HBO’s Near-Perfect 6-Part Crime Series Is Still One of Its Greatest 19 Years Later

Nearly two decades after viewers thought their televisions suddenly broke when the final scene of The Sopranos aired, the show still towers over modern television as a timeless hit. From the all-star cast of Edie Falco and James Gandolfini, to the depth and complexity of the HBO show, few shows have come close to matching the cultural impact of The Sopranos.

While time has rendered lots of shows out of date, The Sopranos hasn’t been dulled as the years go on. If anything, time only made the talent behind the show – from the writing to the acting – shine even brighter and made the show feel sharper, funnier – at times darker – and more psychologically honest than others that camera after. At the time of its airing, The Sopranos broke viewership records that weren’t topped until Game of Thrones. And in the years since, it regularly ranks in the top 10 of the streaming network’s shows week over week.

Why ‘The Sopranos’ Still Feels Revolutionary

On the surface, The Sopranos is a mob drama. It’s about a group of criminals doing whatever it takes in the name of self-preservation, including killing and betraying those closest to them. But, in reality, it’s a character study just masquerading as a crime show. The series centers on Tony Soprano’s conflict between how he’s supposed to be portrayed and the reality of how he feels inside. He wages war with himself over the tough choices he has to make and what he wishes he could do if the rules of his world were different.

Before The Sopranos created Soprano in the complex way that they did, television leads were pretty much defined by being consistent. They were predictable, they fit into certain archetypes and rarely deviated from the character they were built to be. Tony Soprano shattered that mold of what a lead character is. While he’s charismatic, he’s also nasty. He’s both a sympathetic character and monstrous and sometimes all of these seemingly conflicting characteristics come through in the same scene.

The show never made excuses for how Soprano was behaving, they just tried to give them a way to understand him beyond what the stereotype would say he should be. There’s no moralizing in the series. No explanation for why what Soprano or the people around him are doing isn’t actually as bad or criminal as it seems. Show runners took a chance on trusting viewers to see Sopranos the multidimensional character that he is and love him in spite of his misgivings because of how human he is.

James Gandolfini’s Tony Soprano Is Still Unmatched

There’s not a chance you can talk about The Sopranos without acknowledging how transformative Gandolfini’s career-defining performance was. For many people, James Gandolfini and Tony Soprano are one and the same. It’s not until the final season that some viewers are able to separate the two. After getting shot by his uncle, Soprano goes into a coma and becomes Kevin Finnerty in a dream. Finnerty represents what Soprano could have been if he had been born into another life. Gandolfini is portraying an entirely new character with a new voice and even a new gait. That episode shows the breadth of his acting abilities and even Finnerty pulls viewers into the show with investment.

As Soprano, Gandolfini is terrifying, pitiful, funny, deeply insecure, assertive and vulnerable, often in rapid succession. His ability to portray all of these characteristics at a drop of a hat made viewers root for Soprano because of how relatable the manic display of emotions is. Few actors have gotten the space on a single show or been given a character so adeptly written that they could be so self-exposing over the course of six seasons.

The Sopranos redefined the terms of lead characters and gave future series the approval to push the boundaries with their protagonists. It proved that audiences could be willing to get invested in morally compromised characters. That characters don’t necessarily follow a typical redemption arc – or any redemption arc. Many of the characters on the show meet their demise without having redeemed themselves, but it doesn’t lessen viewers’ love for them.

‘The Sopranos’ Supporting Cast Makes the World Feel Alive

Soprano may be the gravitational center of the Sopranos world, but the show continues to thrive because of how incredible its ensemble is. Each character has layer upon layer of texture and, just like Soprano, they’re all contradictory and painfully human. There are parts of each character that viewers will love and parts of each character that viewers will despise.

It would have been easy for the show to make Carmela and Soprano’s relationship a case of good versus bad. Soprano, the philandering mobster, is pitted against a doting wife. Instead, show runners made Carmela just as complex as Soprano. The juxtaposition between her character as a devout Catholic and reckoning with Soprano’s business and infidelity is a portrait of complicity that’s both uncomfortable and empathetic.

Christopher, Paulie and Uncle Junior all teeter between comic relief and tragedy. They all have their faults and the show makes no qualms about showing them. But, they have just as much depth as Soprano, making viewers simultaneously get frustrated with them and want to root for them. Even characters with very minor roles feel lived-in, showing the attention to detail everyone involved in the show brought to the series.

‘The Sopranos’ Themes Have Only Grown More Relevant

The Sopranos first aired in 1999 and the early seasons could easily feel like a blast from the past given how 90s the filming and attire is. But, the show’s themes have stood the test of time and, in some ways, become even more relevant. The show’s exploration of consumerism, masculinity, the decay of generational values, feminism and moral self-deception are all themes that could easily be the center of a show written in 2026.

The show also deals with the American dream and the realization that life isn’t always the way it seems. It’s most evident through the coming of age stories of Meadow and Anthony, Jr., who both have to face the realities of their father’s world and the world around them. But, it’s also showcased through Soprano, who repeatedly talks about what life was like for his father and how far his Italian roots have come in America.

The thematic clarity throughout the series is part of why it’s aged like a fine wine. Yes, the specific examples are a commentary of a moment in time, but the themes of self-discovery, disappointment with life and country are all themes that every generation has had to and will have to grapple with, making the show feel eerily current.

It’s been nearly 20 years since The Sopranos ended, but the show doesn’t feel like a historical artifact. It feels like a benchmark that reminds people of what television shows can accomplish when they dive into complex characters and build a show around the themes that cross generations. It’s a show that uses a deeply flawed mob family to make viewers reflect on their own relationships and the lives we’ve been given versus the lives we may wish we could have.