In praise of The Sopranos

There's good TV drama, there's great TV drama and there's The Sopranos. Created by David Chase, last night's first episode of the final series was written by Terrence Winter.

As Nancy Banks Smith says in The Guardian, it doesn't get much better than this.

This is the last series of The Sopranos (E4). The first line, "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people", is nicely ironic. The opening titles alone are probably the best in television history. The Sopranos assumes a taste for Tom and Jerry, a nodding acquaintance with Gibbon and Mencken and, of course, digital TV.

Photo: WARNER BROS / Channel 4 Television