History Series / TheSopranos

* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: Because Tony is the show's main character, it's impossible for the FBI to actually catch him. Despite numerous subplots involving their agents attempting to ensnare or incriminate Tony, they all fail due to his ProperlyParanoid tendencies, the loyalty of his capos, and a lot of bad luck. Although it's ''possible'' they finally got enough evidence to indict him in the very last episode, [[[[AmbiguousEnding it's ultimately left uncertain]].

* FaceOfAThug: Silvio always has a trademark, weird facial expression.

** In the first half of Season 3, the FBI goes to great effort to install a very well-hidden wiretap in the Soprano home's basement (in the form of an unused table lamp which they swapped out). They spend several episodes taping Tony's conversations in a nearby unmarked van, but ultimately learn nothing incriminating before Meadow takes the lamp to college to furnish her dorm room, anticlimactically resolving the subplot without any payoff. His trial ends without a conviction too, and it only gets worse for Junior after that.

''The Sopranos'' is a [[GenreDeconstruction deconstructive]] CriminalProcedural series created by Creator/DavidChase. Its PilotEpisode was shot in 1997, and the show premiered on {{Creator/HBO}} in the United States on January 10, 1999, concluding its original run of six seasons and 86 episodes on June 10, 2007 with one of the most infamous endings in American television history.

* StealthPun: Phil comes out of the closet when he is handling the resolution of Vito's situation.

* WidowMistreatment: Subverted with [[spoiler:Big Pussy]]'s widow Angie Bonpensiero. After her husband is "disappeared" by Tony and his crew for being a government informant, she voices her financial problems to Carmela, Tony's wife. While he initially considers helping her out, he decides to vandalize her car and tells her to come directly to him with any problems. Later on, she is forced to [[FallenOnHardTimesJob become a cashier at a supermarket to make ends meet]]. Tony takes pity on Angie and puts her in charge of [[spoiler:Pussy]]'s former car shop. Angie excells at the job and becomes an integral part of Tony's operation, far moreso than the other mob wives.

->''"[[Music/JourneyBand Don't]] [[TheStinger stop-]]"''

The show had a significant impact on the American television industry. It is commonly credited with ushering in the (current) [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Age_of_Television_(2000s%E2%80%93present) Golden Age of Television]], it is one of the most influential artistic works of the 2000s, and it served as a turning point for the legitimization of serial television as an art form on the same level as feature films, literature, and theater. [[FollowTheLeader In the show's wake]], TV entered an age of complex, no-handholding storytelling centered around morally dark protagonists (examples include ''Series/{{Breaking Bad}}'', ''Series/{{Mad Men}}'' and ''Series/{{Boardwalk Empire}}'', all of which were directly inspired by ''The Sopranos'', with the latter two programs having showrunners that also worked on ''The Sopranos''). The series helped establish HBO as producers of critically acclaimed and commercially successful original television series, and became the first cable program to be both nominated for and win an UsefulNotes/EmmyAward.

* WidowMistreatment: Subverted with Big Pussy's widow Angie Bonpensiero. After her husband is "disappeared" by Tony and his crew for being a government informant, she voices her financial problems to Carmela, Tony's wife. While he initially considers helping her out, he decides to vandalize her car and tells her to come directly to him with any problems. Later on, she is forced to [[FallenOnHardTimesJob become a cashier at a supermarket to make ends meet]]. Tony takes pity on Angie and puts her in charge of Pussy's former car shop. Angie excells at the job and becomes an integral part of Tony's operation, far moreso than the other mob wives.

** Jackie Aprile Jr.'s storyline is [[spoiler:attempting to live up to the universal respect and authority of his late father, while Tony attempts to keep him on the straight and narrow on the late Jackie's wishes, away from the criminal side of his family, even allowing Jackie Jr to date his daughter. However, his repeated insistence to command respect from the other capos, dropping out of college, cheating on Meadow, and thinking he's entitled to respect. Eventually, a bungled robbery on a mob card game leaves Tony no choice but to have Jackie whacked, his only legacy having everyone talk about what a moron he was.]]
** Tony B's story [[spoiler:has him getting out of jail, eager to start a new life. His initial attempt to leave his criminal life behind is abandoned when the stress and work of starting up his own honest business leads him to abandon the plot in favour of the easy thrills and quick money that a life of crime afforded him. It quickly goes pear-shaped when he hears the Leotardo brothers murdered his prison buddy, leading Tony B to impulsively murder Billy Leotardo in vengeance. This forces Tony S to kill him despite being family, as Phil made it clear he would stop at nothing to hunt Tony B down and gruesomely torture him to death, risking an all-out MobWar. This attempt to pacify Phil doesn't even work, and is the initial trigger for the eventually all-out war that eventually cripples both the New York and New Jersey crime families.]]
** J.T. Dolan is a relatively minor character who is roped into helping Chris write a movie script due to being TrappedByGamblingDebts. He's deep in debt and at points addicted to heroin due to the stress, but after the movie comes out, his debt is cancelled, he gets himself clean, and he's back in honest work with no connection to mobsters. Then [[spoiler:Chris kills him in a drunken fit of rage one night for basically no reason.]]

** Early in the show, the main conflict is in regards to Uncle Junior and Tony fighting over who will become TheDon after the death of Jackie Sr. When Junior realizes Tony agreeing to make him boss was in title only, he starts setting up schemes to dispose of his nephew. His first attempt at a hit fails, and he doesn't get another attempt because he's placed under house arrest pending a trial for a totally unrelated, and previously unmentioned, crime. He even ends up siding with Tony when Ralphs approaches Junior for a potential coup, seeing his nephew as ultimately the safer option.

** Adriana, [[spoiler:Christopher's girlfriend and later fiancee, who wants to settle down and start a family with Chris. This is already difficult due to Chris wanting children and Adriana being infertile due to a botched abortion and Chris being a violent addict (more than once beating Adrianna and accidentally killing her dog while high), and eventually becomes impossible when Adriana is forced to become an FBI informant or face a long jail sentence. When forced into a difficult decision of either wearing a wire to a meeting with Tony Soprano or going to prison for concealing evidence of a murder, she attempts to choose a third option by confessing being an informant to Chris and going into witness protection together. It doesn't work, Chris reluctantly sides with the family, leading to Adrianna's execution.]]

** The series starts off with Tony being referred to a psychiatrist, named Dr. Melfi, to deal with his panic attacks, to uncover the root causes, and improve his relationships with his family and other associates, and better himself mentally. While his panic attacks do cease [[spoiler:by the end of the series', it can hardly be said that his relationship with his family and associates is any better than at the start of the series, and, if anything, he's a far more violent, detached, and worse person than he was when the sessions started. Dr. Melfi recognizes this fact and cuts Tony off for good in the third-last episode, seeing him as a lost cause. Then, [[UncertainDoom there's a high possibility]] Tony is whacked at the end of the last episode.]]

** Vito's story arc [[spoiler:begins when he's outed as a homosexual. He goes into hiding in New Hampshire, finds satisfaction in performing good deeds for once, starts a relationship with a handsome man he befriends, and has a chance to leave his criminal life behind. However, he eventually gets bored of his civilian life and comes back to New Jersey to beg Tony for a job in the family out of state. This proves to be a death sentence, Phil discovers Vito has returned to New Jersey, finds his location, and has him brutally beaten to death. Even worse, Vito's children are bullied when it comes out in the news that he was gay, the family isn't able to move to Maine like they wanted because Tony gambled the money he was going to give them away, his son is expelled from school for lashing out, and forcibly shipped off to a MilitarySchool where corporal punishment is allowed.]]

The show had a significant impact on the American television industry. It is commonly credited with ushering in the (current) [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Age_of_Television_(2000s%E2%80%93present) Golden Age of Television]], it is of the most influential artistic works of the 2000s, and it served as a turning point for the legitimization of serial television as an art form on the same level as feature films, literature, and theater. [[FollowTheLeader In the show's wake]], TV entered an age of complex, no-handholding storytelling centered around morally dark protagonists (examples include ''Series/{{Breaking Bad}}'', ''Series/{{Mad Men}}'' and ''Series/{{Boardwalk Empire}}'', all of which were directly inspired by ''The Sopranos'', with the latter two programs having showrunners that also worked on ''The Sopranos''). The series helped establish HBO as producers of critically acclaimed and commercially successful original television series, and became the first cable program to be both nominated for and win an UsefulNotes/EmmyAward.

The show had a significant impact on the American television industry. It is commonly credited with ushering in the golden age of television and has been characterized by critics as one of the most influential artistic works of the 2000s and a turning point for the legitimization of serial television as an art form on the same level as feature films, literature, and theater. [[FollowTheLeader In the show's wake]], TV entered an age of complex, no-handholding storytelling centered around morally dark protagonists (examples include ''Series/{{Breaking Bad}}'', ''Series/{{Mad Men}}'' and ''Series/{{Boardwalk Empire}}'', all of which were directly inspired by ''The Sopranos'', with the latter two programs having showrunners that also worked on ''The Sopranos''). The series helped establish HBO as producers of critically acclaimed and commercially successful original television series, and became the first cable program to be both nominated for and win an UsefulNotes/EmmyAward.

* VillainOfAnotherStory: Tony's crew sometimes has to deal with similar mafia organizations, particularly the Lupertazzi family in New York. Sometimes allies and sometimes rivals, the Lupertazzis are indicated to be much larger and have a much wider reach than Tony does but their criminal empire never really comes into focus since they're not the main characters. Even within the Soprano family itself, most of the characters we see are upper management (bosses, underbosses, capos, and consiglieres), while most of the soldiers are out doing their own thing and kicking money upstairs.

''The Sopranos'' is a [[GenreDeconstruction deconstructive]] CriminalProcedural series created by Creator/DavidChase. Its PilotEpisode was shot in 1997, and the show premiered on {{Creator/HBO}} in the United States on January 10, 1999, concluding its original run of six seasons and 86 episodes on June 10, 2007 with one of the most infamous endings in American television history[[note]]see [[{{WMG/TheSopranos}} the WMG page]] for various interpretations[[/note]].

* NotAfriadToDie: Ariel in "Denial, Anger, Acceptance" is willing to die before he hands over a 50% stake in his business to his father-in-law, much to Tony's exacerbation. Ariel considers the threat of a CripplingCastration a FateWorseThanDeath, however...

* TragicHero / TragicVillain: Tony does try to be a good person for his family and friends. The fact he's a [[TheSociopath a sociopath]] does kind of hinder that, though.