It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
Not only did the last episode stink up the joint, but so did 85% of the past two seasons. Talk about not living up to your promise. What a joke.
As one of the 300 million Americans who did not watch the finale, I have but one thing to say: YAWN.
Or better yet, YAWWWWWWWWWWWNNNNNNNNNNN….cut to black.
Ugh.
That ending was the tee-up to follow AJ and Meadow in several years, with Tony as his mother and the kids in reverse Tony/Janice roles.
I don’t buy for a second anyone at TW/HBO watched that ep and said “no problem, let’s air it”, without some kind of deal with Chase about future projects. Even an alcoholic could see the shitstorm that ending would raise.
I thought it was brilliant, a perfect wrap-up to a show that has never really delivered the kid of bang-bang climaxes people were expecting. Matt Zoller Seitz said it best: David Chase whacked the audience.
What was HBO worried about, that no one would stick around for John From Cincinnati?
It just seems like Chase and/or HBO just couldn’t let go and went with a poorly executed cliffhanger. People were so pissed off, it probably hurt John From Cincinnati. Has HBO ever ended a series well? Six Feet Under’s age progression to the ending of each character’s life was a joke, but at least we know Alan Ball was completely done with the story. I can’t remember how Sex and the City ended, but wasn’t the door open for a movie until Kim wanted script approval?
Loved the ending. When the screen cut to black I paused for a second, thinking my DVR went kaput and then actually jumped up and down, excited by what David Chase just did. The stones on that guy. He not only whacked his own show, but saved us from having to view everything that came before it as some sort of half-assed morality play. Tony whacked, Tony snitching, Tony arrested by the feds would cast a new (and reductive) light on the entire show, which I feel was always built for repeat viewings. Tony’s actions are left up to us to judge and analyze. There are no safe and easy prisms or rose-tinted glasses to view this series through. And I think that’s scary and frustrating for a lot of viewers who never knew how to categorize Tony Soprano. I love that we get to remember Tony the way he was, both a normal guy and a monster, fraught with problems at home and in his career, never knowing when the other shoe is going to drop. The guy is complex right up until the last cut to black. At least that’s my interpretation. That episode was built for talkbacks, and like Twin Peaks, we’ll still be talking about it 10 years from now.
In regards to the shitstorm, my favorite quote about the epsiode comes from a viewer posting at Television Without Pity:
“I think David Chase finally gave the people who were complaining about the Russian something else to complain about!”
It says it all, doesn’t it? Bravo, David Chase. You are an original.
larry sanders show ended well.
Cliffhanger? Give me a break. Everyone has said there will be no movie or future TV show.
i don’t have a problem with how it ended (although initial reaction was to be let down). i think it could have been done better and it needed to end at his house. series began with the canadian geese in the pool and i kinda thought they would end with it too, having tony raking outside. i think if he saw the geese, then heard a sound, then cut to black would have been better. brings everything around, still leaves the mystery of what happens next.
i didn’t get the cut to black. like a lot, i thought the cable fritzed (which is not a good thing for a cable series to do). however, someone pointed out that tony’s words to bobby in previous episode was that he believed there was nothing but black and silence after death. i like the twinning of that idea.
This is what happens when you call someone a genius for eight years. His target audience, in the end, is pretty much the folks who called him a genius. They seem mollified at the moment. But those were among the worst last five minutes in the series’ history — not the family around the table, that made organic sense. But rather the bullshit Death Is On The Way vaudeville that Chase put everyone thru before fleeing to black. Not cutting. Fleeing.
I thought it was perfect. Watched it three times yesterday and I still feel I’m not taking in all of its richness. My heart was beating during every scene, as if at any moment, at any time some thug would run into frame and shoot someone in the head (and yes, in one scene that’s exactly what happened). I think dramatically, Chase got the job done on his own terms; he didn’t slum it like Scorsese did with The Departed, but kept true to his vision of America’s moral ambiguity as represented by this family. (A few days ago I was sure that the finale would in fact feature NO DEATHS… how insane would THAT be?). The ending (which I wrote about just now on Wells’ site — forgive me Dave) found the Soprano family whole at last… and the smash to black should feel right to anyone keyed into what this show is really all about.
It also must be said that Robert Iler really came into his own this season. A few years ago he made real life headlines for being a public menace, but he totally held his own during this season (in much the way Edie Falco blew us out of the water last year). His suicide attempt in the pool held more suspense for me than any film I’ve seen recently. Watch for that Emmy, kid.
“As one of the 300 million Americans who did not watch the finale, I have but one thing to say: YAWN.”
Too funny. The upper-class coastal elites, smugly hyped a little-watched show and now it’s biting them in the ass because most people hated it.
Fewer people watched the finale of this overhyped show than the average audience for Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader, by the way.
“Upper-class coastal elites”??? What, you think people in the midwest can’t afford HBO? Or are you saying poor people love stupid game shows?
Ever consider that the 5th Grader stuff and just about everything else on TV or in the movies was created by “upper-class coastal elites”?
Or did you not make it far enough in school to figure that out?
Hey, Phil got to “finish” what he started. I’m happy. Never liked that prick.
And the song cut out at full volume, though not in the middle of a word — how fortunate. It wasn’t ridiculous, but it wasn’t sublime, it was ANTI-SUBLIME. Who cares, it’s over. Don’t keep dragging it back, like Paris, who just happened to be on the other line while her “Mom” Kathy just happened to be on the phone with Barbawa, and Paris just happened to have an elaborate religion toned message to go with her catatonia and severe ADD. Blach Paris and Chase — let’s see him make a movie.
I like reading stuff like this. It’s so 1999 Dave Poland. Before the blog. Before The Weekends. Before the operation!
Seriously, I’m wondering why Tony Soprano’s mortality is such a big deal to so many smart people? If you do the math, his death really doesn’t make much sense story wise. Tony’s soul has always been the subject… and as we all know you can’t kill a soul. The conspiracy stuff is really dorky. It misses the point.
– Tony made his peace with New York. There was no one left to kill him. A hit would have been cheap. The table scene with Butch pretty much sealed up that the death of Phil would bring order back to things.
– Tony experienced ZERO threat to his life during the entire episode. The tension was all in OUR heads. I think a cheap gun shot at the end (Marky Mark with padded shoes) would be below Chase’s sense of fair play with his beloved Tony.
– The mystery guy going to the bathroom is, while definitely a Godfather wink, another great red herring in the show’s tradition. Chase wanted a hint of unease in the scene (the Member’s Only Jacket was genius).
– More importantly, the show’s focus has never been mortality… but morality. That this family gets to carry on with their deluded materialistic lives is the real tragedy here. Meadow struggled to park her big stupid BMW… but it fit just fine in the end. That’s the whole series in one scene.
And Tony looked genuinely at peace at the diner table — even if we weren’t. There wasn’t a drop of fear in him. He wasn’t looking over his shoulder but growing accustomed to not having to anymore. When the door bell kept ringing open, he’d glance up merely to see if it were one of his loved ones coming in.
And I think that’s the idea behind the last shot: Tony Soprano the caring family man.
Anyone care to give a little riff on the cat?
At first I thought it easily signified death and the end…but it’s relationship with Paulie…that last shot of he and the cat taking in the sun. I don’t know, maybe it’s his good luck charm? He’ll be able to get past his superstitions? Although I can’t help but think he will in fact die just like the others when he takes over the job.
I think at this point (and even as of yesterday morning), no spoiler warning is necessary for the end of the Sopranos. Every major metropolitan NYC paper gave away what happened (or didn’) on the front page and most of the news stations were running the ending and discussing it, saying what a disappointment it was (which is bull) etc.
I personally liked that the ending did build up all that suspense then end… I’m so glad that Chase didn’t go the obvious route and kill the entire family.
Wrecktum, pretty much ANY show on premium cable, no matter how well-received , is going to be dwarfed by the audience for a network reality or game show like 5TH GRADER, so your comparison is utterly invalid. Though the outcome of 5TH GRADER’s most recent airing did dominate most major newspapers and web sites the following day, so I guess I see your point.
Nice cut-and-paste job, by the way, T. Holly. Don’t knock yourself out.
The cat was a he otherwise I would have thought it was Adriana’s presence being felt. Probably signals Paulie’s near-end. I agree with JeffMcM that it was brilliant and a perfect way to end. But I do believe there was the option left open should they ever want to do a feature. I read last night though that should he go down that road, he’d go back to the days when Tony’s pop and Uncle Jun ran things, Jersey in the ’60s, yeah baby. I’d rather see Tony and Sil back in action.
I just wanted it to never end. I loved that show so much. Nice nod to the Twilight Zone too.
I could not be happier with the last season and the final episode. I loved every minute of it. I’ll take an episode of The Sopranos over just about any other show on television, with very few exceptions.
“‘Upper-class coastal elites’??? What, you think people in the midwest can’t afford HBO? Or are you saying poor people love stupid game shows?”
I was talking about the bicoastal media who’ve hyped the show endlessly since day one.
I’m sure many people in the mid-west can afford HBO, but since only 1/3 of houses in the U.S. actually have HBO, I think you’d be surprised how many people actually bother.
“Ever consider that the 5th Grader stuff and just about everything else on TV or in the movies was created by ‘upper-class coastal elites’?”
Non sequitur.
“Or did you not make it far enough in school to figure that out?”
Ad hominem.
Maybe it has been endlessly hyped because it’s really fucking good. Imagine that.
I believe Angel did this very same thing several years ago. Cut out right in the middle of the climactic battle sequence.
I heard that Tony Siroco insisted on having the cat in the last episode due to having a claws in his contract.
“Maybe it has been endlessly hyped because it’s really fucking good. Imagine that.”
Perhaps, but most people I know who watched the finale (due in part to the hype) thought it sucked. But opinions are like assholes, right?
They certainly are, and like I said, I thought the finale was brilliant. Probably for the exact same reasons that others hated it.
i agree with stella. it’s my number one problem with people these days. they can’t just watch a show or a movie and value what’s there. instead, they just moan about what isn’t there, how it didn’t end like they thought it would.
armchair creative types are the fucking worst.
and no offense, but when i hear ‘most people’ don’t like something, it’s probably a sure sign that i will. ‘most people’ are fucking idiots. ‘most people’ make Wild Hogs gross 175 million dollars. are these the people whose opinion should matter to anyone?
No, but does everything have to be on the level of WILD HOGS? Can’t there be just an occasional show or film that aims a little higher?
Americans have become so dumb that they need everything spelled out for them nowadays. C’mon, people, they constantly said it: “You never see it coming.” He’s dead. He looks up, cut to black. Over. Gone. Finis. That’s all, folks. There’s no ambiguity to anyone with functioning synapses.
Man, and people mocked me when STUDIO 60 was cancelled!
Hype is a funny thing… every show would love to have all the hype that certain events (and incarcerations) get… until they get more than they can control and it becomes very scary.
Thing is, studios and filmmakers do NOT control the hype. The media controls the hype. Studios can buy a lot of ads, but most movies do and its rare these days to be able to note one being more advertised than another (in the context of size… Spidey 3 obviously more than Mr Brooks, but in its release range, Mr Brooks equal to others). The HYPE becomes obnoxious when every media outlet feels they need to have the story, even if everyone else is doing exactly the same thing. And this is a function of trying to please the audience, not making strong journalistic choices.
Now… the issue of whether any of us can afford to be pure journos anymore, especially on TV or big time print… well…
“Most people thought it sucked.” Ok, well, these people had expectations that were, quite possibly, too high. Ask these people how they thought it should have ended and none of them would have an answer. Bloodbath? Prison? Heart attack? They’d say “um i dunno” (like many people i’ve asked who thought it sucked). Sure, maybe the cut to black was a little gimmicky, but the ending was spot-on i believe. Life just goes on. If he were carted off to jail, guess what – life would still just go on. Why do we have to know everything? What happened to Sam Malone after Cheers, or Hank Kingsley after Sanders? It doesnt matter. We enjoyed the shows. Period. Tony was, and always will be, a depressed, paranoid shlub. End of story.
“Ask these people how they thought it should have ended and none of them would have an answer.”
I think their answer would be “a resolution.”
People invest years and a connect emotionally to their favorite TV shows. Lots of people think that David Chase gave a giant middle finger to the show’s fans by refusing to close the show with a sense of finality. Backlash is totally understandable.
I remember when Larry David wrote a similar “fuck you” finale for Seinfeld. I thought the ending was sly and brilliant (though not particularily funny) but most people disagreed.
Are Larry David and David Chase writing for themselves or for their loyal fanbase? Do writers have an obligation to please themselves or those who watch their shows? I think it’s an interesting question.
My favorite hyped series finale in the last 20 years is the final episode of Cheers. It was alternately funny, bittersweet and comforting. Great stuff.
My favorite hyped series finale of all time is, naturally, the last episode of MASH.
I understand the resolution debate, but what exactly was there left to resolve? Junior’s nuts, janice needs to move on a find a husband, meadow’s going to be a lawyer, AJ is still finding himself (tho no longer suicidal), Syl is in a coma (would you have wanted him to wake up??), paulie is a bitter old guy who has more responsibility now, patsy is going to be in tony’s family, carlo snitched and is gone, bobby’s dead, leotardo’s dead, chris is dead, and carmela will continue to live her life of lies. Did you want the last season to have been about a trial? Should tony have been shot and killed in the diner? Should that russian have come back, should adriana have been found alive? I fail too see what was left unresolved. Any resolution in the last five mins of the episode would have caused a debate.
“Any resolution in the last five mins of the episode would have caused a debate.”
Bigger than the current debate?
Well this loyal David Chase fan is an even more loyal fan after that finale, and I imagine that I’m hardly the only one who feels that way.
Of course not. But you do know that the hype was too overwhelming for any kind of middle-ground or consensus. Thats what i think anyways.
Cheers was a comedy and as such could end on a sweet note, Mash – they all get to go home, which is a natural ending, Seinfeld had become so absurd by the last 2 seasons (episode running backwards?!) that the ending was perfect. Even Newhart, again a semi-wacky comedy, was justified in ending in bed with Pleshette. I admit, i dont really watch many dramas, so i dont know how any current ones have ended (i thought needing to see how the characters in 6 feet under died was unnecesary). Seriously, how could the sopranos have ended? Most of the debate centers on the cut to black, but as long as we dont see tony shot on screen (ie within the fictional reality), then i assume he’s alive. I dont need to SEE anything else. the show is resolved with him living out his paranoid life.
I lost faith in David Chase as soon as he started believing he was David Lynch, which is when the show started to really stink. The past two seasons, I still love the characters, but the writing and direction was just miserable, with a few moments shining through the garbage.
Seinfeld Finale >>>>>>> Sopranos Finale IMO
Funny how more people seemed to write in about Hostel than about the Sopranos…but then I guess it was a lot of people arguing and posting multiple times…
As to the debate about what SHOULD have happened to make the finale good, my answer would be: anything. Because instead we just got nothing.
You’d think HBO would have tried to fire Chase after last years debacle, but I guess they were too busy beating up women on the streets of Vegas.
From people I’ve talked to, I’ve gotten 80% saying the finale was lame and 20% just loving the show too much to say so.
IMO the ending was not nothing. Not even close. And I don’t blindly love the show and any insinuation that I do is bullshit. Your survey is useless and stupid too. Maybe the people you talked to are morons who want everything spoon fed to them.
I think it was a highly appropriate ending. A show should, after a certain point, grow to include a self-critique. Seinfeld did that in its final episode, and by denying closure, Chase (a) told his audience what he thought of their desire for cathartic bloodlust, and (b) gave us a more honest and challenging ending.
But alienating, wouldn’t you agree, jeffmcm?
Cadavra – “He’s dead. He looks up, cut to black. Over. Gone. Finis. That’s all, folks. There’s no ambiguity to anyone with functioning synapses.
That’s totally subjective and works for you because it makes sense of the ending. But it flies in the face of everything Chase has been saying from over two seasons ago, which was he was not going to kill Tony or send him to the klink. He was adamant about this because he felt it was too Goodfellas/Godfather.
You can’t put aside real-world events, such as the crimp the Italian-American community of Jersey put on the show via local officials. Where he originally planned to shoot the ending was denied a permit because of this, forcing him to come up with alternatives.
IMO, the ending is a reference to the episode’s title, Made in America. It’s a New Jersey depiction of a Rockwell painting, where the family in the heart of the restaurant is a union dad, his real estate wife, their slacker son and grad student daughter. But in Jersey, the dad can be a mob boss. As for the hard cut, it does make more sense that it’s the audience being whacked because of the perspective when coupled with Tony’s conversation with Bobby. In other words, since the audience was so obsessed with watching Tony to see if he would get it, we didn’t see ours coming.
Now if that’s what Chase was going for, he should have called Scorcesse or Mamet and asked him if it was clear enough. Because, as Wrecktum so perfectly pointed out, people have invested time and technically money into this show. This is usually lost on the cineaste’s because media already eats a huge chunk of their daily lives, so what’s another 50min?
Alienating, yes. I’ll give you that. Maddening, even, for a day or so. But to those who say there was no closure, or that nothing happened, sorry, but you’re wrong. I can’t think of one thing that was left “unresolved”, as far as this season was concerned. There’s a major difference between being led astray (willingly or not, ie, the beacon of light when Tony was Kevin Finnerty, or even Meadow’s parking), and resolution.
The funny thing about all the “no resolution” complains is that except from the final scene the finale was very conventional: it deals – and solves – the two main plots of the final season (the war with Phil and AJ’s depression and enlightment). it reaffirms the majors themes that run through the show, it has lots of nostalgia for fans, some delicious violence (Phil’s death certainly pleased the more bloodlust members of the audience) and it’s full of scenes between Tony and other characters (Junior, Meadow, Silvio, Paulie) that are design to give closure, even the feds finally got a star witness. As for Tony’s fate he is still boss, surving through his diplomacy skills yet again, but things are looking weaker and weaker for his business (Paulie gets a big promotion and the show was always clear that despite being closer to Tony, he always got passed for promotion for the younger captains for lack of competence), his kids keep disappointing him (he certainly never thought he would end up with Patsy Parisi as a in-law) crushing any hope they might actually distance themselves from the family business and he is going to trial and strong hints that he might have to at least do some small time. So I don’t see how one could complain that there were no resolution,and I suspect that had the show ended in the scene with Junior or a normal family dinner there would be far fewer complains.
The finale was not prefect. Phil right hand guy flipped to easily when the plot need, there were to little carmela and I would have liked the final svene far more had it fade straight to the credits after Tony’s close-up (that was a little to mean to the viewers for my taste), but it was mostly pretty good ending and it felt very finite.
wow. did someone infer that Studio 60 was smart?
please.
at best, pseudo intellectual bullshit. what’s smart about taking an exciting premise based around a live sketch comedy show and turning it into the West Wing, taking all the hype of a new show and getting cancelled after one season?
brilliant.
Ive been watching the last few episodes of the show out of morbid curiosity. Last week’s episode where the one character’s brother got kidnapped in Afghanistan and the crew of the show is talking to some sexual harrassment attorney is talking to them about hiring a security company to get him out… one of the most ludicrous moments ever on television.
awful writing. awful execution. just laughable. when i hear people singing Sorkin’s praises, i watch Studio 60 and wonder just where the hell all this genius is hiding.
Seinfeld is often brought up. That ending actually had closure, I just didn’t like it. I wanted it to just be a good episode about “nothing”. Plus it just felt like a recap episode.
“I just didn’t like it. I wanted it to just be a good episode about “nothing”.”
That’s the primary reason why it was so good.
The Sopranos finale is like an episode of Lost for the over-50 set. I’ve never seen so much analysis.
the more i mull it over, the more i’m appreciating the ending. i am in the school of thought that tony is dead. i think he looked up saw his daughter and then was shot by the guy coming out of the bathroom. that there are schools of thought is interesting and pretty neat.
but i’m also remembering that season enders on this show have never been of the big bang variety. it’s usually the penultimate episode. richie apreu is killed in the second to last episode. steve buscemi ditto. big pussy isn’t whacked in the last episode either, i don’t believe (but it’s been awhile and my memory is hazy). so, an ending on this level fits neatly in what the series has been doing for years
Anghus, the STUDIO 60 storylines you reference began in previous episodes; jumping into them cold would naturally cause you to feel a bit adrift. I don’t begudge you your belief that the show is P.I.B.S., but for those of us who were there from the beginning, it’s a brilliant, funny, touching, deeply engrossing series, and its premature cancellation pisses me off to an extent I haven’t felt about a TV show’s axing since I was a kid.
really, cadavra?
i’ve been there from the start and have watched it all the way through. i’ll be there in the end. i’m a fan of sorkin’s from “a few good men” to “west wing.”
the problems i had to “studio 60” is that they couldn’t stay with the original concept of the show. we’re treated to network politics and we’re supposed to care if some casino gets built in macau. the skits just aren’t funny (with the exception of the dateline/santa one). and everybody talking about how brilliant they are. and finally, i don’t know any of the characters names. i think in terms of matthew perry, steven weber, amanda peet, bradley whitford, etc. not in terms of characters.
if you’ve ever been on a set, there is so much craziness that has to be dealt with. good drama. why are we dealing with iraq, macau, religion to the nth degree (and not even compellingly)?
I was a fan of Studio 60 from the beginning and have seen every aired episode…and I gotta agree, the last one was just awful in so many ways. It’s like Sorkin lives in an irony-free world and has just misread completely the type of tone Studio 60 requires…because the passionate idealism that worked on West Wing just doesn’t work on this one.
I do wish the show wasn’t getting canceled, because to me Bradely and Matthew Perry can do no wrong, and I even love the flaky Amanda Peet. But the writing is just terrible. And Sorkin’s turning the film into a romantic (not funny) comedy and relying on Sarah Polson for anything is just a huge mistake. Every time they try to show her doing a funny bit it’s so unfunny as to make the show look ridiculous. And her relatinship with Matthew Perry is beyond grating and annoying, and I find myself just wishing he’d get it over with and fire her. And as much as I used to like DL Hugley, he’s pretty lame on the show.
That being said, I’ll keep watching, but I can’t keep defending, because Sorkin just screwed the pooch on this one.
Funny how Studio 60 started off pretty well and then sank, while 30 Rock started off shaky and just got better and greater….and while the two shows really aren’t alike, I do think 30 Rock’s success hurt Studio 60, because it made quite apparent how unfunny any of the Studio 60 performers are, when they’re touted as the best in the biz…it just steals any authenticity from the show.
David –
That article you posted on MCN, written by Larry Gross, is the best piece i’ve read regarding the furor over the show, its multiple meta meanings, Chase’s possible intentions, and the ending. Great stuff.
Funny, I feel exactly the opposite about 30 ROCK: it started well and has gotten progressively lamer, with the mountains of time devoted to the completely unfunny Tracy Morgan character being a principal problem. When my two favorite performers in the world, Nathan Lane and Elaine Stritch, can’t even pull it out of its rut, it’s time to throw in the towel.
love “30 rock.” have ever since the poker episode, which had to be one of the funniest of the season.
My take on 30 Rock is that it took a while to find its tone and identity but has finally almost managed to do so. It started off looking like it wanted to be a workplace comedy but finally managed to become crazier and more rapid-fire, similar to Arrested Development.
Funny, just about everything Tracy Morgan does on that show is a riot in my house. Dude kills it.
“Another problem with a movie is that so many characters died in the last season. Chase said he has considered “going back to a day in 2006 that you didn’t see, but then (Tony’s children) would be older than they were then and you would know that Tony doesn’t get killed. It’s got problems.”
http://www.wkrn.com/nashville/news/ap-sopranos-creator-movie-no-sure-thing/101060.htm
And what did I say in the fourth post?
The episode has been way over-analyzed, and while that Gross piece has some interesting points, the condescending tone kills it.
I don’t think anybody would ever watch ‘The Continuing Adventures of A.J. and Meadow’.
‘The Paulie Walnuts Show’ on the other hand, I’d watch.