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I think a lot of "mainstream" television critics are complaining about the ending, how the show is limping towards its conclusion. Anybody else agree?
I would disagree. I think the show is as strong as it ever was. Now that we've invested so much time and effort, the show begins to reward us with more complex symbols and "callbacks" to previous episodes. If you've forgotten a detail from Season two, you're screwed. Especially with the last episode there, with AJ's identification with the poem "The Second Coming" by Yeats. This isn't the first time AJ has had deep nihilistic and misanthropic feelings in connection with a poem. Previously, it was Robert Frost, whose oft-misinterpreted poem about death and paths not taken. AJ listens to a song about drowning on his stereo while he ponders the end, and later, he fucks up his own suicide. Did he really want to?
A superb example of how literary this show is that at the end of "The Second Coming", there's a beast slouching towards Bethlehem. I enjoyed at the end of the episode when Tony slouches into the hospital and awkwardly touches a son that he hates and is disappointed in. This isn't the first time that Tony has expressed hatred towards AJ (both times in therapy). But what kills me is that the reference to "beast slouching towards Bethlehem" has another meaning: the world's first psychiatric hospital was called Bethlehem. Wikipedia pointed out that neat little fact for me about the psychiatric hospital.
The other example I'm really digging is Christopher's death. They're driving along, listening to The Departed soundtrack, playing a live version (with The Band) of Comfortably Numb. Fucking perfect. Here we have a multifaceted reference to Christopher, to Tony, to the cops-n-robbers genre. Christopher is trying to get as Comfortably numb as possible, to ease the constant pain and the constant struggling. Tony is looking for a way to make his life easier, to be that stoic hero with the square jaw and the resistance to "hysterics" or frightful emotion. Previously, Tony claimed that he wanted to be the cowboy icon, the Gary Cooper "strong silent type". He's disappointed in himself for being this blubbery emotional wreck, someone his father would have disapproved of. He wants to be numb and just go with it. Tony is so child-like: his fascination with animals (whether this be a father instinct or a wide-eyed fascination with nature), he plays with his food, his fear of terrorist groups.
I could go on and on and on. I'm digging these last 18 episodes so much. There's just so much intertextuality and denseness and the structure is so crystalline.
I wasn't engaging emotionally with the show in seasons 4 and 5, but that was because it was competing with Six Feet Under, a show that fights with your emotions still the bitter end. The Sopranos was more stimulating intellectually, but now I find I want to know where Tony is going. I said before that the most satisfying ending to this show will be Tony making a good decision and showing major character development. But I think the show is going to end with nothing happening. Life goes on (a sort of anti-Six Feet Under ending.). He'll walk to the end of the driveway and pick up the paper and that'll be the end. What do you Barbeloids think? |
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