This is literally the BIG ONE and the last - ever live blogging event for The Sopranos in Television Review Blog History! Remember that we’re having a “Commentary Contest” which can earn you YOUR FAVORITE DVD Season of your your FAVORITE TV SHOW! All you have to do is… That’s right! Just COMMENT! Each viable comment is an entry into a series of three drawings during the summer where you can win the aforementioned DVD set! Look for more details on that and START OFF by providing commentary to my Sopranos review of Episode 9! Read On!
Sopranos: The Reviews Conclude!
Episode Review - Final Season, Episode 9 of The Sopranos
by Mike Wilkerson - 2GuysTalking.Com
A 2GuysTalking TelevisionReviewBlog.Com Review:
Ah, another Sunday and it’s time for the Sopranos!! The rest that follows is a listing of random thoughts as they arrive inside my head and are then placed in to the categories provided below. Please feel free to chime in on any of them and be sure to tell your friends and family about our Commentary Contest!
========== BEWARE!! SPOILERS ABOUND! ==========
Bada-Bing! What It’s Done Right:
– The Pulsing Theme Song: Woke up this mawnin’ never sounded so sweet and also never evoked so many great memories of moves, friends and times long gone by and I find it hard to contemplate that I won’t ever hear it in front of a new episode of The Sopranos. It’s been the literal pulse of a show that will be missed a great deal.
- Remembering a Clock Radio? There are days often when I forget to set the alarm clock that’s in our bedroom much less having merciless, nameless old-school Italian assassins after me, so how on Earth did Tony remember to being along a portable alarm clock to the safehouse?
- A Cool, Brisk Winter: The depiction of winter in this episode is very well done. It’s strange that we in real time approach the middle days of summer as the final show arrives for The Sopranos. Compliments to the people that conjured snow and what Im pretty sure were computer generated breath elements in this episode. Very well done.
- Q-104 Is that a real station? Those of you who are Television Review Blog readers in the greater New York/Jersey area: Is that a real radio station? How cool a “final” promotion that would have been to be “mentioned in the last-ever Sopranos episode.
- Who is She Gonna’ Tell? In my readings over the last week about “who’s going to be the one to turncoat on Tony Soprano, I found it interesting that not only was anyone inside the family “not safe” but that they made so many great seemingly innocuous moments for death or potential turncoating through the entire episode was great. I really had no idea how it was going to go, and that’s how things are supposed to go in a finale.
- The AJ Gooney-Crap-O-Meter: I’m not certain if this scared me, shocked me, or make me laugh harder than ever, but AJs demeanour over the first and second act were something to behold. The scene at Bobby’s Fineral was priceless and something I know I’ll have trouble not remembering each time I see a funeral depicted on a television screen.
- The Reduction of Little Italy: Ahhh, symbolism at it’s best. As goes The Sopranos, so goes the continual- decline of Little Italy.
- Holy Shit - It’s Tony’s Sister Janice? I hadn’t expected to see Janice again this episode much less see her in multiple scenes - and it’s pulled off wonderfully with a sense of “huh” by not only that actress, but by those around her.
- The Feds Come Thorough for Tony - Or Do They? This is probably one of the strangest relationships that I’ve seen inside of a “mafia-related” series - and it continues to soar into uncharted territory with a little bit of spilt milk here as Tony receives a top from the Federales.
- Now That’s a Hot Make-Out Session! Whomever they got to play AJs good friend - vavoom!! She’s a hot number alright, and as soon as the knickers started coming off… The SUV goes up in flames??!! That’s right! The writers write a red-hot love scene for AJ as they set his Xterra ablaze as he and his newfound hooch dive for cover narrowly escape being burned alive! Hot, folks, HOT! 
- Tony Reaches Out: I really have to tell you - I didn’t expect Tony to be the one to help broker a peace between anyone, but what do my wandering eyes see? He’s brokered a peace with Phil’s lieutenant, the bug-eyed wonderboy, as he and his family move back home for the first time in what is apparently weeks.
- Paulie’s Cat-hatred: Snakes With Fur! Oh, of the characters that will tuly be missed, Paulie probably tops the heap. It is sad now to know that we won’t see his demise in this series but it’s entertaining to see him in his prime almost Roswell-level conspiracy best. Well done, writers, well done.
- The Wrap-Up on Jun: Is he crazy? Has he fallen into unrecoverable senility? What are your thoughts? I personally thing that his ship sailed long ago and the writers have been jerking our chain for at least a season in that regard.
- The Staring Cat: This entire line of story is wonderfully played out, not only by Paulie and the fellow goombahs in The Bing Backroom, but also by the CAT! That has to be one of the longest cats I’ve ever seen in my life! Is there an overall cat-hatred in the Italian homes across the nation and the world? I had no idea!
- Patrick Changed Out Actor? Is that the same actor that played Patrick in previous episodes? The smarmy dude that’s holding Meadows hand in Tony’s living room?? I thought it was another guy completely?
- Paulie Gets the ATM - Is It Terminal Cliche’? Again, perfect simplicity from he who is a living contradiction and someone that lives with “the fear of living” everyday pulled off to its utmost. Again it will be TERRIBLE not being able to see Paulie anymore and he will be missed.
- I’m Going to Join the Army? I wouldn’t have seen this coming in a million years. It’s a great piece of writing though, and it’s hammered home when his interest is so quickly turned by Tony and Carms movie discussion. Ahhh, the attention span of a recently suicidal, medicated, allowed-to-drink adolescent…
- The Same Psychiatrist? Would a therapist even share as much as this therapist does with Tony and Carm? What are the “rules” in therapy sessions” in regard to confidentiality like that Does anyone know?
- Phil Gets Popped - Twice? Oh my goodness - this will go down in history in the same vein as any of the classic mob hit scenes - without question. The blocking of the scene was perfect, during the entire scene, including the actual shot being taken, the pedestrian viewpoints and shock value and of course, the watermelon-like crunch justice of the SUV filled with Phil’s own grandchildren rolling over his noggin are the stuff of future legend. I would call that point and game, Soprano in the war, my friends. Stick a form in it.
- The Feds Come Through Like Its a Jets Game Tip: The reaction to “finding out that Phil has been murdered” from the Federal Agent is so strange and comical that I’m not sure how best to describe it - internal jubilation perhaps?
- Sucked In to the Internet Through His Dataport: Ahhh, the Virtual Prostitute Angle. I rewound this four times to listen to the description of the “movie script” that Tony got from “Danny Baldwin and y’know: After seeing some of the tripe on television recently, it’s not a bad idea. I would watch it. That AJ gloms onto it almost like a knee-jerk-reflex is verrry entertaining and shows a kid not only in turmoil but the lack of stick-to-it-iveness we’ve always known has plagued all of the male Sopranos if not the entire family. Very well executed.
- Ohh, Sil: I doubt that a more powerful a scene will be filmed in the future where so few words will be said, but so much thought will be ushered to a viewer. That is NOT the way I wanted Sil “to go” but goddamn if it wasn’t a powerful scene for Tony to be there, contemplating what might have been, what could have been and perhaps what SHOULD have been in his own mobster life? The wife doing a pedicure really socked it to me.
- Paulie Takes a Pass: Another bookend scene that I absolutely love. I’m going to try to get a photo enlarged and put into the theater of the last scene here where the cat enters stage right and sits down as Paulie contemplates his future, knowing that there will always be something “different” in his life because he said “yes” to Tony.
- The Abstract Shapes or Something: HA! Tony’s explanation of “why the cat is starting” and Paulie’s explanation of moving the photo and the staring continuing is wonderfully executed by both actors and the blocking and cinematography of the scene is so rich.
- The Last Shot of Paulie? Again, absolute bookend perfection here and my thanks go out personally for framing “the end” of this character in this light. It really is telling.
- Jun’s Teeth Have Vanished with His Senses: Again, incredibly symbolic point here where Jun no longer has not only his senses, but he’s a toothless aged tiger in his chair as he’s spun to and fro by Tony in what will be their last visit, clearly. Kudos to the actor that portrays Jun and for Tony being able to somehow hold on to his bitterness. Few characters can wear that with pride but Tony pulls it off everytime.
What’s Been Whacked/Sleeps with the Fishes:
- They’re Back in the House? The post-SUV Fire scene shows the family in the house. Why is this? Isn’t there still a war on? What on Eath are they doing HOME? Tony’s eating? Huh?
- Another Restaurant Scene? Again to speak to the potential-death-possibilities, there have to be at least 6 completely possible restaurant-death venues in this finale. It has me on the edge of my chair each time they brought in a new plate of food, anytime they panned to someone coming in a door - pretty well done, but hey - why aren’t the people who get killed (ie the mobsters) watching the people that come in with more attention?
- Journey Does It All: What is one of my all-time favorite songs, “Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey rings out at the episode and series ends. It’s a great song, and I just so wish that some of the ambiguity that we see here “at the end” was most painted and fleshed out. While Journey has a song for every occasion, sadly it doesn’t have a song that will complete this (what I consider to be) a missed opportunity to finish out what might have been one of the greatest finales in television history. Oh, the pain.
- A Simple Thought of Another Family Dinner Ending: There have been many a season of The Sopranos finished around the dining room table and I thought this would be another. Does the gentleman come out, gunning down Tony? Do the two almost completely out of place homies take shots at Tony and family in retribution for past deeds? What IS IT that we’re supposed to continue “believing” as we end this final episode of The Sopranos? I look forward to your thoughts because honestly - I had started the tech support action thinking that my DirecTV box had failed in the final throes of the series. It was that strange an ending and left so completely open to interpretation that I have to wonder what YOU thought to get my opinions in order. Was that the creators plan perhaps? To have “buzz” of what you thought to watercooler over the next days and weeks as the series ends?
- Wha’? In what is a year of what I will call Sara Lee Finales this one doesn’t quite hit the mark for me. Why you say? Sara Lee has some tasty desserts, but they’re “boxed” store-bought desserts that fill the void but have much to be desired when you compare them to custom, homemade or specialty desserts, which is what I thought we’d be given in this last entry of The Sopranos. Perhaps it just needs some more discussion with friends, other critics and whatnot but I’m left a little in the “huh” category at the end of all things Soprano this evening. Are you?
‘Da Rest of ‘Da Story: (8/10 upside-down guns) The visuals in this episode alone had me from the word go, and I was very ready to seal this with a 10 set and was disappointed, if you can call it that, that I have to give it only a 9. Again, classic always to be remembered television but the Sara Lee factor took it down a notch on the ending that left me wanting something a bit more blunt -over-the-head.
What do YOU think? Tell us what YOU think and be entered into the drawing for YOUR favorite DVD Season of YOUR FAVORITE Television Show!
