The Sopranos (1999 - 2007 created by David Chase)

Our house is now full of the colourful langauge of southern Italy. "Ffangul! Stugats! Maron! Mezzo Fanook!" (i.e. Go fuck yourself, Fuck it, Damn and Half Gay.)

We'd already been discussing a rerun of this epic of television history, triggered by visiting Napoli, ironically only a couple of weeks before James Gandolfini died. Despite the hot weather we are tearing into it, halfway through series two after only one weekend. It's still as fantastic as it ever was, one of the best things on American television ever (in part no doubt because it isn't television as we knew it, with its long game structure, film budgets and freedom from the restriction of writing strictly to ad breaks).

Carmella is one of the smartest people in it. Tony's family hails from Avellino near Napoli.

A flavour of the brilliant writing:

Dr. Melfi: "Did you steal my car and have it fixed?"

Tony: "Cunnilingus and psychiatry brought us to this."

Chris is talking to Paulie about character arcs. Paulie: "You know who else had an arc? Noah."

"Who's Captain Teebes?" (Tony, following a mishearing of Cap d'Antibes).

Tony on phone: "What have we got?"
Christopher: "Wet feet."

Silvio: "It's hard to raise kids in an information age."

Melfi: "Have you thought of having a prostate exam?"
Tony: "I don't even let anyone wag their finger in my face."
(She really laughs.)

Loved episode where Tony gets a 'kickstart' by almost being murdered. Great moment where Paulie and Silvio walk into hospital looking really mean (though both have a hug for the kids).

Tony Sirico and Steven Van Zandt

..and Michael Imperioli with Gandolfini seated.

They're really a sweet, lovely, murderous and cruel family aren't they? And it's this opposing pull that's at the heart of why The Sopranos is so forceful, painful, challenging and funny.