Quick thoughts on tonight's Sopranos, being as vague as possible because I know that Neil (among others) hasn't seen it yet. Spoiler alert, regardless.

(1) This plainly should have been a two-hour finale. This is an inexcusable scheduling error on the part of everyone involved.

(2) While of course we are all gratified to see something finally happening, I must admit that the characters brought the hammer of destiny on their own heads through the sin of inaction. As best as I could figure the timeline, they had at least several days' warning in which to prepare; they could and should have gone to the mattresses long before the absolute last possible moment.

(3) Some weird and uncharacterically heavy-handed cinematography tonight, especially in the train store and when Melfi was reading in bed. The climax of the train store sequence in particular was probably the worst thirty seconds in all seven seasons, visually speaking—really too much.

(4) I didn't notice it was Tony's mother's house at the end until someone I was with clued me in, but that was a nice touch. (UPDATE: Judging from the forums I've been looking at there's a lot of debate about just whose house it was, and indeed if we've ever seen this location before. I have no idea if it really was Livia's house, but I hope it was. If not hers, Junior's.)

(5) I'm going to reserve judgment on the direction of the final season until I see how things shake out next week, but I'm fairly certain this arc was not nearly the most satisfying or interesting of all possible ends for Tony Soprano, and I'm feeling a bit let down—though perhaps, in fairness, that was always inevitable.