If you want to cherry pick from one of TV’s best loved shows, here’s where to start

What have I been doing these past weeks? Who wants to know? Did Johnny Salami put you up to this? Have you been talking to Jimmy the Icepick? What have I been doing? Fuggetaboutit.

Sorry, I have been binge watching The Sopranos and it might have started to get to me. Premiering in 1999, The Sopranos was the series that ushered in the new golden era of TV and cemented HBO’s position as the home of quality, high-production-value content. It tells the story of Tony Soprano, a New Jersey native who is the head of a mafia family – I mean, waste management company – and who in the start of the series visits a psychiatrist to discuss personal problems. Twenty-six years later, the series still holds, still delivers chills and makes guys around the globe act like wiseguys. Here is my pick of the episodes, obviously, there will be spoilers so if you somehow managed to miss the show so far, avert your eyes.

College (S1, E5)

What makes The Sopranos so amazing is how big-time mobster Tony Soprano (who could have been portrayed as cartoonishly evil, see Joe Pesci in Goodfellas) is relatable to the everyman. What’s more relatable than taking your daughter to visit the college she wants to enrol in? Father-daughter bonding, campus visits, life advice. Except in between Tony spots a former mobster turned informant and strangles him with piano wire behind a gas station.

David Chase subverts expectations and flips the script, reminding viewers that sure, this is a father that takes his daughter on a road trip to see colleges but he is also a ruthless, merciless killer who will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Add to the mix his daughter flat-out asking him if he is in the mob and him denying it? Chef’s kiss.

Pine Barrens (S3, E11)

You knew this one was coming.

Pine Barrens is essentially a buddy comedy gone horribly wrong. Tony’s men Paulie and Christopher are supposed to collect money from a Russian mobster. Instead, they end up chasing him into the snowy woods of New Jersey. He vanishes, and they spend the rest of the episode freezing, starving and arguing like an old married couple. The scene where the two of them phone Tony from a payphone while they eat packets of ketchup so they won’t starve to death has me in stitches every time. Along with the fact that in typical David Chase fashion he leaves the fate of the Russian open-ended. Did he make it through? Did he die in the forest? Nobody knows. What we know is that this is some quality TV!

Whitecaps (S4, E13)

The Sopranos truly shines when it puts its main character in an everyday situation. Like having a fight with your wife about being unfaithful. This is a brutal one.

Tony tries to buy a beach house as a peace offering to his wife Carmela, but she’s done. Years of cheating and lying finally boil over, and what follows is one of the most vicious, emotionally raw fights ever put on TV.

It’s uncomfortable, it’s messy, and it’s unforgettable. Watching Tony face off against Carmela is scarier than watching him face off against rival mobsters, because for once, he can’t win with violence or intimidation.

Long Term Parking (S5, E12)

Aah, Adriana.

Christopher’s girlfriend throughout the series, Adriana was tough as nails, unafraid of the big bad mobsters and at times legitimately trying to pull herself together and escape the drug downhill she was on. In one of the most heartbreaking moments, we see her confessing to Christopher that she talked to the FBI, truly believing he would actually leave everything behind and run away with her. A dream shattered into a million pieces when he goes straight to Tony and gives her up, fully aware of the fate that awaited her. That car ride with Silvio, as she slowly realises that she is about to die and tears up was devastating.

Made in America (S6, E21)

Without a shred of hyperbole, one of the most talked about episodes in television history. The series finale sees Tony sit down at a diner with his family as Don’t Stop Believing by Journey plays on the jukebox. The door chime sounds everytime someone walks in and at some point Tony turns to see who walked in and then cuts to black. No explanation. No resolution. You decide for yourself.

Did Tony get whacked? Did life just go on? Fans have been arguing about it for nearly two decades and while some hate it, others love it, but nobody forgets it.