The Sopranos recap

The Sopranos, writer-producer-director David Chase's extraordinary television series, is nominally an urban gangster drama, but its true impact strikes closer to home: Like 1999's other screen touchstone, American Beauty, the HBO series chronicles a dysfunctional, suburban American family in bold relief.

Spoiler-free catch-ups for The Sopranos: pick the last episode you watched and read everything up to it, and nothing after. 6 seasons, 86 episodes.

• Catch up before season 2
• Catch up before season 3
• Catch up before season 4
• Catch up before season 5
• Catch up before season 6