You Call That A Finale? I Coulda Had A V-8

I'd like to think I'm not one of those people who believes that everything's got to make sense at the end.

I don't mind mystery. I don't mind a little intrigue. I'm OK with not knowing. But on tha real...

The series finale of the Sopranos was some bullshit.

I didn't need to see Tony whacked. In fact, I felt all along the Big One was going to live. Wouldn't make sense to kill Tony. That would be cliche, easy. Some big, bloody shootout at the end doesn't take much thinking. However...

Neither does this ending -- the I'll-just-let-you-all-come-up-with-your-own-conclusions bit. C'mon, David Chase. As Mark Jackson says. You're better than that. I get the coming the full circle, thing. Tony is always going to be fucked up, selfish, sensitive, caring and egotistical. I fully understand that. Carmela is always going to be a reincarnation of Tony's mother. A.J. is always going to be the asshole son of a rich mobster. Meadow is always going to be the naive, smart one, who remains removed from it all, but you get the feeling a killer instinct lurks. Life goes on. People don't change, circumstances do. Yada, yada, yada.

But considering the last couple episodes of the Sopranos were moving us toward something, it just seems lame and ridiculous to end the series on, "They are exactly who we thought they are." That didn't feel like a series finale. That felt like episode 6 of a 24-episode season. It felt like a ploy to get more money, to get HBO to open the coffers and pay everyone a ridiclous amount of money for a return, to drum up movie offers, or a DVD deal where Chase can unleash the several other endings he shot and make millions off our need to know.

I'm amazed at Sopranos fans who are trying to turn this ending into some kind of netherworld, metaphorical, symbolic, artistic, dressed-up crap. Like it was so brilliant because we don't know what happens. Look, I realize that the overall theme of the Godfather was sacrifice. Life did go on for Michael Corleone, but over time, he lost more and more and no matter how much good he tried to do, he always had the heart of a killer. Corelone lost one brother, killed another, lost his wife, his unborn child, etc. That was compelling. I thought, until the finale, they were pulling this off brilliantly with the Sopranos. Tony lost Dr. Melfi, Chris, Bobby, etc. His losses kept getting heavier and heavier, and his killer instinct sharpened. He was getting colder.

Call me ridiculous, but I just needed something more than, "it is what it is." Usually, when you're on the decline as Tony seemed to be, your losses catch up with you in some kind of significant way. Tony had done too much to really go back. Mob movies can't be about symbolic endings. They have to be about consequences. Which is why I thought it was possible Tony might lose one of kids (Personally, I was hoping for AJ because he's a directionless prick). Maybe he would lose Carmela. It didn't have to be through bloodshed. But considering all the things Tony had done, even in the last couple of episodes, how could the ending realistically be...it is what it is?

I call bullshit. Not brilliance.