As it’s Christmas Eve and it’s wind down day, I thought today’s blog entry would be somewhat self indulgent whilst loosely work related – as this is something we talk about in the Gencia office’s quite a lot, here are my top 3 Soprano’s endings.

When The Sopranos drew to a close in April 2007, the ultimate finale to the show raised many a debate.  For me, I thought it was spot on, after 85 episodes you couldn’t end with Tony being arrested, killed or walking happily into the sunset with his wife or latest goomah – leaving it ambiguous and open to interpretation allows you to come to your own conclusions.  Some in our offices believe it leaves the door wide open for a film but I don’t think this will happen.  Others believe it was a poor ending – but for me, that’s one thing the show always did well, so here are my top 3 endings:

No 3: Season 1 – Pax Soprana

As Uncle Junior becomes head of the family following Jackie Aprile’s death, it would appear he’s achieved exactly what he wanted though the reality is that this is a situation totally controlled by Tony.  Whilst remaining boss in the eyes of the family, he allows Junior to publicly call himself boss in order to avoid the day to day issues of being a mob boss.  This is shown in this ending as the FBI infiltrate Uncle Junior’s banquet of honour, whilst using their evidence to move him to the top of the tree:

No 2: Season 2 – Funhouse

Having spent the whole of season 2 trying to find out who the rat was – Tony finally confirmed his suspicions (based on dreams of talking fish) that it’s his supposed best friend Pussy.  Having been through so much together, it’s one of the toughest killings he has to make and although it’s part of the job, the tension and build up in the following scene was second to none – you sort of hoped they might just let him off, but always knew what was coming:

No 1: Season 6 – Stage 5

The best ending for me came in the final stretch when tensions rose both outside and inside the family.  The scene for the season finale is set as Phil Leatardo decides enough is enough and that the Jersey mob will pay for his brother’s death – whilst inside the family tensions between Christopher and Tony escalate despite keeping up appearances as the Godfather in more ways than one.  For me the music used here is second to none in adding to the suspense of what is to follow:

Now, at this point, you may think liking the Sopranos is not quite enough to do an article on the company blog, but, here’s the link.  The music used in the no 1 ending is a punk poem called “Evidently Chickentown” by Salford born John Cooper Clarke, and a YouTube search for the video to this shows a train pull out of Manchester’s Oxford Road station and down the train line that goes right by the Gencia offices.

Tenuous?  Maybe, but I do like to wax lyrical about The Sopranos at any opportunity I can get.