[NO SPOILERS AHEAD. Just bad guesses. Although I do give away some general stuff about the old series Oz. And I do presume you’ve seen all but the last episode of The Sopranos.]

I hope The Sopranos isn’t going the way of Oz, which spent its final episodes relentlessly killing off its characters. The writers may have thought they were playing with the form in a postmodern way, but I thought it was just cheezy writing.

The Sopranos has never been cheezy. But I worry that the kiss-off by Dr. Melfi and the death of Bobby, the innocent, were meant to signal that the reality principle is about to kick in, where the proof of realism is that you kill your characters. That would be a betrayal, since the great joy of the series has been its recognition that realism is conveyed dramatically through the complexity of life, not the simple fact of death.

But I have hope. If I had to predict — and I certainly don’t have to — I’d say that the show will end tonight as the comedy that it’s always essentially been. No comeuppance! So, here’s what I think will happen…but, since the writers of The Sopranos are just a tad better at writing The Sopranos than I am, I’m likely to be way off:

– Tony’s family survives. Killing any of them would turn this into tragedy, which would be a tragedy. Besides, this season hasn’t focused on the family, except for AJ. Either AJ is being built up for a tragic and ironic offing, or (as I hope and suspect), they wrapped up his story arc last week. (One of the disappointments of this season has been the small role Carmella has played. She was all set up to confront her own bad faith, but the show left that undeveloped. Of all the characters, she’s the one I’m left most curious about.)

– Tony’s resolution is complex. We’ll be left thinking there is a story beyond the ending. That means he doesn’t get killed and he doesn’t go to jail. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the FBI guys come through the door and pull Tony out. So, it’s either the federal witness protection relocation program for him, or he relocates himself. (Another possible deus ex machina: The son of the former head of Phil’s family — what’s-his-name, the guy from Miami — might turn on Phil.)

– New head of the Sopranos gang: Paulie Walnuts. Comedy reigns!

– Last scene of the series: Carmella has just received her real estate broker license wherever they’ve settled. Tony settles into his LazyBoy, turns on his down-scale TV to a documentary about WWII, and bites into some cold cuts.

Now let the showing of me wrong begin! Please! [Tags: sopranos heroes tv]

Is The Sopranos the greatest TV series ever? Of course it’s a silly question, but I’d still argue in favor. And because the series exists within its own crazy, stipulated rules, within which the characters and their behavior are real, it’s also likely to survive the decades.

Over at Everything Is Miscellaneous, I’ve posted about why I’m catching up with Heroes via torrents instead of using NBC’s video player.

Categories: Uncategorized dw