Samantha's Idea of Finale's Meaning

From: Samantha Kleier Forbes
Sent: Monday, June 11, 2007 12:30 PM
To: Jonathan Kleier; Sabrina Kleier Morgenstern; Robert Morgenstern; 'jpforbes@sunshinegroup.com'
Subject: Re: Sopranos ending...

I think that it actually did end, with the family back together, Phil being killed, Tony announcing he is to be indicted... But the key was that the family was back together. Then suddenly, with the fade to black, Chase makes us question whether it did indeed end (and it seemed, then, in light of the blackness, that it didn't... That meadow seemed to be running in to tell them something, or that they were going to be killed (all the weird angles, tony sitting there by himself, the focus on each character at the restaurant - as though chase was telling us to watch those people, they have some significance - the air was so heavy in the final scene. I felt when that scene began, and he was scrolling the juke box, and he puts on "don't stop believing" and then Carmela comes in, and then AJ (and I didn't look at the time the whole episode because I didn't want to be focused on the fact that there was 20 or 1 minute left - what was going to happen?) - I felt and even said to JP this is the end. But then all the focus on meadow not being able to park, and then her running in with that look, and then the very last shot of chase looking at her, and then the sudden blackness - well that seemed to say this didn't end. Maybe what chase was doing was saying - yours - the viewers- experience with the sopranos is ending- but theirs is not ending. Their life is going on. (Hopefully also he left us open for a movie...)

Chase and What's His Statement

Jonathan Kleier

The episode shown last night, if it had been any other time in the series (i.e. earlier in the season or another season), it would be an outstanding episode. But there was something, as a series finale of the greatest show in the medium’s history, there was something that didn’t feel right. There was nothing special. It was just another episode. Some might like that, and indeed Chase probably did this with great calculation. It disappointed, though. But maybe anything would have.

I think had they edited the final scene in a more traditional way, we might not be talking about this. But the fact that they literally went to total black – for many seconds – I think that editing decision altered my perception of the entire show, and I can’t figure out yet why Chase did it, I can't figure out if it is brilliant, if it is dumb, maby it was lazy, maybe it all makes sense. I don’t know. It just doesn't make sense in any way that I can tell.

Maybe David Chase just didn’t know how to end this series. After all, Samantha and I had been discussing how we could watch this series every week forever and still enjoy it. Maybe this series has no ending and therefore how does one end a series that is un-endable? But thousands of years have gone into studying storytelling – a beginning, middle, end. But we didn’t get an end in any traditional sense. Certainly, storylines were tied up and concluded, but still, it seems Chase chose to fly in the face of all traditional storytelling theory and give us a non-ending ending. Yet, as an audience, there must be a definitive ending, etc., we need it, and we didn’t get it last night.

I really do not know what Chase intended to achieve by edited the final scenes the way he did, but perhaps, after things sink in, maybe we will come to appreciate it.

I entered last night wondering, “What is Chase going to say? What profound comment on society or life will Chase show us, the audience." He has the stage to do this, with the whole world watching. Surely an artist like Chase has things to say about life, and he has made many of these statements throughout the series. But as the FINAL Final episode, I had expected to get a much clearer understanding of his message. Possibly I am knee-jerking, but I cannot figure out what this show means or what to take away from it. Chase always seemed to have some opinion, although often times it seemed he himself wasn't quite sure what the answers of life are. I wanted him to give us some meaning, a view that the world hadn't seen yet. He didn't do that, and I’m guessing many others feel as I feel.

Life goes on, we know. Life is messy. Chase likes to make that point, repeatedly. However, there is a grammar, so to say, a clearly established structural method to tell a dramatic story layed out by Aristotle and refined over the a few millennia. Chase may understand his decision, but I think maybe even he is unsure why he edited it as he did. As a writer, there's no one better than Chase... however, perhaps he should have allowed a more seasoned director handle the finale of the greatest series yet seen.