The Sopranos (1999)
Family. Redefined.
The story of New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads. Those difficulties are often highlighted through his ongoing professional relationship with psychiatrist Jennifer Melfi. The show features Tony's family members and Mafia associates in prominent roles and story arcs, most notably his wife Carmela and his cousin and protégé Christopher Moltisanti.
| Type | TV series |
|---|---|
| First aired | 10 January 1999 |
| Status | Ended, last episode 10 June 2007 |
| Genre | Crime, Drama |
| Created by | David Chase |
| Starring | James Gandolfini, Edie Falco and Jamie-Lynn Sigler |
| Seasons | 6 seasons, 86 episodes |
| Episode length | about 52 min |
| Time to watch it all | about 75 hours |
| Rated | TV-MA |
| Scores | TMDB users 8.7/10 |
Where to watch The Sopranos
The Sopranos is streaming on Max ($18.49 a month) in the US. At ten hours a week, all of the series takes about 2 months of Max, or $36.98 at list price.
We check availability daily. Page last updated 12 October 2026. Prices are standard monthly plans and change often, so check with the service before you sign up.
What kind of watch this is
Created by David Chase, The Sopranos ran for 6 seasons and 86 episodes, totaling 75 hours of screen time. It is a crime drama that treats the mob boss’s office chair as a place of genuine psychological unraveling. Tony Soprano spends his time balancing the DiMeo crime family with his home life, a task that usually ends in anger or a panic attack. The show’s hook is the therapy sessions, where a violent man slowly admits to being deeply, inconveniently human. It is not a show about power; it is about the exhaustion of maintaining a persona. You press play knowing that every family dinner is a hostage negotiation.
What the critics said
Rotten Tomatoes gives The Sopranos 92 percent, and Metacritic lands on 94 out of 100. Those numbers suggest the debate is over. The New York Times stated, "[The Sopranos] just may be the greatest work of American popular culture of the last quarter century" following its initial airing in 1999. David Remnick, writing for The New Yorker, later named it "the richest achievement in the history of television." That is a lot of superlatives for a show about a mob boss with anxiety. The consensus is that it rewrote the rules for the genre.
How it did with audiences
It never posted a box office number, which is technically true since it was a show. Yet it pulled ratings that rivaled the big four networks, a feat achieved on premium cable, a channel most American households didn’t even have. Before 2004, Nielsen lumped all cable together, so those aggregate numbers might include people watching HBO channels other than the main one. But the core audience was undeniable. On TMDB, users rate it 8.7 out of 10. That score sticks.
Awards
The series collected 57 awards from 141 nominations. It was the first cable show to win the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series in 2004. James Gandolfini and Edie Falco each took home 3 lead acting Emmys. The TCA gave it the Heritage Award in 2007. A lot of hardware for a show about a mob boss.
What came next for the cast
James Gandolfini arrived after True Romance and Crimson Tide. He left behind a string of roles including Zero Dark Thirty and The Drop. Edie Falco stepped in from Cop Land and Oz. Her later credits include Avatar: The Way of Water and The Mother. The timeline does not prove the show caused these shifts. It only marks where the paths diverged.
If you liked this
TMDB's recommendations for people who watched The Sopranos.
Sources
- The Sopranos on TMDB — synopsis, cast, ratings and recommendations
- Wikidata Q23628 — review scores, box office and awards (CC0)
- “The Sopranos” on Wikipedia, by its contributors (history) — reception, audience figures and legacy, summarised and adapted here under CC BY-SA 4.0
- Where to watch and prices: Binge Boss, from TMDB watch-provider data (powered by JustWatch) and our own provider list
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