The Sopranos

5. The Sopranos

It seems like endings things allowed for a much more entertaining season of The Sopranos. Whereas the last few seasons have meandered without focus and seemed to have more interest with everyone else but Tony, these last 9 episodes never strayed far from the big man. Almost every episode explored his relationship with one of the revolving cast of supporting characters. And then that ending …

Enough time has passed (9 years but only 6 seasons; no other show would get away with that kind of output) that I do not want to spend what little time I have to talk about The Sopranos reiterating known praise for the acting but here I go anyways. James Gandolfini wears the role of Tony Soprano like it is his alter ego. Whatever that may say about the man, his believability is second to none. I feel sorry that for the rest of his career everything he does will be compared to Tony Soprano. That’s unfair. And everyone else kicks ass as usual. Praise all around. Even to Robert Iler’s Anthony Soprano, something that no one could have foresaw back during the first season. Also I do want to mention 2 other actors who did not play huge roles in the final season but when they were onscreen they were outstanding. Dominic Chianese’s Junior Soprano over the years has played as significant role as any of the other non-Tony Soprano actors. Seeing him as mentally deteriorated but still with the Uncle Jun flashes was amazing. His final scene ever with Tony may have been as good as any other scene in the episode. Just the look in his eyes when Tony told him that he once ran New Jersey was beautiful. And the other name is Vincent Curatola as Johnny Sack. The episode devoted to his dying of cancer while in jail was one of the shows best. Everyone on the show will be missed.

Right off the bat, The Sopranos began testing all of the people around Tony. Everyone got their shot; Tony and Bobby, Tony and Paulie, Tony and Christopher, Tony and Phil, Tony and Anthony, Tony and Carmela, Tony and Dr. Melfi, there was a sense of closure to all of these relationships. Some of it was the best kind of closure, the permanent six feet deep kind. Watching Tony frick up just about every personal connection in his life was great. Tony is and always has been a prick. Due to the popularity of the show, the character has been viewed as some kind of hero but he never was. He is a bad man and a majority of the episodes highlighted this; after he gets in a fight with Bobby he forces him to commit is first kill, he questions Paulie to the point that both of them think their boat trip will lead to Paulie’s death, he gives up on his nephew Christopher then when the opportunity arises kills him in cold blood, and not to mention his constant problems with his wife, his therapist, his kids, and with his partners in New York. Even with all that, the viewer is still there at the end pulling for the man. In that now infamous final scene, the amount of tension that was built-up just by having him sit there in the dinner was extraordinary. I went from lying down, to sitting up, to leaning forward, to pacing around the television, to nearly flipping out when it ended. And that was just over a handful of minutes. They somehow lived up to the hype.

I have been very critical of The Sopranos over the last 5 years. After the first couple of seasons I was right there on the front lines pimping this show to anyone who would listen. I still remember my excitement when seeing the first commercials back in the late 1998 promoting this new gangster family program. It may have gone on too long because of audience demand instead of storyline demand but alls well that ends well.