My opinion on the Sopranos finale is about as worthless as everyone else's.
I liked it. It wasn't what I expected or even wanted but I have to see it as a piece of art.
When I go to the art museum and look at Monet paintings I go to appreciate what the artist did, not to try to figure how he could have done it better. I can only say that I like this painting and don't like this other one. They make me feel a certain way and that is all. The one thing I can't do is say "I really would have liked this painting better if Monet had just done..."
A professional filmmaker has standing to criticize technique or form, as a trained artist might with Monet's work, but that is an altogether different arena of criticism. My only place to stand is "have you entertained or surprised or enlightened me?"
I do think it is interesting/funny all of the symbolism and metaphor that people have been pasting onto the series finale. On NPR Daniel Schorr used the blackout imagery as a metaphor for something or other in modern culture.
My only (so far) unique observation is that maybe people are pissed off about the finale not being what they wanted because the new media technology has been able more and more to give them exactly what they want when they want it. Isn't that the whole point of iPod's, DVR's, streaming video, pay-per-view and YouTube? If you feel like watching a video of a guy performing the national anthem using hand farts, there are at least 25 of them on YouTube at any given time.
I hope that the on-demand world is not reducing our desire or ability to be surprised. If the media stream is flexible and rich enough to only ever give us what we want then what does that do to our ability and willingness to be exposed to new ideas?
I've been bothered by the reduction of the shared cultural experience resulting from the on demand world. I think in many ways the country became a unified society because of the shared experience of popular culture, starting with silent films and newsreels, early radio, the golden age of Hollywood and the glory days of network TV prior to cable. I hate to single out a particular moment in time, but in the 1960's everyone had TV, cable was in its infancy, so everyone watched the same small set of programs. Not to say this was quality entertainment (Gilligan's Island was a number one show), but the point is that everyone from Florida to Oregon had at least some shared cultural experience that was uniquely American.
Many have decried this as homogenization of culture, and I can't argue against that. It does seem however that we have lost something. We still do have the shared experience of "American Idol" and such things, but the fractionalization of the media stream has greatly reduced the number of people sharing any particular event at any given time.
I can't believe I am here defending the bad old days of network TV. I feel like my grandparents lamenting the golden days of radio. It sucks getting old.
