thank you and goodnight.

So i was wrong about the sopranos. but you know what? i loved the last episode - particularly the ending.

it seems like many people were disappointed with the way it went out - with some promises of a bang, but in the end, a whimper. and maybe david chase did do it that way to leave open the possibility of a movie, and if that comes to pass, i'll be disappointed. but until then, bravissimo.

i think the ending - or non-ending, as some might say - was very much intentionally left up to multiple interpretations, and im gonna present three of the better interpretations ive heard below. but first, my own take.

life is prosaic, more than it is poetic or episodic. and the best thing about the sopranos was that the lives the characters all led seemed so viscerally real.

(somewhat ironic that i should say this, b/c a tv show, by definition, is literally episodic. on the other hand, not so ironic. a movie is more episodic; a tv show, which can stretch on for years, and gradually grow and change in the process, is more prosaic.)

fitting then that we should leave tony sitting in a diner, listening to journey, waiting for his family to coalesce, rather than meeting some ignominious, 'poetic' fate. (even if it's possible we left tony the nanosecond before he got whacked - as it happened, we didnt see that.)

the fittingness of going out with a whimper is best illustrated in one of my favorite short stories, from - as it were - ray bradbury's the illustrated man. the story is called the last night of the world. i read it in sixth grade, and i'll never forget it. you should read it too. it'll take all of three minutes.

now, for the other sopranos interpretations i mentioned:

∞ the meta.

∞ the maybe.

∞ the tiger or the lady? (go here to get the background on this one.)

thank you david chase.