By now most Sopranos fans have seen the series finale and have reacted to the mysterious ending. David Chase talks about the ending but offers no clues other than “It’s all there.”

“I have no interest in explaining, defending, reinterpreting, or adding to what is there,” he says of the final scene.

“No one was trying to be audacious, honest to God,” he adds. “We did what we thought we had to do. No one was trying to blow people’s minds, or thinking, ‘Wow, this’ll (tick) them off.’ People get the impression that you’re trying to (mess) with them and it’s not true. You’re trying to entertain them.”

Come on – only a fool would think that fans wouldn’t be disappointed by such an ambiguous ending.

Therein lies the problem with the show – it’s now obvious that the showrunners had no end game in mind. Plot lines were set up but never concluded, nothing built up, and there was no satisfying wrap up.  It seems to be the norm these days to tease the audience with endless mystery, but a series finale should serve as the grand finale and at least wrap up the major plotlines of the show.

The first season finale ended well. Tony’s hidden rage against his mother boiled into a near-suicidal hospital attack, and concluded with a combination of his two “families.” With all the dream episodes, Johnny Sack misadventures, and Steve Buscemi diversions of the past few seasons, I almost forgot that the show was originally about a mob boss trying to balanace his personal family (Carmela and the kids) with his mob family (Paulie, Silvio, and the other ne’er do wells), while trying to keep the overlapping family (Junior and Livia) from taking him out.

Hard to believe that a show that came in with a bang would go out with such a whimper.  However, at least it resulted in this hilarious mashup of Battlestar Galactica finale as directed by David Chase.