Uncle Jr.: Final 'Sopranos' will get darker & deeper

[Brian Damage]

By MARISA GUTHRIE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Friday, April 27th 2007, 4:00 AM


"The Sopranos" is not going quietly into that good night.

As the show counts down its final episodes - there are six left - the overarching theme of David Chase's mob drama seems to be desperation and deterioration.

Johnny Sacramoni (Vincent Curatola) is dead. Bobby Baccalieri executed a messy hit that if it doesn't get him pinched has certainly sent his heart to a cold, dark place. Tony - who is feeling his immortality more acutely than ever - has started to have "Cleaver" fantasies about his right-hand capo, Paulie Walnuts.

And last week, Uncle Junior - the one-time feared head of the family - sustained a beat down in the mental institution where he is confined.

"David [Chase] equates age with disintegrating," says Dominic Chianese, who plays Corrado Soprano aka Uncle Junior. "He lets you see the dark side."

Chianese claims not to know the "complete" ending. (Curatola has suggested that Chase filmed more than one conclusion to the show.) But because his work on the series has concluded, Chianese has been watching the remaining episodes with a more analytical eye.

Chase, he says, "has written a fantastic journey of a guy who happens to be a gangster. He has written a great American story about a family. It's a real world."

Tony may want to retire and spend his twilight years fishing and enjoying the occasional extramarital tryst, but the future looks anything but status quo. On Sunday's episode, Tony finds himself in the uncomfortable position of comforting Vito's widow (played by Lorraine Bracco's sister Elizabeth Bracco). Future episodes will have Paulie and Christopher feuding; AJ sinking into depression, and Phil Leotardo causing problems for the Jersey family.

When Tony told Paulie in last week's episode that he talks too much, it was classic projection.

"Tony is beginning to realize that he talked too much to the psychiatrist," he adds.

As "The Sopranos" has evolved, says Chianese, the show "has gone deeper into the psyche."

The psychological waves have not always inspired fans, who have grumbled on message boards and chat rooms about the show's pace in recent seasons.

"I think people will philosophize, they'll say many things," Chianese says. "But David is a powerful writer. It's pretty heavy stuff. Little lines mean so much. It's a show about the psyche. It's not about the mob. To me, the psyche is like a dark rubber-band ball with twists