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June 10, 2007
It is finished.
And brilliantly, too. For me it was the only ending possible.
The entire episode, the first since the pilot written and directed by series creator David Chase, was visually and aurally complex, setting us up perfectly for the suspense and perversity of the final scene. (As if we hadn’t had enough perversity with the babies in the SUV!) Every single member of this family has consciously chosen a life in which they are complicit in evil and consequently everything is a threat. The Sopranos sit eating onion rings and the audience has it's collective heart in its collective throat waiting for something, anything to happen. What’s left for this family but blackness?
This amazing tease was so beautifully directed I hardly know where to begin. Everything: parking the car, looking at the menu, picking a song on the jukebox, a man walking to the bathroom, everything seemed overloaded with meaning. It was just an average night in an average diner given a nearly explosive intensity by David Chase’s shot choices and the absolutely perfect editing and sound. Like a DePalma film, the direction constantly called attention to itself and still worked emotionally, almost viscerally on the viewer. I clenched my fists, thinking something awful was going to happen at any second. It was almost unbearable.
The final cut to black was just right. That thousands of people, including myself, thought their cable went out was, I think, a wonderful bonus. Fucking hilarious. I loved it.
I’m listening to “Swan Lake” from Metal Box by Public Image, Ltd.
Posted by HighStrungLoner in TV at 11:03 PM
