The Sopranos Finale

I'm a fan of "The Sopranos", I wouldn't say a huge fan, but a fan. I think the two seasons before this one kinda sucked, but this last season has been great.

As the ending was drawing near this year, a bunch of stuff started happening. Suddenly, there was action. It seemed like they should've just had more shit go down the last 2 years and evened it out. Although you can't have every episode be like last week's, or else no one would be alive.

It's a great show for the many reasons you've probably read about in the countdown to the finale. It's well written, surprising, funny, and fun. But it's also strange.

No one talks about how confusing it is. For example, I always look for Vinny from Doogie Howser. When Tony went to the house last week with his boys, Vinnie wasn't there. But then at the start of the finale, there he was! But if he wasn't Vinnie from Doogie Howser, I would have no idea who the hell he was. These guys appear and disappear, and can suddenly become really important. But if they didn't play a hilarious friend in an underrated '90's sitcom, you'd have no fucking clue who they are.

Another strange thing: for being such an "amazing" show, there's certainly a lot of bad acting on it. No one really talks about that either.

A strange but cool part of the show is that they don't tie things up neatly. It's nice not to have an ending to everything. Storylines can just fade out or simply go away. It's great, and also a tad annoying. Like, if you were really into Furio, you'd be pretty bummed out when you never, ever saw him again. Or if you were waiting to see what would happen with the piece of shirt that Bobby B left at the laundrymat, you'd be waiting a long time. It's kind of like real life in a way, and it's different than most things on TV.

But the "real life" thing can also be an excuse for bad story telling. Sometimes I wonder if it's "real", or if they just don't know what they're doing. It's cool to not tie up stuff, but it's not cool to not have a plan. I hate when shows get to a point where you can tell that they're just making it up as they go along. There should be a plan...and I'm not so sure David Chase had a plan after season 4.

The last two seasons were so slow, and now the ending is coming and suddenly there's action. Would there be that much action if it wasn't the last season? Probably not.

But anyway, I loved Tony getting revenge on Coco, the AJ in the pool thing, I loved "Cleaver", I loved the Tony in Vegas thing, and I really loved the girl Tony loved in Vegas. The Christopher thing was interesting, although how many car accidents are there on this show?

It was weird how they gave so much to AJ in these last couple of episodes. That's not a kid you want to give a bunch of lines to. And does any college dropout really start studying Arabic and quoting Yeats?

The ending to Tony and Melfi's relationship seemed slight, considering it was the jumping off point for the whole series.

And lastly, I loved the sense of humor in the last couple of episodes. The writers always knew how to put in jokes without putting a big spotlight on them. They never tell you when to laugh.

It will be interesting to see the response to the ending. I thought it fit perfectly with the show. Cool, a little unsatisfying, and different. And that's the Sopranos.