Made in America

With the last episode of HBO’s The Sopranos to be broadcast tomorrow night, Sunday, tributes to the mob-centered series have been winging in from right and left. The predicting game has been particularly active, as readers at Slate, writers at Salon, and viewers just about everywhere else (including TV Squad) speculate on the possible fates of Tony and the gang(sters). Meanwhile, Salon writer-at-large Gary Kamiya delivers a splendid wrap-up of the series and says what he’ll miss most about it:

I’m bummed for a lot of reasons about the end of “The Sopranos.” I’ll miss Tony’s invincible life force, and the shambling way he pulls late-night snacks out of the refrigerator. I’ll miss Carm’s shrewd emotional casuistry, and Meadow’s fight to make a clean life, and Artie’s weird unkillable marriage, and Paulie’s utter lack of self-insight, and Dr. Melfi’s half-sexy, half-unnerving voice. I’ll miss the Bada Bing and Satriale’s and that great opening sequence, the drive through stratified class layers until we arrive at Tony’s vulgar McMansion. I’ll even miss poor little lost A.J., who, God help him, not only tried to commit suicide, but discovered the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

But mostly, I'll miss the show’s absolute and perverse amorality. In the age of Bush, how am I going to survive without my weekly double shot of ethical ambiguity?

You can read all of Kamiya’s essay here.

Finally, we’ve mentioned this video before--a hilarious encapsulation of the first six seasons of The Sopranos, all in seven minutes--but with the series’ pending end, it seems worth featuring again. Enjoy.


READ MORE: “David Chase Says He Doubts He’ll Make Sopranos Movie,” by Erik Davis (TV Squad).