The Sopranos And Tony Start Final Last 9 Episodes Whacks

And now it’s time for the moment fans of HBO’s “The Sopranos” have long waited for — and dreaded.

“The Sopranos,” quite possibly the episode-per-episode finest-acted and scripted single-series drama in television history, will start its final (and creator David Chase MEANS final) 9 episodes tonight with the prevailing question: will Tony Soprano die at the end?

Other almost as prevalent questions are: will Tony’s surrogate son Christopher be whacked (reportedly, many placing bets think so)? Or will the underlying familial story of Tony’s second struggle, with his literal family, kick into play and will his son A.J. die at the end? And will someone close to Tony betray him (some pre-episode press reports suggest something along that line will happen)?

What’s certain is that James Gandolfini, who plays mob-boss Tony Soprano, has throughout the show’s run fine-tuned his character so viewers have seen him evolve, harden, soften, show humanity and display utter brutality. If you read through some books on The Sopranos that offer parts or entire copies of “The Sopranos’” scripts, there are references during the show’s run about how a mob boss either winds up in prison or on a slab. So it’s unlikely Tony will end the series exactly as we see him in the first episode — which those who’ve seen it say is more of a downer scene-setter along the lines of the play and the film (which starred Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton) Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?

In anticipating the series’ outcome, the four most likely endings would likely be:

(1) Tony Dies: This would be the typical Hollywood-type payoff ending, one that actually goes back to the days when there was a production code and bad guys weren’t allowed to triumph at the end of most movies. But David Chase has not been known to do this program according to typical Hollywood-cliche standards.

(2) Tony Goes To Jail: Perhaps. But, unless it was startling, it could be an unsatisfying and somewhat inconclusive ending. Unlikely.

(3) Tony Wins The Battle But Loses His World: He survives but he is devastated or a shadow of what he was. This suggests a lot of bodies and perhaps the death or jailing of someone close to him. Those who think this is in the offing will keep an eye on his son A.J.

(4) There Is No Massive Resolution. Just like many things in life.

Some cast members wouldn’t mind a “The Sopranos” feature film, but Gandolfini has made it crystal clear he wants to and intends to move on from his career-making but emotionally-draining role. Theoretically, a feature film could be made without him (Hollywood has written around or recast major figures before) but it’s hard to see how a studio would bank on its success.

Why has “The Sopranos” been such an incredible program? There are many reasons but here are a few:

–Incredible acting. On many television dramas you can be engaged but if you watch a lot of acting and are someone who is into acting technique, writing and production values, you invariably can focus on those factors. It is extremely difficult not to be drawn totally into the story and care about “The Sopranos.” The acting is that good.

–Incredible writing. There are several books that offer bits or entire Sopranos’ scripts and if you read THIS ONE that contains full scripts you realize the writing is so solid that the show can be compelling by just reading the script. The writing is rock-solid. Strong scripts (comedy and drama) explain why many actors and comedians bomb when they leave one series and try another. Solid actors and comedians can make a great script even more “alive.” Solid actors and comedians can’t turn a lousy script into a critically acclaimed and revolutionary hit.

–Story arcs were surprising and daring. The Sopranos has been one of the least-predictable shows on TV and even when something was predictable (like gay-mobster Vito’s death) the event happened suddenly and shockingly.

–The themes of professional family (mob) and blood family (relatives) and of a man grappling with conflicting values. The Sopranos has been the ultimate soap opera — one that scores well upon repeated viewing in DVDs.

–Characterizations play with viewers’ emotions. It’s harder to tell the bad guys from the good guys if you use a measure of totally good and totally bad. There are often fewer “white hats” and “black hats.” But a lot of grey hats.

The New York Times offers some additional analysis about the show:

Sunday’s premiere marks the start of the show’s valedictory tour, a chance for the actors and the series’s creator, David Chase, to show off one last time and for viewers to pay their respects to the family that changed television, mostly for the better. It’s not that “The Sopranos� was the only good thing on television, though plenty of fans would say so. But Mr. Chase’s take on New Jersey mobsters was certainly groundbreaking — in opposing directions.

The series lowered the bar on permissible violence, sex and profanity at the same time that it elevated viewers’ taste, cultivating an appetite for complexity, wit and cinematic stylishness on a serial drama in which psychological themes flickered and built and faded and reappeared. The best episodes had equal amounts of high and low appeal, an alchemy of artistry and gutter-level blood and gore, all of it leavened with humor. …

….. “The Sopranos,â€? is often praised as the series that definitively bridged pop culture and art. Maybe. It was certainly a gateway drug to television for the elitists who just said no. Some of the same people who used to say they have no time for television can now be heard complaining that they don’t have time to watch everything they recorded on DVR. But “The Sopranosâ€? was a revelation only to people who did not realize there was already a lot of very good television available. And not only reruns of “The Honeymoonersâ€? or “Saturday Night Liveâ€? and Masterpiece Theater.

Network dramas had already laid the groundwork for HBO almost two decades earlier. “Hill Street Blues� reinvented the cop show much as “St. Elsewhere� transformed the hospital drama in 1982. The first actor brilliantly to portray a charismatic gangster and sociopath on television wasn’t James Gandolfini; it was Kevin Spacey in 1987 on the CBS series “Wiseguy.�

Meanwhile, news coverage of the Sopranos offers many predictions about the season to come and evaluations of the ground-breaking series. A cross-section:

Newsday:

The Sopranos” always was only superficially a show about the Mob; Chase and his writers really wanted to bag some hard truths about modern life (especially family life) with all its attendant foibles, uncertainties, miscommunications and miscalculations. That helps explain all the loose ends and dead ends, the elliptical conversations or plotlines that sometimes seemed to spring out of nowhere and go nowhere. With his big ambition, Chase occasionally flopped badly, but he usually succeeded magnificently.

So no matter how these last nine end up – good, bad or different – you can’t take that away from him. Nonetheless, it’d still be nice to end this classic on a high note, and the first two episodes provide plenty of evidence that Chase – along with his writers, actors and incomparable production crew – remains fully in control. This week’s episode and next Sunday’s (”Stage 5″) are totally different in style, pace, even setting. But viewers will still be left with the inescapable impression that time is running out. The unsettling question is – running out for whom?…

….Web sites have compared the episode to “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” Edward Albee’s 1962 stage classic about (in part) the cruel games families play. That seems pretty much right on the money. The Albee play was also about the illusions that sometimes operate as crutches – and whether those can be tossed aside without profound pain or percussive violence. With “The Sopranos,” the answer to that riddle has always been pretty much self-evident.

And it’s probably not giving too much away to say that Tony also draws Bobby even more tightly to his world, because Christopher (Michael Imperioli) has drifted away to the movies (the subject, hilariously rendered, in “Stage 5″). This now means that everybody – even Bobby – is effectively going to hell.

The AP:

A central fact for Tony is that last season, brain-addled Uncle Junior shot and nearly killed him. Nothing so traumatic will greet Tony (or the audience) when this HBO drama returns Sunday with the first of its final nine episodes. But the opener delivers fresh evidence that Tony’s deepest fears are right on target. Time is running out, and he seems to be bracing for the end….

….Meanwhile, of course, other problems loom. In last year’s finale, the New York mob has its eye on wasting one of Tony’s crew. Acting New York boss Phil Leotardo (Frank Vincent), who suffered a heart attack in the finale, is now back on his feet – and, by his own admission, crankier than ever.

We know Carmela is still upset by the long-ago disappearance of Adriana, fiancee of Tony’s nephew Christopher. Little does Carmela suspect (yet) that poor Adriana, forced to cooperate with the government, was executed on Tony’s orders and with Christopher’s compliance. Will she discover Tony’s monstrous deed?

Oh, yeah – the Feds. They’ve been building a RICO case against Tony for ages, and they pop up in the season premiere.

The Salt Lake Tribune:

And after seeing the first two episodes of the last half of the sixth season, I’m happy to report that the beginning of the end is a glorious return to core “Sopranos” territory.

The first episode Sunday involves Tony (James Gandolfini) and his wife, Carmela (Edie Falco), going to a summer cabin with Tony’s sister Janice (Aida Turturro) and her husband, Bobby (Steve Schirripa).

But of course with a dysfunctional family like the Sopranos, it’s not going to be a weeklong picnic.

From the beginning, tension taints the air inside the cabin, and ultimately a fight erupts that could have long-term repercussions.

It’s hard to say more than that without spoiling surprises, but this riveting episode brings back the frayed emotions of some of the best episodes of the past.

The second episode is not as nervy, but the rift between the New Jersey and New York crews intensifies as one of the main bosses dies.

It’s impossible to determine how the show will end based on the first two episodes. But so far the signs look good.

The Boston Globe:

This season, Tony is gloomily obsessed with the future of his operation, particularly as his surrogate son, Christopher, grows loyal to another mob — Hollywood — with the release of his slasher movie “Cleaver.” When Tony pushed the sober Christopher to get drunk last season, it was his way of stopping his heir from moving forward, and away. Not surprisingly, he failed. Will A.J. step up to the mat, now that Tony’s son takes his construction job and his girlfriend, Blanca, seriously? Surely that’s one of the mysteries that Chase will address before the show goes out on June 10.

As the mob men falter and doubt Sunday night, the women continue at full mast, if only in their denial. Meadow remains a student, living out her mother’s dream of acquiring the self-sufficiency of women like mob widow Angie Bonpensiero. But Meadow still fights off a full awareness of her father’s cold, violent nature, as does Carmela, who is more committed to her husband than ever. Mother and daughter only want to see the good man in Tony.

But, as we know, even with his therapy-born wisdom and his middle-aged weariness, Tony can still cause great harm. He proves his ruthlessness once again on Sunday night, in an act that is a brutish but purely psychological violation of innocence. Like so much of what gives this mob drama a depth and brilliance unequaled on TV, the wounds are completely bloodless.

The San Francisco Chronicle’s writer offers a WARNING to viewers:

Those fans looking for tidy resolution are watching the wrong show, created by the wrong guy. If you think David Chase is suddenly going to become predictable and formulaic just so you’ll go to bed happy, forget it. The Sopranos is likely to leave story lines, budding plot developments and favorite characters frozen in time, their end game merely something to guess at forever.

There may be no better (or realistic) way to go forward into this Sopranos swan song. Expect an ending of some sort, just not the one you thought or even wanted. Leave yourself open to mystery, like life itself. Not every story has to slam the door shut tidily behind it. Not everything requires an O. Henry twist. If you take what Chase decides to give you instead of what you so dearly want, you might ultimately be more happy.

These last nine episodes, accounting for the notion that Chase will not wrap up everything, are likely to focus primarily on Tony’s “other” family — the Mafia — and the impact that will have on Tony’s real family. The guess here is that Tony and Carmela will be the central focus (naturally), with Christopher and possibly A.J. following up with predominant implications. In the first two episodes this idea of endings — as you can judge from Carmela’s question — is very much in the air. Johnny Sack (Vince Curatola) is still in jail, ailing, and wondering if his whole life in crime has been worth it.

Phil Leotardo (Frank Vincent) has recovered from his heart attack but appears not only to be past his grudge battle with Tony, but also wary of the stresses of power. Tony, too, has that look. Like Phil, he’s just overcome a near-death experience. Three bosses facing mortality. There’s a power vacuum on the New York side and a power malaise on the Jersey side.

Clearly, succession is on Tony’s mind. The only problem is that his options are less than encouraging. And once he sees Cleaver, the movie Christopher dreamed up (starring Billy Baldwin as a thinly veiled Tony), he slowly realizes his master plan has a fatal flaw in it.

What’s left? To watch and appreciate the final episodes acting, scripting, and fine attention to detail right down to the smallest supporting player. Such quintessential creative lightning does not strike often on show business, let alone in television.

And here’s a hint:The Sopranos DVDs are highly satisfying with multiple viewings because you can pick up even more about the story, writing and study acting that truly makes you forget that it’s acting…a rare feat on television these days.