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Sopranos: Don't Stop Believin' ....
Caught off guard?
If you saw the Sopranos finale tonight, you know what that means. We knew that Phil Leotardo would have to get it, because he's an asshole, but even that had its unexpected, and ugly, twist. Everything else was up in the air.
To my mind, though, the last minutes of the series were bathed in some kind of dreamy unreality, that reminded me of the last minutes of Lynch's Blue Velvet, though not as blatantly artificial. The family was gathering in some unlikely place, a diner--to the beat of some easy, but anxiety-inducing, dream logic which, just as you began to accept it, the screen turns black. Silence.
Silence.
And then the credits run.
A perfect end to the series, if you ask me. Things left with an insinuation of tension, some ambiguity and the window just shuts on the ongoing saga of Tony and his two families.
Clearly, there was an attempt to create dramatic tension at the end, to make you anticipate some climactic final act: the quick cuts back and forth between the family and Meadow's frustration at parking, the odd thug walking through the door, or casting a glance once too often at Tony and his family, then getting up, walking to the bathroom, etc. (That last made me think, of course, of the famous scene from the Godfather.) But despite this tension, the screen suddenly just goes black: Steve Perry of Journey cut off in mid-wail. Like so many, I was afraid that there was malfunction: in my case, I had been recording the episode and had just seen the "Episode is finished recording" message a few moments before the final cut, so I was afraid that the recorder cut me off at the last, seemingly crucial minute. True to form, the tension and anxiety that dominated these characters lives was made palpable in those last few minutes and contrasted pretty sharply with how easy and relaxed the family appeared to be. However, when the final cut occurred, that undifferentiated anxiety hovering over the Soprano family transferred to the audience, who were left wondering what, if anything, would happen next.
And of course, by cutting off the narrative in medias res, you will never know.
An interesting end to the series and one that bears re-watching.