The Sopranos Return for Final Season

The HBO series The Sopranos returns for its final season next Sunday April 8, wrapping up eight seasons of the popular cable drama. While producers and cast have been characteristically mum about what will happen in these final episodes, there is no doubt that the series will pick up from last season's story that followed the shooting of fictional New Jersey don Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) and a possible war between varying factions within the mafia.

What is most likely is that someone will end up getting whacked. During its eight years on air, The Sopranos has shown a willingness to kill off its most popular characters. Characters who have been sent to the Great Beyond by series executive producer and writer David Chase included Big Pussy Bompensiero (Vincent Pastore), Tony Blundetto (Steve Buscemi), Richie Aprile (David Proval), Adriana La Cerva (Drea de Matteo), among others. Last season, character Vito Spatavore (Joe Ganniscoli) rounded the list after the Soprano crew learned of his homosexuality. While Tony ordered his men to leave Vito alone, Phil Leotardo (Frank Vincent) and his men killed Vito anyway, possibly setting off a turf war between the New York and New Jersey factions, a battle that has been brewing for several seasons.

The one question that is on the minds of Sopranos fans though is: will Tony Soprano bite the big one this season? Tony's near death experience last year certainly set the grim tone for what will come in the final episodes.

However Chase decides to end the series, it will no doubt garner some of his highest viewership for the cable network. The Sopranos has been both a darling of critics and fans. At the time of its 1999 premiere, mafia films have been on the wain, its territory already mined with critical and box office success by such films as Goodfellas and Casino by director Martin Scorsese and the Godfather Trilogy by Francis Ford Coppola. Scorsese muse Robert de Niro put a stake in the genre when he starred with Billy Crystal in the Analyze This movies, which took a comedic twist on the conventions found in mafia films. Yet The Sopranos took those conventions and turned them on their head by focusing on the emotional and psychological aspects of those who belonged to La Cosa Nostra.

Unlike previous mafia films, The Sopranos showed Tony Soprano conflicted by his relationships with his two families and his own twisted relationship with his mother, Livia (Nancy Marchand). On a weekly basis, Tony was shown discussing his problems with psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco), who was assigned to him after he suffered a series of panic attacks during the first season. While the show downplayed Melfi's role in Tony's life in the past few seasons, The Sopranos continues to explore the psychological affects the Mafia lifestyle has on its characters.

Another aspect of the show that was different from other Mafia films was its ability to reveal the Mafia lifestyle as seen through the women who lived in it. Carmela's (Edie Falco) story was just as important as Tony's, as she too tried to balance between her moral proclivities and her love for the lifestyle Tony's criminal activities afforded her. One of the more intense episodes occurred when Carmela, after being confronted by one of Tony's many lovers, revealed to him of her own unrequited love affair. The show also dealt with how Tony and Carmela's daughter Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler), Christopher Moltisanti's (Michael Imperioli) girlfriend Adriana and other Mafia wives and girlfriends coped with the lifestyle. Adriana's story proved to be the saddest and most tragic when, after colluding with the FBI to get information on the Soprano crew, she was killed when Christopher decided he didn't want to leave the life.

Chase has also been adamant about not glorifying the Mafia lifestyle by showing how brutal and inhumane these men could be. And when some fans clamored for a romance between Tony and Melfi, the executive producer stood by his guns and presented a realistic relationship between the doctor and her patient. The Sopranos' success over the years is largely due to Chase's uncompromising vision and his ability to make us care about characters who are basically thugs. We relate to their attempts to juggle their multiple and often conflicting identities in a world that places wealth and gross materialism as its ultimate sign of success and self-fulfillment.

Now that the show is wrapping up its series, The Sopranos will continue to hold its place in television history as a unique and uncompromising vision of modern-day America.