Is This the End of Big Tony?: I don't know what to make of the start of the end of the Sopranos. Everybody is waiting to see who gets whacked and we've gotten a lot of NY/NJ war set up, abut what's really interesting to me is how they are starting to close the books on some of the characters.

Uncle Junior's life ends up with him as a medicated half-wit in some nursing home. Johnny Sack is in the ground unable to accomplish the one thing most valuable to him, providing for his family. Paulie will never be more than an ass-kissing buffoon with nothing more than an ability to keep Tony from killing him to show for his life. Carmella cannot be happy with her success selling her house, too concerned about the shortcuts she took in the building of it and how they might come back on her (can you say "metaphor"?) It looks like A.J. is now being set up for something or other. These guys are all coming to ruin, one by one.

You see, my bet is that Tony doesn't get whacked (although I don't doubt there will be at least one juicy killing) and at the end, things go on as before, but we will have seen that the family with a dark secret is irreparably damaged and probably unsalvageable -- the wages of sin, and so forth. That would fit with the theme of the show more than any grisly massacre. The world will be loudly disappointed, but the tiny minority of people who appreciate great drama will not.

On the other hand, I could be wrong and the finale turns out to imitate Cleaver, but I don't think so.

I've also been watching the new season of Entourage. It's a lightweight sitcom; basically a male/West Coast counterpoint to Sex and the City. The four leads wander the city like children in a toy store of hedonism. No judgment is passed about their narcissistic lifestyle -- which is OK with me. It's just a lightly humorous fantasy after all. If it did not come on immediately after The Sopranos I'd probably never see it, but man does not live by brow-furrowing drama alone.