10 Reasons The Sopranos Is Still The Best TV Show Of All Time

At the time, the ending was met with a mixture of awe, confusion, and outright anger. The sudden cut to black, offering little resolution as to Tony’s fate, was not what we expected, and for those viewers expecting a neat conclusion, this was less than ideal.

In retrospect, though, if you were expecting everything to be wrapped up tidily, you must have been watching a different show. That’s not how The Sopranos works; it’s not the kind of show to offer easy solutions.

Some shows work well with endings that tie off all the loose ends - Friday Night Lights, for example, or The Wire, two shows with vast casts that let the audience know everyone’s fate. That wouldn’t have been right for The Sopranos. A montage would have undercut the incredible tension of the final season. Instead we get Tony Soprano, sat in a diner, either alive or dead.

13 years down the line, the ending still sparks debate, but most fans of the show can surely agree that Chase got this exactly right. Some will say it was needlessly obtuse. Really, it’s just an invitation to watch the show again even more closely.