The Sopranos

Ugatz! Great line from Tony: "You go to Italy, you lift some weights, you watch a movie. It's all a series of distractions until you die."

Junior: "She's like a woman with a Virginia ham under her arm crying the blues because she's got no bread."

Tony to AJ: "She knows that even if God is dead, you're still gonna kiss his ass."

Livia: "In the end, you die in your own arms."

"If she fell in a sewer she'd come up holding a gold watch in each hand."

Cunningly timed bursts of violence e.g. the assassination attempt on Christopher. Janice lets Richie Aprile hold a gun to her head when he's fucking her: "It's usually not loaded". Janice brilliantly despatches Richie, because he punches her. Quite right: she's a Soprano. Also, a useful moment in TV history, which has a tendency to portray a disproportionate amount of violence towards women from men. (And must have been a cathartic moment for actual domestic abuse sufferers.) Christopher and Furio dispose of the body: "It's going to be a while before I eat anything from Satriale's."

Series Two ends with memorable episode "Funhouse" (written by Chase and Todd Kessler) in which Tony has food poisoning and talks to a fish, to creaky background noises which are later explained.

David Chase is of course himself an Italian-American, born David DeCesare. He also suffered from depression and 'overbearing' parents.

There's something about watching The Sopranos that makes you want to behave more like a man, if that makes sense...