‘The Sopranos’: Drea de Matteo Reflects on the Show’s Controversial Ending — ‘It’s All Meaningless’
It’s been 17 years since the final episode of the classic series The Sopranos aired on HBO. Many consider the American crime series the best of all time, but all those fans agree on one indisputable fact: The series finale was terrible.
The episode in question, “Made in America,” doesn’t provide answers for the conclusion that fans so desperately wanted. Showrunner David Chase refuses to provide any details on what the finale meant and instead claimed it was “up to interpretation.”
Sopranos star Drea de Matteo weighed in on the controversial ending, siding with fans instead of Chase. She wishes it could have gone a different way.
Drea de Matteo discussed ‘The Sopranos’ on her podcast
During the strange time of quarantine following the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, de Matteo was promoting her new podcast Made Women, which discussed a myriad of topics from baked ziti recipes to episodes of the show she’s best known for.
“We’re just two foul-mouthed broads that watch The Sopranos and relate it to our own life episode by episode,” co-host and best friend Chris Kushner explained to TV Insider.
“We started the podcast before the quarantine, but we started YouTube in the quarantine,” de Matteo added. “So it’s Zoom and it’s kind of sh*tty quality, but we’re not sh*tty quality.”
She and her bestie weighed in on the controversial final scene
The last scene of The Sopranos shows Tony Soprano sitting in a diner waiting for his daughter Meadow to arrive. Then some shady looking characters enter the restaurant and the screen fades to black with no explanation.
“I remember that night vividly,” de Matteo recalled. “I had a Sopranos party at the house … and we’re watching what happens in the end. And I was like, ‘Wait a second. What just f*cking happened?’ I thought my TV glitched out because we were watching it on a big, giant, old television.”
She continued: “Then I called my girlfriend who was still working on the show. She goes, ‘No, Drea. That’s the ending.’ And I’m standing there and I look at everybody and they’re all cursing.’”
Drea de Matteo said the ending could mean the show was ‘meaningless’
After six seasons and 86 episodes, de Matteo expected a more descriptive ending to the series, just like the fans did. But everyone was disappointed.
“I think the point is that you just fell for what happened. Or I don’t know, maybe everything the show has been saying for six seasons just goes to black and it’s all meaningless. The show was meaningless. Tony Soprano’s life was meaningless. You could paint so many different pictures with that blank canvas,” de Matteo said.
“But then I think that David Chase has said in other interview, and I could be wrong, that Tony does in fact die.”
She said there’s no such thing as a perfect ending
Like so many others who critiqued the show, however, de Matteo said that no matter how The Sopranos ended, certain fans would have found a way to criticize it.
“Coming from a film school background, we used to tear movies apart. We would draw conclusions that were probably never even there, but how much fun it would be for things to be the way you want? The end of the season for me was just another element of that. There was so much ambiguity around the show, never perfect answers,” de Matteo concluded.
