5 Best Episodes That Made The Sopranos the Greatest TV Show In History

26 years ago, in 1999, the first episode of The Sopranos aired on HBO, a show that changed television forever.

We've chosen five of the most important, shocking, funny, and daring episodes – the ones that turned a drama about a gangster with panic attacks into the greatest show in the history of cinema.

1. Pilot – Season 1 Episode 1

It's frightening to think that the show might not have gotten the green light, and that the pilot was made with a Plan B in mind: in case of rejection, shoot another hour of footage and release it as a full-length movie.

And if that had happened, The Sopranos would still have gone down in the history of gangster cinema – for the fact that from the very first seconds it suddenly downplayed the Mafioso (the famous first shot with Tony between the legs of the statue), showed the corrupting influence of the family, and introduced the genre to psychoanalysis.

2. College – Season 1 Episode 5

Fans consider this the first truly great episode of the series. It was the birth of the antihero, an archetype that would take over television in the 2000s.

In College, Tony gets his hands dirty for the first time: while on a family vacation, the man accidentally stumbles upon a snitch living in the Witness Protection Program. Tony finds the man and cold-bloodedly strangles him.

There is no escaping the uncomfortable spectacle – before our eyes, the charismatic mobster turns into a cruel, impulsive killer.

3. Funhouse – Season 2 Episode 13

Dreams, hallucinations and visions have been a part of The Sopranos since the first season, but it's in Funhouse that they finally become an important source of information that can change things.

From time to time, Tony's subconscious will give him hints about what he already knows. Here it's about Pussy becoming an FBI informant. And this important revelation happens in an almost comedic way.

Tony gets food poisoning at an Indian restaurant and, in between frequent trips to the bathroom, has surreal dreams in which he meets a talking fish and even sets himself on fire.

4. Pine Barrens – Season 3 Episode 11

For many fans, The Sopranos is associated with Pine Barrens – an episode that sticks in the viewers' minds as a black comedy about the adventures of Chris and Paulie.

Two mobsters had to collect a debt from a Russian gangster, argued with him, killed him, and when they took him to bury the body in the woods, they lost the resurrected victim and got lost themselves.

Pine Barrens reminds us what a hilarious comedy The Sopranos can be, with an almost Coenesque plot about criminal incompetence and a fatal accident.

5. Made in America – Season 6 Episode 21

The final episode of The Sopranos is not just a scandalous black screen before the credits roll. It's also an hour of sad but dynamic events that tie up the loose ends and hint at the gangster world's bleak future.

The war against New York is over. Phil Leotardo suffers one of the most brutal and absurd deaths in the show's history, New Jersey mourns its fallen soldiers, and Tony finally meets Junior, who has lost his battle with dementia.