10 Reasons The Sopranos Is Still The Best TV Show Of All Time
4. There's Not A Bad Episode
Most shows that run for six seasons experience some kind of a dip in quality. Game Of Thrones certainly didn’t manage to maintain its level of excellence throughout, and even The Wire ended on a season that, while still superb, was not at the level of previous years’ work.
Not so The Sopranos. Six seasons, 86 episodes, and you’d be hard pressed to find a single one that isn’t great. Each season has its own throughline of sorts - a particular thorn in Tony’s side, perhaps, or an issue with his real family that needs urgent attention - but The Sopranos is about the whole picture, the complete story.
It’s that overarching narrative that makes it so consistent - you never get the impression that Chase and his team are making it up as they go along. There’s always a purpose and a direction for everything we see. The odd choice was made out of necessity - the death of Nancy Marchand (Livia Soprano), for example - but on a macro level, everything was planned to perfection.
HBO would have let Chase continue the show as long as he could keep churning out scripts. Instead, he ended it while it was still great, thus cementing its legacy forever.