Turning the Clocks Back. Yay?

Daylight Saving Time ends this weekend. Clocks will "fall back" 1 hour early Sunday morning. While I'm no fan of the days getting shorter— the context in which this change happens— I will appreciate having the sun rise at around 6:40 instead of 7:40 starting Sunday. The late sunrise the past week or two has made it hard to get out of bed in the morning. "It's still dark!" my animal hind brain protests long after my 6:45am weekday alarm rings. "Go back to sleep!" So, yay, for it being light when I need to wake up. But boo for it being dark just as my formal working hours end at 5pm.

Sopranos Drags Again. Only 5 Episodes Left?

I've finished season 6-B episode 4 of The Sopranos. There are only 5 more episodes left in the series, and I... don't see where it's going. I mean, I know a little bit about how it ends because spoilers have been impossible to avoid 100%, but based on how the story's been developing— or not developing— lately I don't see it moving toward a conclusion. In the middle of season 6 it's hit another slump.

Two things are driving this slump. One is the lack of clear narrative direction I already mentioned. At 81 episodes in and 5 left there should be a sense that things are drawing to a close, preferably rising to a climax, even. Instead the show is just kind of drifting along... and sporting more signs of jumping the shark. There's "a very special episode" in the season premier where Tony survives a brush with death. Then the next episode features another extended dream sequence. Oh, and there are guest stars; another sign of jumping the shark. Ben Kingsley, Lauren Bacall, Danny Baldwin, and Nancy Sinatra all appear as themselves. The show's turning alarmingly to too many gimmicks.

The second problem is related to story drift. There are too many new characters. In the past several episodes there have been various scenes where I shake my head and think, "I'm not sure who anyone in this scene is." They're all new since season 5.

I'll finish watching the series despite these negatives. I'm close enough to the end that it doesn't make sense to pull the plug now. But Hawk skipped out on another episode recently. She said those seven deadly words— "I don't care about these characters anymore"— and asked me to tell her if anything interesting happened as she walked away mid-episode. And afterwards I told her, "Yeah, you didn't miss anything." 😔