Made in America

Just finished my rewatch every few years. The more I've read from the producers and watched in breakdown videos, the more enjoy the last seen even more. The story and the ending play out so well to the whole plot line that it makes me ignore some of the episodes or characters I didn't like. Wish someone would come along and make something like this again.

The Sopranos is a work of art. It is about a man with two families, pivoted on conversations with a psychiatrist. David Chase brings themes that are central to life in America throughout the series. He is fascinated by questions of morality, religion (see: Amour Fou, The Flesh Part of the Thigh), existentialism (see: D-Girl, From Where to Eternity,) and the human experience. Therefore, his show culminated with the fitting title of the last episode, 'Made in America.' Tony's conversations with Dr. Melfi throughout the series are a way for the audience to delve into the inner thoughts of Tony and explore in-depth the themes of the show.

The last episode was for some a disappointment. But to be in-line with the rest of the series, Chase could have done it no other way. In his post-modern take on the world, questions are left unanswered, absolute truths are unknown, ambiguity reigns supreme, and loose ends remain. This is the reality of the world Chase wishes to project, that certainty lays beyond our grasp. This is not the first time Chase leaves us to determine for ourselves what may or may not have happened. In Pine Barrens, the Russian is never found. When Christopher gets beaten up while trying to score drugs, we are left wondering if he gets revenge. Silvio is left in the hospital, his fate unknown.

I highly recommend watching this show, not only for it's mafia related entertainment, but for the deeper questions that are asked and explored throughout the show, often presented in a humorous, subtle way, and left for the viewer to draw conclusions on.

Why do we Americans always have to have everything in a work fiction spelled out for us? Why do we always seem to need resolution? If I were I a writer, I think that I would be miserable if I spent most of time wondering what I could do to make my audience happy. Boo Hoo to us all. We didn't get the ending that made us happy and now we no longer feel whole.

I think some of you should go watch reruns of Friends. Everything was solved on the final episode. We were left content. Secure in our knowledge that life ends when a TV show does. Maybe the Sopranos ending was a little like quantum mechanics. All things happened and none of them did.

In classic unconventional storytelling, David Chase ends the series with the uncertainties of life, another prominent theme in The Sopranos. It doesn't matter whether Tony lives or dies, what matters is that we enjoy with what we have in life, to "Don't Stop Believing."

This series used the "mobster" genre to explore life. Life with its difficult choices, lies, and reality. How can you end a life? When life ends, the lights go out, and for all of us who felt Tony Soprano as alive, it just had to end. What happens? What happened was that we no longer have access to Tony Soprano's life. It's over, it's sad, and even if he lives on, our relationship with him in real time is over, finis.

Whatever you believe after life, or life after death, the fact is that relationships end. Our collective relationship with these people is over. It's not Al Pacino, it's Tony Soprano, and that's an amazing achievement.