A Sopranos Ending You Should Have Expected

We're sorry to see The Sopranos go.

Today, everyone is standing around the figurative water cooler discussing the "surprising" end to the show, where, basically, nothing happens.

Anyone familiar with Sopranos creator David Chase, and intimately familiar with the show from its roots, should've expected pretty much exactly what happened. (Not that we did, mind you.)

One of the reasons Sopranos has been so successful is its defiance of convention. It was never a mob drama. In a mob drama, the mobsters don't have families, at least not real families with mundane problems such as sewer back-ups, homework, getting into good schools and finding a decent therapist.

And David Chase has certainly never been one to go for the trite Hollywood ending--the big shoot-out; the dramatic series-ending assassination of Tony Soprano; or Tony's triumph over the New York mob families.

No, the series ended like it began, with Tony balancing the demands of his family life with the demands of his somewhat unusual business life. Chase played a nice practical joke on us all, building the tension at the end to the point it was hard to watch. Why was Meadow Soprano having trouble parking her car--would it give her the extra moment to survive an ambush of the rest of the family? What about that fellow going into the men's room--would he be the assassin?

While nothing happened, it mirrored the tension in Tony Soprano's life. No matter how serene the scene, he could never be sure, never quite feel safe. And no matter how high he made it in the mob, he could never get away from the mundane, the ordinary, the everyday things in life that drive us all mad.

Curmudgeon TV

We haven't said much this season about some of our favorite television shows, so Good Friday seemed like a nice slow news day to do so.

American Idol: despite the angst over whether Sanjaya will hijack the show with his mediocre singing, we'll put our money on Melinda, Jordan, LaKisha and Blake as the final four. Let's hope it works out that way because Sanjaya, Haley and Phil clearly have gone further than they should have. (That leaves Justin Timberlake look-a-like Chris as our fifth contender, but he really can't keep up with our top four.)

24: For a show created by a self-avowed right winger (Joel Surnow), 24 sure manages to portray right wingers as nut jobs. (We reckon it takes one to know one.) This season's best new character is Cheney-esque Vice President Noah Daniels, perfectly played by veteran actor Powers Boothe. Daniels is determined to loose a nuke on the Middle East, regardless of who's actually responsible for terrorizing the U.S. And when he doesn't get his way, he tries to boot the President out of office, using the 25th Amendment to force a cabinet vote. And when the cabinet vote is tied, he tries to disqualify the National Security Adviser (because she resigned and then unresigned) from the vote, going so far as to submit a perjured affidavit to the Supreme Court in order to do so ("the end justifies the means" says his Ann Coulter-esque assistant). But his plotting gets caught on tape, so the President stays in office, only to go ahead and unleash the nuke anyway--fearful of what the right wingers (who tried to assassinate him) will say if he "looks weak."

All of which is to say that Surnow, who hangs out with the right-wing crowd, must know some pretty scary stuff.

Sopranos: They're baaaccckkk! It's about time. Now, where were we when the show last left off? Oh yes, Tony was depressed and whacking people to get his dopamine going. We love the Sopranos, but we don't like all the long waits for the next few installments. Still, the early reviews of this final season are good, so we'll sit back and savor it.

Entourage: Great news--HBO is actually bringing back a true full-season of Entourage, an unheard of (for HBO) 22 episodes. We can't wait to see the new adventures of Vince, Ari and the gang.

Big Love: Another great HBO series, about polygamy and Mormon gangsters. We're not sure whether it's a comedy or a drama, but we do love it, and it will soon be back for a second season.

Heroes: After a hiatus of several weeks, NBC's freshman hit about mutants with special powers that both threaten to destroy and save the world, will soon return for the season's finale. After a terrific and stylishly refreshing build-up, we hope the ending doesn't disappoint.