Long running HBO favorite comes to close at end of season
By: Nadum
Issue date: 4/20/07 Section: Arts & Entertainment
Originally published: 4/20/07 at 4:45 AM EST
Last update: 4/21/07 at 3:37 PM EST
Originally published: 4/20/07 at 4:45 AM EST
Last update: 4/21/07 at 3:37 PM EST
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The last four seasons have seen next to no change in the dynamic of Tony's struggle. He is nowhere closer to redemption than the inevitable Shakespearian ending. The show has become wildly inconsistent, plagued with undisciplined writing and serious pacing issues.
Coming into the last season, dubbed 'The Final Episodes,' there have been nearly four hours dedicated to extended dream sequences, one of which follows Tony as a door to door salesman. Instead of an existential look at Tony's torment, the dreams come off as self-indulgent storytelling, straying from the show's once brilliant ability to humanize a world that had always held a larger-than-life mystique.
Even worse, only one season after ensuring the death of Adriana (the love of his life and fiancée) for talking to the Feds, Christopher Moltisanti, Tony's nephew and perhaps the most intriguing character on the program, is relegated to a storyline where he tries to create a hack and slash horror film.
No matter how unhappy as Tony is or how badly Christopher wants something more from life, the characters are trapped in a state of arrested development. These "introspective examinations" become cliché and do little more than tread water, affording Chase the chance to exercise his voyeuristic fetish for the inner workings of men while doing nothing to advance the story.
What started as The Sopranos greatest asset is now its liability. The emotionally vulnerable gangster was a superb spin on the genre and allowed us to fall in love with an otherwise unredeemable cast of bandits.
The problem is Chase has beaten (at times bludgeoned) the theme to death. By the third season, even the most dense and inattentive viewers caught the gist of the show. But character development absent external influence renders the conflict meaningless. Quite simply, The Sopranos is stuck in Act 2. And the question on the television viewers' minds everywhere is whether it can cross the finish line.
Chase, for his part, is as deliberate as he is uncompromising with his vision for the show,
"That's not what the story was about. It's not important. It seems to be part of life, too, that things recede into the background or whatever. Something that was so important to you Thursday - all of a sudden, you're caught up in something else and it's not important Friday."
But Chase is wrong. The Sopranos changed television forever, and no matter how it ends, it will never recede into the background. And even if it does go out with a whimper, television viewers everywhere will never forget the Sunday nights of the last eight years.
Coming into the last season, dubbed 'The Final Episodes,' there have been nearly four hours dedicated to extended dream sequences, one of which follows Tony as a door to door salesman. Instead of an existential look at Tony's torment, the dreams come off as self-indulgent storytelling, straying from the show's once brilliant ability to humanize a world that had always held a larger-than-life mystique.
Even worse, only one season after ensuring the death of Adriana (the love of his life and fiancée) for talking to the Feds, Christopher Moltisanti, Tony's nephew and perhaps the most intriguing character on the program, is relegated to a storyline where he tries to create a hack and slash horror film.
No matter how unhappy as Tony is or how badly Christopher wants something more from life, the characters are trapped in a state of arrested development. These "introspective examinations" become cliché and do little more than tread water, affording Chase the chance to exercise his voyeuristic fetish for the inner workings of men while doing nothing to advance the story.
What started as The Sopranos greatest asset is now its liability. The emotionally vulnerable gangster was a superb spin on the genre and allowed us to fall in love with an otherwise unredeemable cast of bandits.
The problem is Chase has beaten (at times bludgeoned) the theme to death. By the third season, even the most dense and inattentive viewers caught the gist of the show. But character development absent external influence renders the conflict meaningless. Quite simply, The Sopranos is stuck in Act 2. And the question on the television viewers' minds everywhere is whether it can cross the finish line.
Chase, for his part, is as deliberate as he is uncompromising with his vision for the show,
"That's not what the story was about. It's not important. It seems to be part of life, too, that things recede into the background or whatever. Something that was so important to you Thursday - all of a sudden, you're caught up in something else and it's not important Friday."
But Chase is wrong. The Sopranos changed television forever, and no matter how it ends, it will never recede into the background. And even if it does go out with a whimper, television viewers everywhere will never forget the Sunday nights of the last eight years.
