(Don't) Stop Believin'

Oh, the movie never ends
It goes on and on and on and on...
—JOURNEY

It's official, SOPRANOS fans:

David Chase has had it with you! Good riddance.

He might hate the cable companies, too. I wonder how many complaints the cable companies are gonna get from customers thinking their cable went out at the end. It's almost as if David Chase pulled an Andy Kaufman stunt. Which almost makes it cool... but no, it's not cool.

I'm not even a big SOPRANOS fanatic. I've always thought it was unconscionably over-praised. I find it mind-boggling that some critics have claimed it's the best TV show in the history of television. That's crazy talk. It was a good show with some great elements, but flawed, Flawed, FLAWED!

And the ending is probably the biggest "fuck-you ending" ever. (Besting St. Elsewhere's infamous snow-globe ending, IMHO.)

Yes, you can talk through the final scene and make an argument for the meaning of it, and the game Chase is playing, with the music and the build-up of expectations...

But it's BULLSHIT. The thing's designed as a fuck-you. It's designed to deny. I imagine most regular, average-joe fans of the show hated this episode. And I know a bunch of people will praise it, in order to be contrary or in adoration of its subversive aspect. But I'm not buying any of it.

If the build-up to the final scene were different, maybe. But it wasn't. And I think David Chase figured, "Well, there's no way for me to please everyone, so why don't I just piss them off? I can DEFINITELY do that."

Here's the ending David Chase didn't want the public to see:



I wash my hands of the whole bloody affair...