As popular now as it was in the golden age of television, “The Sopranos” is an award-winning show from David Chase. The show’s general premise (and always intriguing) is likely familiar to even those who haven’t seen an episode based on its critical success and lasting legacy. As an Italian-American mob boss seated in New Jersey, an anxiety-ridden Italian turns to therapy for help with his crippling panic attacks and juggling his dual roles as a mob member and suburban family man.
The entire “Sopranos” saga is currently available to younger generations (while older generations have the chance to revisit) via HBO Max, even though the show officially ceased production in 2007. Here is a list of some of the best Sopranos episodes and a reason for you to watch the entire series.
20. Sopranos Home Movies
- Director– Tim Van Patten
- Writer– David Chase, Diane Frolov, Andrew Schneider
- Cast– James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, Michael Imperioli
- IMDb– 9.0
- Rotten Tomatoes–
- Platform– HBO max
- Season– 6
- Episode– 13
Tony, Carmela, Bobby, and Janice spend a weekend in the Adirondacks to commemorate the mafia boss’s b’day in this episode of the first season. Initially, it’s a pleasant respite.
Bobby gives Tony a gun, and the two guys spend time in the wilderness drinking beer and shooting it. Meanwhile, Tony ponders whatever we, the spectators, have long assumed about the other man: that he’s a criminal who’s never killed anyone.
Janice later offers her brother some old Soprano home movies, and the two couples relax next to a beautiful lake. However, like with most everything in Tony Soprano’s career, things inevitably become violent.
19. Join the Club
- Director– David Nutter
- Writer– David Chase
- Cast– James Gandolfini, Edie Falco
- IMDb– 8.7
- Rotten Tomatoes–
- Platform– HBO max
- Season– 6
- Episode– 2
“The Sopranos” is a sophisticated, well-balanced program with excellent acting performances, and it has a lot to say as a “morality tale about a country in long-term decline,” as The NY Times put it so eloquently. However, its ability to masterfully integrate crucial extended scenes into its stories is perhaps one of its strongest characteristics.
These explorations into Tony’s mind are frequently both entertaining and descriptively significant. Simultaneously, his nearest and dearest in the physical realm gather around his cot to wish for a complete recovery. Throughout it all, Uncle Junior, who is becoming increasingly confused and senile, rejects any involvement in Tony’s condition, failing to acknowledge or recognize that he had anything to do with his nephew’s suffering.
18. Amour Fou
- Director– Tim Van Patten
- Writer– David Chase
- Cast– James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, Michael Imperioli
- IMDb– 9.2
- Rotten Tomatoes–
- Platform– HBO max
- Season– 3
- Episode-12
This comes after Tony Soprano’s increasingly rocky relationship with Gloria Trillo, a salesperson. When Gloria elicits a trip home from Carmela, Tony is enraged and tries to put a stop to their relationship once and for all. Gloria responds by threatening to tell his family about his cheating.
While Tony tries to negotiate the minefield that is the end of his brief relationship with Gloria, Jackie Jr. commits himself to an ill-considered attempt to achieve recognition and momentum inside the New Jersey mafia.
17. Whoever Did This
- Director– Tim Van Patten
- Writer– Robin Green, Mitchell Burgess
- Cast– James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, Michael Imperioli
- IMDb– 9.2
- Rotten Tomatoes–
- Platform– HBO max
- Season– 4
- Episode– 9
The Alzheimer’s problems Junior counterfeits during his trials start to become far too genuine, Tony is still obsessed with his thoroughbred Pie-O-My, and Ralph Cifaretto’s (Joe Pantoliano) kid experiences a terrible tragedy with an arrow in the late Season 4 episode “Whoever Did This.”
When a devastating stable fire breaks in the barn wherein Pastry is kept, which coincides suspiciously with Ralphie’s son’s hospitalization, Tony suspects Ralph of blowing the building down for insurance money — and murdering his loved horse in the bargain. Tony confronts selfish, short-tempered, and sadistic Ralph Cifaretto one more time, angry and frustrated.
16. Long Term Parking
- Director– Tim Van Patten
- Writer– Terence Winter
- Cast– James Gandolfini, Edie Falco
- IMDb– 9.6
- Rotten Tomatoes–
- Platform– HBO max
- Season– 5
- Episode– 12
The anxiety of disintegration that surrounds the act of forming a family, if formed of biological connections, business ties, or both, is foreshadowed by the curve of the opening titles, which follows Tony Soprano on the twisting trip home, to the theme of birds flocking together.
The Sopranos creates its character’s pressures (Edie Falco), Uncle Jr (Dominic Chianese), the kids (Robert Iler and Jamie-Lynn Sigler), and his mom (Nancy Marchand)—without losing sight of their own inner lives as Tony explains his life to Dr. Melfi (Lorraine Bracco) in the aftereffects of a panic attack, his words established against pictures of street violence and domestic strain—without losing. It is one of the best Sopranos episodes from the fifth season.
15. I Dream of Jeannie Cusamano
- Director– John Patterson
- Writer– David Chase
- Cast– James Gandolfini, Lorraine Bracco, Edie Falco
- IMDb– 9.2
- Rotten Tomatoes–
- Platform– HBO max
- Season– 1
- Episode– 13
Uncle Junior plans his nephew’s death only with permission and aid of Tony’s tyrannical and manipulative mother, Livia, in the 1st Season finale, “I Dream of Jeannie Cusamano.” So when the FBI relocates Tony to a safe place, he discovers this horrible treachery. Dr. Melfi’s life, according to our anxious gangster, may also be in jeopardy. Meanwhile, Jimmy Altieri, a suspected rat, is killed by the mafia family.
The ever-aggressive Livia confesses Tony’s participation in the destruction of the other man’s business during a chat with Artie, and the police try to persuade a jailed Junior to say Tony Soprano is the ruler of the New Jersey criminal family in return for a reduced sentence.
14. Pilot
- Director– David Chase
- Writer– David Chase
- Cast– James Gandolfini, Lorraine Bracco, Edie Falco
- IMDb– 8.5
- Rotten Tomatoes–
- Platform– HBO max
- Season– 1
- Episode– 1
The anxiety of disintegration that surrounds the act of forming a family, if made of biological connections, business ties, or both, is foreshadowed by the arc of the title sequence, which follows Tony Soprano on the twisting trip home, to the theme of birds flocking together.
The Sopranos creates its character’s pressures (Edie Falco), Uncle Jr (Dominic Chianese), the children (Robert Iler and Jamie-Lynn Sigler), his mom (Nancy Marchand)—without losing track of their own inner lives as Tony explains his life to Dr. Melfi (Lorraine Bracco) in the aftereffects of an anxiety attack, his words set against pictures of mob violence and domestic strain—without losing.
13. Second Opinion
- Director– Tim Van Patten
- Writer– Lawrence Konner
- Cast– James Gandolfini, Lorraine Bracco, Edie Falco
- IMDb– 8.4
- Rotten Tomatoes–
- Platform– HBO max
- Season– 3
- Episode– 7
Carmela and Uncle Junior, the two major protagonists, seek second views after being dissatisfied with the first. Junior is undergoing treatment for cancer, and Tony believes he is receiving subpar care since his oncologist’s name is John Kennedy. But it really is Carmela’s tale that matters the most.
She goes to a couples therapy session without Tony, who has mentally checked out of the marriage, and sobs as she tells Dr. Melfi that there is nothing they can do to help Tony. He wants to let Carmela dodge accountability, telling her that she is living off of dirty money; therefore, the only way she can still save her soul is to leave Tony as well as take nothing except her children with her.
12. Kennedy and Heidi
- Director– Alan Taylor
- Writer– Matthew Weiner
- Cast– James Gandolfini, Lorraine Bracco, Edie Falco
- IMDb– 9.1
- Rotten Tomatoes–
- Platform– HBO max
- Season– 6
- Episode– 18
The creators of The Sopranos had a lot of fun with series names. You might be wondering who Kennedy and Heidi are. They’re the mid-partying teenagers who, if Tony Soprano hadn’t done the job for them, would have been accused of the assassination of Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli).
Certainly, it appeared like Christopher would be killed (either by his “family” or by his own demons), probably eventually. And he was seriously hurt when his inebriated driving caused his Escalade to flip when he tried to avoid colliding with the girls’ car while leaving for Las Vegas. It is one of the best Sopranos episodes.
11. Marco Polo
- Director– John Patterson
- Writer– David Chase
- Cast– James Gandolfini, Edie Falco
- IMDb– 8.7
- Rotten Tomatoes–
- Platform– HBO max
- Season– 5
- Episode– 8
Hugh, Carmela’s father, pushes on her to invite her soon-to-be ex-husband to his birthday celebration. To Carmela’s and Tony’s amazement, they slip back into old habits and spend the night together, putting them on the path to reconciliation.
The party sequence’s serene pacing harkens back to classics by Robert Altman and Hal Ashby, in which the plotting is meticulously built towards a predetermined outcome. Still, everything seemed to happen organically, even randomly, from one moment to the next, thanks to the finely drawn characters and expertly tunable performance results. This episode’s second narrative is almost as interesting:
Cousin Tony B. (actor-director Steve Buscemi) brings his two boys to the party, and they are so taken aback by the Sopranos’ wealth that they make their father feel inadequate and silly, feelings that contribute to his return to delinquency and, eventually, execution.
10. Knight in White Satin Armor
- Director– Allen Coulter
- Writer– Robin Green, Mitchell Burgess
- Cast– James Gandolfini, Lorraine Bracco, Edie Falco
- IMDb– 9.3
- Rotten Tomatoes–
- Platform– HBO max
- Season– 2
- Episode– 12
It taught its contemporaries and heirs that you could astonish your audience not just with what happened but also with how and when it happened. Timing had never been used as a heavy-emphasis weapon like this before.
Most people assumed Tony would assassinate Richie, either directly or indirectly, or that Richie’s upcoming wedding to Janice would compel Tony to acknowledge him into the relationship despite his hatred for him, thus igniting yet another simmering bitter rivalry.
9. University
- Director– Allen Coulter
- Writer– David Chase, Terence Winter, Salvatore Stabile
- Cast– James Gandolfini, Lorraine Bracco, Edie Falco
- IMDb– 8.7
- Rotten Tomatoes–
- Platform– HBO max
- Season– 3
- Episode– 6
In the Season 3 episode “University,” Tony Soprano’s racism is on full show when he learns who his college-aged daughter is dating. When Meadow’s sad roommate, Caitlin, puts unanticipated pressure on the relationship, it’s evident that Meadow and her new lover Noah aren’t meant to stay.
Meanwhile, when “made man” Ralph Cifaretto’s partner Tracee, a Bada Bing dancer, becomes pregnant, the young woman seeks Tony’s guidance. Given Tony’s dislike for the other man, it’s hardly surprising that he suggests an abortion. Unfortunately, Tracee’s relationship with the irritable Ralph quickly turns tragic and explosive, reminding us — yet again — that Ralph, like so many other characters on this show, is a fairly (and irredeemably) terrible guy.
8. Funhouse
- Director– John Patterson
- Writer– Todd A. Kessler
- Cast– James Gandolfini, Lorraine Bracco, Edie Falco
- IMDb– 9.4
- Rotten Tomatoes–
- Platform– HBO max
- Season– 2
- Episode– 13
Tony’s health is a significant theme in The Sopranos: stress episodes, despair, and his uncle shot him in the stomach. However, in the second season’s conclusion, we find that all it takes for our anti-hero to recognize that his oldest buddy is a rat is a serious case of food poisoning.
Until Tony’s Godfather-Esque vision depicts Big Pussy (Vincent Pastore) as a talking fish, it nearly appeared like Big Pussy’s (Vincent Pastore) connection with the law had gone unreported as he was an FBI informant. In contrast, in other series, a forced explanation would have squandered time catching the rest of the cast up on what the viewer has understood for months.
7. The Test Dream
- Director– Allen Coulter
- Writer– David Chase, Matthew Weiner
- Cast– James Gandolfini, Lorraine Bracco, Edie Falco
- IMDb– 8.6
- Rotten Tomatoes–
- Platform– HBO max
- Season– 5
- Episode– 11
It expertly weaves in and out of reality, making it difficult to tell where the “real” ends and the imagined begins at first. It ups the ante on previous dream sequences by having Tony see events that are similar to real-life occurrences while he is dreaming.
“The Test Dream” feels like a missing link between season two’s “From Where to Eternity” — inside which Chris explains a place of the eternal world he saw while clinically dead and insists it wasn’t a dream — and season six’s “Join the Club” and “Mayham,” which let Tony wander around in that sort of space, being examined, judged, and challenged without the comforts — and season six’s “Join the Club” and “Mayham.”
6. Pine Barrens
- Director– Steve Buscemi
- Writer– Tim Van Patten; Terence Winter
- Cast– James Gandolfini, Lorraine Bracco, Edie Falco
- IMDb– 9.7
- Rotten Tomatoes–
- Platform– HBO max
- Season– 3
- Episode– 11
“Pine Barrens,” helmed by Steve Buscemi (who already plays Tony B.), follows Meadow’s deteriorating connection with the deeply ignorant Jackie Jr., along with Tony’s deteriorating link with his increasingly unstable “goomah,” Gloria. The narrative, which throws two of Tony’s funniest and most fascinating mobsters entirely out of their environment, is the true triumph here — and what makes this gem of an episode the fan-tested best of the whole show with Michael Imperioli in this episode of Pine Barrens.
Once things go wrong during a routine collection, Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli) with Paulie resolve to go to the snow-covered Pine Barrens in South Jersey to get off of the Russian gangster in the trunk of their car.
They want to murder the man and dispose of his body there. Instead, the squabbling couple finds themselves abandoned in the woods with their mad foe on the loose, lamenting the fact that they can only subsist on Tic-Tacs in subzero temps in Pine Barrens.
5. The Second Coming
- Director– Tim Van Patten
- Writer– Matthew Weiner
- Cast– James Gandolfini, Lorraine Bracco, Edie Falco
- IMDb– 9.2
- Rotten Tomatoes–
- Platform– HBO max
- Season– 6
- Episode– 19
The gap between Soprano and Lupertazzi families widens in “The Second Coming,” which premieres late in Season 6 and sees Phil refusing to negotiate on environmental cleanup. Meadow is humiliated by a drunk and provocative Coco in a restaurant. Tony, enraged, tries to exacerbate the tense New Jersey-New York relationship by beating some other man for such a heinous affront.
Later, Dr. Melfi’s own therapist (and colleague) informs her of a study on psychopaths and “talk” therapy, implying that she has only given a venue for Tony Soprano to “hone his talents” over the years. Finally, a disturbing poem by W.B. Yeats entitled “The Second Coming” pushes a severely dejected A.J., who is shocked by the world’s bleak situation.
4. Employee of the Month
- Director– John Patterson
- Writer– David Chase, Robin Green, Mitchell Burgess
- Cast– James Gandolfini, Lorraine Bracco, Edie Falco
- IMDb– 9.1
- Rotten Tomatoes–
- Platform– HBO max
- Season– 3
- Episode– 4
This episode defies the show’s own audience base’s dominant dream association with Tony and the group, as well as 40 years of violence tropes, by allowing Dr. Melfi to use her most terrifying patient as a blunt tool to shatter the guy who sexually attacked her. “No,” she says in a single syllable, followed by the show’ 1st cut-to-black finale. It’s a rejection of a result that the viewer, Melfi’s kid, ex-husband, and maybe even Melfi herself wished for.
In practically every scene, it sticks close to Melfi, examining the latest attack in considerably greater depth than the incident itself. It’s the quintessential Melfi episode, appealing to the excellent surgeon’s unbending moral ethic. It is one of the best Sopranos episodes.
3. Whitecaps
- Director– John Patterson
- Writer– David Chase, Robin Green, Mitchell Burgess
- Cast– James Gandolfini, Lorraine Bracco, Edie Falco
- IMDb– 9.2
- Rotten Tomatoes–
- Platform– HBO max
- Season– 4
- Episode– 13
Another brilliant episode by Green, Burgess, and Patterson, with Chase as a co-writer. After finding yet another one of Tony’s indiscretions, Carmela kicks him out of the house, laying the groundwork for a series of progressively raunchy arguments between the pair that reference everything from The Honeymooners to Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
It might be the pinnacle of James Gandolfini and Edie Falco’s explosive rapport. The plot lines are also great, with Christopher coming out of rehab, rising tensions between Tony Sirico and Big Carmine’s New York clan, and Tony’s quest to recoup the deposit on the second property he was attempting to purchase for Carmela, an issue determined by Dean Martin in the end.
2. The Blue Comet
- Director– Alan Taylor
- Writer– David Chase, Matthew Weiner
- Cast– James Gandolfini, Lorraine Bracco, Edie Falco
- IMDb– 9.6
- Rotten Tomatoes–
- Platform– HBO max
- Season– 6
- Episode– 20
The penultimate episode of the series, “The Blue Comet,” portrays a lot of plot momentum – much of it tragic. During this episode, Melfi cuts off Tony Sirico from the client list (losing any hope of improving Tony), the storyline between Artie and Charmaine concludes, and Lupertazzi’s hitmen kill Bobby Baccalieri.
Bobby, the gentle giant, dies in a hail of bullets as he picks out the cherished toy train. Hence, it is one of the most memorable death sequences of the series. Silvio was taken to the hospital in critical condition after getting shot outside the Bada Bing. The scene in which Tony tells AJ — recently released from a mental ward — of Bobby’s death and then lashes out physically at him after he begins to cry occurs after the shocking scene in which Tony informs AJ of Bobby’s death. I can understand why Dr. Melfi wouldn’t take him on as a patient, given his sociopathy. It’s one of TV’s greatest finales, with an episode filled with heartbreak, thus making it an outstanding drama series.
1. Made in America
- Director– David Chase
- Writer– David Chase
- Cast– James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, Michael Imperioli
- IMDb– 9.3
- Rotten Tomatoes-
- Platform- HBO Max
- Season– 6
- Episode– 21
As the Sopranos try to escape Phil Leotardo (Frank Vincent) and his henchmen in this series finale, they turn to one another. Chasing perfection throughout his final episode, including its unforgettable cut to black, Chase made the most of every second. But what happened to Tony? That moment alone, a daring attempt worthy of the 1960s art films Chase liked as a young film student, would earn it a place on any list of the best endings. However, the remaining of the program is impressive, along with a lot of character depth of the characters.
It’s a caustic and often terrifying investigation of impermanent remembrance, karma, and fear, focused on a criminal family and a biological family coping with the consequences of their past actions while confronting a clouded future, compressing two hours’ worth of happenings into a percussion 1 hour. It was also one of the show’s most unsettlingly funny episodes and probably the best series finale.
