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Which Sopranos season is the worst?

What year is it supposed to be in The Sopranos?

Since most rankings of the seasons of The Sopranos are subjective ratings, the worst ranked season is season four, according to IMDb.

The Sopranos is regarded as one of the greatest television series in history.

The crime-drama had six seasons following its premiere, which established the premise as, “New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano deals with personal and professional issues in his home and business life that affect his mental state, leading him to seek professional psychiatric counselling.”

The series and its relevance has continued in the years since it concluded its natural run and there have been comparisons of the show’s worst and best seasons.

This debate is hinged on the notion that there is no bad season. But IMDb provided a more empirical ranking that is based on votes by its community members who ranked season four the worst of the best of The Sopranos seasons.

The Sopranos as a zeitgeist of the “Golden Age” of television

One of the biggest reasons that The Sopranos is so lauded is because it is credited as the zeitgeist of the “Golden Age” of cable television.

The first season of the series premiered in 1999 with a total of 13 hour-long episodes. The fact that the series achieved the acclaim it did with a long-form format of hour-long episodes was uncommon at the time, as most popular series had 30-minute long episodes.

As such, The Sopranos and most recently, Games of Thrones, are considered long-form series that are a part of the renaissance of successful hour-long series on cable television.

Which Sopranos season is the worst?

It should first be stipulated that it is universally understood that there is no bad season of The Sopranos. However, there are seasons that have been more successful for the viewing audiences than others.

Therefore, in an effort to steer away from a subjective take on the matter, the ranking is based on IMDb votes, which rank the seasons from the seasons that are the best to the “worst.”

Therefore, season four was voted the worst season, which premiered in 2002 with 13 episodes. While no reason is provided for this ranking, we can assume that the reason is based on the fact that most of the moments in this season felt anticlimactic.

This is significantly based on the fact that the most gripping watching value of the season was building up tension only to resolve it with major losses later.

Whether it was Johnny Sack ordering hits on Ralphie and Carmine, and nothing actually happening, or Christopher and Adrianna’s complicated relationship which had high stakes as Christopher had an addiction and Adrianna was cooperating with the FBI.

But in this season, their relationship was not pushed to the limit, despite these high stakes. Thus, the true highlight of the season was the relationship struggles of Tony and Carmela.

It is their scenes together that provide high-intense drama compared to the other scenes and story arcs in season four.

The best season of The Sopranos, according to IMDb

Season 6A, which premiered in August 2006 with a total of 12, was part of the 21 episodes of the sixth and final season.

This season was split into two parts and is considered the best season of the show, according to IMDb. This season saw lead actor, Tony Soprano, in a coma for most of the split-cour season.

Therefore, the season was more interested in breaking its own conventions by introducing dream sequences, giving characters that were part of the main cast circle more screen time, and showcasing their character arcs in more detail.

This is credited to the series creator, David Chase, who did not want to produce a series finale that would feed into the desires of viewers instead of staying true to the story.

What is the unanimously touted best season of The Sopranos?

For television insiders that shared their subjective opinions on which is the best season of The Sopranos, it is surprising that more often than not, season two is touted as the best season. Premiering in 2000, the season had 13 episodes.

Some of the highlights attributed to this fact is that this was the season that introduced the DiMeo’ Crime Family’s former capo Richie Aprile, who was the main antagonist of the season.

His impact is compared to that of Tony Dalton, who played Lalo Salamanca with his introduction in Better Call Saul.

Moreover, this is the season that the change in Tony’s character arc is seen, from ruthless to self-destructive and harmful to everyone who enters his orbit.

A detailed ranking of The Sopranos seasons according to IMDb

A complete look at the ranking of The Sopranos seasons from the worst to the best season according to IMDB is outlined below.

Season Year of release Number of episodes
Four 2002 13
Five 2004 13
One 1999 13
Six B 2007 9
Three 2001 13
Two 2000 13
Six A 2006 12