Cats and Jammers Studio

Post Script: Perfect Ending

David Chase. Ya gotta love him. True to the entire running style of the Sopranos, there was no tight wrap-up, no climactic sense of finality. It was just a "life goes on" and "the more things change the more they stay the same" kind of ending. I feel awkward using that cliché to in any way describe the genius of the Sopranos, but it fits. It definitely fits.

For those who felt cheated by the lack of a Godfather/Baptism/ taking care of family business kind of episode I say: I think you missed the best part of what the show was all about all these years.

The show was like life--never tidied up like a novel. Except for the dark humor of the perfect crushing (literally and figuratively) of Phil Leotardo's attempt to rule the works, everything fell back into place--or at least as back into place as life can be for a mobster boss and his family. There will always be the threat of indictment and the occasional threat from another mobster, but there will also always be business to take care of, asbestos to dump, the Bada Bing, Satriale's, kids in varying stages of development and Paulie Walnuts working on his carefully tanned complexion.

So it was with perfect continuity that the show ended exactly like it did, although I do confess that it took me about 30 seconds to realize that my mouth was hanging open when the screen went blank.

Naturally the kind of ending we got also keeps hope alive that someday, someday, Mr. Chase may throw us the crumb of an occasional chapter. Unlikely, I know. But I can dream, no?

I especially love that Adriana came back in the form of a cat to haunt the crew. She was always a little feline-like anyway.

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Sundays will never be the same.....

I don't know who I will miss the most.

Tony or Carmella? Silvio or Paulie Walnuts? Satriale's or the Bada Bing? Very hard to say.....

But I will certainly miss my Sunday night appointment TV. And the best show I have ever seen. And the best Black Comedy ever made.

Who can forget:

Silvio advising one of Tony's ex-girlfriends to read Gail Sheehy's "Passages?"

Paulie Walnuts finding out about his mother, the nun.

When the guy (can't remember his name) dies sitting on the toilet, someone (I think it was Paulie Walnuts) says: "Heart disease. It's the silent killer."

Steve Buscemi, as Tony's cousin, Tony, deciding to be a massage therapist

The Ketchup eating scene in the Pine Barrens

Or one of my favorites: the scene where everyone is present and convincing Christopher to go to into rehab. That scene was one of the best laugh-out-louds! Especially since he sat on the dog shortly before that....

I want to personally thank David Chase for creating the most memorable TV on TV. Of course, it helps that I am half Italian and that he was so right on the money when it comes to Italian Amercians and the little gestures and inflections. It also helps that I also spent the first ten years of my life in New Jersey. Need I say more?

All in all, it was the little touches, almost unoticed, that made the characters: the inserts into the script referencing popular culture, cliche ridden advertisements, and contemporary life. It was the jewelry the nails, the hair, the food, the clothes.

And the deliveries. Of the script, of course. Not the pizza. What a show.

These are the scenes I WISHED for:

Melfi embraces her darker side, sicks Tony on the rapist, and then they become an item.

Silvio misses, Adriana pretends to be dead, then somehow she manages to hitch-hike back on the Palisades Parkway, end up in the FBI office, where she turns everyone in.

Carmella throws a platter of lasagna at Tony, which he then eats anyway with chianti.

The strippers at the Bada Bing hold a walk-out strike and parade up and down (on route 46?) with signs demanding better pay and benefits.

And the one I would love to see tonight:

Meadow inherits the kingdom and the title of BOSS. Cause she's tough enough to do it and smart enough, too.

I actually thought it was going to be Christopher left in the end. I never saw that one coming.

Ah well. We'll see.

EDITED TO ADD, PRE SHOW: Because my husband knows someone well, who is related to someone who actually works on the show, I heard this: 8 different endings were shot by David Chase. Not even the actors know which one will be shown.....

Oooh. It gets better all the time.

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Ugly Betty!

OK. I have to put a disclaimer here: I know squat about TV. At least about current network TV, anyway.

Oh, I LOVE the Sopranos and the Big Love. That's appointment TV. Best TV I ever had the pleasure to watch. But the good thing is that they have relatively short seasons; I can go back to life again after my obsessions close shop.

It's not that I am a snob about TV. Honestly, I don't think there is a kid alive that watched more TV than I did in the fifties and sixties. My whole sense of life and love were developed thanks to a constant supply of films from MILLION DOLLAR MOVIE (7:30, Monday through Friday, plus all day Saturday and Sunday). It's just that life just got more interesting by the time I hit 16, and I sort of lost the urge. It surfaces now and then, when I remember things I actually enjoy like Antiques Roadshow and the American Experience. But I get busy with work and kids and stuff--and I forget to watch.

Until now. I have a new obsession. And the funny thing is this: it's a sitcom, and I do not like sitcoms. They're like potato chips: you might enjoy eating a bag full of them, but afterwards you realize--it's just empty calories. That's what sitcoms are.

But not this one. I think this is great TV! It's UGLY BETTY! I LOVE THAT SHOW!!! I especially love Betty. She looks like a character I would draw in my artwork. She is funny and her timing is perfect. The clothes are rich and full of texture and color and kitsch. It's like watching a show I would draw--if I could draw a whole show. I love her house and her family. Almost Fellini--esque.

If you have not seen it, you should. Thursdays at 8.

I think they replay the show online . Check it out: http://abc.go.com/primetime/uglybetty/index.html