Cassilis

It's a bold claim and not mine but I happen to agree. With one or two exceptions (who I think are bucking the trend to stand out) there's almost a consensus among critics that HBO's Sopranos, which finished on UK screens on Sunday night, was probably the most accomplished television drama in the history of the medium. Even those who might dissent from that would acknowledge David Chase's drama built around the New Jersey mafia took television drama to new heights.

Little purpose to this post other than to say I was a huge fan and I'm going through that mourning thing that happens when a series you know and love finishes for good. The writing and performances over the 9 years the show aired have been absolutely stunning and the programme's ability to get you to empathise with characters with few redeeming features and a moral outlook utterly alien to most of us is testament to that. People who dismissed the show early on as nothing other than a mob drama will regret not lasting the pace - in fact the family at the heart of the whole show was Tony Soprano's traditional family unit and his hopes and fears for them proved as enduring a theme as any of the mob stuff (final scene in the videobox).