Copy-Cat-Copywriting

I watched the first six years of Sopranos on DVD.
Then, after a lifetime of vowing I would never subscribe to HBO, I took out a subscription for the last 2 seasons of the Sopranos. That's how much I liked it. (The HBO goes off later this week...after I revisit a couple of episodes).

Typically I would record episodes but I watched the Finale live.

CAUTION: SPOILERS BELOW.

And I loved it. Every piece of action seemed ominous. Was this the moment when Tony would Get It? The restaurant scene was brilliant. Series creator Chase toyed with our expectations. As Tony and his family sat in the restaurant, their conversation was even more mundane and peaceful than usual. No bickering. Tony says, "I've ordered onion rings for the table." How many times have we sat at tables where we (and others) said those exact words?

Against the family's conversation, Chase creates suspense. Strange people walk by. The camera pans to a man who's putting a lot of milk in his coffee, hiding behind a newspaper. Each time someone enters the restaurant, Tony looks up. Meadow has trouble parking her car, delaying her entrance.

It's only afterward that we realize we created the suspense in our own heads. We've been trained to recognize symbols of the genre. We've watched too many Hitchcock movies. We watched Sixth Sense. We're conditioned to expect something to arise from the mundane and scare us to death.

And Chase is no dummy. We were watching in the context of knowing, "This is the very last episode, ever. We won't see Tony on the screen ever again."

Finally, we cut to black and we're left with a sense of, "What next?"

Whatever you say about Chase, you have to recognize a brilliant piece of viral marketing. He created buzz. I got on the phone to call a fellow Soprano-watcher: So what do you think? He hated it.

Great advertising has always been ambiguous. When we put ourselves into a scene, we experience the message more intensely than if we're just bombarded with a lecture. When we interpret a message in our own way, it's our story, not theirs.

The Sopranos Finale. The Macintosh 1984 commercial. Masterpieces.