When I go to bed, I pile the extra pillows lengthwise beside me. That way they're handy if my back is bothering me - I can wedge one or two behind me and put the other one between my knees. Boy cat likes to lay on top of the pile and he was doing so last night. I petted him for awhile then rolled over on my back. Somehow, the top pillow slid off the pile and on top of my face with boy cat on top of that. I tried to nudge him off but he wouldn't budge.
All of a sudden I realized - my cat is trying to whack me.
Which is ironic because I had just watched the last five episodes of The Sopranos, where just about everyone gets whacked. The only death that confused me was Christopher. He was driving Tony and they got into a wreck. Christopher was choking on his own blood. Instead of helping him, Tony covered his nose and mouth and killed him. Christopher was like his own son and prior to that, Tony hadn't made any plans to kill him. He had mentioned the possibility once, several episodes prior, and dismissed it.
By the end of the series, I was ready for Tony to die. At the beginning, I was sympathetic towards him, feeling like he had a tragic childhood and he wouldn't have become a mobster if he hadn't grown up in it. By the end, I saw him and all the guys in his gang as sociopaths with virtually no redeeming qualities. I thought Carmela and Meadow were almost as guilty as him because they knew how he earned his money and willingly turned a blind eye to all the murders.
The only one I felt any sympathy for was his son AJ. You could see him going down the same path his father had, how he was being dragged into it the same way Tony was, but even AJ made conscious choices that led him down that path.
I'm a couple of years behind the rest of the world but I'll weigh in on the finale. It was very controversial at the time. Tony, Carmela and Aj are in a restaurant waiting for Meadow. Right in the middle of the conversation the screen suddenly goes black. Complete silence. Several seconds pass then the credits start to roll.
When it originally came out, there was a huge debate about whether or not it meant Tony was killed. Having finally seen it for myself, it seems pretty obvious to me that the answer was yes.
They had set it up for a few episodes that there was a hit out on Tony and the top guys in his gang. An earlier episode had a conversation between Tony and Bobby about what it would be like if they got hit. Bobby said you wouldn't hear it coming. They flashed back to that conversation during the final episode.
Throughout the series, different characters talked about their favorite scene in The Godfather, when Michael Corleone goes to the bathroom and comes out shooting. In the final scene of The Sopranos, there's a suspicious looking guy sitting at the counter in the restaurant. He gets up and goes to the bathroom. Tony is sitting with his back to the bathroom, watching everybody who comes in the front door. Meadow is outside parking her car, then she runs across the street and is about to enter the restaurant. You hear the bell ring from the door opening then the screen goes black.
What clinches it for me: The scene cut off suddenly, shockingly. At first I thought there was something wrong with the DVD, even though I already knew that was how the series ended. Everything stopped - black screen, no sound, even the song stopped right in the middle.
If they had intended anything other than Tony being killed, there would have been a fade out and the music would've continued playing, or there would've been some logical pause or stopping place in the conversation.
Don't stop/
2 comments:
The only soap opera I ever watched was "The Edge of Night." The people who performed on that show were as good as actual models for JC Penney's. The plots were "mystery." Well worth the daily half hour.
And a good time was had by all.
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