Don't Stop Believin' Part II

Ok. I've taken a time-out. I've given it some though. "The Sopranos" is not "Happy Days".

After giving it much thought, I'm realizing that I didn't hate the finale of the Sopranos as much as I thought I did. I think more than anything just that aching tension and build up to the final moments was what let me down the most...a big stupid mindfuck. I wanted to see Meadow walk in the diner, all four principle characters sit down to eat, the camera pans back, the music gets louder, we fade to black. A Happy, neat ending, not unlike the way Tom Bosley ended the final episode of Happy Days at Joanie and Chachi's wedding by toasting the guests, then facing the camera and, effectively breaking down the "fourth wall" saying "and thank YOU for being part of our family...to Happy Days!".

But I guess it just wouldn't do for The Sopranos to end in such a neatly wrapped way. Perhaps David Chase's "existential loop", how Tony's, and his familys' lives go on, was the only proper way to end it. We don't know definitively what their futures hold, but at least we know that somehow life goes on.

"To Happy Days.."