20 TV Shows That Are Practically Flawless
1. The Sopranos
The show that changed the face of TV forever has yet to be surpassed by any of the series it's inspired. The Sopranos aired six seasons between 1999 and 2007, and reshaped not just the way TV dramas could be made, but reinvented the entire mafia genre by making its key players feel more like real people than clichéd gangsters.
Starring the late, eternally great James Gandolfini as mob boss and family man Tony Soprano, the series was at once a gritty crime drama and a dark comedy that showed off Tony's insecurities and effortlessly balanced his weaknesses with his powerful pull in New York's criminal underbelly.
The Sopranos looked past the clichés of the mob drama and created something wholly new and exciting, and with episodes like season one's College, season three's Pine Barrens and season five's Long-Term Parking, it made sure to be as twistedly funny as it was brutally violent, harrowingly tragic, and brilliantly unpredictable.
Add its unbeatable writing, consistency and scope the revolutionary performances of Gandolfini, Edie Falco, Drea de Matteo and Lorraine Bracco, as well as its frequent ambiguity and nerve-shredding plot twists, and what you have with The Sopranos is a show that's about as perfect as TV has ever been.