heavy liquid

Here's the end of Six Feet Under. Those who plan on watching the series shouldn't watch this, of course. It's one of my favorite endings to a series ever. But those unfamiliar with the show and characters obviously won't get as much out of it as the people who watched this show for it's five seasons.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=el4eUKmLujg

Dr. DVD

Journey rocks. Any way we want the finale, that's the way we need it! Look, just because you hate the band whose song they used doesn't make everything they do is retarded. Journey used to fill arenas back in their day, and I assure you Tony and Carm went to some of those concerts. Having been to a couple and done this myself, I guarantee you Tony embraced and passionately kissed Carm when they played "Open Arms." You know, like the relationship I was in with the girl I went to see Journey with last summer, this series was over without any true resolution. What great insight by Chase!

Dang, I've had that stupid song (Don't Stop) playing over and over in my head since last night.

tcoursen

This is the basics of what happen, but that description doesn't really give the scene justice. No words really can. The music, how it is filmed, etc. It is just a very powerful, emotional and fufilling scene.

A finale like that would not have fit for the sopranos.

DVD Josh

Really, if the "popular" interpretation of the ending were to be true, he would have chose "Any way you want it", instead of deliberately passing it up for Don't Stop Believing". That's one of the reasons I don't think that theory is correct.

And the "record scratch" is simply the same device as used in countless other finales, like the same joke beginning and ending Seinfeld.

krazykat72

Actually, The best series finale I can remember seeing, didn't end up being a series finale at all. It was the end of Season Three of 'The Wire', which gave finality to all of the major characters, but without spoiling anything, clearly showed 'life goes on' ...Thankfully, HBO renewed the show and we got an amazing 4th season.........Frankly, in the end, Ill appreciate 'The Sopranos' more for paving the way for far superior narratives such as 'The Wire' and 'Deadwood' than for anything else. Looking back, the decision to stretch things beyond the planned 3-4 seasons (and the death of Nancy Marchand) really hurt the show.
If someone looks honestly, the taut focus and really compelling storytelling left quite awhile ago despite occasional flashes of brilliance. That being said, as noted above, the influence of the show can't be denied.

-Paul Jacobi-

bunkaroo

I'm not the biggest Journey fan out there, but I do know that Don't Stop Believin' (notice the apostrophe instead of a 'g') and Anyway You Want It came from two different albums.

Now, I'm sure that a place like that could get a "dual-single", but I guess my point is I don't think Anyway You Want It would have been a B-Side for Don't Stop Believin', which leads me to believe that the song card titles were definitely intentional.

Marvdog

Guess we'll have to wait til the dvd release for the alternate endings

mmconhea

Yes, the "fade to white" and the more controversial "fade to green" endings.

DVD Josh

"Cut" to green.

Shannon Nutt

According to New York Magazine and actor Matt Servitto (who plays the FBI guy), the only alternate ending was a longer version of the scene we witness, with the guy exiting the bathroom and starting to close in on Tony. It would have been almost as ambigious...we would have never seen if he shot Tony or just walked by him to return to his table.

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment...tches_the.html

PacMan2006

Well, I'll add my two cents.

It's definitely a finale that leaves you thinking and wondering what may have occured. At the same point, I feel that the ending was a little bit of a copout. Like someone else stated, if we wanted to create the ending for ourselves, we'd move to Hollywood and create our own TV show.

It's an interesting ending, I guess, but it leaves me thinking, "well, any show can end like that." The ending didn't have to be 100% finite, but leaving everyone wondering what happened almost feels lazy on Chase's part. I say deliver a true ending, and within that context of that ending create questions or possible hanging threads. In my opinion, you don't create a show with characters people love and care about, only to have the show end ten years later without a conclusion. I don't hate the ending, but I think Chase is doing a disservice to millions of fans. Not everyone is going to want to pay $100 for season six, and re-watch it all over again. People have already invested hours and hours in watching 85 episodes. I think it needed a little bit more of a conclusion.

It sometimes bothers me when artists (whether it's muscians, directors, or exec producers) seem to make entertainment that just satisfies themselves alone. Granted, it's their vision, creation, and in turn "baby." But it's also consumed by millions of people. Chase has to know that people have an expectation. We didn't need to see any more whackings or bloodshed, but I think America deserved and wanted something more satisying than the assumption that their cable went out.

MrBob

I thought this was a horrible ending, If Chase would have done one more shot after the shot of Toney's face, basically a shot of Medow entering from Toney's point of view, followed by the quit black then you would have had a powerful and concrete ending.

This ending FUC$!*G blew! What a pissant horrible, and cheap way to end a great show. I Hate it when directors try to keep things open and vague because they think they are being clever. Since the ending is open to interpertation, here is my interpertation, Toney's arab buddies successfully smuggled and set off a Nuke, they got the nuke from the Russian mob who wanted pay back for paulie and chris's botched killing of that russian guy, who survive and was the mastermind of this diabolical plot.

wendersfan

No, sometimes record companies release retrospective double a-sides like that. I have (had?) a couple. It's 2007. Who wants to hear the "real" b-side of "Don't Stop Believin'" (except for an admitted b-side aficionado like myself)? It makes much more sense to save space and double up hit songs.

IIG

I rewatched the ending again, and for me it is definitive. Tony did not get killed. I challenge everyone to rewatch the ending. There is a scene with Tony telling everyone he ordered something for the table, then everyone is shown eating the onion rings. Where Tony is seated, we can see everything behind him, and there is no one there (except a waittress that walks past him). We can all see the restaurant from where everyone else is seated. Again, nobody suspicious is to be seen. Then we see Meadow running to the restaurant. The door opens, and Tony looks up at the sound of the bell, like he's been doing all night. There was no one closer to the door than Meadow, so common sense tells you it was her who entered. Again, no one is standing behind Tony. Granted the bathroom that the guy went to is to the right of Tony, and the entrance is to the left, so the camera does not show a great deal of what is happening to the right of him. But from a few quick flashes before Tony's final glance at the door, we don't see a barrel anywhere in or on the immediate outside of the final frame.

Now you mean to tell me, that someone pulled out a gun and shot Tony from long range in a crowded restaurant? Especially with the possibility of missing the target by any increasing distance? All angles were accounted for just at the Sopranos table, and this place was bustling with business. No screams, no ruckus, no warnings, no hysteria as a gunman pulls a gun out, aims, and shoots? Bologna. Even at close range, SOMEONE from the table would have said something. The guy would have had to hurried to the table, aimed the gun, and shot. From the shots that we see, he would not have had time to do that. There is no way Tony would have been looking at a door, even if his family was so petrified by what they saw that their voiceboxes temporarily gave out. The lack of concern on Tony's face, shows nothing was amiss in that restaurant at the time the door opened.

No. Tony and his family are still alive as far as the show is concerned. And though its fine for fans to discuss the ending until they are blue in the face, nothing in the world happened here.

This is one of the best series finales I have ever seen after the second viewing, by the way.

mkdevo

that
was
not
livia's
house.

DVD Josh

That's what I figured, that any alternate ending would not differ greatly. This was Chase's master plan all along.

HOWEVER, a closer reading of the article makes the ending more definitive as well as the fate of Tony (will spoiler)



That is certainly interesting.

worrywort

Have we talked about the Chase cameo in the diner yet?

argh923

What about Furio?

rabbit77

Good thing you weren't a White Sox fan in Chicago in 2005

DVD Josh

Here's the HBO synopsis of the episode, not that it's any help:

Tony is the first to arrive at Holsten's for a family dinner. He sits in a booth and plays a song on the jukebox, watching the door. Carmela enters and joins him, asking about his meeting with Mink. He tells her Carlo's gonna testify and she takes the news with a sigh. AJ arrives next, complaining about the more mundane tasks of his job but quotes old advice from his father: "Try to remember the times that were good." Meanwhile, Meadow struggles to parallel park outside. Customers come and go - a shady looking guy who's been sitting at the counter enters the restroom. Finally parking the car, Meadow runs inside to join her family, just in time for dinner.

ASAPadam

OK, another theory:
Does Tony represent America, a country with a history of violence and a long list of enemies, currently dealing with threats to its well-being (either real or trumped up)? A country at war yet listening to Journey, eating crap and watching "American Idol" (or even "The Sopranos")?

If so, the sudden ending that thrust us right back to our reality may be David Chase's way of saying the future of America is unknown, but that we're at a critical moment in time and that our materialism, blindness and self-absorption could come back to haunt us.

Or maybe he got whacked ... I don't know anymore. I just know that no other series affects me as much, and for that reason alone, it's my favorite ever.

islandclaws

Anyone else notice that on East Coast feeds the last shot was Meadow coming in the door and in the West Coast feeds it was Tony's face? At least, that's what I recall seeing since I watched them both...

Edit: I was high as a kite watching it... n/m

mmconhea

I think the whole ending was designed to get you really on edge about something was going to happen...it does a really good job.... and then something big does happen! Your cable goes out!... on the very last scene of the most anticipated finale in years! That's the biggest shock! Well, second biggest.... behind some jackass actually thinking the ending was artistic vision.

argh923

Meadow was never shown coming in the door on the East Coast feed - assuming you mean the first airing of the show from last night.

DVD Josh

My east coast HD feed ended with Tony's face.