Chase did it right.

Cheers had a great finale. Unfortunately, it came a year before the show went off the air—Woody and Kelly’s wedding. I believe that was intended to be the end but they talked Ted Danson into coming back for one more season and that was too bad because the last season was a waste and even a travesty of the show as the writers and the actors seemed to have turned on the characters.

I hope they don’t do a Sopranos movie. It’s done, Tony’s dead, whether or not he was killed, and besides, practically none of the great supporting cast of mobsters is left. The movie would have to give Tony a whole new crew and if Chase was going to do that he might as well just start a whole new series.

Good post, Mr Perrin.

I agree. Boy, I loved it. Everyone can analyze it and judge it till the cows come home, but I thought it was pretty darn good.

…James Gandolfini and Edie Falco are perhaps the best leads I’ve ever seen in a series…

Yes Siree, Joe. They were great.

In the spirit of the show…

I’m gonna F******* miss this F****** show.

Darnit!

But, if your reading is right, shouldnt’ we have had Tony’s point of view at the moment the screen went black?

As I recall, the last shot was of his face, which obviously is not his POV. Or am I remembering it wrong?

Chase even gives us that line a second time as Tony recalls the discussion later after Bobby’s death. I think that nails it to me. Tony did get whacked. It was a great ending.

I would also go on record as saying that the “Six Feet Under” series finale was perhaps the greatest ending ever. My wife and I had tears streaming down our faces as we watched them all live their lives and die unremarkably for the most part. It was very sad as death always is. It also showed some characters getting on with their lives and overcoming what was tough hardships during the shows run, just as one might think they would. The exception being Keith being killed later in life in a armored car robbery. It was the anti-happy ending: yes, they all got on with their lives, but then they died.

Brenda dying while her old man brother Billy is rambling on about his latest and endless tail of woe was most excellent comic relief.

Bottom line is that HBO will have kick it up a notch to match the quality of these two shows. If it weren’t for Six Feet, The Sopranos, Entourage, Big Love, etc… I’d never turn the damn thing on.

One person in the group watching the thing got so angry he shouted at the teevee, however, so it wasn’t hilarity all around, by the way.

Thanks for the review –

The keys to the thing are Bobby Bacala’s comment in the first episode of the second half of the 6th season, “when it happens, you don’t even hear it.”

The final scene was mostly shot from Tony’s perspective. Tony was watching the door. When the scene went black, that was Tony’s viewpoint.

Remember, it went black for a considerable period of time (5 seconds or more, possibly: an eternity on TV).

Alessandra Stanley wrote a horrible review in the Times… she didn’t get it at all. She said:

But Mr. Chase’s last joke was on his audience, not his characters. Tony, Carmela and A. J. are gathered at a diner in a rare moment of family content that cried out for violent interruption. A shifty-looking man walks in and eyes them from the counter, then, in a move echoing a scene from “The Godfather,” ominously enters the men’s room. Outside, Meadow is delayed, trying to parallel park, then begins walking toward the restaurant.

Nothing happens. Credits. What?

She left out the key item: the black screen!!

What’s great about the finale is the flat refusal of closure, the fact that Tony’s self-created nightmare of constantly looking over his shoulder doesn’t end.

I’ve watched the series inconsistently, but followed this last season enthusiastically (it’s the first time I’ve had HBO during a new season of the show).