I started watching the Sopranos around this time of the year exactly seven years ago. I was living in a small house in Prospect Park that I shared with a Belgian girl, a viola player. The end of the Fall semester had been particularly stressful. I had cruised through the semester on automatic pilot, and had to pull some all nighters at the end to get all my papers in and my exams graded. When I had finally finished everything, I had a week or so of sweet doing nothing before heading back to Belgium for the holidays.
I always liked this period between the end of the semester and Christmas, days in which you can kick back and do nothing without a trace of guilt. A pleasure most of us have not known since high school or college, but that constitutes one of the perks of life in academia.
At the time we had a futon for couch in our living room and had it flat in bed-mode, so we could kick it back when watching TV. It was on that futon in the dark days before Christmas of 2000 that I started watching the Sopranos. I had picked it up from the campus Blockbuster on my way home from school. I had seen half an episode at my ex-girlfriend’s house once (they had HBO) and was not smitten. But there, watching laying flat on my stomach, working my way through a six pack I was drawn in to the twisted universe of the Sopranos.
Fast forward seven years. Dark days before Christmas again, after an exhausting first semester on the job, at 5.30 am in the morning I watched the final episode of the Sopranos on DVD. Sitting on my living room couch, slowly working my way through a bottle of cheap chianti, watching my Netflix DVDs on my laptop. An era came to an end. Eighty-six episodes that has restored our trust in the television medium. Eighty six hours of pure escape into an alternative universe. Made me a bit sad, I always found it a reassuring thought that more Sopranos was to be watched, a reassurance that has fallen away. Sometimes I wish that I would have a severe case of memory loss and would not remember any movies or TV shows I ever watched. All I would have to do is access my Netflix account (DVD mailing service) and watch all the DVD I have rated five stars over again. Over and over again until I check out of here, doesn’t seem like too bad of a life.
The Sopranos is often referred to as being “Shakesperean.” I guess that it means that the complex web of specific plot lines is merely a conduit to provide a deeper insight into universal themes of love, jealousy, lust etc. that define the human condition. In that sense the first two seasons of The Sopranos probably fit the bill, but after Tony’s mother dies and Uncle Junior becomes irrelevant, the scope of the series shrinks. Tony’s real family and his mob family are no longer as thematically intertwined but more or less co-exist. The complex web of storylines no longer serves any other purpose than telling a good story. I think that was a smart move. The grand themes had all been addressed and continuing on this road could only have led to contrition. Instead The Sopranos became a sort of Great American Novel. A pageturner in which good storytelling is the main ambition, and in which the reader can pick up some gems along the way, but that no longer proclaims to provide any great insight or meaning beyond the story. The story is the meaning. I think this shift is what kept The Sopranos fresh. I had expected that in the last season, The Sopranos would become more epic in scope again and Tony’s family would become more involved in his crime ventures. I had always envisioned Meadow to step it up, guess I was wrong.
Another shift that occurred throughout the series is that it got darker and darker as time went by. In the first seasons there is a sense of camaraderie between the members of Tony’s crew. Silvio Dante, Paulie Walnuts. Chrissie Moltisante, Big Pussy Bompensiero… they all seemed to share this ineffaceable bond that whacking people for a living brings about. As the seasons progressed however, starting with when Big Pussy gets killed, we come to understand that when push comes to shove these ties all mean nothing and that narrow self interest trumps sworn oaths. Loyalty is something that is required from others, but rarely given for any other reason than fear. (except perhaps for good old Silvio Dante, who is loyal to the core) For those of us who were fascinated by the allure of the gang mentality, this was somewhat unsatisfying. Another great thing about this series: it never plays to the cravings of the audience.
As for the ending (the last episode ended abruptly while Tony was having dinner with his family in a hamburger joint). It has its fans as well as its critics. I side with the latter, thought it was a cop out. Indecisiveness masking as creative playfulness. Seems like Chase has trigger fear, could not decide on an ending, so he provided an open ending. I am not a fan of open endings, and so not a fan of this one either, but it gives us the joy of speculation of course. Some say that what we witnessed in fact were Tony’s last moments before getting killed. I don’t buy it. Tony had disposed of Phil Leotardo, a gang war had been averted, and the crews could go back on the street earning, who would want to kill Tony and why? Besides, killing a man in front of his family is against mobster morals. The old mobster adage says that mobsters either get whacked or go to jail. Tony is going to go down in a court of law, if you ask me. We have seen the Feds collecting evidence for six seasons now, and this season they finally have a witness to testify and they have a gun charge against Tony. Hello, RICO anyone? Chase said about the final episode “"Anybody who wants to watch it, it's all there,” and it is. Plenty of hints that the net around Tony is closing. My guess is that Chase did not want to get the whole series being occupied by a big trial against Tony, because it would transform the Sopranos in to Law & Order.
Another interesting aspect about these last episodes is that Melfy finally ditched Tony as a patient. The Melfi-Tony relationship had become stale seasons ago and served little purpose in either plot or character development. Ultimately Melfi is alerted by a colleague to a study stating that sociopaths actually become better sociopaths through therapy because it allows them to rationalize their misdeeds and to construct an alternate universe in which they are good and caring people. (ok, this is my interpretation of the study mentioned). When Melfi reads the study, she decides she can no longer help Tony. I found it utterly unconvincing that Melfi would be swayed by just one study. She would have mauled over these objections and looked up the scholarly literature at the time she started treating Tony, being the professional that she is. Throughout the series, she has been presented with some very strong reasons to drop Tony as a client, he threatened her physically, came on to her, forced her into hiding and drove one of her patients to suicide, yet it was a study that drove her to abandon him? Come on….
Just some of my thoughts on the Sopranos…..