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Premeditating on The SopranosTimothy Noah talks with readers about the coming climax of HBO's mob drama.


Updated Thursday, June 7, 2007, at 5:45 PM ET

Timothy Noah was online at Washingtonpost.com on Thursday, June 7, to look ahead to Sunday's final episode of The Sopranos and take a look back at the past season of HBO's beloved mob-themed hit. An unedited transcript of the chat follows.

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Timothy Noah: Greetings. I'm Timothy Noah, and I'm a participant in Slate's "TV Club" discussion of The Sopranos. The other participants couldn't be here today. They are Jeffrey Goldberg of The New Yorker and Brian Williams, anchor of the NBC evening news. I'll be glad to take your questions.

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Allentown, Pa.: Hi Tim. Everyone is interested in Tony's fate, but what do you predict will happen to Carmela, Meadow and A.J.? Although there is a mobster code of ethics regarding "blood family" ... hasn't the precedent been set in these past few weeks?

Timothy Noah: I've tried to avoid predictions and focus instead on responding to the series as it unfolds. When you're reading a novel, you don't pause to predict out loud what you think is going to happen—you press on with fascination to see how the author is going to end it, and to assess how well he or she pulls it off. That said: Who can resist a little prediction? I think bad things are going to happen to the Soprano family. It may be that Tony dies; it may be he goes to jail; it may be that A.J. goes off the deep end. No matter what unfolds, I think it's safe to say that Carmela never will recover fully from having to face the reality that their family life is based on violence and mayhem.

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Washington: I'm much less interested in the fate of Tony at this point than I am in the fates of Paulie and Phil. It seems to me that this series can end on one of several radically different messages depending on whether Phil's ruthlessness rewards him or leads to his downfall.

Timothy Noah: Yeah, the big question is whether Paulie acted in cahoots with Phil and deliberately botched the hit on Phil. We know from previous seasons that he's played footsie with Tony's New York rivals in the past. If Paulie betrayed Tony, then Pasquale "Patsy" Parisi—last seen running from the hit on Silvio Dante—was probably in on it, too. Which is significant because his son is dating Meadow. What a tangled web!

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Washington: Why do you think it took until the end of the final season for a majority of viewers to realize Tony Soprano is a psychopath and deserves whatever comes to him in the final episode?

Timothy Noah: I don't think it took until the end of the final season. We've seen flashes of Tony's, er, antisocial behavior for eight seasons. But in this last season we've seen Tony stripped down to his essence. It's gotten harder and harder to look past the mobster to see the loving (if unfaithful) husband and concerned father. I think that's a logical note to end the show on.

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Winter Garden, Fla.: Do you think a feature-length film will ever be produced based on The Sopranos? Maybe chronicling the early years?

Timothy Noah: I hope not! The TV series is so beautifully realized. A movie, I think, would feel inadequate because it only would be two hours long, and we're used to having this story unfold in more leisurely, textured fashion. It's a testament to what TV can be at its very best (which it almost never is).

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Germantown, Md.: I think HBO might lose a lot of subscriptions! If Tony Soprano dies ... which I think he will ... will you leave it open-ended perhaps let A.J. live so he becomes the new boss way down the line sometime?

Timothy Noah: A.J. will never be the boss. Meadow, maybe, though as I pointed out in the TV Club, they've got a pretty low glass ceiling in the Mob. Women seldom progress past prostitute or pole dancer.

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Arlington, Va.: I was a big fan of The Sopranos for a few seasons, but then they took some very long breaks between seasons and I lost interest. Did they lose a lot of fans for this reason?

Timothy Noah: A lot of folks found last season tedious. I enjoyed it, though I should confess that I missed a few episodes. (Sopranos fundamentalists will say this makes me a fraud. I say it makes me a not-atypical television viewer.)

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Southwest Washington: Well, we all know Patsy wanted revenge on Tony for the murder of his brother Spoons, so I always thought Meadow dating Patrick was a little suspect.

Timothy Noah: You'd think a lovely and smart girl like Meadow would have better taste in men. First that wimp Finn, and now a capo's son.

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Washington: Why do writers and critics make such a big deal about a show only 5-10 million people have to pay to watch? There are bad summer reality shows that draw bigger audiences than The Sopranos. I'm sure the show is compelling to its audience, mostly because of the freedom with sex, nudity and language that writers can exploit by being on HBO, but to the hundreds of millions of people out there who don't watch, what's with all this fuss and attention? There have been far more significant television shows in history, some on network and non-pay cable right now, that don't get half the attention The Sopranos gets. Additionally there are far more shows that are better written and produced but are not marketed correctly or never find their audience, but the media continues to prop up a show that delights in playing with its audience with awkward scheduling, long hiatuses, bumping off popular characters and spewing hate-filled, dirty rhetoric.

Timothy Noah: I disagree. I think the show is beautifully written and acted, and I'm delighted that it found a profitable audience, however small compared to network hits. Is it the greatest-ever show on TV? I can't say, because I've missed a lot. Many people prefer "The Wire," but I assume you'd have the same objection to that program, which also appears on HBO. The nudity and language are intrinsic to the plot, and never strike me as gratuitous.

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Reading, Mass.: Will there be a Russian coming out of the woods?

Timothy Noah: I'm guessing not. Terry Winter, a writer for the show who twice has joined our TV Club discussion, says that life is full of loose strings, so why not The Sopranos?

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Laurel, Md.: Shame on David Chase for not giving us loyal diehard fans at least a 75-minute episode for the series finale. Or even a retrospect of the series the hour before!

Timothy Noah: Well, you can always buy it on DVD...

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Silver Spring, Md.: I've been enjoying the "Slate TV Club" immensely. That Williams guy—what a hoot! He's got a bright future for sure. Anyway, my much belated condolences on the loss of your wife, Marjorie, your first Sopranos-watching partner. How's it working out watching with your 14-year-old son? Do you ever find any of the scenes uncomfortable? A.J.'s suicide attempt? Obviously, the curb-stomping raised no eyebrows. Is he as insightful as his mom?

Timothy Noah: Will is no slouch in the observation department. He has made an excellent viewing companion. And yes, the more adult scenes have given us much to talk about, but so have the subtle ways that David Chase and Co. communicate the hypocrisy and self-delusion in the characters' lives.

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Richmond, Va.: Why do you think we continue to root for and have sympathy for these characters despite what they do and how they conduct themselves(although I will never forgive Tony for taking Christafu out)?

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Timothy Noah writes Slate's "Chatterbox" column. Previously he was an assistant managing editor at U.S. News & World Report, a reporter in the Washington bureau of the Wall Street Journal, and an editor of Washington Monthly.
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