The Sopranos

The Sopranos did not just change television. It created the medium we now take for granted. Before Tony Soprano walked into Dr. Melfi's office, television dramas were procedural, episodic, and safe. David Chase proved that TV could be a novelist's medium — complex, morally ambiguous, and willing to challenge its audience. James Gandolfini's Tony Soprano remains the most fully realized character in the history of the medium: a murderer you root for, a family man who destroys families, a man in therapy who never changes. The final cut to black is the most debated ending in entertainment history, and it is perfect.