The 25 best episodes of The Sopranos, ranked

“A wise guy walks into a psychiatrist’s office.” It’s a simple, funny, intriguing enough elevator pitch, and 25 years ago—on January 10, 1999, to be precise—the world got to see just what creator David Chase & Co. could do with it. But what’s striking, a quarter of a century later, is not just that this series ended up changing television. It’s also that, even after the many fantastic shows it influenced, nothing that has come since has managed to hit quite like The Sopranos. It’s steeped in the time it aired but incredibly relevant today. (You could dedicate a college course—and they probably exist—to the series’ examination of wealth disparity, xenophobia, racism, religion, death, family, feminism, art, global politics, urban decay, existentialism, and so on.) It’s genuinely shocking and envelope pushing and creative and meta. Its soundtrack rules. It’s very, very funny. And, of course, it’s anchored by two of the greatest performances of all time—on TV or otherwise—thanks James Gandolfini and Edie Falco. It’s …. a lot, and yet somehow seems to succeed by these weirdly specific metrics that only The Sopranos has. There is, indeed, no other show like it. And there won’t be. Which is all to say: Narrowing down this list to just 25 episodes was incredibly tough. So, please, be nice.

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