Ending on a Soprano Note
On the day in which Burger King added Spam (the processed meat) to its menu in Hawaii, another and arguably less important news item reported a flood of outraged responses to the final episode of the HBO drama, “The Sopranos.”
I have never seen even one episode of the eight-year-long run of this widely-watched series. I don’t subscribe to HBO, so I haven’t come to love, or hate, or shake my head at, or cluck my tongue at, the “life style” – did it really have style? – of the fictional New Jersey mob family. But you will have noticed that doesn’t keep me from adding my own two cents’ worth! Huzzah for freedom of speech!
I am surprised, however, at the passionate yearning for some comeuppance for Tony and his family. Certainly a tying up of loose ends. Surely justice in some form or other. Maybe a bloodbath, a vendetta mass murder. So many viewers seem to have expected, indeed required, a morality play conclusion. Simply eating onion rings with the family as the screen went black was seen as a betrayal. The story demanded something more than stopping just as the jukebox played, “Don’t stop – ”.
A morality play ending would have done a couple of things. It would have imposed a little moral order in a world where so much seems out of control nowadays, from celebrities behaving badly to seemingly unstoppable military fiascos. In “The Sopranos,” at least, somebody would pay. And such a conclusion would also let us all join in the Biblical pharisee’s prayer, “I thank you, God, that I am not like them.” (Luke 18:11)
But David Chase, “The Sopranos’” creator, didn’t let us go there. And that’s all right with me. In spite of the many so-called “reality” shows, I guess we don’t really want television to be like life. As with Tony and Carmela and their family, life goes on. Stuff happens. Grace happens. Bad things happen to good people. Good things happen to bad people – even unspeakably bad people. The rain falls on the just and the unjust. Our apparent powerlessness in the face of political machinations and economic manipulations and all the other forces that leave us reeling and yearning for justice, balance, completion – that powerlessness is not easily cured. It will never be cured by a make-believe drama where things work out just right.
I have never seen even one episode of the eight-year-long run of this widely-watched series. I don’t subscribe to HBO, so I haven’t come to love, or hate, or shake my head at, or cluck my tongue at, the “life style” – did it really have style? – of the fictional New Jersey mob family. But you will have noticed that doesn’t keep me from adding my own two cents’ worth! Huzzah for freedom of speech!
I am surprised, however, at the passionate yearning for some comeuppance for Tony and his family. Certainly a tying up of loose ends. Surely justice in some form or other. Maybe a bloodbath, a vendetta mass murder. So many viewers seem to have expected, indeed required, a morality play conclusion. Simply eating onion rings with the family as the screen went black was seen as a betrayal. The story demanded something more than stopping just as the jukebox played, “Don’t stop – ”.
A morality play ending would have done a couple of things. It would have imposed a little moral order in a world where so much seems out of control nowadays, from celebrities behaving badly to seemingly unstoppable military fiascos. In “The Sopranos,” at least, somebody would pay. And such a conclusion would also let us all join in the Biblical pharisee’s prayer, “I thank you, God, that I am not like them.” (Luke 18:11)
But David Chase, “The Sopranos’” creator, didn’t let us go there. And that’s all right with me. In spite of the many so-called “reality” shows, I guess we don’t really want television to be like life. As with Tony and Carmela and their family, life goes on. Stuff happens. Grace happens. Bad things happen to good people. Good things happen to bad people – even unspeakably bad people. The rain falls on the just and the unjust. Our apparent powerlessness in the face of political machinations and economic manipulations and all the other forces that leave us reeling and yearning for justice, balance, completion – that powerlessness is not easily cured. It will never be cured by a make-believe drama where things work out just right.
posted by David at 4:47 AM
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