The Sopranos was a long-time award-winning HBO television series. It aired on HBO from January 1999 to June 2007. The series followed the story of a character named Tony Soprano played by James Gandolfini. He was a mob boss and a family man. The plot often switched between his personal life and his exciting crime-ridden business life.

Throughout the seven-year series, Tony goes through several sessions with his psychiatrist. The doctor is called Jennifer Melfi and is played by Lorraine Bracco. Much of the subtextual tension in the show revolves around Tony’s double life as an ordinary good man and a murderous mobster.

The show’s creators want the audience to deal with their affection for Tony, the seemingly nice guy in one scene, and Tony, the killer, in other scenes. One of the main functions of the psych sessions is that it gives Tony, himself, a place to deal with these issues. Dr. Melfi is also required to deal with her notions of right and wrong as she advises Mr. Soprano. In some of the later episodes of the show, they even have a love affair.

Besides Tony’s doctor, the other characters who play a prominent role in his life are his immediate family. The Sopranos are made up of his wife Carmela, who is played by Edie Falco, his daughter Meadow and his son Anthony Junior. Though Tony instructs his nephew Christopher to become a fellow mobster, when his own children grow up near the end of the series, he doesn’t seem to want the same fate for them. Meadow is a great student and the most difficult decision for her is whether to study law or medicine. By contrast, Anthony Junior, who goes by AJ, seems to be getting nowhere. He doesn’t excel at school or at work. Although AJ gets involved in some minor criminal activity, his father never brings him into the mob family. The series ends with no conclusions regarding AJ’s future.

Besides Tony’s blood family, the other most important part of his life is his mob family. Throughout the series, Tony is forced to make many stressful decisions regarding his crime family. He must run it like a business and make ruthless financial decisions. Also, he is forced to occasionally kill very close friends when they turn out to be rats or FBI spies. The FBI, by the way, is always lurking in the background and trying to infiltrate the family.

If you are looking for a show that has both action and drama, The Sopranos is a great option. Even now, years after its original air date, the show still retains a level of creativity and entertainment value that is hard to match.