I didn’t watch the first few seasons of “The Sopranos.” My wife was really into it, but I always had something else to do on Sunday nights. Then, two years ago, I decided to get all the DVDs from Netflix and watched every episode in order. The more I watched, the more I was intrigued and entertained, and realized that this was one of TV’s all-time great shows. I caught up in time to see all of Season 5 live, and then onto this final season, which HBO split in two.
So, after all of that, I thought we’d get a real finale tonight. Some sort of closure, something big. I didn’t expect just another episode — but that’s what we got.
Paulie ranting about the cat. Junior still nuts in the psych ward. Typically self-serving Janice. More concern about AJ’s future and Meadow’s career and love life. Fine, all good, but so what? Oh, sure, there was the satisfying way Phil Leotardo was taken out, and the interplay with the FBI agent, and then…cut to black.
Not a fade to black. A quick cut, then nothing. No more. Done. Forever.
If the idea was to make all of us think that our HBO feed had suddenly gone dead, then it was a success. Otherwise — unacceptable!!
Update 11:29pm: Nikki Finke reports that other “Sopranos” fans were so upset at the final episode that they crashed HBO’s website tonight. She’s calling for people to cancel their HBO subscriptions. I think that’s a little rash, considering that the network had virtually nothing to do with the way Chase chose to end the show. Boycotting HBO over this accomplishes nothing, since “The Sopranos” is over. The impact would instead be felt by “Entourage” when it returns for its new season next week — and I like that show too much.