The Big Picture
- The Sopranos series finale is just as divisive as it is iconic.
- Creator David Chase intentionally left the ending ambiguous, leading to decades of speculation about Tony Soprano's fate.
- The ending of The Sopranos was a brilliant storytelling choice, challenging viewers' expectations and forcing them to examine the complex character development throughout the series.
On the night of June 10, 2007, every HBO subscriber panicked. "Did my cable connection just die?" many viewers surely wondered while watching The Sopranos finale. A loose cable cord or an inopportune widespread power outage appeared to be the only explanation behind the most controversial ending in television history. Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) is sharing a plate of onion rings with his wife, Carmela (Edie Falco), and his son, A.J. (Robert Iler). After struggling to parallel park, his daughter, Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler), rushes inside the diner, Holsten's, where the Soprano family converges. As Journey's power ballad, "Don't Stop Believin'" roars during its closing chorus, the screen cuts to black--just as Tony looks up to see Meadow walking through the door. Just like that, The Sopranos concluded, but the discourse and speculation surrounding this ending has not waned.
The Sopranos
DramaCrimeNew Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano deals with personal and professional issues in his home and business life that affect his mental state, leading him to seek professional psychiatric counseling.
Release Date January 10, 1999 Creator David Chase Cast James Gandolfini , Edie Falco , Jamie-Lynn Sigler , Lorraine Bracco , Michael Imperioli , Steve Van Zandt , Tony Sirico , Steve Schirripa Seasons 6'The Sopranos' Reaches Its Dramatic Peak in the Series Finale
First airing in 1999 and lasting seven seasons, The Sopranos, created by David Chase, revolutionized the television medium. Implementing the artistic conventions of film into what was seen as a lesser art form at the time, Chase made every cable drama that followed in its wake aspire to be like The Sopranos, particularly relating to the show's popularization of the anti-hero. A universal success with critics, awards bodies, and the average viewer, no show developed quite an adversarial relationship with its audience like HBO drama. Whether it was its inclination for left turns in its storytelling or the frequent deployment of dream sequences and other subversive narrative devices, Chase never gave into the innate desires of the audience, and he made an intelligent, curious, and provocative series as a result.
The Sopranos' series finale, "Made in America," follows Tony in a precarious state. Tony Sopranos' blood family continues to be on the rocks, with A.J.'s mental health still waning. His crime family is being slowly wiped out by the rival New York family, with his consigliere, Silvio Dante (Stevie Van Zandt) in a coma, and his close confidant and brother-in-law, Bobby Bacala (Steve Schirripa) slain. As the episode reaches its final scene, great uncertainty lingers in the air, despite sealing minor resolutions. Tony could be facing his last days as a free man with the threat of Carlo (Arthur J. Nascarella) testifying in court.
'Sopranos' Creator David Chase Likes Tony Soprano's Mysterious Fate
CloseThe Sopranos celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, and to this day, its notorious ending continues to be debated ad nauseam. Was Tony killed? Who killed Tony? Was it the patron wearing the Members Only jacket? Does he live after all? Chase practically can't go a day without someone interrogating him for the truth. In the compendium book by Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz, The Sopranos Sessions, Chase refers to the final scene in passing as a "death scene." Chase later explained to The Hollywood Reporter that this was merely a slip of the tongue. In this interview, he revealed that the public's outrage over the ending's ambiguity bothered him. Chase, a taciturn figure in the press, does not give blatant closure to Tony's fate regarding the scene eventually filmed, but he hints that he was planning a scenario where the show's protagonist would meet his demise.
On the Talking Sopranos podcast, hosted by show cast members Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa, Chase expressed annoyance over the misleading nature of his THR interview, clarifying that he never revealed Tony's fate. As part of a featurette celebrating the show's 25th anniversary on Max, Chase discussed the ending, remarking that "Some people wanted 'closure.' They wanted to see him get shot and go face down in the onion rings." He further elaborates his frustrations with the negative response to the cut-to-black, saying "What upset me was the idea that this had just been done to just go like that," with Chase giving the middle finger to the camera.
The incessant need for closure among many Sopranos fans egregiously undermines the brilliance of the ending. As Chase alluded to in the featurette, the cut-to-black was not an act of pure shock value. Too many committed Sopranos viewers, who, for eight years, watched Chase's mastery of innovative dramaturgy at work, were dismissive of the storytelling implications of the ambiguous ending. From the show's pilot onward, The Sopranos reckons with the future. All characters, from mobsters to housewives, are concerned over what the 21st century entails. The show's later seasons tackle this sensation more aggressively in the aftermath of 9/11. Will organized power cease to hold any power in the wake of the lingering threat of international terrorism? Characters grappling with a street-level philosophical code drove the series way more than the basic principles of serialized television. The jarring sensation created by the hard cut to black is more brutal than any "whacking" of Tony. The cut is so harsh that viewers assuming they just had a cable outage was reasonable. Not to mention, the closing credits took longer than usual to appear on-screen.
David Chase's 'Sopranos' Ending Is Brilliant Storytelling
Throughout the series, Chase relished in anticlimactic storytelling (after all, The Sopranos features the lamest TV death). Various gripping plots, including Carmela and Furio's (Federico Castelluccio) budding romance, Dr. Melfi's (Lorraine Bracco) temptation to exact revenge on her rapist vicariously through Tony, and Johnny Sack's (Vincent Curatola) war with Ralph Cifaretto (Joe Pantoliano) over a joke ended with a thud... at least in the conventional sense. These storylines, which ultimately fail to amount to dramatic conclusions because the respective parties involved experienced a quiet change of heart, attempted to mirror real-life disputes by rejecting Hollywood-like tropes. Unlike the rest of television programming pre-Sopranos, Chase was not interested in indulging in the viewer's primal desires. Where most shows get complacent with their artistic craft after years of success, Chase and his writing staff (which consisted of future prestige cable drama showrunners such as Boardwalk Empire's Terence Winter and Mad Men's Matthew Weiner) relentlessly challenged the expectations of its format. Anyone outraged by The Sopranos' ending must have been oblivious to Chase's thematic tendencies.
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Film director Steven Soderbergh, who appeared as a talking head in the Max featurette, theorized why the ending was met with such vitriol, saying "They wanted the TV show that was made before The Sopranos was made." Soderbergh's point is apt, as Tony engaging in a showdown with the head of the New York family, Phil Leotardo (Frank Vincent) was the serviceable, but tired, dramatic arc that audiences were used to. As obvious to any viewer, the series was far more interested in lofty ideas, such as dissecting the complex psyche of Tony, the predatory urges of capitalism, the decay of Italian-American pride, and the failure of law enforcement. The abrupt ending of "Made in America" forces the viewer to deeply examine the intricate character development of Tony and what his life ultimately amounts to after watching him for seven seasons.
An integral part of The Sopranos' adversarial relationship with its audience was the vocal disdain for dream sequences, therapy sessions, and other abstract thematic arcs among many fans, with Chase coining the mantra "less yakking, more whacking," to summarize the kind of on-screen action fans wanted to see. The showrunner was privy to his fans sympathizing with, and even rooting for, Tony and his ruthless captains and soldiers. With each season, the show upped the ante with the characters' immorality, particularly by depicting violence against innocent civilians. In The Sopranos Sessions, Chase admitted that he was frustrated that the audience loved these violent gangsters. He likened his show to a story "about people who've made a deal with the devil, starting with the head guy. It's about evil. I was surprised by how hard it was to get people to see that."
'The Sopranos' Final Scene Will Never Be Forgotten
The Journey-scored ending carries a whole new layer of poignancy through Chase's interpretation. When the screen cut to black inside Holsten's, Chase proverbially "whacked" the audience. The writing staff brought millions of people into this world of violence, mayhem, and disgraceful behavior. Not only did you witness Tony commit a multitude of horrific actions, but you all enjoyed watching it, so the only way to bring justice is by abruptly terminating the viewing experience without proper closure. The average series would extract hopefulness in this final scene, with the four Soprano family members convening at a mom-and-pop restaurant. When A.J. reminds his father of his previous remark, "Focus on the good times," it signals an opportunity for redemption for Tony. Before Tony can adopt an optimistic attitude following A.J.'s affirmation, the screen cuts to black, implying a fatalistic conclusion to his life, or at the very least, his soul.
Being outraged by the lack of closure in the finale of The Sopranos is like an outdated style of fashion. The undying legacy of the series created by David Chase can be attributed to the indelible and daring nature of its ambiguous ending. The Sopranos inspired countless imitators (some great and some forgettable) but even the best shows in its wake did not take lessons from "Made in America." Compare the cut-to-black to the ending of Breaking Bad, which settled for a pristine denouement in its final episode. The end to Walter White's (Bryan Cranston) saga was so clean and tightly resolved that many speculated that the series finale, "Felina," was all a dream in Heisenberg's mind. By ending on a cliffhanger, and leaving the world of The Sopranos feeling unresolved as a result, the tragic implications of the anti-hero prestige drama drastically increase. There is a reason why we can't stop talking about that ending, and by proxy, The Sopranos entirely.
The Sopranos is available to watch on Max in the U.S.
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