I’m not going to pretend to know exactly what David Chase intended to convey with the final scene of The Sopranos, and I’m certainly not interested in spending 10,000 words making biblical references. Onion rings and transubstantiation? Zzzzzzzzzz… For the people not too consumed with arbitrary rage over what they see as insufficient closure, most explanations for the scene have been boring and trite – two characteristics we could never assign to The Sopranos.
This many months down the line, I’m no longer concerned with whether he lived or died, I’m just impressed that a television show on a premium cable network was able to bring the country to a standstill with ten seconds of blank screens. TV events like the JR shooting on Dallas, Luke and Laura’s General Hospital nuptials or the revelation that Bob Newhart’s second show existed completely in the dreams of his character in the previous series all grabbed the nation’s attention. Things like that don’t happen anymore. People don’t watch the same show at the same time. Fandom, DVRs and the ever-shortening attention span of the collective have polarized viewership more than ever. What The Sopranos did was bring TV watchers together. It made everyone who wasn’t tuning in feel left out.
As much as The Sopranos was landmark television and an unfailing entertainer, its departure was a welcome one. Ten years with a serial so frequently grim was starting to wear on my nerves. I appreciate its contributions though, and I’ll think of it every time I come out on the stinky side of the Lincoln Tunnel.