Babbling like the story geek I am over the Sopranos: Sorta Spoilerish June 11
I said that the finale of the Sopranos left me “awed and thrilled and touched”
Awed: in the second to last scene with Junior, the masks fell away from the characters, from the men themselves. There was a silent moment where the characters became the men who are actors, the men washed away too and simply were humans to me. A reminder that in the end, we just simply exist. The fears and things that define us, even our memories can be washed away simply leaving what is at our center. At that moment I just blurted out a “wow” and felt soothed. Reminded that this is all just a story. The same way Shakespeare often reminds us. “If these shadows have offended think but this and all is mended. That you have but slumbered here while these visions did appear…”
Thrilled: After the simple unspoken resolution in the scene with Junior we step into a tension filled series of moments as Tony waits for and greets his wife, son, and daughter. Each stranger’s action seems the step before he or she pulls out a gun or badge. It was so tense I huddled up to Rob while I imagined each possible ending each of these strangers may deliver for us. I appreciate that the storytellers had fun having their way with us here.
Touched: This is where I read into things. An overly aware geek for storytelling, I am touched by the way storytellers handle certain moments. From the Wow moment with Junior on through I was feeling this glee that these last scenes were so much about the epic story, that in the end the character mask is removed and the actor is left. That we humans just need stories. Regardless of the plot and topic, at the core are the issues of our humanity for which there are no clean endings. (which is partly why we need stories, to problem solve through our condition). That we all participate in this process.
It’s like Mr S. said when setting the stage for Henry V, “Pardon, gentles all these flat unraised spirits that have dared on this unworthy scaffold to bring forth so great an object.” That it is up to us to put our imagination into the story. So as life goes on and the Sopranos trudge forward with no bombastic finale and we all have problems we can’t fully sort out. We want to end the war, but take a cushy job instead. There is no neat or clean ending, it’s all just fretting on the stage. It felt like a thank you. Thank you for watching the story, and the possibly cheesy lyrics to a Journey song sum it up: it goes on and on and on and on. And with that ending we are allowed to believe that. There’s no telling what may happen next in those characters’ lives. Just like we don’t know what’s next in our own. I found that very comforting.
Note: Please don’t hold me to a perfect quotation of the Shakespeare bits, both are from memory and possibly butchered compared to first folio punctuation and such.
