Explaining the divisive ending of ‘The Sopranos’
The Sopranos is undoubtedly one of the greatest TV shows in history, given that fans worldwide practically fell in love with James Gandolfini’s Tony Soprano. Although he was highly immoral and committed some of the worst acts in television history, audiences sympathised with Soprano’s struggle to juggle his professional and personal lives simultaneously.
However, it is impossible to ignore that the show’s ending was divisive among fans, to say the least. So let’s take a closer look at exactly what happened and hopefully get to the bottom of it once and for all. The final scene is one of the simple aspects of the show because it primarily features the Soprano family sitting down for a meal after much of the tensions surrounding Tony’s life as a mob boss are resolved. As expected, there are major spoilers ahead.
Whilst waiting for his family to arrive at the restaurant, Tony selects the Journey song ‘Don’t Stop Believin” to play on the jukebox. Slowly, the other members of the Soprano family arrive; first, his wife Carmela, then his son AJ. Tony’s daughter Meadow has great difficulty parallel parking outside the restaurant. All the while, there are shots of a shady character lurking nearby, ramping up the tension. Each time a different person enters the restaurant, Tony looks up, which makes sense, given his profession and the paranoia surrounding it. Eventually, the shady character enters the bathroom, which we consider a bad sign. Finally, Meadow parks the car and rushes over to the restaurant; the doorbell rings. And then… nothing. A cut to black. Silence.
Fans all over the world were confused, with many believing that their TVs had stopped working – and what a time for a cut-out to occur. But when the credits began to roll, they realised that that black emptiness on their screen was really the ending of their favourite show. The Sopranos writer David Chase had been severely fucking with them all along.
It’s clear, though, that the sudden cut to black represents the end of Tony Soprano’s life. Earlier in the series, Tony’s friend Bobby said to him, “You probably don’t ever hear it when it happens, right?” And that’s it, a cut to black and silence, no explanation as to exactly what happens. You don’t see yourself lying dead in your bowl of pasta. Life, the show, is simply over. Done and dusted.
Following the uproar surrounding the show’s finale, David Chase explained to The Hollywood Reporter: “Tony was dealing in mortality every day. He was dishing out life and death. And he was not happy. All I wanted to do was present the idea of how short life is and how precious it is. The only way I felt I could do that was to rip it away.”
Chase explained that he did not think the cut-to-black ending of the show would cause so much division between the fans of the show. “It was kind of incredible to me,” he said. “But I had no idea it would be that much of an uproar. And was it annoying? What was annoying was how many people wanted to see Tony killed. That bothered me.”
“They wanted to know that Tony was killed,” he added. “They wanted to see him go face-down in linguini, you know? And I just thought, ‘God, you watched this guy for seven years, and I know he’s a criminal. But don’t tell me you don’t love him in some way, don’t tell me you’re not on his side in some way’.” Indeed, our sympathy for Tony was undeniable, yet it was all too evident that he had suffered the worst kind of fate in front of his family at the dinner table.
While the scene did anger some fans who wanted confirmation that Tony Soprano had died for certain, the fact remains that David Chase wrote the scene intentionally, and, as such, it ought to be given the artistic merit that it deserves. Finding the honourable ending to any show is always going to be a difficult task, but all the more so when it is one of the best TV series of all time. In many ways, had we actually seen the shady killer shoot Tony in the head, his family screaming as bits of his brains and leftover tomato sauce fly across the table, it would likely have been a bit distasteful, especially so considering the fact that we came to love Tony as a family member despite his immoral outlook on life.
The ending of The Sopranos is, in fact, one of the best-ever endings to a TV show because it left room for interpretation and toyed with the actual conventions of watching television in the first place. Perhaps you believe that Tony Soprano did not die that fateful night in the restaurant, or perhaps its ambiguity is what immortalised him into the pantheon of the best-ever TV characters. Regardless of public opinion, David Chase ought to be given the credit for having the gall to end his creation in such a manner.