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'Sopranos' high notes

Tony's swan song reminds us how great he and his family have been

Verne Gay | Off Camera

June 7, 2007

How do you say goodbye to "The Sopranos," the greatest drama in TV history? With a list, of course, which explains why we loved this show for nearly a decade, and why the word "classic" will forever remain glued to its hide. Here we sum up a few key reasons.

Without further yapping, here goes:

No wrapping paper: TV dramas, even good ones like "CSI" (though certainly not better ones, like "The Wire" or "The Shield") are usually wrapped up by the end of each hour; that serves advertisers (who want to drag you to the last commercial) but not the show, which can feel phony as a result. "The Sopranos" usually ends with just one thing - a "?"

No soap: Another convention of bad TV, based on the assumption that viewers (and again, advertisers) like "moral clarity" (good triumphs over evil; love wins out; etc.).

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No God: Producer David Chase created a harrowing universe, where everything happens in a secular vacuum. "The Sopranos" is an existential wasteland, where individual willpower reigns. Nietzche would have loved this show! (Unfortunately, he also went insane.)

Narrative loose ends, or dead ends: "The Sopranos" cherishes these, and two examples come immediately to mind - Furio's (Federico Castelluccio) return to Italy in season 4 (that thing with Carm - remember?) and the Russian gone missing in the Pine Barrens. By not resolving, they lurk in the mind of the viewer - who subconsciously yearns for resolution - which boosts narrative tension.

Dreamscapes: Perhaps "The Sopranos'" greatest contribution to pop art. The dreams here are luminous, rich, gorgeous and haunting - like that extraordinary sequence filmed in Asbury Park (at the close of season 2), or the extended Tony-as-Kevin-Finnerty-in- Purgatory one last year.

Symbols: A multitude of them - lighthouses, flowers, birds. ... Like dreams, they're pathways to the subconscious. (Thanks, Sigmund.)

Consistency: Almost always a very good show, which is tough with a major TV production. Sure, there will be arguments on this point (I never particularly warmed to season 5, and thought 2 even better than 1).

High literary ambitions: Chase always fancied his creation as art, as opposed to pap. And just in case we forgot, he soaked the show with literary allusions, which were additional pathways to deeper meaning (and they were only rarely affectations, like the recent overly obvious reference to the overly famous "Second Coming" by Yeats).

Lowbrow ambitions: An abiding love of pop culture, especially television. What was on Tony's TV (usually the History Channel) was another Klieg light on meaning.

Foul language: Admittedly an odd thing to pick out, but no show ever used scatology to greater effect. Often vile and violent - a true mirror on blighted souls.

Humor: A brilliantly funny show, with humor supplied by malaprops or characters' boundless self-delusion and self-pity.

Ellipsis: A fancy word for "something's missing," and dialogue - paradoxically - was more often about what was left unsaid than actually said. Miscommunication or noncommunication was at the heart of "The Sopranos."

Family dynamics: We all know what "The Sopranos" was really about - average middle-class American family angst, topped with the sociopathology of the "mob family." The latter brought the former into even sharper (and more dramatic) relief.

New Jersey: You could literally smell the Garden State through the TV screen (even though much of it was shot in Queens).

Details, details: A magnificent obsession with details. When Tony's goomara (in season 4) loses a fingernail, it's not just any ol' nail, but one with a gaudy gold tip. There are thousands of such examples.

Incongruities: Did you ever wonder why Tony loves animals but had no pets? I did. A multitude of such character incongruities plays on the subconscious (mine anyway), adding to the drama.

Therapy: Please write if you can think of one other show where therapy played such a pivotal role. It was the Greek chorus, a plot summarizer, another freeway to meaning. And even a joke on itself - witness Melfi's (Lorraine Bracco) sessions with her shrink (Peter Bogdanovich).

Arc: Yes, there was a grand arc here (even though Big Pussy once joked to Christopher in the midst of his screenwriting craze, "You know who had an arc? Noah."). The arc ends Sunday night, and you wanna bet we see a mallard fly off at some point?

It's killing you to know what happens to Tony

How will it end?

Come on. You know how it will end, or how it must end.

Tony will die.

There has been much Web speculation on the final moments, and some may even be accurate.

Honestly, the only question is, how?

Suicide? Perhaps, if Tony sees that there is nothing left to live for, which would arguably seal the final bleak irony - that even therapy couldn't save Tony from himself. But Tony's not a suicide kinda guy.

Patricide? The recent struggles with A.J. suggest as much, but David Chase et al are masters at the false lead.

Mariticide (the killing of a spouse)? This comes under the heading, "Wait till Carm finds out about Ade. " Maybe another false lead, but - like patricide - this has roots in Greek and Roman mythology (and history). That must appeal to Chase, too.

In any event, the gates of hell stand open, Tony. I think I can see Chris and a few others waiting inside.