David Chase, you broke my heart

I've been meaning to blog about my trip to a fancy resort in the Dominican Republic and the searing pain of air travel since Thursday, but I'll pass for now and just bitch about the biggest television dissapointment in history. Yeah I'm still upset over the series finale of The Sopranos.

There was a time when I didn't invest in too many tv shows. The amount of television I watch has dramatically increased since the acquisition of digital cable (gotta get the money's worth), but I still don't get as emotinally invested in Flavor of Love Charm School as I do in the shows I've watched religiously for years. But don't get me wrong, I rush to the television set every Sunday night to see what Mo'Nique will make those gals do next. Like much of America I became hooked by The Sopranos and have felt tied to it for years. I've sat through most of the series at least twice during dvd marathons which lasted for days. I've agonized over the characters, story lines, and deeper meaning each episode might carry. I never considered it "just a mafia show" offering only gratuitous violence and hardcore nudey scenes. Though the show had whackings and boobs-a-plenty! The Sopranos took over a place the X-Files once had in my nerdy tv loving heart but with something a little deeper. I gave my devotion to that show and maybe I just expected too much in return.

For those of you who saw the finale on Sunday, will see it in the future, or have heard about it through the internet buzz that has been generated, I am in the camp of fans who were severely dissapointed by the "ending". I've read a few articles in the blogs, people's comments, and news stories in an attempt to make sense of what the hell David Chase was thinking. I appreciate bringing a more artistic and deep sensibility to a genre that tends to be associated with little intellect, but give me a fucking break. The Soprano's wasn't beatnik performance art. It was a show with fans who expected something. At least some ducks for crying out loud. The blank screen may be getting praise for being deep and artistic, but in my mind it was the moment where we finally got a view through David Chase's eyes as he shoved his head all the way up his own ass. I'm getting sick of people in the entertainment industry considering themselves too smart for their audience. You are nowhere without your audience and in that sense you owe them something for that. Maybe I'm just a yokel, but some artsy fartsy no ending ending isn't going to cut it for me. Let the hipsters obnoxious film students have it.

If only I had this kind of passion for real stuff.