Comments on: The Sopranos: Season Six, Episode 21 (Don’t Stop Believing)

By: Jack

Jack — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 03:41:47 +0000

Months after the fact, I finally made it through the rest of the series and ended with this finale.

The Sopranos is a very uneven show, to a frustrating extent. The good episodes are really great, and the average episodes only seem to bide the time. Like many others HBO shows, the cast ballooned to ridiculous proportions, and many of the series-long arcs weren’t interesting. For example: Artie and the restaurant; Paulie and his mother; Vito in that small town; and that really long stretch with Adriana and the FBI.

So in a way I’m glad that I went into this episode knowing that “nothing” would happen. Leotardo’s death, though, was black comedy at its finest, and was one of the best scenes in the series. The ending, though, I still have problems with. I knew it would be abrupt, and I was expecting it right after Meadow came in the door, but it was even more abrupt that I figured. As much as the man denies it, Chase was really just toying around with the audience, and moves like that just piss me off. Yeah yeah I know that life has loose ends, but it’s a goddamn TV show, end it with some semblance of a conclusion or one of those not-so-subtle metaphors that Chase is so crazy about. (Case in point, the multiple close-ups of Ford logos on the car that ran over Phil.)

In other news: Now that season 4 just came out on DVD, I can reaffirm that The Wire my favorite TV show. It’s not perfect (but close), and it’s so ridiculously good that it sets standards so high for other shows that it’s almost unfair.

By: briank

briank — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 17:30:59 +0000

I wish I did what Jack is doing. I wasted an hour on a show which could be summed up in 25 words or less without needing to see a single frame of video – well maybe Phil getting run over. Sure the Sopranos was all about the character development and nuances but Chase took a potentially epic series and let it fizzle out. I didn’t need to see a blood bath or cliche ending, I just wanted to be entertained which I wasn’t. Like Matt, I felt empty and I realized it was all a waste of my time filled with talking heads vs. the actual action quickly giving me some symbolic/intrepretive closure to most of the storylines. The episode went through the motions never reaching any sort of climax (story as well as in craft) to the Soprano families’ tumultuous lives.

By: serge

serge — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 15:52:23 +0000

ok this is the ending, the show is in the eyes of tony soprano, as you can see, when the song goes on in the begining , tonys driving and we get to see wha he sees, and as the show goes on , its events in his life, and in the episode prior to the last one tony said when u die, thas it, everything just goes blank, and boom meadow walks in, and boom he got shot. or carmella said meadow went to the clinic to get birth controll pills, and for some reason she couldnt park her car as if she had something on her mind, so she came in to tell the family shes pregnant.

By: Mariano

Mariano — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 20:06:36 +0000

Lorenzo, you hit the nail on the head so hard it’s not even funny. The song remains the same. Tony getting shot int the side of the head by Mr. Members Only Jacket works. So does they have a dinner that starts off nice and ends up everyone pissed off. Status quo. Life goes on or it doesn’t. Either way, I think it was a great final scene.

By: eric

eric — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 17:05:47 +0000

Matt-I’ll defend it to the end, and, apparently, beyond is really f-ing funny. Well said.

By: Lorenzo

Lorenzo — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 14:58:14 +0000

Tony didn’t get whacked, he didn’t go into witness protection. They were still talking to AJ about his job as if it were going to continue, no way the conversation was indicative of going into FBI protection. The entire episode was about a return to status quo for Tony and the both the NY and Jersey crews. Carmella was back to her house business, Janice was alone again and back to her scheming for money, Tony emerged from all of this just as evil and with an indictment looming over head. All of the things these people went through didn’t change them really at all. At the end Tony is stuffing his fat face, looking around suspicious of everyone and wondering if this was the moment the feds would rush in. People wanted something incredible to happen, but that was never chases intent or style with this series. These people are who they are.

By: Jack

Jack — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 23:49:58 +0000

Myles – Weeds is pretty solid. It’s nice to have a drug comedy that isn’t entirely about teenagers.

By: Myles

Myles — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 22:40:10 +0000

I was preparing to watch John from Cincinnati (Which, weird), and caught the end of this. And I was convinced that The Movie Network had cut out. Completely convinced.

I figure this will be one of the shows I catch up on in future years (The Wire is another one, actually). I think my next cable TV choice shall be Weeds, though.

By: Jack

Jack — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 15:42:16 +0000

Yeah, The Wire is pretty great. For your case, I’d wait until they finished the fifth and final season and put out the DVD set until you start. Then you can binge-watch the entire series instead of pining for the next season to be released on DVD.

By: matt

matt — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 15:20:04 +0000

Big John: I’ve heard the “viewer got whacked” theory a bunch of times, but it doesn’t really work for me. The show never was about “whackings”, metaphorical or otherwise. I think the whole “build-up and no pay-off” explanation is a better one.

Jack: It’s a really good show! I don’t know. I haven’t watched The Wire yet, but I will, so maybe once I do I will be like everyone else and decide that it is the king of show and all others must tremble in its presence, but The Sopranos is really really great. I will defend it to its end. And, apparently, beyond.