[Warning: spoilers.] So, I finally got around to finishing up The Sopranos. And I have to admit I was disappointed with the final episode and, to be honest, most of the final season. The whole A.J. arc was tedious–who cares about A.J. anyway, and who is gullible enough to believe that he suddenly has become interested in, let alone depressed by, the Iraq war? But, of course, it is the The Lady or the Tiger? ending of the final episode that ruins it. David Chase has written some great stuff for this series, but pulling out this tired stunt to end what, for about three seasons at least, had been the best thing on television, is just sad.
Character seems to be a real problem in the final season. Hesh, always a close friend of Tony’s, is rewritten as a bickering, backbiting old man–entirely out of step with any previous episode–in order to force the plot in a certain direction. Dr. Melfi gets similar treatment in the penultimate episode, when she drops all professionalism and kicks Tony to the curb based on peer pressure for a colleague and a single journal article suggesting that her therapy might be enabling. A.J. moves form poor little rich kid to champion of the working class and back again, all without anything resembling motivation.
With this lead up, the final episode tries to tie up loose ends, but instead seems to jump from one story to the next without creating any depth, and then caps the entire–incredibly academic–exercise with a suspenseful buildup and a cut to black. To add insult to injury, Chase won an Emmy for this bit of postmodern posturing.
I get the possible interpretations. I get the possible allusion to The Godfather and the connection between the man in the Members Only jacket and the title of the first episode of the final season (in which Tony gets shot). I also get the song lyrics at the end (Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing”) as a way of undercutting the same. But none of that is satisfactory. The ambiguity of the ending doesn’t leave me scratching my head trying to figure things out (as it does in a good film, like Doubt). Rather, it leaves me scratching my head wondering how I could have wasted so much of my time.