http://www.kentucky.com/129/index.xml News, sports, and entertainment from Kentucky.com en-us Copyright 2008 Kentucky.com Television 60 Fri, 06 Jun 2008 04:17:18 EDT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss McClatchy Interactive's Workbench webmaster@kentucky.com http://www.kentucky.com/129/story/94984.html http://www.kentucky.com/129/story/94984.html Mon, 11 Jun 2007 17:40 EDT
One was muttering bitterly into its morning coffee at the open-ended conclusion of the epic series, a banal family moment over onion rings that would have delighted existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre, author of "Being and Nothingness."

The other was lavishly praising the iconic HBO drama for capturing life's essential ambiguity and disorderliness.

Forget Tony for a minute - the guy's been psychoanalyzed for years. Does all this say anything about US?

For some popular culture critics, the two reactions speak to the difference between entertainment and art, and which of them we want. If we wanted pure entertainment, there was obvious disappointment - no, aggravation - in a finale that set up threats to Tony's life in that last diner scene, then ended abruptly.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/129/story/92073.html http://www.kentucky.com/129/story/92073.html Fri, 08 Jun 2007 07:46 EDT
Yes, the New Jersey capo replied.

"I find I have to be the sad clown," he wistfully told her - "laughing on the outside, crying on the inside."

Then he added, "Things are trending downward." By that, he meant mob business. But even without meaning to, he had foreshadowed his own fate and that of everybody close to him.

The series that was set in motion 86 episodes ago concludes Sunday at 9 p.m. EDT on HBO, almost certainly with Tony hitting bottom in some tragic way. Just as likely, it will certify the series' bleak theme - life as a lost cause.]]>