Over at his blog, Matt Zoller Seitz asks the question that, consciously or not, is in Sopranos fan’s minds as we watch the last season of the HBO series:

In this final season, is Chase truly revealing a sense of moral accountability that was often AWOL on “The Sopranos,” or just jerking our chain? In past seasons, the writers and producers responded to audience gripes about dangling plot threads by saying, in essence, “Some episodes of this show are not chapters in a novel, they’re the equivalent of self-contained short stories with recurring characters — we’re not about plot, so get over it”; this year is Chase executing an about-face and making “The Sopranos” more like “Deadwood” and “The Wire”? Or is he just bringing “The Sopranos” in line with classic gangster tales like “White Heat” and “Scarface,” which ended with the criminal heroes suffering, the better to send us home feeling secure in our own decency?

Seitz has more to say about it than do I… but then again, he’s seen the first four episodes and I’ve only seen the two screened so far. So pop over to his blog for more…