First look at ‘Sopranos’ prequel…

[Wiseguy]

Actually... they did make Benny. Thats what his..." I'm looking you right in the eyes" thing to Phil was at the start of Season 6, in front of Satriales. I always thought it a really good example of showing and not telling. To add, when Benny was laid up in the hospital, Tony said, " You gotta get your own customers.." He got made...at least I think he did....

Mmm...don't think so.

[stubbs]

Not trying to Monday Morning QB my favorite show of all time, but a compelling end to the Sopranos would have been a massive RICO indictment against the Family, Christopher flipping during S6 after realizing Cosa Nostra took the love of his life away from him, and a tense courtroom drama during the last few episodes where Christopher testifies against Tony about all of the major murders and crimes we saw throughout the series.

The show would have ended with Tony facing life in prison, considering his loyalty to his family vs. Family, and right when Tony is deciding whether or not to flip -- cut to black. We never know. Chase could have still kept his sudden ending with unanswered questions.

Instead we got a clown storyline with Tony murdering Christopher by plugging his nose after a car accident, a visit to some random mistress of Christopher's in Las Vegas, and a peyote trip in the desert.

We're left with a neanderthal-level debate of "DID TONY DIE?!?! HERE'S WHY HE DID/DIDN'T DIE". It's just a pure guessing game that has nothing to do with Tony's inner psychology (the whole point of the show). If we had been left with the question of whether Tony flips we'd still be having interesting discussions over Tony's choice.

It would have paralleled the Massino situation just a short time earlier, too.

Wow, 10/10 that would’ve been so much more interesting that the season 6 we got.

[Wiseguy]

Not trying to Monday Morning QB my favorite show of all time, but a compelling end to the Sopranos would have been a massive RICO indictment against the Family, Christopher flipping during S6 after realizing Cosa Nostra took the love of his life away from him, and a tense courtroom drama during the last few episodes where Christopher testifies against Tony about all of the major murders and crimes we saw throughout the series.

The show would have ended with Tony facing life in prison, considering his loyalty to his family vs. Family, and right when Tony is deciding whether or not to flip -- cut to black. We never know. Chase could have still kept his sudden ending with unanswered questions.

Instead we got a clown storyline with Tony murdering Christopher by plugging his nose after a car accident, a visit to some random mistress of Christopher's in Las Vegas, and a peyote trip in the desert.

We're left with a neanderthal-level debate of "DID TONY DIE?!?! HERE'S WHY HE DID/DIDN'T DIE". It's just a pure guessing game that has nothing to do with Tony's inner psychology (the whole point of the show). If we had been left with the question of whether Tony flips we'd still be having interesting discussions over Tony's choice.

It would have paralleled the Massino situation just a short time earlier, too.

+1

Whenever I do a re-watch I try to be as objective as possible. While the series dips a little bit as it goes, I'm still completely on board through the end of season 5. The Adriana storyline is incredible -- not quite to the level of the Big Pussy story (best television storyline ever done) -- but despite growing up around the life Adriana was the most pure character on the show. Silvio does an absolute heel turn when he kills her and Tony's "arc" was already revealing him to be an unrepentant piece of shit (he had just tried to fuck Adriana, now he ordered her murder).

Season 5 set up season 6 to be an incredible collapse of these people and their relationships, but instead it's like the writing team threw darts at random one-off ideas and stuck with that. I still thought they were going to have Christopher flip when he kills his NarcAnon friend -- I remember watching that and thinking, "This is it. Chrissy's losing his mind and he's going to get busted on this stupid murder and flip." But no, it was another pointless storyline and Christopher gets murdered through the old "plugged nose after a car accident" trick.

Would have been incredible to see Tony's family talking to him in prison, coming to court, dealing with life with Tony off the street, coming to terms with Christopher's betrayal, etc. The show would have ended with the FBI offering Tony a deal, him not giving them an answer and talking to his family about it, then Tony alone in his cell as it cuts to black. The show should have ended with Tony alone, ala Michael Corleone.

+1

Also, I thought Paulie took the same stance Ralph took, as " his guys did the heavy lifting". Then Tony still rules against him again.

In Season 3, Paulie gives Ralph's crew some info on a robbery. Ralph's guys do the actually robbery and then we seen the ensuing beef about how much of a percentage Paulie should get paid for the initial tip off.

In Season 6, it's reversed. Vito gives Paulie's crew some info on a robbery. Paulie and one of his guys carry out the actual robbery and then we see an ensuing beef about how much of a percentage Vito should get for the tip off.

In classic Paulie fashion, he takes the exact opposite position from his earlier beef with Ralph.

[SonnyBlackstein]

I must be one of the rare ones who liked Chase's ending. The look up, the cut to black, don't stop believing on the Duke, finally all his troubles are 'over', he's with his family, the Italian guy walks in then goes to the bathroom, Tony looks up....

Enjoyed it.

[B.]

Oh I did like the cut to black and that last scene was great on its own. My issue was the overall plot of S6 leading up to it.

[SonnyBlackstein]

Oh I did like the cut to black and that last scene was great on its own. My issue was the overall plot of S6 leading up to it.

Agree, Chris's ending did not suit the promenance of the character, and forced. Would've loved something akin to Tony calling Chris up (as he did aide) for a meet, Chris walks into a room, sees plastic on the floor, goodfellas style, "fu.." ...boom.

Couldn't get enough of little Carmine though.

It's hard to ascertain if I'll be as effective as I think I'll be.

Fuxking gold.

[CabriniGreen]

Actually... they did make Benny. Thats what his..." I'm looking you right in the eyes" thing to Phil was at the start of Season 6, in front of Satriales. I always thought it a really good example of showing and not telling. To add, when Benny was laid up in the hospital, Tony said, " You gotta get your own customers.." He got made...at least I think he did....

Mmm...don't think so.

I disagree.. but fair enough. You think Walden was made? Cause I think they implied he was also...

[Wiseguy]

Actually... they did make Benny. Thats what his..." I'm looking you right in the eyes" thing to Phil was at the start of Season 6, in front of Satriales. I always thought it a really good example of showing and not telling. To add, when Benny was laid up in the hospital, Tony said, " You gotta get your own customers.." He got made...at least I think he did....

Mmm...don't think so.

I disagree.. but fair enough. You think Walden was made? Cause I think they implied he was also...

No idea. They bring this guy out of nowhere for a few scenes in a handful of episodes towards the end of the entire series. It's like they realized they had killed almost everyone off and they needed to throw a new guy in there to offset that somehow.

[dixiemafia]

Couldn't get enough of little Carmine though.

It's hard to ascertain if I'll be as effective as I think I'll be.

Fuxking gold.

A pint of blood costs more than a gallon of gold

As for the who's made comment:

I'd like to think Benny and Walden were both made, I doubt they would trust non made guys to hit a sitting NY boss but who knows? Plus the fact they were always around Tony that last season as well.

[motorfab]

I must be one of the rare ones who liked Chase's ending. The look up, the cut to black, don't stop believing on the Duke, finally all his troubles are 'over', he's with his family, the Italian guy walks in then goes to the bathroom, Tony looks up....

Enjoyed it.

No, we are two

[PolackTony]

I must be one of the rare ones who liked Chase's ending. The look up, the cut to black, don't stop believing on the Duke, finally all his troubles are 'over', he's with his family, the Italian guy walks in then goes to the bathroom, Tony looks up....

Enjoyed it.

No, we are two

+1

[InCamelot]

Whenever I do a re-watch I try to be as objective as possible. While the series dips a little bit as it goes, I'm still completely on board through the end of season 5. The Adriana storyline is incredible -- not quite to the level of the Big Pussy story (best television storyline ever done) -- but despite growing up around the life Adriana was the most pure character on the show. Silvio does an absolute heel turn when he kills her and Tony's "arc" was already revealing him to be an unrepentant piece of shit (he had just tried to fuck Adriana, now he ordered her murder).

Season 5 set up season 6 to be an incredible collapse of these people and their relationships, but instead it's like the writing team threw darts at random one-off ideas and stuck with that. I still thought they were going to have Christopher flip when he kills his NarcAnon friend -- I remember watching that and thinking, "This is it. Chrissy's losing his mind and he's going to get busted on this stupid murder and flip." But no, it was another pointless storyline and Christopher gets murdered through the old "plugged nose after a car accident" trick.

Would have been incredible to see Tony's family talking to him in prison, coming to court, dealing with life with Tony off the street, coming to terms with Christopher's betrayal, etc. The show would have ended with the FBI offering Tony a deal, him not giving them an answer and talking to his family about it, then Tony alone in his cell as it cuts to black. The show should have ended with Tony alone, ala Michael Corleone.

This isn't a personal yay or nay to your idea B, but I just wanted to add my two cents on the issue of intention from one Sopranos fan to another.

Chase has said before that he wasn't interested in television storylines to begin with. He did them because they were an opportunity to do a little movie every episode. He's also elaborated on this by saying he'd figure out a bare bones structure to a season either before or after the episodes are all constructed just to allow them to hold together logically -- but once that stuff was out of the way he'd say to the writers "OK what is this episode really about?" I think it might be harder than we might think to come up with a 'pointless' storyline, but perhaps your assessment is right that he didn't come up with the best storyline possible because he wasn't really paying full attention to that. Its just one thing you can choose to do, not the only thing.

In the interview with Peter Bogdanovich he even says HBO was very interested in the "soap" elements of the story. Such as "who killed so-and-so", "why did he do it?" "how are they gonna get revenge?", etc -- and he really wasn't.

Most shows are just working towards an ending. They are completely pre-occupied with "what's going to happen next" (all of them just happen to result in something inferior to the Sopranos imo), so I can see how we're judging it like one big story...but it might allow us to watch our favorite show in a more rewarding way if we watched episodes as individual stories. If we still don't like it then I think its just not to our taste. They are relatively artsy when looked at that way, but also functioning at their most interesting, unique and rewarding level.

The mob stuff is a vehicle to ponder other shit, that's all.

Plus I also recall reading that Chase hated courtroom dramas, police procedurals, etc on TV "a tense courtroom drama during the last few episodes where Christopher testifies against Tony about all of the major murders and crimes we saw throughout the series." seems like the exact kind of wrap it all up neatly make the audience go wow stuff he wanted to avoid.

[chubby]

Not trying to Monday Morning QB my favorite show of all time, but a compelling end to the Sopranos would have been a massive RICO indictment against the Family, Christopher flipping during S6 after realizing Cosa Nostra took the love of his life away from him, and a tense courtroom drama during the last few episodes where Christopher testifies against Tony about all of the major murders and crimes we saw throughout the series.

The show would have ended with Tony facing life in prison, considering his loyalty to his family vs. Family, and right when Tony is deciding whether or not to flip -- cut to black. We never know. Chase could have still kept his sudden ending with unanswered questions.

Instead we got a clown storyline with Tony murdering Christopher by plugging his nose after a car accident, a visit to some random mistress of Christopher's in Las Vegas, and a peyote trip in the desert.

We're left with a neanderthal-level debate of "DID TONY DIE?!?! HERE'S WHY HE DID/DIDN'T DIE". It's just a pure guessing game that has nothing to do with Tony's inner psychology (the whole point of the show). If we had been left with the question of whether Tony flips we'd still be having interesting discussions over Tony's choice.

It would have paralleled the Massino situation just a short time earlier, too.

This as an ending never crossed my mind ever, massive credit to you for creating what I think is a way more creative and emotional ending that really would have drawn in the viewer while at the same time making the ending feel a lot more complete .. plus I love the whole philosophical vibe that Chris testifying against Tony would bring out.. since what makes it such a amazing series in the first place is a lot of the psychological damage “the life” leaves all of the civilians/family members not directly involved … I really wish this was the ending cause I’ve always had a problem with the real ending .. I don’t hate it.. but I felt like I was almost cheated.. after 6 seasons of such thoughtful television..