The Sopranos: Every Season Ranked Worst To Best

Season four contains a bit of everything. There’s comedy from Ralphie, who starts a ludicrously ill fated relationship with Tony’s sister Janice and continues to be a major pain. There’s an alternative romantic lead in the dashing Furio Dante, Napolitano mobster and ponytail wearer.

Adriana’s arc kicks up a notch, Uncle Junior emerges as the low key best character on the whole show, and Christopher’s heroin addiction leads to an intervention in one of the finest TV scenes ever committed to film. Really, though, this season is owned by Tony and Carmela. Gandolfini and Franco were four years in at this point, but they’d never explored their characters - more specifically, their marriage - like they do here.

Much of the feature length finale is given over to the two heavyweight actors (both winning Emmys for the episode) as years and decades of marital discontent come to the fore. It’s pure lived in drama, intense and gripping but never overplayed.

Season four sees the show step away from the Tony vs [temporary thorn in his side] structure, and ushers in the second movement of the series: Tony vs himself.