Many Saints of Newark is fanfiction, not Sopranos canon

 

In 2007 the controversial last episode of the Sopranos, Made in America aired and was the last chapter of the Sopranos universe. Personally, I didn't like how it ended. I think Tony died and there are many signs that Tony got clipped in front of his family as revenge for Phil getting killed in front of his wife and grandkids. Signs like 3 o'clock, the bathroom homage to the Godfather, the orange tiger behind Tony are signs he got killed and the waitress pointing to her head are all signs Tony got shot in the head.

If it was up to me, I would have liked to see either the trial of Tony Soprano and ending the series with Tony of a bus going to jail as Woke up this morning played in the background. Or I would have preferred the same ending but with a gun shot right before the black screen and the member's only jacket man wearing a NY hat showing it was New York behind the hit. I doubt anyone really liked the ending. Perhaps, David Chase wanted an ending that would have people speculating on the meaning for the next 100 years which is what happened. Or maybe Chase wanted an ambiguous ending that would leave an opening for a spin off or movie, neither of which happened. I would have been happy with a spin off about Carmela and the kids or the Lupertazzis where Little Carmine becomes the boss or a spin off where Paulie Walnuts became the boss of New Jersey. 

Did the fans get a sequel or an exciting spinoff? No. 14 years later after the Sopranos ended we got Many Saints of Newark in 2021. And holy shit, that movie sucked. It showed that David Chase never had the makings of a film producer. It seemed Chase never even bothered to rewatch The Sopranos before giving us the half-baked Many Saints. I for one do not consider Many Saints canon, it is fan fiction slop that deserves to be flushed down the toilet and forgotten.

Many Saints is inconsistent with the Sopranos universe and many things contradict  what we learned from the series.

Who killed Dickie Moltisanti?

In the series Tony tells Christopher that his father Dickie was killed by a rogue cop for stabbing an inmate in the eye or something. But in Many Saints, it is revealed that Junior had Paulie kill Dickie because he laughed at him for slipping and falling on his ass. How ridiculous is that? That doesn't even make any sense that Junior would have Dickie killed for such a trivial reason.

Was Dickie a junkie?

Chris tells Tony during a barbeque that his father and Tony's hero was nothing more than a fucking junkie. In Many Saints Dickie is seen drinking a few times but isn't shooting up heroin and sniffing coke like a fucking junkie. So which is it?

If I were to write everything wrong with Many Saints I would have to write a whole book. David Chase clearly forgot how intelligent Soprano fans are. Putting Gandolfini's son in the movie and having Ray Liotta play twins (which was silly and soap opera like) wasn't enough to make a decent movie. Not to mention, the actor playing a younger Silvio Dante which was god awful to watch. Apparently, Chase wanted to make a movie about the Newark riots and the movie head honchos didn't want to unless the movie was about the Sopranos. So David Chase shoe-horned the Newark riots into the Soprano's universe and the movie felt disjointed like trying to ram a square peg into round hole.

I would have liked to see the actors who played Johnny boy Soprano and Uncle Junior in the series play those characters in the movie. Maybe if the lead characters were Italian it would have been better. The fans would have preferred a sequel about the young Tony Soprano. We wanted to see Tony and Jackie Snr rob Feech La Manna's card game. But we compromised and watched Tony rob an ice-cream truck and give cones to little kids. We wanted to see Dickie take down a whole New England crew when he took the war up to them. But we compromised and watched Dickie drown his girlfriend in the ocean because she fucked a black guy. We wanted to watch how Tony did his first hit and whack Willy Overalls. But we compromised and watched Tony cross his finger with a corpse whilst Woke up this morning played in the background. We wanted to watch Tony, Sil, Ralph, Jackie Snr and Big Pussy do scores and sell a little pot. But we compromised and watched John Magaro do a bad impression of Sil. See where I'm going.

With all that said, we should all forget about Many Saints of Newark and pretend it never happened. Frankly, David Chase should be depressed and ashamed for making such a garbage movie. The Sopranos should be left alone as it is. We do not need prequels, sequels or spin-offs.