TV Writers on Sopranos Finale

The New York Times has this interesting article in which TV writers sound off on David Chase and the last episode of The Sopranos ever. As always, David Milch, creator of Deadwood and the thus far impenetrable John From Cincinatti, offers a particularly insightful interpretation:

“It was a question of loyalty to viewer expectations, as against loyalty to the internal coherence of the materials. Mr. Chase’s position was loyalty to the internal dynamics of the materials and the characters."

Tim Kring, Heroes showrunner, said he found “the storytelling in the finale a bit disjointed, so that you lost the cause and effect of some scenes.”

I'm not surprised that the creator of a show featuring some of the most wooden characters and unnatural dialog I've witnessed doesn't understand how David Chase structures his show. I've noticed that often in the The Sopranos, the consequences of a scene do not surface immediately; characters are not always aware of their own reactions to events, which may manifest in unexpected times and places. They're psychologically complex, sometimes as mysterious to us as they are to themselves. In this way, The Sopranos is like real life.

And the ending was like real life, too, in that it doesn't stop with a shattering climax; it simply... goes on.