‘I wrote The Sopranos to get over my mother wishing me dead’: David Chase on his mob masterpiece – and his new LSD epic

Borderline personality disorder I think

She probably would have if she wasn’t such a broke ass…

She never had the makings of a varsity athlete

Out of respect to my fawtha

One of the best lines in the series. My other favorite is "Go shit in your hat". 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Idk about a million times but The Larry Sanders show is inarguably up there with the sopranos and the wire in terms of influence. Cringe comedy, mockumentary style single-camera, no laugh track, celebrity cameos but playing themselves and not a characters; if a show is doing that today it comes straight from the larry sanders show. Ok I just described 99% of comedy tv since the 2010s, so maybe it's half a million.

Lol the wire doesn’t even get close to the Sopranos.

The Sopranos was a rare show that gleefully had all kinds of different subplots and loose ends that were never meant to be resolved or advance the main storylines. Listnook would hate that kind of style today, but, I love it when shows and movies do that, it makes it feel like the universe is so much bigger than the slice that we get on the show. The ending kind of fits in with that style. Chase was never going to have an easily understood ending that fit into a box. Even though I think fans have accepted that Tony was killed, and Chase has basically confirmed that in interviews, there is still mystery around the who ordered it, as there would be to Tony, and his family, and everyone else who wasn't in the know. As much as I sometimes wish Tony's last moments were better telegraphed on the show, the way Chase did it was more true to Tony's POV and the style of the show. He thought he was safe, and he wasn't. Cutting to Butchy or whoever taking the call from a payphone, "it's done", and smiling, or whatever, is not a Chase ending.

Agreed. No other ending would have satisfied anyone really and seeing him get murdered wouldn’t have really been necessary for the show.

I thought it was the prefect ending for the show…regardless if he was shot or not. No other ending would have been as satisfying.

You’re spot on, and Im surprised so many people miss the point

It does though. If he isnt dead then the show just ended suddenly while they are eating dinner. The shock and suddenness of it means nothing if hes not dead, they just arbitrarily end the show while they're at a diner. And that it ends like that, where it cuts out mid chorus, it would be almost a weird trick if hes not dead. If he is dead its a beautiful ending. If hes not dead its just weird and awkward. Idk I feel like it really matters

>It’s interesting that there are no material threats against Tony leading into that scene. His foes vanquished, all the candidates for calling the alleged hit are a long shot. Except Patsy, Paulie, and Butchie.

It relates to the earlier conversation in season 6 on the boat. “You probably don’t even hear it when it happens, right?”

>David Chase slipped up, during an interview, and admitted that Tony died at the end. (Chase referred to the diner / blackout as the "death scene.") But you still have dumb people debating whether Tony lived or died. Yeah cause David is a troll. He is known for his troll antics by the majority of the online community. They also touch on this in the most recent documentary where David discusses saying that. Also the main reason it will still be debated is because the ending works much better as a Schrodinger's cat situation. We see the cat (Tony), the box (The booth in the Diner), The gas (MOG) but the box is closed before anything happens. Tony is meant to be in a perpetual state of resolution in anti climax as a fictional character. It leaves it up to you in a smart way. I believe that Tony did die in the diner as the whole series is leading to the death of Tony with lots of context and visual clues throughout the whole show. Not just Season 6 either; as far back as Season 2. >Well ... I guess the entire series was pretty graphic as far as showing the audience violence and sex. The point of us being able to view all that violence and sex is because we have an outside perspective. It becomes almost banal at points with how much we see. However, for the ending, we are in Tony's POV. Everytime the bell rings at the door, Tony looks up and we see his perspective of people walking through the door. Meadow rings the bell and we see Tony's POV. Nothing at all. This is what it is like to die if we were conscious of it. We would be left in a state of horror, confusion with no resolution to be made. Only blackness to accompany us. The show at its core is a simulation of life; from the happy to funny to sadness to evil. It covers all facets of the human experience. It can't be a simulation of life without also being a simulation of death. Its the closest you might come to experiencing death without actually dying. Like yeah Tony could have died in a shooting blaze of glory or having his brains in the onion rings but at the end of the day; that isn't really relatable. Tony isn't some messiah who the universe bends to their will; it literally just comes up and kills him. He dies like tens of billions all throughout human history have died. In a cut to black with no answers. Its statistically likely that is exactly how you or I will die. Its human in a way that no other tv show tries to capture and it is why that feeling has stuck with me for the whole 5 years since I first watched the show. >Tony's in a brightly-lit diner with Carmela, Meadow, and AJ. Tony was not a dumb character. Tony just got too comfortable with the rule of no families. He didn't consider it a possibility not because he is dumb (Tony is actually very smart) but because he isn't a wise person. He is the epitome of 20 INT and 1 WIS. All of his intelligence goes to waste because he doesn't have the wisdom to temper it. For the past 45 years of his life; eating with family was considered a safe activity in Tony's world. How many scenes alone are just Tony and family eating where no crime happens? "They don't hit guys in front of their families; there is no way they will kill me at this diner". He didn't learn from the fact that food and violence are basically one in the same in the mob side of his life. Fat Dom is killed while Carlo is making tomato sauce. Tony kills Ralph while he is making breakfast. Chrissy throwing his sandwich at Vito. Hesh being scared to die just sitting down with the crew while they have lunch. Tony gaslighting Patsy while they eat food. Also a burger poster behind Tony when he forces Patsy to say he understands. Eugene throwing the Snapple at Little Paulie which has a picture of an apple on it. Tony never made these connections between when people were eating and evil was being committed. So yeah it makes sense that he thinks he is safe and all his enemies have been smoked. He gets complacent. >Chase should have just gone there with the darkness and showed us something. He did. He showed you that its all a big nothing.

Literally no expectations were met. It’s a black screen. For 20 seconds. Like rubbing your dogs face in his own feces. A big f*** you to the audience.  No surprise David never got any work after this.