By John Jackson Miller on
6/11/2007 12:00 AM
I wouldn't say I'm a huge Sopranos fan — I don't own the DVDs, the Matchbox Car Tony Soprano SUV or the trading cards. But I have seen every episode and have tried to catch every one in first run, so I guess I'm in the "loyal viewer" category.
Once I'd had a while to let the series finale sink in, it occured to me that it recalled a debate that had just been going on on the Dark Horse boards about the choices facing comics fans — buy the monthlies, wait for the trade paperback, or buy them both. Now, I've written about this many times in my Comics Buyer's Guide column (and, boy, do I need to update that section on the site) and elsewhere, but it occured to me that it had special meaning for the show's finale.
In effect: If you're just watching regularly like me and don't have the DVD set (and of course, no one has the DVD set of this season yet — unless they recorded it themselves), there's a good chance you didn't remember the single line that makes sense out of the ending. Well, at least I didn't recall Bobby Bacala's "it all goes black" speech — but that seems to be the key.
Which brought to mind that, just as much as some comics writers tend to "write for the trade," presenting stories that improve dramatically when read in one sitting — this finale, anyway, was for the DVD owners. Especially if some of the wilder theories out there are true, about this character or that one entering the restaurant at the end being from Season 1 or wherever.
The DVD revolution makes that kind of storytelling possible, I suppose — and I guess, when I think about it, knowing that the comics I write will be available in collected editions makes me a little bolder about nesting story points further in what will be the past once they're resolved. Interesting comparison, I think. (But I won't be doing any cut-to-darkness panel at the end of the series!)
About that ending? After it sank in, I thought it was interesting — though, like everyone else, at the time, I was sure my satellite dish had screwed up. To be honest, I think I preferred the effect when it was done in one of my favorite films, Before Sunset, where the movie (Moderate Spoiler Warning) hit a moment about an hour in where you went, "OK, this would be a great place to end it — but we're only an hour in, so clearly something's going to happen in the fourth reel to screw it all up."
And then suddenly it went to black and ran the titles — there was no fourth reel! There were gasps of surprise from the audience in the theater I was at — including a yelp of glee from myself. We'd all been manipulated based on our presumptions of how long a film was supposed to run — such that the ending had a lot more impact than it otherwise might have. But I guess you can do that in independent movies!
No contest here for favorite last TV show episode, of course — that still belongs to Newhart...