cut ending of their favorite character's arcs in a satisfying manner one that can offer them a chance to feel good about the large emotional investment they've made over the years art that satisfies is comfortable because it allows us to complete equations of life and import meaning onto the self a subconscious checking of all the boxes that squares away with our own expectations the sopranos was always battling against that choosing to instead pursue what felt honest and unexpected ending the show the way chase did was boldly dramatic but formally infuriating because viewers were always conditioned to expect tony's demise for over 50 years cinema had ingrained audiences with the arc of the gangster the rise and inevitable fall but nothing in the literal text of the sopranos suggests that we should expect this form of grand narrative finality one of the most meaningful things that the show was trying to express was how little control we have over our own lives and that death is truly the only guarantee in life this insinuation that the show would present tony's fate clearly is diametrically opposed to the fundamental nature of the sopranos but the brilliance of this finale above all is the trick of it the effect you create on an audience when you deliberately deprive them of narrative conclusion in such an abrupt manner and i've always felt that people's interpretations over whether tony dies revealed more about them than the ending itself because the imagery of the soprano family meeting for dinner does beckon some analysis of where have we been where is this all heading this moment can come as a sense of reckoning for anyone who's watched the show for almost 10 years and while america had unquestionably changed in that decade there's an equally anxious disposition that can be felt towards the stasis of life the ways in which our lives are still very much the same that despite the passage of time the daily occurrences and stresses we face can feel all too cyclical the scene forces you to think about your own life and where you're headed how old were you when you first started watching this if you consider each of the season finales there was always some reflection of the family for better or worse but while there is a strong air of morbidity in this final scene the spirit of the show was still championing one's effort to rebel against that that despite the fact that we're all going to die to not stop believing the subtext of the ending can be about mortality without containing any actual death and there's an inherent whiff of sentimentality and humor to that juxtaposition that's been a part of the show from the very start because it is slightly funny to imagine a mobster in a white robe crying about how he's depressed when asked by matt seppenwall about what he was going for with the finale chase explains i meant to say that our time here is precious and it could end at any moment and somehow love is the only defense against this very very cold universe that's what i meant to say most fans would probably think that's great and all but did tony die to which chase would likely answer as he has in the past at some point yeah we all do the final scene of the sopranos is a sensory expression of that phenomenon we all experience anxiety none of us know what's coming around the corner in our own lives we like tony don't know how our story ends tony didn't make it through his journey of self-discovery he ultimately failed during an earlier scene in the finale we watch him awkwardly interact with aj's therapist trying to display his limited knowledge on psychotherapy you showed everything i got to tell you what why did not have a very happy child no but i feel what he's really subconsciously expressing here is how much he's returned to the start he's made no progress personally what i feel chase was trying to tell us in those final moments was that we didn't have to be like tony soprano that despite the show ending your own story will continue essentially challenging his audience by saying this guy tried for seven years to figure it out and he couldn't are you going to be any different you

Channel: More Than Meets The Lens

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Keywords: The Sopranos, the sopranos finale, Tony soprano, more than meets the lens, video essay, the many saints of newark, sopranos, sopranos funny, sopranos essay, sopranos finale, television essay, greatest tv shows, greatest tv finales, Christopher moltisanti, talking sopranos, sopranos fan, sopranos finale explained, tv explained, best finales, pine barrens, whitecaps, hbo, sopranos ending explained, sopranos explained, Carmella soprano, sopranos ending

Id: PIQhbiU8V3M

Length: 20min 14sec (1214 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 29 2021