Well first of all I won the bet between friends for guessing that no matter what Tony's son would be drawn out of his shell and towards the life of crime, that somebody would be killed and that it would end with them sitting at a dinner table - who ever was left anyway - eating dinner as usual and engaging in their everyday small talk.
But I was so worked up by it I actually wrote and posted a review at the HBO and other forums lol. So, since you asked here it is.
The Sopranos ... The End
There has been so much controversy over the Soprano Ending that even I am compelled to write about it. Admittedly, I am a very new fan of the Sopranos. I don't watch much TV and almost nothing regularly. But those last 6 or 7 shows that I saw fully engaged me with brilliant acting and with such an unusual story line that I felt compelled to continue watching it through to the end since the end was near when I started. It didn't take long to figure most things out about the overall history of the characters. Thanks to the very talented writers and editors everything made sense on it's own. So there I was as hyped up as anyone to see the final episode at last. Oh yes, like most viewers I said "WTHeck? Are you kidding me? That was it?" when my screen went blank for the last ten seconds or so. I felt a little let down and at first I tried to reason whether it meant things went on or if Tony was hit. But it didn't take me long to think my way through it to realize that no matter how it ended most people would have had about the same reaction. We would have all still wondered what happened next. Like the song playing in the background and the words of it that said "It goes on and on and on and on ...Don't Stop." and then it did. We wanted it to go on and on and on - but it stopped. It was the perfect song for the perfect ending. Congrats to all - Well done. Millions of people are still talking about it and what more could a Producer want? I would dare to say we will talk about it for a long time to come.
There was a lot of talk at the HBO forum with people reporting different endings in different parts of the country. Of course that turned out not to be true. But after I read the arguments about whether it was Tony or his daughter's face that was the last to appear on the screen I went back and watched my recording of it. Up until then I would have sworn that the last thing I saw in the end was Tony's daughter's face arriving at the restaurant door. Yet when I re watched it - the final shot came after his daughter's face as she was running to the restaurant, and it was Tony. Hearing the ding of the bell on the door, he looked up for a brief second or two and that was it. The End - a blank screen. It was a masterpiece of great psychological appeal that went into the writing, direction and set up of the shots in that final moment and so many of us so completely anticipated that he saw his daughter's face in the doorway that our minds actually remembered it that way.
For the criminal that he was, I hate to admit that I was glad Tony didn't "get it" although some are saying that he did and it goes back to something said about getting hit in an earlier episode. That being, "You don't see it coming and you don't feel it and that everything just goes blank." Or so it was guessed. But "the end" is like that for many of us. One day we may be going along with our business as usual, maybe it's even a good day, a wonderful day - a STELLAR DAY, and all of a sudden we are just gone. So take this lesson and run with it.
"Enjoy life today, yesterday is gone and tomorrow may never come." ~Me. No matter how much we don't want it to stop, some day it will. Not one of us can go on and on and on and on and on...
