Sopranos’ non-ending fine by me

For those of you who saw the series finale of the Sopranos and were left wanting more, I feel your pain. But that’s life, and that’s what the popular HBO series tried to mimic. Sure, we all know there is no “real” Tony Soprano. But that doesn’t mean the series didn’t do a great job at being as close to “real life” as it did. That ending, I felt, couldn’t do a better job at getting across the exact feeling the show’s creators wanted. In the last four minutes of the series, in the last four minutes of that episode, think back to the feeling you had deep in your gut. Think back to that feeling of anticipation, that feeling of “what if.” What if this is it? What if this is the last onion ring Tony Soprano is ever going to eat? What if this is the night? And then it’s not. Or is it?

That’s the feeling that the character Tony Soprano must get every time he’s in public. Sure, it’s probably not as pronounced as it was for you during the last few, and intense, moments of the show. But, if only in a fictional gut, it’s there in his gut nonetheless. And you felt it, too. If only for a moment. That’s why I believe this was such an effective ending. Because, for an instant, the show’s viewers were clued into exactly what the main character was feeling. For a few moments, you felt exactly what Tony Soprano felt. Didn’t you?

Sure, there’s the whole part about “making your own ending” and drawing the same comparison that Mike Greenburg did on ESPN Radio this morning. Greenie citied a similar ending to the short story I’m sure everyone read in the seventh grade, “The Lady or the Tiger.” Obviously, the ending left open much for debate, conjecture and even the possibility for a spin-off series of a movie. But I think that’s merely a side effect of the intended ending — getting right in there and knowing exactly what Tony felt … being able to truly empathize with that character. And that’s about as close to actually being a fictional character as you can get.