Point blank range

The end, when it came, was fittingly Sopranos: shocking and inspired. The TV fraternity thought so too

After he completed the final episode of The Sopranos, David Chase told publicity executives at HBO that he was leaving for France and would not take any calls asking him to comment about the ending of his classic television series.

The reason for his resistance became clear on Sunday night when The Sopranos ended, not with a moment of final summation, but with a literal blank. The reaction to the stunning last shot of an empty screen has been a mix of outrage and awe among others who have regarded the show as the most ambitious and unconventional of television series.

Included in the latter group were many people in the same line of work as Chase, storytellers in the entertainment business.

Damon Lindelof, one of the creators of the hit show, Lost, said, 8220;I8217;ve seen every episode of the series. I thought the ending was letter-perfect.8221;

Like millions of other viewers, Lindelof said he was initially taken aback by the quick cut to a blank screen and thought his cable had gone out at that crucial moment. He said: 8220;My heart had been racing throughout the last scene. Afterward I went to bed and lay next to my wife, awake, thinking about it for the next two hours. And I just thought it was great.8221;

In an e-mail sent right after the final scene, Doug Ellin, the creator of another HBO hit series, Entourage, said: 8220;I8217;m speechless. This is David Chase8217;s genius. It8217;s what made The Sopranos different from anything else. It invented a whole new approach to storytelling that isn8217;t afraid to leave things open-ended, and now the biggest open story line in the history of television.8221;

Comedy writers also said they were impressed with Chase8217;s choices. Chuck Lorre, who created and leads the hit comedy Two and a Half Men, said: 8220;People just finished watching that show and immediately talked about it for a half-hour,8221; Lorre said. 8220;What more could you want as a writer?8221;

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If any shows feel special pressure from the attention The Sopranos finale is receiving, it is current series looking down the road at their expected finales.

Tim Kring, the creator of this year8217;s NBC hit Heroes, said, 8220;I put myself years in the future thinking about what you do when you have viewers with these sorts of expectations. And I think you just have to be true to what you were originally trying to say.8221;

For the producers of Lost, who have declared an official finale in three more seasons, the conclusion of The Sopranos carried special weight. Said Carlton Cuse, Lindelof8217;s creative partner on the show: 8220;A sense of fear ran through my veins, thinking that we are going to be in this position,8221; he said, adding, 8220;we know the end is coming in 48 short episodes.8221;

Lindelof said that as daunting as it is to think of the expectations of ending a popular piece, there was also a bit of benefit. 8220;If you feel that everybody is going to hate it anyway, no matter what you do,8221; he said, 8220;there8217;s a certain liberation in writing it.8221;
bill carterNYT