#5 Meadow Soprano – While AJ was a fuck up who tried to kill himself and couldn’t even get that right, Tony’s daughter changed before our eyes from a typical spoiled Italian American princess into a hardworking, beautiful lawyer. A lawyer who wanted to defend men like his father and was staring down a six figure salary last we heard. While Meadow didn’t always have the most exciting on screen presence her love interests always made for top notch story arcs. Tony passing out after seeing an Uncle Ben box (we now know it was because of the meat from Satriale’s) when he found out his daughter might be dating an African-American, Jackie Junior’s  sad downward spiral and Finn arriving to the construction job Tony got for him a little to early all were integral plot points of the series.  We’ll probably never be sure why Meadow couldn’t parallel during the last episode (although I do have my theory) but we can be sure that Meadows scenes with Tony were some of the best and most touching in the series, if you disagree with that assertion go back and watch the fifth episode of the first season “College” and get back to me.

#4 Paulie “Walnuts” Gaultieri- It’s easy to say that Paulie is the only original member of Tony’s crew that made it through the series but I believe his fate was sealed when he was pressured into taking leadership of the old Aprile crew and the last scene in which we see him in the mysterious cat is nearby. Paulie was never very loyal to Tony and tried to betray the family by cozying up to Johnny Sack (who only used him), also when Tony was in his coma Paulie really didn’t want to give his 100k to Carmela and actually said “fuck her” to his dimwitted newphew. But there was something endearing about the wings in hair sporting actual gangster Tony Sirico. From retouching up Tony’s picture of Pie Oh My, to believing he was being followed around by Mikey Palmice and everyone else that he whacked, or throwing his mother/aunt’s television from “The Sharper’s Image” out the window of Green Grove, Paulie always made for good scenes and the viewer knew laughs were imminent. Paulie was also involved in one of the best scenes in the series, on that rocky boat where the lie he stuck to saved his life, for how long we will unfortunately never know.

#3 Corrado “Junior”  Soprano – First off, Dominic Chianese (aka Johnny Ola) did a masterful acting job playing Tony’s cranky old uncle. I think he had the best lines of anyone in the show, “When? St. Smithens day?”, “Bellville, cocsucker!”, “How many White Castles did you have?”, “I’ve got Federal Marshals so far up my ass I can smell the Brylcream”, “Some people are so far behind in the race that they think that they’re winning”, “He never had the making’s of a varsity athlete” etc. The relationship between Tony and his uncle was always interesting and you never quite felt comfortable with either’s intentions from the first episode on. Tony and Junior didn’t completely trust each other but they did love each other which made the dynamic so much more complex. The final scene between the two men might have the been the best and was certainly the saddest. “That’s pretty good”, yes it was Junior.

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#2 Johnny “Sack” Sacramoni - This has nothing to do with the fact that Vincent Curatola went to the same high school that I did and to be honest I didn’t think much of the character until a little joke was made about a mole on his wife’s ass. After he almost killed someone in Ralph’s crew (Donny K) by beating him into oblivion and then “buying him a drink” which meant pissing on his caved in face just because he saw the kid laughing, the viewer realized Johnny Sack was not fucking around. Johnny Sack didn’t cheat on his wife, wore beautiful clothing, drove an S 500 and then a Maserati, whacked anyone in his way and might have been the smartest character on the show. Sacramoni was a gangster’s gangster and I believe Chase used Johnny Sack to echo infamous dapper Brooklyn gangster John Gotti. I wish we didn’t have to see Johnny break down at his daughter’s wedding or die of lung cancer but life’s real and so was this show. I was always most excited for scenes with Johny Sack after that Benito Two beating. Let’s also not forget the classic “What are we the fucking UN!?!?!?” line.

# 1 Tony Soprano – How easy was this. It’s like naming the number one player on the Chicago Bulls championship teams. We’ve all gotten glimpses into the live’s of  Henry Hill, Tommy DeSimmone, Jimmy Burke, Tony Montana, Michael Corleone, Vito Corleone, Frank Rosenthal, Benjamin Ruggerio etc but we never got to know them. We had complete access to the life of Tony Soprano for almost ten years. We were given the beautiful gift of seeing the mob boss and family man cry, fuck, kill, mourn, eat, love, hate, go to Italy, Miami and Vegas (amongst other places), have holiday meals, meet with his shrink, murder his best friend cousin and nephew, lie, gamble, cheat, rob and everything in between. It all felt so real and even though we didn’t always agree with him, we all loved him. Unfortunately, I believe Tony to be dead (for many reasons I can discuss on a later date but the biggest two are the fact that he’s wearing the same shirt in the final scene, that he was wearing when Junior shot him. The name of that episode was “Member’s Only” and the man who walks into the bathroom during the last scene was clearly wearing a “Member’s Only” jacket, I don’t believe David Chase made those choices by accident) but James Gandolfini was made to play Tony Soprano and that character will live on forever, I believe it to be the greatest role played in Television history.

Filed under: Simply The Best Tagged: | AJ Soprano, Aprile Crew, Benito Two, Carmela Soprano, College, Corrado Junior Soprano, David Chase, Dominic Chianese, Donny K, Green Grove Nursing Home, Jackie Junior, John Gotti, Johnny "SacK" Sacramoni, Johnny Ola, Meadow Soprano, Mike Palmice, Paulie "Walnuts" Gaultieri, Pie Oh My, Satriale's, Sharper's Image, Simply The Best, Soprano Characters, Tony Sirico, Tony Soprano, Vincent Curatola