Fade to Black Has 'Sopranos' Fans Seeing Red

Similarly, because of obscenities, http://Freerepublic.com had to pull a discussion thread in which people were commenting on a Salon piece it had linked to. The Salon article wondered, "Is Chase brilliant for so thoroughly subverting our expectations or . . . is he just an [expletive]?"

Chase, an HBO rep told The TV Column yesterday, "is in France and letting everybody discuss [the ending] amongst themselves." He said Chase had "no plans to discuss the ending with people."

Plenty of people wanted to discuss the ending with Chase. And not just viewers -- some TV critics, too:

"Poor ol' David Chase -- sitting poolside in the south of France right now, laughing his [heinie] off at the angry patter of a million fans," blogged a clearly miffed Verne Gay of Newsday.

"David, you are an arrogant man -- ultimately trapped by the very medium you so haughtily dismissed for so many years, even while you availed yourself of its generous pay scale," he continued.

"We waited 8 years for this?" chimed in the headline writer at the New York Daily News. Not to be outdone, the New York Post went with "Show's Finale Fires 'Blanks.' "

"Chase clearly didn't give a damn about his fans. Instead, he [relieved himself] in their faces. This is why America hates Hollywood," noted LA Weekly's Deadline Hollywood blogger Nikki Finke.

"So this is how it ends: with a big, raised middle finger aimed straight at the TV audience," added Eric Deggans of the St. Petersburg Times.

Angry viewer comments ranged from "David Chase recently said he was influenced by Fellini and European films . . . hey Chase, this is Jersey we're talking about. If I ever get the chance I'd like to kick you in the [groin]" to the more streamlined "MOST HORRIBLE EPISODE EVER and you think it was good wake up."

In fairness, not everyone hated the ending; some leapt to Chase's defense:

"Personally, I think the ending was perfect," wrote one on the Web site of trade publication TV Week.

"You can believe it ended the way you wanted it to. If you think Tony got whacked, then he got whacked. If you want to think things are continuing 'business as usual' then you can have that too."