Credit: The Sopranos
There has never been a TV show that has presented more complex and nuanced characters than The Sopranos. Unlike most stories where the characters are binary—they are either good or evil—The Sopranos brought us characters that lie in the gray area. You don’t want to know the Sopranos and their friends; you don’t like the Sopranos and their friends, but you still care about them and become a de facto mob expert by watching them. So in today’s article, we have decided to rank the ten best characters in The Sopranos.
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10. Meadow Soprano
Despite being known mainly for her constant whining, Meadow Soprano is one of the more complex characters in the show. When we’re introduced to the firstborn and only daughter of the mob boss, we’re given an ambitious and starry-eyed kid who wants to pursue medicine. She is the amalgamation of her parents, getting the best of their qualities: Tony’s crafty intellect and Carmela’s compassionate nature. However, enough time passes, and she ends up letting her father’s world, which she initially rejected, influence her decisions, eventually settling on pursuing a law degree and becoming romantically entangled with someone involved in Tony’s world. She might not be a favorite for most fans, but she is up there with the best-written characters in the show.
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9. Livia Soprano
There has never been an Italian TV show mother more incorrigible and objectionable than Livia Soprano. A resentful and distasteful woman whose unique role in life is to make her son’s life as difficult as it can be, Livia Soprano loomed in Tony’s life even when she wasn’t physically around. During Tony’s sessions with Dr. Melfi, the audience quickly learns that many of his insecurities and shortcomings are attributed to his childhood, particularly his mother. So it’s no surprise that Tony became the person he was.
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8. Silvio Dante
As the most level-headed capo in the Soprano family, Silvio Dante’s role as Tony’s consigliere was vital. Whenever Tony was about to make a heavy-handed move, Silvio would come in to show him an alternative where a softer approach could still yield the same results. Although “Long Term Parking” cast him in a darker light, he remained one of the most consistent characters in the show.
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7. Corrado “Junior” Soprano
Junior Soprano was a sort of comical figure in the role he played: the uncle of the mob boss who wanted to be the boss himself but lacked the makings for it. Junior was always portrayed as the guy who was related to the mob boss, whether it was his brother or his nephew. Junior was written as a villain who never had a winning chance. After his scheme to have his nephew whacked fails, he takes the loss begrudgingly and learns his place in the Soprano family.
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6. Adriana La Cerva
Adriana La Cerva was the most tragic character in the TV show. The girlfriend and eventual fiancee of Christopher Moltisanti, the young apprentice, being groomed to be the heir to the throne, Adriana knew the world she was involved in but never understood it. She didn’t stay in it for its fame, wealth, or power; she stayed because she truly loved Christopher. However, her lack of insight into what it meant to be involved with Christopher was her undoing in the end.
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5. Carmela Soprano
As mob wives go, Carmela Soprano was a complex, rich, and fascinating study of the illusion that money, fame, and power provide, living her whole life in denial. Having met Tony in high school and married him later afterward, Carmela fully understood who Tony Soprano was. Despite this, she viewed herself as a good person when she was an amoral person who was complicit in Tony’s deeds. Her only redeeming quality was being a good mother.
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4. Paulie “Walnuts” Gualtieri
Tony Sirico’s only condition in agreeing to play the role of Paulie Gualtieri was that his character would never become a “rat.” This was evident right from the moment he was introduced as an aging soldier who’s extremely loyal to Tony and shares an excellent dislike for snitches as Tony does. Though often annoying and eristic about little things, Paulie was a comedic character whose loyalty and reliability came second to none.
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3. Dr. Jennifer Melfi
Dr. Jennifer Melfi was purely one of the few moral and virtuous characters in the show and often served as a beacon for what was fitting since the line often became blurry the more the audience was pulled into Tony’s world. Introduced as Tony’s therapist, Dr. Melfi understood Tony more than anyone in the show and yet never traversed the boundaries that many other characters did. When she had a chance to use Tony’s position for personal retribution and declined to do so, she earned the respect of the audience, solidifying herself as an iconic character.
Credit: The Sopranos
2. Christopher Moltisanti
Christopher Moltisanti was a victim of the mafia world, and from the moment he was born, he never had a choice in it. We all felt his words deeply when he said: “Did you ever feel like nothing good was ever gonna happen to you?” Every attempt he made to have a say in how his life turned out to be was always met with catastrophe. Even in the ultimate end, he never had a say in how he checked out.
Credit: The Sopranos
1. Tony Soprano
The kingpin, the czar, the don: Tony Soprano. Everyone and everything in the show orbited around him, and the tragic few that fell out of that orbit and gravitated towards him never found a way out. Tony Soprano corrupted everything and everyone he touched and yet somehow delivered some of the most human moments in the show, making us question if he was the monster we thought him to be. Unfortunately, David Chase never answered that question for the audience; unfortunately, neither will we.
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