The Sopranos S1-6

Tony Soprano is a mob boss. He took over from his uncle before him, who took over from Tony’s father before that. The family have their fingers in a lot of dirty pies, and they’ll do whatever it takes not to get caught. Tony has the legacy of his father to live up to, a nephew to mentor, a mistress to hide, a wife to keep in jewels, the Feds to evade, and a pair of kids to raise. Soon, the pressure gets too much, and Tony starts to see a shrink – something no Soprano has ever done before.

In its eight years on the air, HBO’s The Sopranos, about New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano (played by the late James Gandolfini), redefined what television drama could be.

As the New York Times writes, “By the time the writer and producer David Chase brought The Sopranos to a close on June 10, 2007, he had helped establish HBO as a cultural force and make literary symbolism, cinematic style, long-form storytelling and complicated antiheroes the norm for high-end TV dramas.”

The Writers Guild of America named The Sopranos “the best-written television series of all time”, and it won a whopping 21 Emmy Awards. So if you’ve never watched The Sopranos, you’re missing out on one of the most influential stream TV series every made.