According to that bastion of truth and accurate reportage, The Onion, a 'crazed fan' shot James Gandolfini to death in a New York restaurant today, in a recreation of the final scene of the HBO series; which itself was an homage to Al Pacino's famous scene in The Godfather.
The 'Assailant,' listed as a 28-year-old marketing assistant named Louis Bowen, apparently committed the crime because he couldn't bear the mental anguish induced by the lack of closure in the finale of the HBO gem.
Personally, I'd say it was a rare and very welcome example of a US network investing the viewers with enough intelligence to complete the scene in the way they felt was most fitting. If you thought Tony was shot by the stranger emerging from the men's room, he was [which would also replicate the Godfather scene.] Otherwise, he went on living the precarious existence of a Mobster, plagued by a henpecking wife and two vexatious offspring.
Obviously, The Onion's story is a spoof, but it could so easily be a portent. Have we as an audience really become so intellectually lethargic that a show's failure to deliver a neat, universally palatable ending could drive someone to cause such a story in real life? Networks are driven by the desire for ratings, not intellectual discourse. And the Second Amendment ensures the tools for such a retaliation are very easy to acquire.
The convergence of these facts, and the consequential scenario are more likely than we might care to admit.
The 'Assailant,' listed as a 28-year-old marketing assistant named Louis Bowen, apparently committed the crime because he couldn't bear the mental anguish induced by the lack of closure in the finale of the HBO gem.
Personally, I'd say it was a rare and very welcome example of a US network investing the viewers with enough intelligence to complete the scene in the way they felt was most fitting. If you thought Tony was shot by the stranger emerging from the men's room, he was [which would also replicate the Godfather scene.] Otherwise, he went on living the precarious existence of a Mobster, plagued by a henpecking wife and two vexatious offspring.
Obviously, The Onion's story is a spoof, but it could so easily be a portent. Have we as an audience really become so intellectually lethargic that a show's failure to deliver a neat, universally palatable ending could drive someone to cause such a story in real life? Networks are driven by the desire for ratings, not intellectual discourse. And the Second Amendment ensures the tools for such a retaliation are very easy to acquire.
The convergence of these facts, and the consequential scenario are more likely than we might care to admit.
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