Crafting one of the greatest TV shows of all time is no easy task, but managing to stick the landing to everyone’s satisfaction is exponentially trickier, as David Chase discovered when the final episode of The Sopranos split opinion straight down the middle.
After six seasons and 85 episodes of unimpeachable greatness, the 86th and final chapter in the story of James Gandolfini’s Tony Soprano created a schism that tore critics, audiences, and hardcore fans in two. On one hand, ambiguity was always a recurring theme of the show’s complex web of shifting allegiances and well-rounded characters. On the other hand, though, many were expecting something a lot more definitive.
It was so out of nowhere that it came off as underwhelming, with Jamie-Lynn Sigler’s Meadow entering a diner late after having parking issues. Tony waits patiently for a family get-together, but when his daughter enters and the bell on the door rings, he looks up, and suddenly, it cuts to black.
For such an influential series that had been riding constant waves of critical acclaim, won five Golden Globes and 21 Primetime Emmys, and transformed its cast of character actors into household names in the process, it wasn’t quite a resolution befitting of what had come before. More than 20 years later, the debate still isn’t over, although Gandolfini did warm to it eventually.
In a retrospective with Vanity Fair, the leading man was asked for his thoughts on the finale, and he admitted he wasn’t entirely sold on the prospect at first. “When I first saw the ending, I said, ‘What the fuck?’” he admitted. “I mean, after all I went through, all this death, and then it’s over like that?”
However, he got on board after ruminating on it for a while. “But after I had a day to sleep, I just sat there and said, ‘That’s perfect.’” Of course, none of the major players were going to come right out and say they hated it with an intense passion even if they did, although Lorraine Bracco did admit she “would have wanted it to end differently.”
As for creator David Chase, he’s always planned on wrapping things up without explicitly spelling it out. “Ambiguity was very important to me. And the kind of movies that I was attracted to after a certain age were complicated, ambiguous movies, 8 1/2, Fanny and Alexander, Raging Bull,” he explained. “No certainties. And network television at that time was nothing but a world of certainties. The Sopranos was ambiguous to the point where, to this day, I’m not really sure whether it was a drama or a comedy. It can be both, but people like to reduce it to one or the other.”
Based entirely on the fact people are still talking about it, regardless of whether or not The Sopranos had one of the best or worst finales in television history, it can’t be denied that it was one of the most memorable.
