While THE SOPRANOS started out as a slightly better than average collection of gangster cliches with half-hearted artistic aspirations, it grew exponentially in quality with each subsequent season, culminating in a masterful finale with season six. How good is it? So good that it made THE WIRE sweat a little bit in its race to claim the title of "Greatest TV Show Of All Time".
The ending, as in the final scene, is highly divisive, but I for one loved it. Without giving anything away, it's a cryptic and ambiguous ending that serves perfectly as everything for everyone, if you only allow it to. I'll definitely be giving this series the marathon treatment at some point in the future, having been so long since I've seen any of the earlier seasons.
I've come to a strange realization - Paul Thomas Anderson, one of the 90's film directors that I was more indifferent to than most, is probably my current favorite of his graduating class. Why? Because he's the only one who grew up. While Quentin Tarantino and Wes Anderson keep peddling their reductive metatexts, PT has been expanding his range and ambitions.
Had a conversation with Anna about what classifies a work of art as either Feminine or Masculine in nature. No conclusions were made, nor evidence cross-referenced, but my current shorthand is this; Masculine narratives are ones in which problems are surmountable.
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