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'''A-J''' | [[TheSopranos/TropesKToZ K-Z]]
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* AbusiveParents: Tony is emotionally manipulated and terrorized by his difficult mother throughout his childhood and well into his adult life. One notable incident featured his mother threatening to stick a fork in his eye when he was only ten years old. Tony's father was outwardly friendly, but also a manipulative sociopath who indoctrinated his son into violent crime and the mob. It's implied that the various degrees of emotional manipulation and terror Tony suffered under his parents are what turned him into a violent, sociopathic adult. [[spoiler: As the series goes on, after the cumulative effects of therapy, separation, and a near-death experience, Tony ends up subverting this trope with his own kids; he's nowhere near father of the year material, but still manages to be a better parent than the people who raised him.]]
* AcidRefluxNightmare: In "Funhouse", Tony eats some bad shellfish [[spoiler:and has an extremely long dream sequence where he finally admits to himself that Big Pussy Bonpenseiro (in the form of a talking fish), one of his few real friends, has become a federal informant. When he wakes up, he acts on this information and murders Pussy]].
* ActorAllusion:
** In "The Blue Comet", Paulie says, "I lived through TheSeventies by the skin of my nuts when the Colombos were goin' at it." Tony Sirico, the actor who plays Paulie, actually was an associate of the Colombo crime family before turning to acting.
** There are several references to Music/BruceSpringsteen in the show (Chris: "The turnpike is jammed with broken heroes on a last-chance power drive."), whom Steven van Zandt has played with for years. But it's difficult to tell if it's a deliberate Allusion because, hey, it's Jersey.
** Gloria Trillo really loves a song played on the radio, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qk2g9FEtr4k Steve Van Zandt's "Affection"]].
** A recursive one. The lead in Christopher's movie ''Cleaver'' is named Michael. The character is based on Chris himself, who is played by Michael Imperioli. In-universe it is probably a ShoutOut to Michael Corleone from ''Film/TheGodfather''.
** Chris shoots a bakery worker in the foot for taking too long with his order. In ''Film/{{Goodfellas}}'', he was shot in the foot for taking too long to make a drink.
** The murder of [[spoiler: Angelo Garepe]] referred back to the death of Billy Batts in ''Film/{{Goodfellas}}''; both were beaten, thrown into a car trunk, and shot while pleading for their life. Batts was played by actor Frank Vincent (Phil Leotardo) who reverses his role from victim to executioner.
** Michael Imperioli [[WrittenByCastMember wrote five episodes]] and was the only actor to write multiple episodes. This would probably explain Christopher's interest in screenwriting and production.
* ActorRoleConfusion: Tony idolizes Creator/GaryCooper, who in his mind epitomizes "the strong silent type," the ideal kind of American from a long-gone era. He's called on this by Silvio, who points out he's mixing the real life person with the characters that he played. Tony still argues that the icon is what matters.
* ActuallyPrettyFunny: There are many times throughout their therapy sessions where Melfi can't stop herself from laughing at a remark of Tony's.
* AdamWesting:
** Creator/JonFavreau appeared on as a name-dropping, overly-pretentious jerkass version of himself who'd come to New Jersey to make a movie. Star-struck gangster Christopher was delighted to hang out with "Jon"...until "Jon" stole all his ideas.
** Creator/FrankSinatra couldn't show up to lampoon his own mob ties, so instead we get Frank Sinatra Jr. playing poker and Nancy Sinatra performing a private concert.
** When Christopher pitches his idea for ''Cleaver'' to Sir Creator/BenKingsley, Kingsley is unimpressed with the idea and turned off by Chris's lack of professionalism. So instead, they have to settle for Creator/DanielBaldwin.
** The same episode features a cameo by Creator/LaurenBacall, who pretty much plays herself––a charming, potty-mouthed Hollywood legend.
* AdventuresInComaland: After getting shot by a delirious Uncle Junior in season six, Tony spends a few episodes in a coma dream sequence. He was in a distant city, where he'd accidentally switched his wallet and briefcase with a man named Kevin Finnerty, and everyone else thinks he actually is this man. Curiously, in this dream, Tony's heavy New Jersey accent drops significantly and his posture is better.
* AgeGapRomance:
** Virtually all of the "goomahs" of the mob men are significantly younger than them. Irina is 12+ years Tony's junior, Bobbi even more to Junior. Tracee is 20 years old with the 40+-year-old Ralphie, [[spoiler: making her murder at his hands all the more tragic.]]
** A 20-year-old AJ starts a relationship with Blanca, a 30-year-old single mother. His parents disparage the relationship (Tony because she's Puerto Rican, Carmella because of the age gap), but figure it's a good thing that she's at least Catholic. The relationship doesn't last; it's implied that while Blanca recognizes that AJ has a good heart, she was better off with someone her own age. AJ becomes so depressed that he attempts suicide.
* AintTooProudToBeg:
** Christopher in Season 1 when he suffers a [[ItWorksBetterWithBullets mock execution]]. [[DefiantToTheEnd Reversed]] later in Season 5 when [[spoiler: Tony is about to kill him and Chris doesn't back down from an accusation.]]
** Lorraine Calluzzo offers to blow the Leotardo brothers during what turns out to be a mock execution.
** Matthew Bevilaqua's last action was to [[UndignifiedDeath pitifully beg for his life]]. [[MakeAnExampleOfThem Tony wasn't moved.]]
** Fabian "Febby" Petrulio's last words before Tony garrotes him: "Please, Tony...I'm begging you".
* AlasPoorYorick: Christopher holds a skull this way when he is relocating the bones of an old murder.
* AlasPoorVillain: In a rare occurrence, [[spoiler:Johnny Sack]] is given a touching and empathic death scene, dying after a long illness and surrounded by his anguished family. The show makes a point about a broken mobster dying [[spoiler:of cancer]] is still a human being, a father and a husband. In-universe, even the mobsters who felt betrayed by the man mourn his loss and honor his memory.
* AllBikersAreHellsAngels: "The Ride" had Tony and Christopher coming across two bikers stealing fine wine. When they decide to steal the wine from them, the bikers arrogantly proclaim, "We're with The Vipers!" Tony and Christopher are naturally unimpressed.
* AllForNothing: The show invests significant time in Tony's therapy, building out Dr. Melfi as a character and using the therapy sessions as a way to look into Tony's psychology and motivations. Ultimately, though, Tony's therapy fails to meaningfully change his behavior. At the end of the series, Dr. Melfi comes to the rather horrified realization that, for some sociopaths, therapy isn't just worthless, it can actually make things worse by giving the individual a new set of therapeutic tools and languages with which to manipulate people. She ends her sessions with Tony at that point.
* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Played straight for almost all the female characters. Played with by Melfi, who feels an unhealthy attraction to Tony but is able to fight it off.
** Noticeably subverted in AJ's case. As the series goes on, he dates a succession of very attractive young women, despite being a sullen, scrawny wimp.
* AllJewsAreCheapskates: In the episode where Tony's debts with his Jewish friend and loan shark Hesh grows out of control, he complains about him fitting this trope to his shrink. She responds by saying that it's an ugly stereotype. In a first-season episode Hesh does almost spoil Tony's and Johnny Sack's plan to bail Hesh himself out of some hock with Junior, who has instituted a retroactive tax on Hesh's businesses upon becoming boss. Junior listens and "magnanimously" lowers the rate, and the back taxes owed to "three hundred". Before anyone else can react, Hesh says, "Two-fifty!" There's a moment of brittle silence, and then Junior smiles. "What did I tell you? Hang on to your cock when you negotiate with these desert people!"
* AllJustADream: The series has a lot of these as a way to get into Tony's head, although it was made apparent to the audience what they were.
* AllPsychologyIsFreudian: Played with. Tony Soprano cites UsefulNotes/SigmundFreud (whom he learned about in his "semester and a half" of college) to explain to Melfi that he understands therapy "as a concept", but in the show's subsequent explorations of psychology, it really isn't there. Often called the most accurate fictional depiction of what ''actually'' happens in therapy. Tony is, however, diagnosed with a compelling FreudianExcuse and Melfi often brings up the UsefulNotes/OedipusComplex (one of the specific FreudianExcuses that Freud identified) despite Tony's repulsion. Ultimately subverted since at the end of the series, [[spoiler:Melfi decides that FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse and fires Tony, deeming him to be an irredeemable sociopath.]]
* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: The show focuses on the lavish lifestyles of gangsters, but it will occasionally undercut how successful they really are in the grand scheme of things.
** Tony Soprano is TheDon, but his crime family is just a big fish in a small pond compared to the New York gangsters across the river.
** American gangsters overall are humbled when they visit Italy and see how actual Italian gangsters live in opulence.
** Meadow is a high achiever in high school who grew up in a life of luxury thanks to Tony. When she begins attending Columbia, she has to adjust to the reality that most of the students there are just as, or even more, intelligent as she is and many of them come from families whose lineage or careers are far more prestigious than her family of mobsters.
** AJ waxes philosophical about the trials of being born rich. Then he's embarrassed to discover that his girlfriend is SecretlyWealthy and lives in a stately mansion far greater than his own home. The Sopranos, for all their underworld power, are upper-middle class at best.
** Little Carmine, a mafia prince who could have run all of New York City had he wanted to, is just as flabbergasted as Christopher by the lifestyle of Hollywood elites, who have luxury goods thrown at them for free just for the publicity.
* AmbiguousEnding: After disposing of his arch-nemesis Phil Leotardo, Tony is seen taking his wife Carmela and son AJ to a diner, later to be joined by their daughter Meadow. It's seemingly an upbeat scene, with the exception of Tony discussing potential legal troubles on the horizon. Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" starts playing in the background, and you begin to see curious shots of seemingly random persons in the diner mixed in with shots of Tony and his family happily chomping down on onion rings. The music swells, an unseen person enters the restaurant, Tony looks up, and suddenly--cut to black, series over. Was Tony suddenly shot as the screen cut to black (perhaps by the man in the Member's Only jacket?), or no? Or is it symbolic of how the possibility of a whacking always hangs over Tony's head? This was left a mystery for years.
* AmbiguousSituation:
** Did Ralphie kill his racehorse Pie-Oh-My for the insurance money? He never admits anything, but it's absolutely the kind of thing he'd do.
** Johnny Sack's wife and eldest daughter are both substantially overweight, while his youngest daughter (played by a young Cristin Milioti) is unusually thin. The subject of food is a BerserkButton for the youngest daughter, as seen when she yells at her family for even bringing up the subject. It's implied but never explored, that she has an eating disorder.
* AmoralAttorney: Neil Mink and Harold Melvoin, traditional and very expensive mob-lawyers who reinforce the genre-savviness of the bosses and their ability to commit crime or get away with it.
* AndADietCoke: Vito orders a Grande Nacho and a Diet Coke at Crazy Horse in "Pie-O-My".
* AngstySurvivingTwin: Patsy Parisi angsts about it often enough to make the rest of the cast frustrated, and when he finds out that Tony had his brother killed for trash-talking him, Patsy gets drunk and pees in Tony's pool (after seriously contemplating killing Tony in revenge).
* AnimalMotifs: Several used as symbolism throughout the series, e.g felines represent Adriana or Chris and migratory ducks the fragile family of Tony. A more concrete example is the parting gift Tony gives to his goomahs, a horseshoe-shaped jewel.
* AntiHero: Dwight Harris is the KnightInSourArmor variant. He possesses a cold and humorless demeanor, but he is a good guy who is doing his job to maintain the peace.
* AnyoneCanDie: This pretty much became the hook of the show, to the extent that it was called "The Big Pussy Rule". No one was safe, be it the lowest goon or Tony himself. Due to the fact that they were never informed well in advance, many of the actors explicitly expressed suspense and fear for their careers should the writers suddenly choose the sword to fall on their head. (Though in the case of Livia, it was the actress that died first.)
** Most of the most notorious deaths of major characters such as [[spoiler:Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero, Vito Spatafore, Adriana La Cerva and Bobby "Bacala" Baccalieri]] came, predictably, as a result of mob hits. However, arguably the most shocking death occurred in Season 6 when [[spoiler:Christopher Moltisanti]] is wounded when the car he is riding in with Tony flips over (his death hastened by Tony suffocating him.)
** [[spoiler:And then there's the series' infamously inconclusive ending, which led many viewers to assume that Tony himself may or may not have been assassinated as well]].
* ApparentlyPowerlessPuppetmaster: Played with in regard to Corrado "Junior" Soprano. After a brief power struggle in the first few episodes, he winds up under house arrest and, now that he's removed from direct power, his nephew Tony allows him to believe he's The Don while Tony is the ''de facto boss''. However, Junior still tries his best to leverage his seniority and the loyalty of his underlings to run things behind Tony's back, undermining and even attempting to organize a hit on his nephew. To the feds, of course, he plays the part of a bemused senior who doesn't know anything, while simultaneously trying to act tough and in-control around Tony and the other gangsters; the truth is somewhere in the middle, and as he gets older he begins to show signs of genuine dementia.
* ArcWelding: At the end of the first season, Big Pussy has vanished. No one knows anything. The writers were just going to let it go at that--people do, indeed, vanish with no explanation, though it's rare. However, when they heard how the fans were wondering what happened to him, they welded Pussy into the story of Jimmy's being TheMole, with him being a second one.
* ArcWords: "Oh, poor you," Livia's sarcastic rejoinder to Tony's complaints. When his mistress also says it, Tony realizes he'd sought her out because she is like his mother. In season 6, Tony in turn says it to ''his'' son.
* ArcadeSounds: Bobby Baccalieri's son plays a computer full of generic laser blasts, beeps, doots, and other such game noises. The game he's playing is ''Videogame/MaxPayne''...
* ArmorPiercingQuestion:
** Meadow catches Tony off-guard when she asks him "Are you in the Mafia?". Tony replies there is no Mafia and [[ConfessToALesserCrime discloses that he's indeed into some illegal activities]] such as gambling.
** Tony asks "Don't you love me?" to Junior who is going through the early stages of dementia and has behaved badly toward Tony. Junior is left shaken, speechless, and showing a SingleTear.
** "Hey, Pussy... did she even really exist?"
** Carmela to Tony after he says he was attracted to the one-legged Russian because he could converse with her: "what about the thousand other fucking pigs you had your dick in over the years, the strippers, the cocktail waitresses. Were you best friends with all of them too?"
* ArtisticLicenseLaw:
** Or at the very least, Legal VoodooShark, respecting Junior's indictments and jail in Seasons 1-2. The indictments appear to be federal ones, but then Junior is apparently detained before the hearing. After a few weeks, his lawyer gets him out by claiming health problems, allowing Junior to be held on house arrest. All of this is a big to-do in the family. However, federal defendants are rarely held before trial and rarely have to post bail; instead, they are simply detained, released with conditions (like Junior's house arrest), or released without conditions, and this decision is made within a few days of the arrest. Junior would have never been held for more than 2-3 days in a real federal prosecution. Now, Junior could have been held longer on state charges (at the time; New Jersey would later adopt a federal-like system), but the charges are clearly federal. Adding to the confusion is that the judge who hears the motion to put Junior on house arrest has a New Jersey flag in his chambers (federal judges generally only have U.S. flags), but also clearly refers to the prosecution as "the Government" (which is only done in federal prosecutions; in a state criminal case in N.J., the prosecution is "the State").
** Several episodes show convicted felons like Phil Leotardo visiting prisoners who are incarcerated. Unless they are blood relatives, this is not allowed by most prison systems, including the ones shown in the series.
* ArtifactTitle: In-universe: the [=DiMeo=] Crime Family, of which the Soprano crew is a part, still bears Ercole "Ecky" [=DiMeo's=] name, even though he's been in prison for decades, and no one named "[=DiMeo=]" has any part in running the family or even appears on-camera.
* AsHimself:
** Frank Sinatra Jr. is a player at a high-stakes poker game hosted by the [=DiMeo=] family in Season 2.
** Creator/JonFavreau plays a manipulative version of himself who screws Chris out of his ideas.
** Creator/JaneaneGarofalo and [[Film/TheKingOfComedy Sandra Bernhard]] appear in a movie directed by Favreau.
** Creator/BenKingsley and Creator/LaurenBacall make a cameo when Christopher is pitching his own movie. The role finally goes to Creator/DanielBaldwin.
** Music/NancySinatra is the entertainment at a party hosted by Phil Leotardo.
** Invoked in "The Test Dream". Creator/AnnetteBening is playing Finn's mother in Tony's dinner dream. He recognizes her, and later in Tony's episode-long dream, she appears as herself.
* AsTheGoodBookSays: Despite their dubious morals, the mafia members all appear to be Catholic, which is TruthInTelevision, and make occasional references to Literature/TheBible. Religion is also used as a plot point on occasion; for example, when [[spoiler:Christopher recovers from his shooting]], he mentions he had a vision of going to hell (or possibly purgatory), and in another episode, Tony tries to persuade A.J. that God exists when he loses faith.
* AsYouKnow: In season 5, Barbara's first scene after being [[TheOtherDarrin recast]], she greets Tony with a "Hello, big brother!" to help the audience figure out who she is.
* AscendedExtra: Many characters start out with minor roles and grow more prominent as the series goes on.
** Johnny Sack and Vito Spatafore are both barely seen in Seasons 1 and 2 but are major players later on (In Vito's case, his actor Joseph R. Gannascoli plays an innocent bystander during an incident with Christopher at a bakery in Season 1)
** Bobby Bacala is another notable example.
** Adriana originally appeared in the series pilot as an unnamed hostess at Artie Bucco's restaurant with just a couple of lines. However, producers of the show were so impressed by what they saw of Creator/DreaDeMatteo's acting skills, that she was quickly promoted as Christopher's love interest and a major character in the show.
* AsianAirhead: Of the Indian variant - Ambujam, Meadow's college acquaintance who appears in maybe 2 scenes. "Fock you, betch!" and "Mead, he was soch a drep!" referring to Jackie Jr.
* AssShove: It's mentioned off-handedly that [[spoiler:Vito Spatafore]] was sodomized with a broomstick while they were murdering him.
* AssholeVictim:
** "College", has a rather famous invoked example. It was the first episode in the series' run that actually showed Tony Soprano committing a murder on-screen; before it, he had always left the dirty work to his underlings. Being an early episode, though, network executives at HBO still had their doubts about whether or not the show could sustain an audience in the long-term, and they argued that viewers would drop out in droves if they had to see the show's protagonist remorselessly killing an FBI informant without consequences. First, they tried to convince David Chase to write an alternate version with Tony letting the informant live, or just having Christopher kill him instead. When that didn't work, Chase compromised by agreeing to make the guy as unsympathetic as possible, writing in additional scenes where he's seen peddling drugs to local teenagers.
** Towards the end of Season 4, Paulie suffocates an elderly woman to death while trying to steal her money. However, she was a snobby bitch who was mean to Paulie's mother for picayune reasons, and Paulie (at first) had no intentions of killing her. No one even rose an eyebrow after she died.
* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: While Tony recovers from a severe gunshot wound, he notices that his old lieutenants don't follow his orders as readily as they used to, and he suspects that they now see him as weak. Tony responds by goading his hotheaded, musclebound bodyguard into fighting him. He kicks the everloving shit out of the much younger man in front of his entire crew, to their visible shock, then calmly walks into the bathroom and coughs up blood into the sink. No one questions his orders after that.
** All of the capos and bosses in the mob are either capable fighters and killers, or they used to be in their younger days before they rose so high that they no longer need to get their hands dirty.
* AutomobileOpening: Tony driving from New York to his home in New Jersey. His route is deliberately inefficient to provide more interesting visuals (nobody in their right mind would go from Manhattan to North Caldwell by going through surface streets in Kearny and Newark).
* AuthorAppeal: Many references to media figures reflect the tastes of the show makers. The band Scout appears as the fictional band Miami Relatives because the episode's writer Michael Imperioli is a fan. A Creator/WCFields film is on the television in the same episode because David Chase is a fan.
* AuthorityInNameOnly: Corrado Soprano (Junior) is the official boss of the family, but not the one calling the shots. Invoked by Tony in season 1 when he sets up Junior as a fall guy to shield himself. The FBI tries to use it as wedge against them, but Junior denies it.
-->'''Junior:''' My nephew running things? Not that strunz. Not in this life.
* AutomobileOpening: The intro features Tony driving from New York to his home in New Jersey. His route is deliberately inefficient to provide more interesting visuals: it runs through Newark and Kearney to get to Tony's house in North Caldwell, but any reasonable driver going from New York to North Caldwell would never get as far as Newark on the Turnpike but rather get off the Turnpike onto NJ Route 3 at Secaucus and get home from there. One supposes that perhaps Tony intends to visit Satriale's (fictively in Newark, with the actual building being in Kearney), but we don't see that in the intro.
* AwfulWeddedLife: Johnny Sacks being HappilyMarried to Ginny is an outlier for the mob family. Husbands having several "goomahs" is simply expected; being emotionally or even physically abusive to their wives even moreso. Divorce is out of the question, however, largely due to the characters' Catholic upbringings. One such example is Angie Bonpensiero, wife of "Big Pussy," who devolves into a nervous wreck when he returns home. Carmela is sympathetic, but actively tries to steer Angie away from divorcing him.
-->'''Carmela:''' (To Tony) And then you would come down the stairs...And I felt probably like someone who is terminally ill and somehow they managed to forget it for a minute...And then it ''allll'' comes back...
* AxCrazy:
** Richie Aprile.
-->'''Richie''': Did you ever meditate?
-->'''Beansie''': Me, meditate? Ha, are you crazy?
-->'''Richie''': Not as crazy as I used to be, still crazy enough to take an eye out.
** Other mobsters with an extremely homicidal behavior definitely qualify... or with a temper that would not have any mentally balanced person: Paulie, Christopher Moltisanti, Ralph Cifaretto, Feech la Manna, Johnny Boy Soprano and Phil Leotardo are straight examples. Even Tony Soprano has traits of one.
* BadassInANiceSuit: Zig-zagged. The mobsters like to wear plain sportswear, showcasing their rather common and vulgar hoodlum condition, but they tend to dress up according to their fancy businessmen status when the occasion requires it. Members of the Lupertazzi crew can usually be seen in suits, befitting their more successful and refined nature when compared to the Jersey crew. Carmine Lupertazzi keenly states to Tony that "a Don doesn't wear shorts".
* BadBoss: Tony is a successful manager, but he verbally shreds his underlings on a regular basis. He is entitled by the hierarchical level of the Mafia, but crosses the line once and gets called on it when he physically assaults Ralph, as beating another made-man is a violation of Mafia protocol. He later [[spoiler: kills Ralph]], which is also against the rules. Christopher is another victim of this kind of abuse.
** Ironically, while Tony was out of line when he beat the piss out of Ralph Cifaretto, he could have had the man killed at any time that he wanted, for any reason. [[spoiler: Which is more or less why no one asked any questions about Ralph's death; that, and ''no one'' was sad to see him go.]] The world of the Mafia, folks.
* BadGuyBar: The Bing.
* BadGuysPlayPool: The Bing's back room.
* BadPresent: A mundane example: a large number of Mafiosi are released from long prison sentences throughout the series; Season 5 sees the release of "the class of 2004", a group of New Jersey and New York wiseguys convicted and given 20-year sentences in the big Mob prosecutions of the early 1980s. Many of these guys have some issues with the way the Mob works in the 21st century--including its increasing suburbanization (both the Jersey boss and Lupertazzi underboss live in ''North Caldwell''), its increasing cooperation with other criminal organizations, and the laxity of certain Mob traditions.
* {{Bambification}}: A minor character has a quiet moment with a deer. Then it runs away and Tony brutally garrotes him.
* {{Bathos}}: Nearly all the characters are horrible people doing horrible things and caught in bleak and violent situations, which only gets worse as the series progresses, but it's kept from getting too grim by continuous comedic moments, silly juxtapositions, and lots of fast-paced witty dialogue. For example, Tony's realization that his friend Big Pussy has turned government informant comes from a fever dream where Pussy is a talking fish (who makes a "sleeping with the fishes" joke to boot).
* BearsAreBadNews: In season five, a marauding bear drops by the Sopranos' compound a number of times, alarming Carmela and panicking A.J. At that moment, Tony isn't living there, so he posts some of his underlings as guardians. Eventually he defends the fort himself, posted through the night with weapon in hand, emphasizing the necessity of a strong male family leader.
* ABeastInNameAndNature: Phil Leotardo takes to referring to Tony Blundetto as "Animal Blundetto" after the latter [[YouKilledMyFather murdered his brother Billy]] during the Lupertazzi civil war. In reality, Tony B. was more of a BewareTheNiceOnes-type guy who got in over his head when he recklessly tried to make a name for himself, with the vicious, hotheaded Phil himself being a much better candidate for that title.
* BeautyToBeast: Valentina loses her beauty after being disfigured in a kitchen fire.
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: In Season 1, Chris is upset that he is too unestablished for the FBI to bother targeting him. In later seasons, the FBI actually ''does'' make Chris a major target... and it ultimately ruins his life.
* BeingEvilSucks: Though the series has a DoNotDoThisCoolThing element, it does also show the Mafia to be an insecure life of murder, violence, threats, paranoia, betrayal, and relentless police investigations, that often ends in a sudden and violent death (Tony himself says the only outcomes for a guy like him is an early grave or ending up in the can). It is suggested, particularly by Dr. Melfi, that Tony's business is actually the cause of his health problems.
* BeingPersonalIsntProfessional: One notable concept that Tony never neglects. Particular examples include [[spoiler:David Scatino, Tony B, Vito, and Christopher]].
* BerserkButton:
** Tony always loses it when he learns of animals being harmed. Chris and Ralph learn it the hard way when they kill a dog and presumably a horse.
** Johnny Sack is usually calm and collected unless someone makes a remark about his wife.
** Tony doesn't take it well when he is reminded on several times that he never had the makings of a varsity athlete.
** At one point, Tony thinks Janice is acting way too nice and out of character, so he deliberately invokes Janice's [[RelativeButton button by asking questions about her strayed son]]. Janice being Janice, it's [[KickTheDog malignant]] and amusing at the same time.
* BetterWithNonHumanCompany: Tony Soprano loves animals and animal abusers are a major BerserkButton for him but he has absolutely no problem maiming, torturing, or killing someone. This is part of what makes his therapist realize he's an incurable sociopath and sever ties with him.
* BigApplesauce: The much larger NY families become major players in the final seasons.
* BigBad: Season 2 has Richie Aprile and the final season has Phil Leotardo. Partial examples include Junior in season 1, in tandem with Livia, and Johnny Sack in season 5, as they stay agreeable for the most part and while there is some build-up or major conflict, it gets resolved or defused very quickly before becoming an arc.
** Alternatively, the show has three successive Big Bads, each lasting two seasons: Livia Soprano, Ralph Cifaretto, and Phil Leotardo.
* BigBadEnsemble: Season 2 initially sets up both Richie Aprile and [[spoiler: Big Pussy]] as the plot's main antagonists. Upon being released from prison, Richie actively undermines Tony's authority as boss of the [=DiMeo=] crime family and ultimately moves to have him killed towards the end of the story arc. [[spoiler: As for Pussy, he is revealed to be a FBI informant whose likable persona is revealed to be a facade masking his growing bitterness towards Tony. However, whereas Richie's actions are a constant threat to Tony's control over the family, Pussy ultimately proves to be an unreliable asset to his FBI handlers and is abruptly whacked in the season finale after having little impact on the course of the plot]].
* BigBadWannabe:
** Jackie Aprile Jr., the spoiled and overly-ambitious son of a deceased mobster who thinks he can rise through the ranks like Tony did and become the boss. Nobody wanted him in the business, not even his father, but he insists on pushing his way in and feels entitled to respect because of his heritage. All he ends up doing is causing tensions with the [=DiMeo=] crime family after he stupidly attempts to rob a card game held by them, which results in his crew getting slaughtered when the robbery predictably goes south. He never once approaches anywhere near the power needed to take on Tony and the second it looks like he might, Tony casually has him killed.
** A later example is Feech la Manna. Like Jackie, he tries to scheme his way to the top, but by that point, Tony's learned to nip this sort of nonsense in the bud and manipulates him into getting sent back to prison before he can cause trouble.
* BigEater: Pretty much everyone, bordering on FoodPorn. They're eating in every episode: big, heavy, Italian meals of pasta and meat and sauces and alcohol.
* BigFancyHouse: Tony is a successful mobster and lives in a nice, large house with a big backyard and a pool in a good neighborhood. His son waxes philosophical about the trials of being born rich to his new girlfriend, humble-bragging about the nice home he lives in. Then he visits his girlfriend's house and discovers to his horror that it's five times the size of his own. He's really only upper-middle class, while his girlfriend has been SecretlyWealthy the whole time.
* BigScrewedUpFamily: The Sopranos, the two families (the criminal one also called [=DiMeo=] sometimes). Tony tries his best to avert it. The mere basis of the show.
* BilingualBonus: Too many to mention if you know Italian.
* BlackComedy: A gritty portrayal of the mob life where the hypocritical nature and sociopathic deeds of the characters [[RefugeInAudacity generate humor, sometimes bordering on the absurd]] while keeping the realistic feel. The show places such an emphasis on humor that David Chase is quoted as once having said that sometimes he and the writers weren't sure whether they were making a drama or a comedy.
* BlackScreenOfDeath: Debatably used in the finale, [[spoiler:as Tony Soprano may have been killed just after a quick cut to the credits. Among the suspects: a character identified in the credits as "Members Only", plausibly, a Call-Back to the episode of the same name]].
* BlandNameProduct: Zig-zagged, especially as regards certain items of New Jersey culture:
** In some cases, it's played straight. For example, in "Mr. Ruggiero's Neighborhood" ([=S03E01=]), some of the FBI agents disguise themselves as utility maintenance men from "New Jersey Gas and Electric"--which is clearly based on the real electric and gas utility in North Jersey,[[note]]And most of Central Jersey and much of South Jersey[[/note]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Service_Enterprise_Group Public Service Electric and Gas]] (PSEG).
** In other cases, it's averted. For instance, the newspaper practically everyone reads is ''The Star-Ledger'', an actual Newark-based paper that serves as North Jersey's newspaper of record.
* BlatantLies: Chris arrives at Ralph's house to find Ralph's dead body on the floor and Tony looking beaten up and covered in blood.
-->'''Tony:''' I found him like this.
* BleakAbyssRetirementHome: {{Inverted}}. Livia constantly refers to her nursing homenote as if it's a hell-hole (and that Tony doesn't visit her often), but on the whole it's shown to be a relatively pleasant place to live (and that Tony visits as frequently as his schedule allows, and substantially more often than a lot of others might).
* BolivianArmyEnding: The famous ending uses this somewhat. Fans have long debated whether the cut-to-black means somebody shot Tony, or if a deeper symbolism is in play.
* BookEnds: Implied. Although the show's infamous AmbiguousEnding makes it difficult to know for sure, it's strongly hinted that the final season begins and ends with Tony getting shot, and with a man in a "Members Only" jacket shooting someone to death in a diner.
* [[BornInTheWrongCentury Born in the Wrong Decade]]: Tony and his friends are well aware that the mob's heyday is long over with, but they have a hard time coming to terms with it. Especially as modern technology and science continues to make it more and more difficult to run protection rackets and commit crimes without getting caught.
-->'''Meadow''': It's the '90s. Parents are supposed to talk about sex with their kids!\\
'''Tony''': No, you got it wrong. Out there, it's the '90s. In this house, it's 1954. '90s... ''(points to the open front door)'' ...1954 ''(points to the floor)''. Got it?
* {{Bowdlerization}}: The syndicated version survives relatively unscathed sex and violence-wise, as Creator/DavidChase filmed alternate scenes (the scenes at the Bada Bing Strip Club have scantily-clad dancers who don't take off their clothes and the violent deaths are often replaced with shots of someone's face or shown at an angle so the violence won't be as severe). However, all of the profanity and explicit sexual lines are redubbed with toned-down versions that either weaken the dramatic impact or are just plain {{Narm}}y. One particularly notorious instance of editing came when the line "...sucking on a Cub Scout's dick" became "...chewing on a Cub Scout's ear" [[note]]which still implies sexual molestation to a Boy Scout, no matter how you slice it[[/note]].
** Before the show went syndicated, ''Series/{{MADtv}}'' had [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgBD94cs0T8 a parody of the show]] that depicted just how disjointed they thought the show would be if it was shown on a non-premium cable channel and edited for all manners of violence, sex (the scene of Tony getting a lap dance was so severely edited that it just showed the stripper coming in and finishing up), and foul, abusive language (even going as far as editing out all mention of Big Pussy's name). The actual syndicated version on A&E isn't as bad as the parody ''[=MADtv=]'' came up with (which depicted ''The Sopranos'' on PAX, of all channels, and featured an entire episode lasting ''less than five minutes''), but it's still pretty funny that the show predicted how the show might be EditedForSyndication.
* BrainlessBeauty:
** Lorraine Calluzo's "life partner" (aka boyfriend) Jason Evanina. Made obvious when Jason tries to weigh in about Phil in a meeting and Lorraine tells him ''"Jason, be quiet. Men are talking"''.
** Adriana is so dumb she believes a drug dealer when he says that the money from drug dealing goes towards poor children.
** Jackie Jr is a great example of this. Uncle Junior states that he once came close to drowning in three inches of water.
* BrattyTeenageDaughter: Meadow during the first few seasons. Of course, what teenager ''wouldn't'' be a little bratty with parents like Tony and Carmela?
* BreakTheCutie: Tracee gets no respect from anyone she tries to impress and is beaten to death [[{{Jerkass}} by Ralphie]].
* BreakingTheFourthWall: A subtle case in 5x03, "Where's Johnny?" When Junior is returned to his home by a couple of cops, Junior tells the one of the cops to "Go shit in your hat." The scene briefly changes to Bobby's daughter Sophia looking at the camera and giggling.
* BrickJoke: Several, but the one with the longest payoff between setup and punchline involves Phil Leotardo. When he is first introduced, one of the first things you hear anyone say about him is that he is "a pimple." His last scene has him [[spoiler: shot multiple times, falling to the ground in such a way that an SUV left unattended rolls over his head, crushing it]], followed almost immediately by an FBI agent informing Agent Harris that [[spoiler: "Phil Leotardo got popped."]]
* BringMeMyBrownPants:
** Christopher "does a number two in his pants" as girlfriend Adriana puts it when he is mock executed by a pair of Russian gangsters.
** Later on, Jackie Jr. pees himself in a car seat when Christopher and another mobster rob a benefit concert.
** And then there was a "businessman" who wet his pants as he was dragged into a dark room so a bunch of mobsters could bash him up.
* BrokenAce: Tony Soprano is the mob boss of all New Jersey; charismatic, powerful, ruthless, and has keen business acumen. Underneath it all, he suffers from some ''serious'' ParentalIssues and other mental problems, which cause him to have panic attacks.
* BrokenPedestal: Chris and Tony, Tony with his father, uncle, and other old-schoolers. Zig-zagged most of the time as things are never black or white and the character's internal struggle is one of the dynamics of the show.
* BrosBeforeHoes: Adrianna reveals to Christopher that she is an informant for the FBI, and asks him to run away with her. Christopher instead chooses to reveal this to Tony and cover up her murder.
* BungledSuicide: A.J. tries to drown himself in his pool by tying a cinder block to his feet. A last minute change of heart leaves him stranded in the middle of the pool with his head barely above water.
* BurialAtSea: [[spoiler: After Tony Soprano and his gang kill Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero (a long-time friend who betrays them to the FBI), they wrap up his body, and with heavy hearts, give it a decent burial at sea.]] Overlaps with CementShoes, a common way of body disposal during the series. Chains and actual concrete blocks are used as an anchor.
* BurnerPhones: Tony and other mafia figures would use burner phones from time to time in order to avoid eavesdropping by law enforcement.
* BuryMeNotOnTheLonePrairie: Tony angrily mocks this when Janice asks him what was done with [[spoiler: Richie's remains.]] "We buried him on a hill overlooking a little river, with pine cones all around. C'mon Janice, what the fuck? [[YouDoNotWantToKnow You want to know?]]"
* BusinessTripAdultery: Tony does this throughout the series. In one episode, he goes to Vegas to inform Chris's ex-mistress [[spoiler:of his death]]. Not surprisingly, they have sex that night and do peyote. Carmela asks about the "business trip" when he returns home, unaware of what it entailed. He sweetens her up with a new gold watch.
* BusmansVocabulary: Near the end of an episode, Tony tells a guy that a job might involve "getting messy. Real wet work." The FBI agents listening prick up their ears, only to realize a few seconds later he's asking someone to fix his burst water heater.
* ButtMonkey:
** Tony once told a story about a boy with a speech impediment he and his bully friends used to abuse in school (namely, made him sing silly songs and laughed their asses off). It took him quite a while to understand this wasn't the nicest thing to do.
** Artie Bucco becomes increasingly pathetic to watch as the show progresses.
** Georgie, who is often beaten up brutally for...well, no reason at all.
** A.J. too, though this is only in the later seasons. He's one of the dumbest characters on the show but lacks the ruthless spirit that a mobster needs, so he has no real place in the world.
** Bobby Baccalieri, who, along with Vito, is ''constantly'' mocked due to his weight and his non-mobster-like niceness toward others. Even Tony, who isn't exactly a male model, can't seem to stop harping on how fat Bobby is - to his face, of course, as often as possible.
** Sal Vitro is a gardener keeps running afoul of the Mafia, getting his hand stomped by Feech, and then arrested by the FBI when they take down Johnny Sack.
** Adriana, once the feds get their meat hooks in her.
** J.T. Dolan, the TV writer and recovering addict whom Christopher lures into a high-stakes card game - and a correspondingly high gambling debt - and later bullies into writing a screenplay for him.
* CallBack:
** Carmela and Tony reference Christopher's drug-fueled rant at [[spoiler: Livia's wake]] the year prior.
** Chris and Paulie relate the then-three-year-old story of the Russian in the woods in Season 5.
** Tony mentions the troubles he and Junior have had in the past (i.e. Junior trying to have him killed) to Janice.
** While talking to Hollywood screenwriter J.T. Dolan in Season 5 Episode 8, Chris disparages the industry by referring to the time when his ideas were ostensibly stolen by director [[Creator/JonFavreau Jon Favreau]] back in Season 2.
** In several of the therapy sessions throughout the series, Tony refers to the time he saw his father chop off a debtor's pinky finger with a butcher knife as a child.
** Carmella and A.J both reference A.J's actions in previous seasons; both his side-business organizing parties in high school and the "god-is-dead business" on the day of his confirmation are brought up.
** "Remember When" is replete with references to past events; Paulie reminisces on Ralph and the madcap stories related to him, while Tony repeatedly tries to get Paulie to admit that he was the one who told Johnny Sack about the infamous "mole" joke.
** In the season one finale, in a restaurant, Tony advises his children to "try to remember the times that were good". A.J. brings the phrase back in another restaurant in the series finale, but Tony doesn't remember his own counsel.
* CallingTheOldManOut:
** {{Subverted}}: After Tony finds out that his mother tried to have him killed, he goes to her retirement home to call her out, only to find that she's had a stress-induced stroke, and is probably unable to consciously hear any of his rage-fueled confrontations. This continues in later seasons, as Tony tries to call her out more than once about her attempt at killing him, and the heaps of psychological abuse she's put on him and his family over the years. Each attempt never comes to any kind of definitive resolution of their issues. In the end, she dies at the beginning of the third season, leaving Tony psychologically scarred with no clear picture or resolution of his feelings toward his mother, and this affects him for years afterward.
** Meadow calls Tony out a number of times on his {{hypocri|te}}sy and line of work. Tony calls her back, pointing out he is the one who puts food on the table and that [[MafiaPrincess everything she enjoys]] is based on that. She gradually becomes less [[IAmNotMyFather rebellious]] and more assimilated by the masquerade.
* CarFu: Tony and Richie viciously rely on the pedal to enforce their wills ''over'' hirkers.
* CassandraTruth: Tony's (truthful) denials that he had an affair with Adriana are disbelieved by pretty much everyone, given his reputation as TheCasanova and a serial philanderer.
* CastFullOfCrazy: Pretty much inevitable for a mafia show. Special emphasis on Ralph, Ritchie, and Phil.
* {{Catchphrase}}:
** Tony has "You've gotta be fuckin' kiddin' me", "End of story", and "She's dead to me" in Season 2.
** "Fuhgeddaboutit" and overuse of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRkE_Gv6ALM OH!]] for everybody.
** "Always with the drama!", recurringly used by Johnny Boy, Tony, and AJ Soprano.
** Silvio's impersonation of Michael Corleone in the first season invokes "Just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in."
** Livia mournfully saying "He was a saint" regarding her late husband.
* CaughtInTheBadPartOfTown:
** In "The Strong Silent Type", Chris tries to buy scag in a rundown Latino neighborhood. He gets robbed of his Range Rover and wallet, and then gets the absolute shit beat out of him.
** A downplayed example in "Watching Too Much Television". The locals in the rundown Black ghetto make it clear to Tony and A.J. that they aren't welcome if they aren't there to buy drugs. Despite one of the locals drawing a gun, and Tony TemptingFate being a DeadpanSnarker, they're allowed to drive out without further incident.
** In "Moe N Joe", Bobby picks up a late-night collection in the run-down neighborhood late at night. He gets ambushed and beaten by several Black youths armed with baseball bats, robbed of his cash and his gun, and takes a ricochet bullet in the eye.
* CelebCrush: A throwaway line by [[TheDon Uncle Junior]] after he's been arrested by the FBI and they're trying to get him to turn federal witness:
-->'''Junior:''' I want to fuck Angie Dickinson, let's see who gets lucky first.
* CelebrityParadox:
** In one episode, Tony watches ''Film/TheFugitive'' -- oddly, he doesn't notice that [[Creator/JoePantoliano Ralph Cifaretto]] has a minor role in it.
*** Same goes for ''Film/TheMatrix'' DVD that AJ buys for Carmela.
** ''Film/{{Goodfellas}}''. It's mentioned quite a few times in the series, even though ''half of the major cast are in it'', including but not limited to Michael Imperioli (Christopher), Vincent Pastore (Pussy), Tony Sirico (Paulie), Frank Vincent (Phil), and Creator/LorraineBracco (Dr. Melfi), who played a major supporting role in the film as Henry Hill's wife.
*** Other actors who appear in ''Goodfellas'' and have secondary roles include Tony Darrow (Larry Bares) and Charles Lewis Low (Shlomo).
** Similarly, ''Film/TheGodfatherPartII'' is referenced a number of times, in which Dominick Chianese (Uncle Junior) has a supporting role as Johnny Ola.
** Christopher mentions ''Film/{{Scarface 1983}}'' as a film in the first season. In season 5 Robert Loggia, who played Frank Lopez in the film, appears as Feech la Manna.
** "Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond" can be heard on the TV in Adriana and Christopher's apartment in a few episodes. David Proval appears in several episodes as a native Italian character similar in tone to Richie Aprile.
** [[Music/FrankieValliAndTheFourSeasons Frankie Valli]] is mentioned several times, is an acquaintance of Tony's and the names of some of his songs are used in a few episode titles. He appears in seasons 5 and 6 as Lupertazzi capo Rusty Millio.
** Music/BruceSpringsteen is referenced several times, even though Steven Van Zandt (Silvio) is the guitar player for the E Street Band.
** Noah Tannenbaum's father, a Hollywood attorney who frequently represents celebrities, claims to have met the actor Creator/TimDaly before. Tim Daly would later go on to play the recurring character J.T. Dolan.
** The similarities between Tony's life and ''Film/AnalyzeThis'' don't go unnoticed, but no one seems to note that Benny Fazio (Max Casella) has a small role in it.
** Tony gives his mother an audio version of Creator/MarioPuzo's ''Literature/{{Omerta}}'', read by none other than Christopher.
** Christopher watches ''Film/SawI'' leading up to his making ''JustForFun/{{Cleaver}}'' - Creator/TobinBell plays both Jigsaw and the administrator of the Hudson Military Institute, Major Zwingli.
*** Bell also played the parole officer of Jimmy Conway (played by Creator/RobertDeNiro) in ''Film/{{Goodfellas}}'' (see above).
** In the finale, Tony hums the ''Film/{{Rocky}}'' theme. Burt Young (Paulie) also played Bobby's father.
* TheChainsOfCommanding:
** Most of Tony's angst derives from his position as boss. He mentions the trope often, argues that his greedy underlings have no idea how hard it is to be a boss, and [[IWarnedYou warns his friend]] Johnny Sack about it several times.
** In season 6 [[spoiler: Silvio]] doesn't last more than a few days as regent because the responsibility quickly takes a toll on his health.
* CellPhonesAreUseless: Poor telecommunication service is the source of problems in "Pine Barrens", where [[HilarityEnsues Paulie and Chris get lost in a frozen forest]]. Tony gets gradually more and more agitated and has to give them orders [[NoIndoorVoice very loudly and full of profanity]] while his parents-in-law are in his house. Justified to no small degree; if any part of New Jersey would have patchy/poor/nonexistent cell phone coverage in 2001, it would be the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_Barrens_(New_Jersey) Pine Barrens]].
* CementShoes:
** In "The Second Coming", AJ tries to commit suicide in a manner similar to this.
** Also Subverted: In "I Dream of Jeannie Cusamano", you are led to believe that, since Tony plans to have Chucky Signore whacked on or around a boat, cement shoes or something like it are in the offing; it turns out that no, Tony shoots him in port and then takes him out to sea to dispose of the body.
* CentralTheme: BeingEvilSucks, no matter how one tries to deny or justify it.
* ChairReveal: During Tony's NightmareSequence in "Meadowlands", Dr. Melfi is replaced by his mother, who reveals herself to him in this manner.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn:
** Carmela in the first season is more of a gun moll than in later seasons. In ThePilot, after hearing a noise in the night, she expertly locks and loads an assault rifle, ready to throw down. In later seasons she's more of a sheltered suburban housewife. A later episode has her again looking for a possible intruder in the house, and she's much less prepared.
** In the pilot, shot a year before the dubious greenlight, Tony is already a peerless boss, not a mere capo, and provides a voiceover. Some [[TheOtherDarrin later recasts]] and several physical changes are noticeable.
** Christopher is absolutely terrified during his mock execution, soiling himself and begging for his life. This is the one and only instance he shows fear in such a situation; every other time he stares down a barrel, it's with utter defiance. Possibly justified in that he's climbed the Mafia ladder since then and feels better protected by the PlotArmour his position affords him, but he's utterly fearless even when dealing with assailants who have no reason to respect this.
** Bobby Baccala is hateful, cynical, and outspoken in private towards Tony in his first appearances, in contrast with his GentleGiant[=/=]ExtremeDoormat usual behavior.
** Adriana mentions that Vito was bombarding her with leering texts when Christopher was indisposed; Vito tells the same story but with her as the initiator. It's a bit weird in either case, as with the [[{{Gayngster}} late series twist surrounding him]] he clearly wouldn't have been interested.
** In the pilot, Silvio speaks about Artie as if he doesn't know the guy at all. They're both long-time friends of Tony's and all three have daughters the same age, attending the same school; Silvio and Artie are also portrayed as decent friends in subsequent episodes and the three interact frequently at barbecues and soccer practice. Not quite a PlotHole, but still quite weird.
* ChekhovsGunman:
** Deliberately subverted with Valery the Russian in "Pine Barrens". After his one big appearance, he seemingly escapes from Paulie and Christopher despite being wounded. The viewer is left expecting him to return in some way eventually and bring hell down on the protagonists. He never does. He becomes just one of those unsolved mysteries of life, his fate forever unknown.
** Subverted by the "Man in Members Only Jacket" in "Made in America".
** Played straight by Tony Blundetto, whose actions in the fifth season are arguably the main catalyst for the New York-New Jersey War in the last season.
** Subverted with [[spoiler: Furio. He goes back to Italy, seemingly intent on killing Tony so he can be with Carmela... and we never see him again.]]
** Subverted with [[spoiler: the cat in the final episode. It keeps staring ominously at Chris's photo on the wall of the pork store, even after Paulie moves it. We never find out why.]]
* {{Chiaroscuro}}: Used frequently in the lighting setup, to show the moral ambiguity of all the characters.
* ChristianityIsCatholic: Everyone is Catholic. Justified, in that they're all members of the same big Italian family.
** Subverted when he's visited in the hospital by a Protestant minister who preaches young-earth creationism. Tony and his mobster friends are simply baffled. (TruthInTelevision, as the Catholic Church has long accepted evolution.)
* ChronicVillainy: Played for tragedy in the case of [[spoiler:Cousin Tony]].
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: After appearing in several episodes, including one with a subplot focused on her, AJ's fantastically rich girlfriend Devin disappears between seasons 5 and 6. He shows up to the wedding of Allegra Sacrimoni with an new, unnamed girlfriend.
* {{Cliffhanger}}: Notably averted. Creator David Chase considered them a cheap narrative device and the sequences are never split between episodes. One very rare cliffhanger is used at the end of Season 6 opener [[spoiler:-- Tony laying on the ground with a bullet wound --]] and the end of the second to last episode could be interpreted as one.
* ClusterFBomb: [[http://vimeo.com/2998698 This video]] shows the nearly ''[[OverlyLongGag thirty minutes]]'' of ClusterFBomb employed throughout the series.
* ComedicSociopathy: While the series on the whole is aimed at creating disgust with the mob's brutality, the violence ''is'' often played for laughs. Paulie is particularly a bit of a Comedic Sociopath.
* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Christopher is the major offender, seconded by Paulie.
** Tony debriefs Paulie and Chris over the phone about a guy they have to deal with:
---> '''Tony''': "He is an ex-commando! He killed sixteen Chechen rebels single-handed! He was with the Interior Ministry. Guy's like a Russian green beret. He can not come back and tell this story. You understand?"
---> '''Paulie''': "You're not gonna believe this. He killed sixteen Czechoslovakians. Guy was an interior decorator.
---> '''Chris''': "His house looked like shit."
** Silvio and Chris get Tony exasperated when he argues about his strong, silent type role model:
---> '''Christopher''': "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2U5SABvU5A He was gay, Gary Cooper?]]"
** Paulie during a dinner, trying to appear cultivated:
---> '''Paulie''': "That's why dinosaurs don't exist no more."
---> '''Goomar''': "Wasn't it a meteor?"
---> '''Paulie''': "They're all meat-eaters."
---> '''Christopher''': "METEOR! METEOR!"
---> '''Paulie''': "Take it easy."
** Christopher, discussing Johnny Sack's daughter's name:
---> '''Christopher''': "Allegra? Ain't that a cold medicine?"
---> '''Paulie''': "It means happiness in Italian."
---> '''Christopher''': "...What the fuck's that got to do with cold medicine?"
** Subverted by Christopher when he punctures through a Young Earth Creationist theory.
--->'''Christopher''': "What's he saying? There were Dinosaurs back with Adam and Eve?"
---> '''Tony:''' "I guess."
---> '''Christopher''' : "No way. T-Rex in the Garden of Eden? Adam and Eve would be running all the time, scared shitless, but the Bible says it was paradise."
* CommutingOnABus:
** After essentially being the BigBad for the first season, Uncle Junior was gradually phased out as his ailments got worse and worse. In season 5 he only appeared in half of the episodes and season 6 carted him off to a nursing home where he spent most of his time offscreen. Notably, Junior only appears in two episodes during the final batch of 9 episodes.
** In season 6 Johnny Sacks got put in prison and appeared infrequently before dying of cancer after having been central to the storyline of the previous two seasons.
* TheCon: Tony and [[CorruptPolitician his associates]] scheme a very profitable real estate scam, whose boundaries cause some friction with New York.
* ConfessInConfidence:
** Discussed early in the show. In theory, everything said during therapy falls under doctor-patient privilege and is out of reach from the law, but there are instances where this doesn't apply so Tony remains cryptic in many conversations, hindering the effectiveness of his treatment and frustrating his doctor.
** The doctor-patient privilege is also used to have meetings with Junior in his doctor's office when he's on trial, as the government can't wiretap the doctor's office.[[spoiler: The feds get around this by having a female agent pose as a nurse and listen in on Junior's conversations, as well as detail the people present in their meetings.]]
** Junior also uses his lawyer's office for the same purpose, as the same rules apply.
* ConfessToALesserCrime: When Tony is asked point-blank by his daughter whether he's a Mafia boss, he denies it, but then grudgingly admits that his business does include some illegal gambling.
* {{Confessional}}: Carmela requires it during one of her crises of conscience.
* ConflictBall: Tony's gambling addiction in Season 6B. While he was gambling before that point, it wasn't shown nor implied to be this bad or destructive until then, and he effectively gets over it once the mob war with the Lupertazzis goes in full swing.
* TheConsigliere: Silvio Dante has that official role in Tony Soprano's crew/family. On several occasions, we see other mobsters complaining about Tony's decisions behind his back, and Silvio is the one to raise the issue with Tony face-to-face.
* ConsummateLiar: Lying and deceiving is a second nature to most of the characters. Tony is so adept at it that [[LivingLieDetector he can smell most lies a mile away]].
* ContinuityNod: Many episodes reference very minute details from several seasons ago. Unemphatic ContinuityPorn. Some examples:
** In "46 Long," which was barely the second episode in the series, Tony stops by his mother's house and starts looking over her pictures; one of them shows a younger Livia Soprano enjoying a cigarette. In Season 5, [[spoiler: years after Livia's death,]] Tony notices and briefly examines the same picture hanging in his Aunt Quintina's house.
** At the end of Season 1, "Larry Boy" Barese is formally indicted along with [[spoiler: Junior Soprano]], and is not seen or heard from again until much later. He shows up briefly at a mob event and is dragged away by police for violating his house arrest. He appears non-verbally in Season 4 during [[spoiler: Junior's]] trial because they were both taken into custody as part of the same wave of indictments, and are therefore being tried for the same crimes at the same time.
** In an early episode, Tony tells A.J., "There's an old Italian saying: you screw up once, you lose two teeth." Much later on, in season five, Tony has a lengthy dream and during it, he loses two of his teeth.
** Pussy Malanga, the enemy that Junior wants dead in the pilot episode, shows up again in Junior's mind in the first episode of the last season.
** [[spoiler:Christopher]] is shot in the torso and critically wounded in Season 2. While he recovers, the scarring is visible on his stomach for the duration of the series. He also mentions later that he had to have his spleen removed.
** Carmine Sr. dismissively calls the Jersey Family "a glorified crew" in Season 4. Phil Leotardo cites his words near the end of the show.
** In Season 3, Tony sees Carmine Sr. telling Johnny Sack to "answer the fucking thing," referring to the latter's phone. In a dream sequence two seasons later, Carmine appears telling Tony to "answer the fucking thing," referring to a ringing hotel phone.
** In Season 4, Christopher references the crow that was ostensibly watching him when [[spoiler:he got made the prior the season.]]
** Also in Season 4, Carmela's cousin Brian secretly meets with Tony under the pretense of picking up a power drill, taking the tool with him as he leaves. A season later, Tony searches for the tool to no avail.
* ContrivedClumsiness: Paulie Walnuts drops Valery's universal remote and gives a sarcastic ''oops'' after Valery tells him sternly, in his thick Russian accent, that "remote goes on docking station". Unsurprisingly, the conflict escalates from there.
* ConversationCasualty: Christopher shoots Emil Kolar in the back of the head after a polite discussion.
* CoolBigSis: Carmela is angry with Meadow for covering up for little brother Anthony getting a downtown hotel room and getting drunk with his friends; Tony responds, based on his own childhood, that that's what big sisters should do.
* CoolBoat: Tony's yacht, ''The Stugots''. Envied and praised by some characters, and a common place for Tony's escapades. The name is a derivative of ''stu cazzo'', the Napolitan term for "these testicles" (or perhaps more fittingly, "deez nuts"), and an insult.
* CoolCar: Lots of them, as befits the lavish lifestyle of the mobsters. One of the primary ConspicuousConsumption objects. Examples with plot relevancy include:
** The Jersey crew steals high-end vehicles which are later sold to the Camorra in Napoli (yes, like in Italy), which then sells them in Eastern Europe.
** Gloria Trillo is a saleswoman for Mercedes.
** Johnny Sack buys a striking Maserati during his happy days. The car has to be sold later unofficially to Christopher and is finally impounded.
* CoolHorse: Pie-O-My, Ralph Cifaretto's racehorse. Tony grows immensely fond of the horse, referring to it as "our girl," in direct contrast to Ralph, who brusquely instructs the trainer to whip it good. Tony's growing expectation of an increasing share of the winnings creates tension between the two. The poor animal dies in a mysterious fire which ends up ruining a few lives and sending ripples through the entire criminal underworld.
* CorruptPolitician: Several examples, most notably State Assemblyman Zellman, who is Tony's equal partner in a major scam.
* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot:
** Tony's reflections about the struggle with his uncle.
--->'''Tony''': "Uncle Junior and I, we had our problems with the business but I never should have razzed him about eating pussy. This whole war could have been averted. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbDL4rI4zu8 Cunnilingus and psychiatry brought us to this.]]"
** Little Carmine slides from pompous to pragmatist in late seasons and mentions the trope identifying phrase sometimes. Other New York bosses do the opposite.
** The episode "Pine Barrens" features probably the most heralded example. Paulie and Christopher, making a collection for Silvio, assault former Russian special agent Valery, attempting to dispose of his supposed dead body in the eponymous woods. But when Valery turns out to be NotQuiteDead and turns the tables on his assailants, escaping into the wilderness even after being shot in the head, Paulie and Chris end up getting lost overnight in the freezing cold. All because Paulie felt like being a dick and needlessly broke the guy's universal remote.
** Inverted in "Irregular Around the Margins." Despite a growing attraction to Adriana, Tony makes an actual effort to avoid an intimate relationship on the advice of Dr. Melfi. A car accident where Tony and Adriana are both in the vehicle leads to salacious rumors, bitter resentment from Carmela, and a near-fatal confrontation with Christopher. The irony of the situation is not lost on Tony.
---> '''Tony (in Dr. Melfi's office)''': You know, I might as well have fucked her. Thanks.
* CountryMatters: Regularly. It's generally not treated as a big deal nor used for shock value, with some exceptions.
** Season two has a scene where Tony applies the word to Big Pussy's wife, causing Carmela to stop him mid-sentence and shut him up.
** [[NotGoodWithRejection Tony insults]] Melfi with the term when she carefully refuses his advances. He gets called on it when he later apologizes.
** Silvio's PreMortemOneLiner delivered to [[spoiler: Adriana]]: "Come on, come on! Fuckin' cunt!"
** Paulie refers to the old lady who is mean to his mother as a "malignant cunt."
** Uncle Junior, a by-definition old geezer, breaks his hip in the shower and exclaims "YOUR SISTER'S CUNT!"
** In another case, Christopher gets to go on a movie set and suggests a curse word alternative to bitch -- ''pucchiacha''. When asked what it means, he simply deadpans: "Cunt."
* CrapsackWorld: Any character at any moment [[AnyoneCanDie can be killed]] by [[TheMafia mobsters]] or meet death in any other way. Crime is rampant, and most mobsters get away with every murder they commit [[spoiler:([[KarmaHoudiniWarranty even though most of them gets their comeuppance at the end of the series]])]]. As if that was not enough, there are a lot of AxCrazy people out there who could hurt you [[DisproportionateRetribution for the slightest offense towards them]]. It's telling something that the most remotely likable characters are {{Punch Clock Villain}}s.
* CrazyJealousGuy: Christopher could be this way with Adriana.
* CreatorCameo:
** David Chase is the Italian man who ignores Paulie in "Commendatori". He also appears as an extra in "Luxury Lounge" and is the voice on the phone in "The Test Dream".
** Matthew Weiner plays TV pundit and mafia expert Manny Safier in "Two Tonys" and "Stage 5".
* CriminalCravesLegitimacy: Carmela is in deep denial about her husband Tony's crimes, but they do give her a life of luxury. The only way she truly expresses how much she truly knows is that she's desperate for her and Tony's daughter Meadow to become a paediatrician, a highly-respected career that's nothing to do with the mob. It doesn't happen. Meadow switches majors and is well on her way to becoming a mob lawyer.
* CriminalProcedural: Organized crime variety. A relatively "blue-collar" gangster family overshadowed by New York. The focus is set on how the professional and personal issues tend to overlap and conflict.
* CriticalPsychoanalysisFailure: In the first few seasons, Dr. Melfi gradually gets distraught by her therapy sessions with Tony Soprano, leading to weight gain, {{dr|owningMySorrows}}inking, and needing therapy herself. In season 6, Dr. Melfi learns of a psychological study which discourages the use of traditional psychoanalysis with career criminals, as it too often validates the use of hypocrisy and deception for them; this is apparently a significant factor in her decision to end Tony's therapy.
* CrypticConversation:
** The mobsters actively avoid using incriminating words and have colorful euphemisms and TroubleEntendre for their illegal enterprises.
** Tony tells a guy that a job might involve "getting messy, real wet work". The FBI agents listening prick up their ears, only to realize a few seconds later he's asking a plumber to fix his burst water heater.
** Parodied in the last season when Johnny Sack's 'civilian' brother-in-law gives a shot at the SpySpeak, but [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZbd0xpP1Z8 his efforts]] comically complicate the conversations.
* CurbStompBattle: A rare nonlethal literal example occurs in "The Second Coming", where Tony gives Coco a vicious beatdown for messing with his daughter, capping it off with a curbstomp on a step. He finds a tooth in his pants leg later.
* CureYourGays: When Finn asks what is going to happen with Vito, Chris tries to ease his mind by telling him that they'll make Vito pay for some therapy. A classic mix of BlatantLies with amusingly ignorant comments so prevalent in the show. Vito also tries to discuss it with Tony, to no avail.
-->'''Vito: ''' It was the medication I was on. For my blood pressure. It fucked with my head, but I'm over that now. I could probably get a letter from my doctor\\
'''Tony:''' A note from your doctor saying you don't like to suck cock?
* CutHimselfShaving: After the "intervention" for Chris' drug addiction (where he gets the crap beaten out of him), he is taken to the ER. Tony explains to the nurse that he sustained his injuries "slipping off the kitchen counter while spraying for ants". At her skeptical look, Tony elaborates, "Well, he was wearing socks."
* DarkerAndEdgier: This may explain the show's success. Much like ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' did for comics, The Sopranos had a significant impact on the shape of the American television industry, creating a huge push for more DarkerAndEdgier TV shows with difficult and controversial subjects including crime, Italian-American stereotypes, graphic sex, graphic violence, BlackComedy, EvilVersusEvil conflicts, [[HateSink unsympathetic characters]], and [[VillainProtagonist villainous protagonists]]. The show itself became increasingly dark and violent starting with Season 3. As for cinematography, there's the bleak, almost eerie atmosphere, especially in the final season.
* DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster:
** Zig-zagged and deconstructed. The show can make gangsters look cool at times and uncool at others. Working in TheMafia has its own perks, but we're also shown how much of it is not so glamorous and sometimes even dark. Sure, Tony has a nice house and is relatively well-off, but he has to face his boorish family all the time (and vice versa), suffers from depression and anxiety attacks, and he always worries about his "friends" turning on him, maybe leading to his arrest or assassination. As Tony's nephew Christopher learns the hard way when he finally gets made, it means that he's under even more pressure to earn when he thought it was much easy.
** {{Discussed}} when Christopher runs into gangsta rapper Massive Genius and is invited to a party at his villa to set up a meeting with Hesh, one of the Soprano Family's associates. The rapper is outrageously smug, purposely showing off his vast wealth and success (including his BlingBlingBang) and generally trying to act as tough as possible to Christopher, a character the audience knows full well to be a sociopathic murderer. Christopher later laments that in the modern day being a fake gangster is clearly a lot more profitable than being an actual one. In a subtle dig, Massive Genius admits to having seen ''Film/TheGodfather'' 200 times (a favorite among Tony's crew, who frequently quote it), illustrating that Tony's crew are looking back at the old Mafia days with rose-tinted glasses just as much as a genuine outsider.
* DarkLordOnLifeSupport: Jackie "The Chemo-sabe" Aprile Sr.is a realistic example, until the cancer finally kills him. Later, Johnny Sack becomes this as well, also due to cancer.
* DatingWhatDaddyHates: Tony gets very angry when his daughter dates a boy who is half African American and half Jewish. Downplayed with AJ, who dates a Puerto-Rican/Dominican girl ten years his senior (and mother to another man's child to boot), [[DoubleStandard as Tony is much more forgiving]] of his ''son'' dating outside their race.
* DeadManHonking:
** When TheMafia [[AssassinsAreAlwaysBetrayed disposes of two would-be assassins]] to be absolutely certain that they won't tell tales, they crash their car so the dead driver slumps over and sounds the horn as the mobsters make their own getaway.
** Evoked with Tony Soprano. In two separate car crashes caused by [[spoiler:an assassination attempt and a panic attack]], Tony is incapacitated and falls onto the steering wheel, leaving his Suburban honking.
* DeadlyBath: Brendan Filone is inside his bathtub when Mickey Palmice visits him to deliver a MoeGreenEspecial on Junior's orders.
* DeadlyClosingCredits: The series might have ended with this. Maybe. We don't really know for sure.
* DeadpanSnarker: Almost the entire cast. Silvio, Carmela, Junior, and Dr. Melfi deserve special mention, although Tony can hold his own with them himself.
* DeathAmnesia: Tony's coma dream flows steadily out of his memory, with the exception of the beckoning light.
* DeathByIrony: The ends with an infamous AmbiguousEnding, but it's ''very'' strongly implied that Tony suffered this in the final scene of the series. In "Johnny Cakes", AJ mentions that Tony's favorite movie scene of all time is the famous scene in ''The Godfather'' where Michael Corleone shoots Sollozzo and Captain [=McCluskey=] in a restaurant after retrieving a hidden gun from the bathroom. In the final episode, it's very possible that Tony is murdered in exactly the same way; while having dinner with his family in a diner, he gets several suspicious glances from a mysterious fellow in a Members Only jacket, who is last seen walking into the bathroom. Of course, the screen abruptly cuts to black before we ''actually'' learn whether he lives or dies.
* DeathByRecognition: One (of several) fan theories about the ending is that it's Tony having a heart attack as he sees who's entering the restaurant.
* DeathEqualsRedemption: [[spoiler: After his son is shot in the chest with an arrow, Ralphie starts to regret the bad things he's done; soon after, he is killed by Tony during a fight over Ralphie's "possible" involvement with killing Pie-O-My.]] Tony even had a dream about him that showed a caterpillar one moment and a butterfly the next, all while perched on his bald head.
* DeathGlare: Tony gives Chris a venomous one at the meeting with Johnny Sack... Tony warned Chris to stay quiet beforehand. Chris keeps yapping, and the situation goes south pretty fast.
* DecapitatedArmy: Invoked by Phil in season six. [[spoiler: Killing Jersey's leadership would make its crew assimilable or at least easier and cheaper to deal with.]]
* DeceasedFallGuyGambit: The FBI investigates the killing of Willie Overall, Tony's first murder way back in 1982. After Overall's body is found and excavated, the investigation is eventually called off, when, thanks to misinformation provided by Di Meo capo "Larry Boy" Barese, the decades-old murder is pinned on Jackie Aprile, Sr., who has been dead himself for several years.
* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: Tony Soprano deconstructs TheDon. He's not a ridiculously powerful kingpin with high resources like most Mafia bosses in fiction. Sure, he's well-off, but these resources are limited. It makes sense as the show is set in modern times, where tougher anti-racketeering laws and possible informants give Tony nightmares. Besides, his crime family shows that the Mob today is at a downfall from informants, the government, hostility from other families, and drugs. All these attributes make him one of the most realistic representations of an American mob boss in the modern-day.
* {{Deconstruction}}: Easily one of the biggest deconstructions of TheMafia. Instead of portraying the Mafia as a synonym of [[UndyingLoyalty loyalty]], [[DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster power]], and [[EvilPaysBetter success]] (like ''Film/TheGodfather''), here it's the opposite. Very few members are really loyal (it's telling something that Silvio was the single most loyal member of the mob) and most of them are more than willing to betray their partners for vengeance, resentment, or greed. Also, while many of the mobsters live in the lap of luxury, it comes at the cost of being in constant fear over imminent death or indictments, in which all of that wealth and status can completely evaporate.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: In its desire to authentically depict the Italian-American criminal subculture, the series does not shy away from the casual racism, sexism, gay-bashing and Moral Myopia that are commonplace within it, even among the (by comparison) more sympathetic characters. Among other things, Tony disapproves that his daughter dates a black man in college; it's seen as normal for mafiosos to have affairs with women but a mob boss' wife having an affair is generally not tolerated; the crew are considering giving the gay Vito a pass for his homosexual activity until they find out he's the receiver; and even Hesh catches a few slurs (clearly intended as affectionate, but the character often seems to be holding back irritation when it happens).
* DelusionsOfEloquence: Little Carmine Lupertazzi, in his constant efforts to demonstrate erudition he never had and couldn't begin to spell, fell prey to this with monotonous regularity.
* DemotedToExtra:
** Lorenzo Barese. After he is sent to jail in the season 1 finale he only appears from time to time but maintains his captaincy throughout the series.
** Father Intintola is a major character in the first season, making only occasional appearances afterward.
** Irina Peltsin is Tony's regular mistress until he dumps her. She makes continues to make occasional appearances over the next couple of seasons, but her role is greatly reduced.
** Undercover FBI agent Deborah Ciccerone is introduced in season three and has a major role through a number of episodes in season four. We even get scenes from her point of view with her husband and child. Once her cover as Adriana's friend is blown, however, Adriana gets a new handler in Robyn Sanseverino. From that point on, Deborah only appears in a few brief office meetings and has no further effect on the plot.
* DidYouGetANewHaircut: In "All Happy Families...", AJ's friends shave his eyebrows off while stoned. It takes Tony a minute to catch on the first time he sees him.
-->'''Tony:''' ''(stares blankly)'' What's different about you?\\
'''Carmela:''' He has no eyebrows, Tony!
* DigitalHeadswap: Creator/NancyMarchand (who played Livia Soprano) died in the interim between filming seasons 2 and 3, leading the producers to have to drop a story arc and kill her character off. In the second episode of the third season, "Proshai, Livushka", the producers combined this with a stunt double and alternate takes of dialogue to give her one last scene, at a cost of $250,000. The results were... less than convincing.
* DirtyBusiness: [[spoiler:When Tony Blundetto kills Billy Leotardo as revenge for the murder of Angelo Garepe, Billy's brother Phil swears revenge. Despite Tony Soprano being subject to heavy pressure to deliver his cousin to Johnny Sack (who has taken over the Lupertazzi crime family after Little Carmine's abdication) explicitly so he can be tortured and killed, Tony refuses and protects Blundetto against Phil. But Phil begins stalking New Jersey looking for Blundetto, hounding Christopher's mother, and brutally beating up Benny Fazio. It soon becomes clear that Tony's men refuse to allow themselves to be endangered all for the sake of protecting Blundetto, so Tony is forced to act. He tracks down Blundetto at their uncle Pat Blundetto's farm and kills him with a 12-gauge shotgun point-blank in order to save him from the worse fate he would've received at Phil's hands. Tony then gives Johnny Sack the location. Phil is furious to be deprived of his vengeance, but Tony and Johnny reach an accord over Blundetto's demise]].
* DisappearingBullets: Many mobsters who have talked to the Feds, pissed off the wrong capo, or just outlived their usefulness to the organization get clipped in a car. Apparently, the side windows of their cars are bulletproof.
* DismemberingTheBody: The Soprano crime family uses a bunch of different methods to clean up murders that they generally do not want to become public ([[ConspicuouslyPublicAssassination unless that's the point]]). Most commonly, they dismember the body and bury the pieces in different places. Ralphie Cifaretto and "Fat Dom" Gamiello, both of whom were murdered over personal beefs instead of business reasons, had this happen to them.
* DispenseWithThePleasantries: Tony Soprano usually has little tolerance for beating around the bush, particularly when in an irritable mood (which is a lot of the time). He's very much a "let's get straight to business" kind of guy.
* DisposingOfABody: Pops up frequently. CementShoes or BurialAtSea (after some body hacking) are the standard methods of choice but straight ground burial is also used. It tends to generate problems in the long-term as the threat of unburial and discovery is always a possibility. The trope is discussed in an early episode, where Big Pussy explains to Chris why it's better for a dead rival mobster to "disappear" than for them to send a message by leaving his corpse somewhere it'll be found.
* DisproportionateRetribution:
** Ralphie makes a joke about Ginny Sack's weight. Johnny Sack's reaction? [[spoiler: He attempts to place a hit on him.]]
** "Doc" Santoro takes a piece of food off Phil Leotardo's plate during a very private meeting. Phil's reaction? He orders a few hitmen to shoot him and his bodyguard multiple times.
* DistractedByTheLuxury: One of the main traits of Carmela Soprano. For her husband and mob boss Tony, the standard way out of a marital problem is to bury it under gifts or loads of money.
* DivorceIsTemporary: Season 4 ends with a violent confrontation between Tony and Carmela and she insists that they separate. A season later he's OutGambitted her in the divorce proceedings because he's talked to most of the major divorce attorneys in town and the others won't take Carmela's case because of Tony's reputation. Later on he wins her back and they stay together for the rest of the series.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Played with in "College", where Carmela's relationship with her priest, Father Phil Intintola, is portrayed in such a way that recalls Tony's relationship with Dr. Melfi. Carmela clearly lusts after him, but the episode ultimately shows her taking the same solace in religion that Tony takes in therapy--complete with a private confession session that recalls a therapy session. Amusingly, Tony even accuses Carmela of having an affair with him after finding out that [[ItMakesSenseInContext he spent the night at their house while Tony was away]]; barely a minute later, Carmela accuses Tony of doing the same with Dr. Melfi after finding out that she's a woman (a fact that Tony had tried to conceal).
* TheDon:
** Tony, who is nominally the acting boss for [[AuthorityInNameOnly Junior]] and for the now jailed Don, Ercole [=DiMeo=].
** Carmine Lupertazzi in New York. He scolds Tony for doing un-Don-like things like wearing shorts, and disregards the Jersey Family as "a glorified crew".
* DontAsk / YouDoNotWantToKnow: A rare instance where Tony slips some true information about whackings to Carmela when she asks about [[spoiler: the Janice and Richie situation.]]
-->'''Tony''' He's gone [...] Carmela, after 18 years of marriage, don't make me make you an accessory after the fact. [...] Stop asking. I took care of it.
* DontExplainTheJoke:
** Johnny Sack describes the joke Ralphie made about his wife. "He said she was having a 90-pound mole removed from her ass. The implication was that her ass is so big she could have a mole that size removed from it."
** Paulie has a habit of repeating the setup and punchline to his jokes.
* DontMakeMeTakeMyBeltOff: Done between adults when Tony uses his belt to hit his corrupt congressman lackey for sleeping with his mistress. Even though he had (apparently) okayed it earlier.
* DoppelgangerDating: Almost all of Tony's mistresses are impossible-to-please dark-haired beauties with serious psychological issues -- that is to say, just like his mom. The most striking example comes in the third season when Tony starts seeing a new mistress, the beautiful but depressive and temperamental Gloria Trillo. After complaining about her to Dr. Melfi in therapy, Melfi points out that his description of her (much more psychologically than physically) sounds eerily like his recently deceased mother, Livia. Tony had a bit of a shock when Gloria told him, "Oh, poor you!' just like his mother used to.
* DoubleMeaningTitle: Used occasionally in episode names:
** "Boca" (Spanish for "Mouth") revolves around Uncle Junior's relationship with his mistress in Boca Raton, Florida, but it also involves a sensitive bit of word-of-mouth gossip that Tony exploits to damage Junior's reputation. For the hat trick: the gossip involves Junior's willingness to give his mistress oral sex, which is seen as unmanly in the Mafia.
** "Eloise", the penultimate episode of Season 4, includes a pivotal scene where Meadow and Carmella have brunch at the Plaza Hotel under the famous painting of the eponymous character of Eloise at the Plaza. More subtly, though, the title alludes to Carmella's dissatisfaction in her marriage and to the Unresolved Sexual Tension between her and Furio, which evokes the tragic love affair of Abelard and Heloise. The latter meaning is made clearer in the following season when Carmella takes an interest in the letters of Abelard and Heloise shortly after separating from Tony.
** "Rat Pack", which can refer to the famous Rat Pack from the 60s, a picture of which Tony receives as a present, though the same episode also focused on the FBI's multiple informants within the Mafia, making them a "rat pack" too.
* DoubleStandard: The writers didn't really have any. The characters, on the other hand...
* DownerEnding: Everyone loses by the end:
** [[spoiler: Even though Phil Leotardo is killed and the New Jersey and New York crews successfully call a truce, the future of the [=DiMeo=] crime family is pretty grim; most of Tony's key guys are either dead or otherwise incapacitated. Even worse, Carlo, one of the last trusted members of the organization, decides to go into witness protection.]]
** [[spoiler:While A.J. finally gets his life back on track, Meadow has embraced the MafiaPrincess life, with prospects of becoming an AmoralAttorney (to the dismay of Carmela). Uncle Junior completely loses himself and is left to die in a mental hospital, and Bobby's kids are stuck with Janice, who's essentially become [[EvilMatriarch her and Tony's late mother Livia]].]]
** [[spoiler:Dr. Melfi abruptly drops Tony as a patient after she realizes he cannot be saved, ending their therapy sessions.]]
** [[spoiler:Finally, the last scene of the series implies Tony may or may not have just been killed in front of his family. Even if he weren't, he's likely to spend time in prison on RICO charges.]]
** [[spoiler:Paulie and Patsy are the only ones not shown to have anything bad happen to them immediately, so [[KarmaHoudini make of it what you will]]. Of course, with Carlo becoming a federal witness and the [=DiMeo=] family near the point of collapse, they're probably going to have to tighten their belt in the near future at the very least even if Carlo doesn't directly implicate them.]]
* DramaticDrop:
** Meadow drops the phone after she's informed of [[spoiler: Jackie Jr.'s death.]]
** The same situation happens again when [[spoiler: Kelli]] is told the news about [[spoiler: Christopher's death]].
* DreamSequence: Done several times over the course of the show, but {{exaggerated|Trope}} in "The Test Dream", in which the titular dream lasts a full 20 minutes. It's [[SerialEscalation taken even further]] in "Join the Club" and "Mayham", where Tony [[AdventuresInComaLand falls into a coma after getting shot and has a long dream that extends over ''two episodes'']].
* DreamingTheTruth: How Tony finally realizes that Big Pussy has been turned.
* TheDragon: Abundant. Paulie, Sil, and even Christopher serve in this role for Tony. Johnny Sack was Carmine Lupertazzi's, and later on, Phil Leotardo was Johnny's.
* DragonAscendant: Phil Leotardo in the second part of season six.
* DragonWithAnAgenda: In season 1, Tony allowed his Uncle Junior to become the official Boss of the family since he would become the FBI's main target instead of Tony, who could still exercise power through the other capos, who recognized him as de facto leader. Eventually, it resulted in a minor MobWar when Junior realized that his nephew had fleeced him, one which Tony won.
* DreamingTheTruth:
** Tony had a dream where he was forced to face that he knew [[spoiler:Big Pussy]] was wearing a wire.
** Dr. Melfi has a dream which leads her to realize that she can, if she wants to, have Tony punish her rapist -- though she chooses not to.
** Carmela has a dream where she's forced to confront the possibility that Adriana was killed. Previously, she'd been led to believe that the latter had abandoned the family.
* DrivenToSuicide:
** Vin Makazian, [[spoiler:Gloria Trillo]], and [[spoiler:Eugene Pontecorvo]].
** [[spoiler: A.J. and Artie]] both attempt it, but fail.
** Satriale's aka the pork store that Tony and company hang out in was acquired by Johnny Boy Soprano when the owner Mr. Satriale killed himself over his debts to the mafia.
* DrugsAreBad:
** Christopher struggles with heroin and cocaine addictions and is berated and judged hopeless and unworthy by Tony and the gang. Paulie particularly. They resent more the weak nature of Christopher than the ''badness'' of drugs since the mobsters casually indulge in the habit too and selling them is a regular source of income.
** TruthInTelevision, as Mafia members are supposed to be banned from dealing in drugs. Not due to any moral objections, but [[PragmaticVillainy because the prison sentences associated with drug trafficking are so severe that those who are caught inevitably turn on their associates and become government informants to save themselves]]. This is exactly what happens with Big Pussy, Eugene Pontecorvo, and Carlo Gervasi (to save his son).
* DudeWheresMyRespect:
** A major issue for Christopher. He spends the entire show carving a status for himself, [[spoiler: yet after deep personal sacrifices and the rank of Captain, he gets and feels disrespected. Near the end of the show, after a long struggle, he seems redeemed and happy; he is a captain, has a new and stable family, and his long-awaited movie project is a reality. Then comes an ugly feud with Paulie, some disrespectful jokes, and a general lack of empathy with Tony, which, when combined, make him snap and relapse into his drug habits, with fatal consequences.]]
** Bobby struggles to be taken seriously by his fellow mobsters. In season one he's a glorified gofer for Junior Soprano. He complains a lot about it, and eventually rises to become Tony's de facto third in command.
* DumbassTeenageSon: Anthony Junior (AJ) is a lazy and spoiled kid without any real drive or ambitions in life. He frequently performed poorly in school, until eventually dropping out of college.
* DwindlingParty: By the end of the series, almost all the significant members of the [=DiMeo=] crime family are dead, incarcerated, have disappeared from the narrative, have gone into witness protection, or have suffered an arguable FateWorseThanDeath. It's basically just [[spoiler: Tony, Paulie, and Patsy at the end.]]
* DysfunctionJunction: You'll be hard-pressed to find a single regular character that doesn't suffer from deep psychological issues manifesting as either hysteria or sociopathy. At the very least, the characters will be involved in dysfunctional relationships. An interesting example in a world that averts ThereAreNoTherapists; it's just that the therapist herself is also dysfunctional.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
** The first season is a mild example, playing somewhat more like a lampoon of the gangster genre. It emphasizes the zaniness of Tony's two lives as a family man and a "Family" man. His wife gets this treatment as well. In one scene she expertly cocks and loads an AK-47 when she thinks there's an intruder. In the following seasons, she's just a typical housewife. The supporting gangsters are also constantly quoting famous mob movies, showing that modern mob culture is partially based on imitating fiction. This is de-emphasized in the rest of the show, though never completely goes away.
** In the pilot episode, it clearly has not yet been established that Tony has sisters.
** In the pilot, the pork store used as the mob's hangout is named Centanni's Meat Market instead of Satriale's Pork Store.
** Tony giving Ralph a beating after the Tracee incident is the source of a lot of conflicts, as physically assaulting a made man is against the Mafia's rules. He attacked Mikey Palmice, another made man (and Junior's right-hand man to boot) in the first season with no such drama.
* ElvisImpersonator: Big Pussy kills an Elvis impersonator named Jimmy Bones for running into him while [[spoiler: meeting with his FBI handler]].
* EndOfAnEra: The series takes place in the waning days of the Mafia. Various Mafiosi lament that things used to be different back in the mob's heyday. Even Tony comments on the changing times:
-->''"But lately, I'm getting the feeling I came in at the end. The best is over."''
* EnragedByIdiocy: Tony has a HairTriggerTemper in general, but the stupidity of his mooks and his son ranks near the top of his list of triggers. In "Remember When", he considers ''murdering'' Paulie for his annoying and dimwitted tendencies.
* EpiphanyTherapy: Subverted to hell and back; Tony mostly uses what he learns in therapy to be a more efficient mob boss. [[spoiler: Dr. Melfi eventually realizes this and terminates the sessions for good.]]
* EqualOpportunityEvil: When it comes out that Vito was spotted at a gay bar, most of the crime family's members are either crying out for his blood or at the very least, calling for him to be removed completely. Patsy is the only one to declare that he has no problem with homosexuality. While Tony does have a problem with it, he has a far bigger problem with the fact that Vito is extremely competent and makes him vast amounts of money and wants to keep him on in an indirect fashion. However, his most homophobic members start crying too loud for him to ignore. Though the decision is eventually taken out of his hand by an even more homophobic member of another family.
* EroticDream: Tony Soprano has had more than a few erotic dreams throughout the series, including one with his psychiatrist Dr. Melfi in her office, and another one with his friend Artie Buco's wife as he's cheering them on. Interestingly, Dr. Melfi [[UnresolvedSexualTension also dreams about]] having sex with her patient at one point.
* EskimosArentReal: Christopher thinks the Cuban Missile Crisis was a fictional event made up for the film ''Film/ThirteenDays''.
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Deconstructed. While the values of mafia and home life nominally require the men of the series to show respect and affection towards their mothers, the show also shows how mothers end up receiving the brunt of their sons' scorn.
** Tony Soprano, in spite of his serious MommyIssues, will instinctively defend his mother. In an early episode, he goes berserk when Dr. Melfi diagnoses Livia with borderline personality disorder and reads the symptoms to him. It's zig-zagged many times, as Tony is full of love and hate.
** Paulie Walnuts is extremely protective of his mother and serves as a doting son. It's his one virtue. However, even ''his'' love is tested when he finds out that [[spoiler: his mother is actually his aunt and has been lying to him his whole life]]. He gets over it, however, and soon reconciles with her. In season 6, [[spoiler: he mourns his mother's passing and is enraged at the skimpy showing at her funeral]].
** Christopher has also a soft spot for his mother, and Phil Leotardo harassing her comes out as one of the nastier KickTheDog moments for Phil.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Tony is a VillainProtagonist through and through and over the course of the series, discards nearly every virtue that he seemingly started with. However, the redeeming quality he carries to the end is his adoration for his two children and he tries his absolute best to be a much better parent to them than his mother and father were to him.
* EvenEvilHasStandards:
** Tony and the crew are appropriately horrified and disgusted when Ralph beats a stripper, pregnant with his own child, to death.
** Tony, Sil, and Paulie are all disgusted and angered by Richie Aprile running over Beansie and crippling him for life, to the point where it casts a grey cloud over Richie's standing within the [=DiMeo=] family permanently.
** [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain Phil Leotardo]] is disgusted that Tony would screw over his own uncle to become Don.
** The gang is downright appalled when they hear about Coach Don Hauser's affair with one of Meadow's high-school friends.
** The mobsters all express disapproval of Christopher's drug habits. Taken up a notch at his intervention. They freak out when it comes out that Chris accidentally sat on and killed Adriana's dog while high.
** Richie Aprile condones the beating of a woman if, and only if, she's your wife.
** When Gigi Cestone [[UndignifiedDeath suffers a fatal heart attack on the toilet]], the mobsters seem to be genuinely sorry for him.
** During the uproar within the gang after [[{{Gayngster}} Vito]] gets outed, Tony is (or at least tries to be) the lone voice of tolerance, suggesting that perhaps Vito's sexuality is his own business and not sufficient reason to have him whacked.
** Even after all the homophobia expressed by mobsters after Vito was outed, [[spoiler:they were all disgusted and grossed out upon hearing of the CruelAndUnusualDeath inflicted upon him by Phil Leotardo. And when Carlo praises Phil for taking care of Vito himself, pretty much all of them ignore him.]]
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Mobsters might be amoral bastards, but family is a big deal to them.
** For all of Dr. Melfi's accusations that Tony is a sociopath, he does clearly love his family in his own way. He feels guilty about what he puts his wife through, sees Meadow as an innocent in need of protection, and is tortured by AJ's floundering.
** Phil Leotardo really loved his brother and mourns his murder bitterly for years afterward.
** Johnny Sack's family seems to be quite loving.
* EverybodyDiesEnding: The last few episodes "take care of" [[spoiler: Christopher, Bobby Bacala, and Phil Leotardo]] while [[spoiler: Silvio]] is in a coma he may never wake up from, and [[spoiler: Tony himself]] may have been shot in the final scene.
* EverythingIsRacist: Sil viewing Anti-Columbus Day protesters as racist against Italians.
* EvilIsEasy: Tony's curse is that he has a measure of self-awareness, and on some vague, ephemeral level he wants to be a "good guy." He's just completely unwilling to accept any sacrifice or inconvenience required to actually be one because it's just easier for him to do what he's always done -- hurt people for profit.
* EvilIsPetty: The mobsters all do horrible things at various points but still find time to be complete dicks too. Notable examples include:
** Tony forces the kind, gentle Bobby to commit murder, his first, as payback for Bobby offending his pride by beating him in a fight. This was after Tony deliberately and repeatedly antagonized Bobby's wife Janice with crude insults, even after Bobby asked Tony to stop.
** Paulie is especially petty. For instance, when Chris is forced to pick up the tab, he pointedly drives up the bill any way he can.
** Ralphie Ciferetto is passed over for the promotion to capo in favor of Gigi. Ralphie immediately starts antagonizing Gigi every single opportunity he gets.
** "Fat Dom" Gamiello takes rather [[ForTheEvulz obnoxious glee]] at gloating over Vito Spatafore's death to Silvio and Carlo. [[OffingTheAnnoyance Bad move.]]
** Christopher seems to have a genuine friend in his AA sponsor, a man who he met while in rehab for his drug use. Chris then gets the guy to play in Tony's card game, covers his losses, then ensnares him in the same debtor cycle gangsters have been subjecting people to for centuries. He even beats the hell out of the guy for not paying up. When the guy understandably relapses, Chris looks at him with disgust and eventually takes possession of his car to cover part of the loan.
* EvilMatriarch: Livia is the mother of Tony and has held a vice grip over his emotions for many years, using spite, jealousy, and guilt as her weapons.
* EvilOldFolks:
** Possibly the evilest person in the show (which, for the record, is about Mafiosi) is Livia Soprano, Tony's aged mother. Extraordinarily manipulative, and not above putting a hit on her own son if it gets her what she wants.
** Uncle Junior, Tony's uncle, and of Livia's generation. In the first episode, he is plotting to kill a rival at his favorite restaurant. He becomes boss of the North Jersey Mob shortly thereafter and conspires with Livia to kill Tony.
* EvilParentsWantGoodKids:
** Tony Soprano is adamant that his son AJ doesn't go into the mob life like him, mainly because he's simply not cut out for it. AJ is spoiled, sheltered, not particularly bright, and starts suffering from the same panic attacks that his father was diagnosed with as an adult. Tony himself also grew up in a mob family, but he was exposed to the realities of this lifestyle early on and as ''Film/TheManySaintsOfNewark'' shows, he was already profiled as a high-IQ individual with "leadership qualities" when he was in high school.
** Even more than AJ, Tony has big dreams for his daughter Meadow. In talks with Dr. Melfi, he often expresses his wish that she'd be a doctor, maybe even a pediatrician, something far removed from his own life of violence and crime. Unfortunately for him, Meadow wants to be a mob lawyer.
** Jackie Aprile Sr. also felt this way towards his own son, and [[GiveHimANormalLife arranged with Tony]] to make sure this wouldn't happen before he himself died in the fourth episode. [[spoiler: Tony doesn't succeed and [[TurnOutLikeHisFather Jackie Jr.]] ends up dead later on, further strengthening his decision to keep A.J. out of it]].
** While calling Carmela 'evil' might be a stretch, one of the ways she shows she's not in complete denial is that she longs for her daughter, Meadow, not to follow in her footsteps. [[spoiler: It fails completely, as Meadow drops out of med school and decides to become a lawyer]].
* EvilVersusEvil: Tony and his friends ain't no saints, but the other mobsters who are against them are much worse.
* ExiledToTheCouch: ''Self''-exile in "Army of One": In the midst of their fight about sending A.J. to MilitarySchool, Carmela starts picking up blankets and pillows; then Tony grabs them, and says, "leave it to me!"
* {{Expy}}:
** Done in-universe. The nasty boss from ''[[ShowWithinAShow Cleaver]]'' is modeled almost verbatim after Tony, who fails to realize this at first. [[spoiler: It becomes a major wedge between him and Chris.]] Chris, terrified by the implications, strong-arms the nominal writer into taking credit for the character. He claims that [[SincerestFormOfFlattery he stole the character from another movie]], but Tony (who's on the fence about the thing) easily sees past the lie, checks the original movie, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero and takes serious offense to the whole issue]].
** Steven van Zandt takes Silvio on the road wholesale for the show ''Series/{{Lilyhammer}}''.
* EyeBeams: Paulie mentions hallucinating Uncle Junior doing this after taking LSD in the 60s.
* EyeScream:
** Mikey, before executing [[spoiler: Brendan Filone]]:
---> '''Mikey''': "Hijack, bye, Jack."
** Lampshaded by [[spoiler: Big Pussy]], who requests not to be shot in the face so he can keep his eyes.
** [[ButtMonkey Georgie]] is whacked in the eye by a ball-and-chain-like weapon by Ralphie.
** Bobby gets mugged and beaten up by a gang of kids in season 6. They don't kill him, but one of them shoots the pavement next to his face, which causes asphalt to shoot in his eye.
** Happens to minor season 6 character Faustino "Doc" Santoro during a power struggle over the next New York boss.
* FaceDeathWithDignity: Zig-zagged with [[spoiler: Big Pussy's death. He first tries to talk his way out of being killed, but once he realizes it's not working, he calmly walks to the middle of the room allowing the men to shoot him, only politely requesting that they don't shoot him in the face. However, after they pull out their guns he starts to lose his composure and begins to panic, asking that he be allowed to sit down first; at that point, the men just shoot him. (They do spare his face as he had requested, though it's unclear if they were intentionally honoring his wishes.)]]
* FaceHeelTurn: From Phil's point of view, "The Leotardo family has been taking shit from everybody the minute they got off the boat from Italy."
-->'''Phil''': [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLrlIpoQfQg No more Butchie, no more of this.]]
* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: Because Tony is the show's main character, it's impossible for the FBI to actually catch him. Despite numerous subplots involving their agents attempting to ensnare or incriminate Tony, they all fail due to his ProperlyParanoid tendencies, the loyalty of his capos, and a lot of bad luck. Although it's ''possible'' they finally got enough evidence to indict him in the very last episode, [[AmbiguousEnding it's ultimately left uncertain]].
* FakeGuestStar: Jerry Adler guest-starred as Hesh Rabkin in 27 episodes throughout the course of the series yet never received billing. This was in a series that tended to eventually give in-episode billing to actors in recurring roles.
* FakeShemp:
** Nancy Marchand died between seasons two and three. Her final scene was in the premiere of the following season and was cobbled together using voice clips from previous scenes and a CGI head of her character (whose lighting does not match the rest of the scene) pasted onto a body double.
** Several seasons later, while Tony is in a coma and envisions standing before a house that is implied to be the gateway to the afterlife, there's a shot of an old woman at the door who turns away before we see her face -- based on her hairstyle and movements, this is almost universally interpreted as being Marchand's character (Tony's mother).
* FamilyBusiness: The lack of an appropriate heir is a source of concern for Tony; since A.J. is not cut out for it, Christopher is groomed as one.
* FamilyMan: Just like the mafia films, the series is also about the family and the patriarch who wants to get their family united, no matter the cost.
* FamilyRelationshipSwitcheroo: In the final season, it is revealed that [[spoiler: Paulie Walnuts has been raised by his aunt his entire life because his mother was a nun who broke her vow of chastity with an American soldier]].
* FamilyValuesVillain: While there is some serious variability in how good they are at it, most of the mobsters at least attempt to do this.
** Livia Soprano seems at first to merely be a grumpy old lady. She is very insistent that nobody swears or smokes in her presence. Then she all but encourages her brother-in-law to put a hit out on her own son.
* FanDisservice:
** Whenever Tony gets at least half-naked, especially during his sex scenes.
** Lorraine Calluzzo in season 5. She's in the shower when Phil Leotardo and the hitmen go after her, and she runs through the house completely naked before they shoot her. It's not pretty.
* {{Fanservice}}:
** The Bada Bing! Half-naked strippers galore!
** [[SheIsAllGrownUp Grown up Meadow]] sexy-dancing in her underwear for Finn in the season 6 opener.
** Not to mention most of Tony's goomahs over the course of the show, half of whom appear naked at one point or another.
** Dr. Melfi herself has a few erotic dreams where she appears naked and having sex.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EScVpo-1zlw This scene with Sean Gismonte and Matthew Bevilaqua in their underwear.]]
* FanserviceExtra: Any stripper we see on stage at the Bada Bing qualifies, unless, of course, one of them becomes part of the episode's plot.
* FatBastard: Tony Soprano and many other mobsters are very noticeably overweight or even obese. Tony even calls other people "fat fuck". Averted with Bobby Baccalieri, who's both the fattest mobster and the TokenGoodTeammate.
* FatalFlaw:
** Tony Soprano's [[UnstoppableRage Wrath]] and short fuse sometimes got the better of him.
** Despite being one of the most ruthless characters in the series, Phil Leotardo considers himself too agreeable in nature and willing to compromise for his own good. In reality, it is his obsession with preserving his alpha-male persona at all costs that proves to be his downfall.
** Christopher Moltisanti's DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster tendencies. He doesn't realize being a made man in TheMafia comes with a lot of responsibility, which means he cannot goof around when he's under tremendous pressure from his bosses to earn more money. [[spoiler:By the time of his death, Tony had realized that Chris was TheLoad to the family]]. While being a mafioso has its perks, Chris should have known that some parts of a mobster's life can be boring and dangerous at times.
* FauxAffablyEvil: Tony Soprano Zigzags between this and AffablyEvil. He can be genuinely friendly and does make an effort to look out for those he cares about, but he gradually loses any real redeeming qualities. He will often act friendly to those he is just about to do something horrible to, like Jackie Jr and Phil Leotardo, just to taunt them. This is mostly relegated to people who piss him off, but Tony clearly gets a kick out of it.
* FellOffTheBackOfATruck: Or, just stole the whole thing.
* FeverDreamEpisode:
** "Funhouse" contains multiple fever dreams after Tony gets a bad case of food poisoning. In one of them, Tony douses himself with gasoline and lights himself on fire.
** Similarly in some early Season 6 episodes, after falling unconscious from some gunshot wounds, Tony has a series of strange dreams during his coma.
* FiveStagesOfGrief: Alluded to from time to time. One season 1 episode is titled "Denial, Anger, Acceptance".
* FishOutOfWater:
** Chris and Paulie in "Pine Barrens".
** The visit to the Mother Country in "Commendatori".
* {{Flashback}}: Used occasionally to recall significant events of Tony's life.
* FlorenceNightingaleEffect: Discussed. Tony quickly develops feelings towards his therapist, which are unrequited for pragmatic reasons.
* FoeCooties: Tony was more than happy to have sex with his rival Ralphie's girlfriend, Valentina, but refused to make her his permanent mistress until he found out she never had sex with Ralph (due to sexual tastes being for [[UsefulNotes/{{BDSM}} S&M]] rather than conventional sex).
* FollowTheLeader: An in-universe example. Jackie Jr. learns that Tony and co. had their major breakthrough in the criminal world when they robbed Feech la Manna's poker game, so Jackie decides to follow the example. [[spoiler:It ends badly, Furio is injured, while the card dealer is killed, and Jackie Jr. gets whacked for it.]]
* FoodPorn: The series is a delight for food-watchers, as they're eating in almost every scene. Chef Artie Bucco is a particular purveyor of this as he loves to discuss his ingredients at length.
* FoodSlap:
** An enraged Gloria Trillo [[TantrumThrowing throws a steak]] at Tony's head.
** Christopher throws a sandwich at Vito and insults his weight.
** A literal example happens when Christopher slaps an ice cream out of Patsy's hand.
** Artie and Tony's frustration with each other culminates in a childish food fight after Artie throws bacon at him.
** Junior breaks up with his talkative girlfriend with a dramatic PieInTheFace. A shout-out to ''Film/ThePublicEnemy1931''.
** Carmela is about to throw a glass at Tony's face when he is making a confession. Subverted as soon as she hears the topic is the start of his therapy.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** In the Season 5 episode [[Recap/TheSopranosS5E13AllDueRespect "All Due Respect,"]] Carlo Gervasi asks [[spoiler: Bobby "Baccala" Baccalieri]], "You really think New York would come after you?"
** After [[spoiler: Johnny Sack confesses in court his involvement in the mafia]] and is sent to prison, a disgusted and infuriated Tony tells Silvio:
--> "To think that piece of shit was my friend once. [[{{Foreshadowing}} I hope he dies in there!]]"
** At Christopher's intervention, Tony threatens to suffocate him. [[spoiler: Later on, he does.]]
** In the Season 1 finale, the feds tell an incarcerated Junior that the guy they're really interested in busting is Johnny Sack. Come the Season 5 finale...
* FormerlyFat: Vito Spatafore loses 160 lbs between seasons 5 and 6. This was RealLifeWritesThePlot, as actor Joseph R. Gannascoli had lost a similar amount of weight for health reasons.
* FrenchJerk: The man who embarks Artie in a very bad business deal, if not an outright con.
* FreudianExcuse: Constantly explored. He hates the mere concept of the excuse, yet he's diagnosed with a very powerful one; Tony was literally born into the mob, and his abusive parents wrote the proverbial book about how not to raise a model citizen. His mommy issues are one of his major malfunctions. He still goes out of his way to please his miserable mother, a manipulative, self-pitying control freak who resents her children for being happier than her. The MoralEventHorizon comes when she tries to put a hit out on him. Despite this, Tony seems to be a much better parent. Janice, on the other hand, inherited her narcissism, self-pity, and lack of empathy.
* FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: Whenever Meadow's boyfriend Finn voices his reservations regarding Tony and his associates' work, Meadow justifies on the basis that the poverty and dire conditions of Southern Italy bred their mindset and it can't be helped. Finn finally calls bullshit on this after he's forced to tell the mobsters he saw Vito giving a man a blowjob, telling her that they are generations separated from that environment and nothing their ancestors went through justifies executing a person just because they're gay.
* FreudianSlip: Tony has one about [[spoiler: Vito]] in the season six episode "Live Free Or Die."
--> '''Tony:''' This guy that got outed, look. The guys that work for me are asking for head. ...''his'' head. (''rolls eyes'') What the fuck?!
* FreudianThreat: In Season One, Tony Soprano is having a guy beaten up, but he proves stubborn. He's advised to try this trope instead, and it works. So we have a Soprano threatening to make someone else a soprano.
* FriendlyLocalChinatown: The New York family that Tony's feuds with hang out in Little Italy, which is rapidly being swallowed by Chinatown in real life. The characters comment on this.
* FromCamouflageToCriminal: A few of the gangsters have some military background:
** Corrado "Junior" Soprano was a veteran of World War II.
** Paulie Gualtieri served for a few years in the US Army. Though it's downplayed because he never experienced any wars.
** Russian mobsters Slava Malevsky and Valery are both veterans of the First Chechen War. Valery in particular was reportedly such a badass, that he allegedly killed 16 Chechen rebels by himself.
* FromTheMouthsOfBabes: An occasional source of humor: the adults swear constantly, but when a child (especially their own) does the same they're appalled.
* GainaxEnding: The series famously ended with a mid-scene cut to black. This may or may not have signified Tony's death. The explanation of the showrunners has it make a lot more sense. Since he is unable to bring himself to leave his life of crime, every day brings the uncertainty of being mundane or the day he is whacked. The audience does not know whether he experiences a routine day or finally meets his fate, and that's how he's going to have to live the rest of his life.
* TheGamblingAddict:
** Tony's friend David Scatino, who tragically gets TrappedByGamblingDebts.
** Chris's friend and [[TheSponsor sponsor]] J.T Dolan, in a very reminiscent way, but he manages to stay afloat.
** Tony himself ends up 'chasing it' after a bad luck streak. Being rich and powerful, he can afford it, but goes through it in a very unpleasant mood and insults his friend and moneylender Hesh with the AllJewsAreCheapskates trope.
* GangstaStyle: In "46 Long", Brendan berates Special K for holding his gun this way during a truck hijacking. The idiot immediately goes back to holding his gun this way afterward. This is primarily to show them to be StupidCrooks; the hijacking inevitably goes bad and they end up dead as a result when word gets back to the boss.
* {{Gangsterland}}: New Jersey is portrayed as this in the series. It's a city filled with drug dealers, {{Loan Shark}}s, [[TheCartel drug cartels]], contract killers, criminal organizations, illegal business, corruption, illegal gambling, and [[TheMafia mobsters]].
* {{Gayngst}}: [[spoiler: Vito]] spends a significant amount of time in Season Six experiencing gayngst when he is inadvertently outed to both his and Phil Leotardo's (somewhat homophobic) crews, flees to a small town in New Hampshire, and struggles with his duties to his wife and kids, his crew, and the web of lies he has to tell his newfound lover in New Hampshire to protect himself. [[spoiler: His gayngst arguably results in his death at the hands of Phil]].
* {{Gayngster}}: [[spoiler: Vito Spatafore]] is a straight deconstruction; the other gangsters find it disgusting, Tony, his only defender, is given a hard time, and the guy has to flee [[spoiler: and is eventually killed for being gay. Vito essentially commits suicide by returning to the fold despite having found a new life and an attractive boyfriend.]]
* GeniusBruiser: Tony Blundetto's IQ was revealed to be 158. Given his line of work, he almost certainly qualifies for the bruiser aspect as well.
* GilliganCut:
** Uncle Junior confides in Tony that he has cancer, and makes him promise not to tell anyone. Tony assures him he will not. Next scene-
-->'''Janice:''' [answering the phone]: Hello?\\
'''Tony:''' Uncle Jun has cancer.
** Ralph Cifaretto's son Justin is accidentally shot with an arrow, resulting in significant blood loss and brain damage. Rosalie Aprile comforts Ralph, telling him "He's gonna be fine." Cut to Rosalie then telling Carmela, "He's gonna be a vegetable."
* GirlsWithMoustaches: In one episode, several of the wiseguys are sitting around their no-work jobs, "breaking balls" about each other's girlfriends. One teases another, saying his girl had a mustache so bad it must have been like kissing a fireman.
* GoIntoTheLight: When [[spoiler: Tony Soprano]] is comatose after a shooting, he dreams that he's going to a family reunion. He's greeted in front by his dead cousin, who urges him to hand over his briefcase (despite his protest that "my whole life's in here") and go into the party in the white building they're standing in front of. As he approaches the door, the inside of the house becomes a white blur--but he hears his family calling him to come back, refuses to hand over the briefcase, and wakes up on the hospital bed.
* GoKartingWithBowser: Once the FBI agent tasked with Tony's crew is reassigned to anti-terrorism, he starts frequenting Satriale's, Tony's hangout, because the sandwiches are so good.
* GodIsDead: Stated by A.J in season 2, as part of his briefly becoming a StrawNihilist.
* GolfClubbing: "Mustang" Sally cracks Bryan Spatafore's head with a putter for talking to his girlfriend. Of course, because the man he did this happens to be Vito's brother, Sally gets a bullet to the head shortly thereafter.
* GoodIsNotNice: The FBI are portrayed as manipulative, condescending jerks, but still [[BlackAndGrayMorality unambiguously better than the mob]].
** The Feds do everything they can to ruin Allegra Sacrimoni's wedding day. They succeed by brusquely taking her father into custody, embarrassing them all in front of the entire wedding party.
* GoryDiscretionShot: Most of the mob executions are shown in their bloody entirety... except [[spoiler: Adriana's]].
* GossipEvolution: Tony gets in a car accident with Adriana as a passenger. Rumors circulate about Tony crashing the car while Adriana was giving him a blowjob and go from there; the rumors aren't true, but the two did share a lot of UnresolvedSexualTension that they most likely would have ''resolved'' (if you follow) had they made it to their destination.
* GothsHaveItHard: Vito Spatafore is murdered by his cousin-in-law Phil Leotardo for being gay, which is a huge no-no in the highly homophobic mafia. His son, Vito Spatafore Jr., starts to dress in all black and act out in school. Phil rather sanctimoniously tries to teach him to "man up" and take charge of his family now that his father is gone, and when he still refuses, Tony has him shipped off to a MilitarySchool.
* GrinOfRage: Tony Soprano does this very effectively, often smiling or grinning as a way to hide how angry he is, but also as an intimidation tactic. It usually doesn't take long for the mask to slip, making the other person realize a little too late that they're seriously screwed.
* GroinAttack: Mobsters fight dirty.
* GunboatDiplomacy: A real estate agent refuses to do business with Tony, so he has some of his men park a boat next to the agent's beach house and play loud music.
* HairTriggerTemper: Anyone would want to watch their step around pretty much anyone in the cast. While there are a few exceptions that are a little more level-headed, they all fly into a rage pretty quickly.
* HandsOnApproach: A throwaway subplot in season three sees a lesbian tennis coach show blatant favoritism towards Adriana when she and Carmela take up tennis. The reason why is all but spelled out, but Adriana herself doesn't get it.
* HarsherInHindsight: In-universe example: Chris groused about the Feds not investigating him like they were the senior Mafiosi, and he even bought a stack of newspapers that referred to him as a "local mobster". One has to wonder if he ruefully reflected on this in later seasons when the FBI spent what must have been thousands of taxpayer dollars to specifically bring him down -- oh, and it indirectly/directly resulted in Adriana's death, too.
* HeWhoMustNotBeSeen: Janice's estranged son Harpo is mentioned repeatedly over the course of the show, but never seen.
* HenpeckedHusband
** Tony's father.
--->'''Tony''': Now that my father's dead, he's a saint. When he was alive, nothing. And my dad was tough. He ran his own crew. A guy like that, and my mother wore him down to a little nub. He was a squeaking little gerbil when he died.
** Artie is under constant criticism from his wife Charmaine, mostly about his decisions when running the restaurant. This and other factors lead to the two nearly divorcing.
* HerCodenameWasMarySue: Christopher produces a horror film, ''Cleaver'', where undead mobster Michael comes back for revenge on his boss Salvatore and his cheating fiancé It's quite obvious that Michael is a stand-in for Christopher, Salvatore for Tony, and Michael's fiancée for Adriana, but Christopher vehemently denies it.
* HeritageDisconnect: A recurring theme throughout the show is that, while the mobsters and their families take a lot of pride in their Italian roots and culture, the things they know and practice are really a bastardized version of it caused by being generations separated from living in Italy and the insular nature of their group. The result is that many native Italians and even civilian Italian-Americans look down on the group and consider them a bunch of uneducated, boorish louts. It's best shown when Tony, Christopher, and Paulie travel to Naples and the mobsters there witness Paulie's behavior:
-->'''Neapolitan Mobster:''' ''(to his associate in Italian)'' And you thought the Germans were classless pieces of shit.
* HeroAntagonist: The FBI agents who oppose the mobsters provide anti-hero, manipulative, and callous versions. Agent Harris in particular is a FriendlyEnemy of Tony's and eventually [[spoiler: forms an EnemyMine against Phil]] because of some developments about UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror.
* HiddenWeapons: When assassinating Chucky, Tony hides a gun in a ''fish''; this is because he's ambushing the guy at the docks.
* HighClassGloves: Carmela and Meadow have a tradition of going out to a fancy restaurant wearing long gloves on her birthday. Meadow decides that it's a childish custom and refuses to participate.
* HighTurnOverRate: The Aprile crew experiments an even higher mortality rate than the rest of the organization, with the other members believing the head position is jinxed.
* HollywoodGenetics: Meadow has a noticeably darker complexion than everyone else in her family. Jamie-Lynn Sigler is actually half Cuban and half Ashkenazi Jew rather than Italian-American. This gets brought up in dialogue in the fifth season when Carmela recalls how her mother lamented "She's so dark!" when she first saw her granddaughter.
* HollywoodPsych: Dr. Melfi acts as both a psychiatrist (a medical doctor that prescribes the medication) and a psychologist (a counselor or therapist who engages in talk therapy). In reality, those are two separate professions, a psychiatrist generally only sees you for about 15-20 minutes once a month to adjust medication levels while a psychologist is the one who will see you for an hour a week to talk through issues (but cannot prescribe medication).
* HomophobicHateCrime: The murder of Vito Spatafore by Phil Leotardo and his men was motivated by Leotardo's homophobia and the homophobic culture of the Sicilian mafia in general. This one's especially wrenching because of the cold-blooded way the whacking is carried out and the look on poor Vito's face when he realizes that he is going to die. The Sopranos were also seriously contemplating murdering Vito (who was one of their captains) for his transgressions, but Tony was hesitant to do so [[PragmaticVillainy because Vito was a good earner]]. He eventually relents because Phil kept pressing the issue and reluctantly puts a hit out on Vito. Phil's men just beat them to the punch, although Tony and his men would not have gone the extra mile of torturing Vito and desecrating his body. This murder deepens the wedge between the Lupertazzis and the Sopranos because killing a made guy of another Family without an ok from the Boss is a big no-no.
* HonoraryUncle: The mob guys are all honorary uncles towards their associates' respective children.
* HookersAndBlow: The Bada-Bing is a magnet for this.
* HopeSpot: After her fallout with Christopher regarding [[spoiler: the FBI]], Adriana is seen driving alone with a suitcase and possibly leaving everything behind to start a new life. [[spoiler: Turns out it's just a daydream and she's a passenger with Silvio at the wheel, taking her on the last car ride of her tragic life.]]
* HospitalHottie:
** PlayedWith in "Denial Anger Acceptance]]". A woman in a Hello Nurse outfit comes to check on Jackie Aprile, who insists she's not his nurse. About the point her tits start falling out of her jacket, he realizes that she's one of the girls from the Bada Bing club, whom Tony hired to come out and show Jackie a good time.
** Junior is fooled by an attractive nurse who is revealed to be a mole planted by the FBI.
* HotForPreacher: The sexual tension between Carmela Soprano and Father Intintola is a plot point in season 1.
* HowTheMightyHaveFallen: [[spoiler: Silvio, by the end of the show. Throughout the series, he swaggers around his strip club, always totally in control of "his girls." At the pork store, he always knows what to say as Tony's consigliere. As an executioner, he is able to take out victims like Adriana La Cerva and Burt Gervasi with ease. By the finale, after nearly getting shot to death in the previous episode, Silvio is in the hospital, comatose and breathing through a respirator. (Symbolized by his hair, of all things: his pompadour is gone, for the first and ''only'' time in the entire series.)]]
* HowWeGotHere: Done at the beginning of an episode when Tony suffers a panic attack, the action is literally rewinded to the moment he meets Meadow's black-Jewish new boyfriend.
* HumansAreFlawed: Selfishness, myopia, and dysfunction are portrayed as the constants of the human condition.
* HumiliationConga: Season six includes a neutral one with [[spoiler: Johnny Sack going through hell once he's the big boss; arrested, incarcerated, embargoed, and humiliated in front of his family and friends on the day of his daughter's wedding. He shames himself by breaking the ''Omertà'' code of silence to lower his sentence, only to die of cancer not much later]].
* {{Hypocrite}}: If you ask most characters, being a mafioso or abetting a family member of one doesn't go in the way of being a good Christian or upstanding citizen.
* HypocriticalHumor: The characters' numerous hypocrisies are frequently showcased for laughs and irony:
** Many of the mobsters consider themselves to be observant Catholics, and the mob wives, who live on blood money, are very devout and self-righteous.
** Carmella is finally told this explicitly in Season 3 in her one meeting with psychiatrist Dr. Krakauer, who tells her he's refusing her payment because he won't take blood money, and the only way for her to ever feel good about herself is to leave Tony and never again accept anything from him.
** There is also season 4's "Christopher", where many characters associate protests against Columbus Day as a slight against Italian-Americans and complain about how the media portrays them as violent, uneducated mobsters. It becomes humorous when you realize that almost every character in the series falls into at least one of those categories.
* IGaveMyWord: When Carmella and Tony are discussing ratting out other criminals and going into witness protection, Tony says this. Carmella replies: "What are you, a kid in a treehouse?" A nice way to point out how ridiculous this trope can be when the choice is following your word or protecting your family.
* IHaveAFamily: A waiter uses this argument when he comes out to confront Christopher and Paulie over the small tip he was left. [[KickTheDog It doesn't help his cause.]]
* IJustShotMarvinInTheFace: One of Brendan's truck-robbing associates in "46 Long" accidentally kills the driver when his gun slips out of his waistband and discharges.
* IJustWantToBeLoved:
** With the overall poor parenting of his father and mother, Tony has one chip on his shoulder when it comes to parental figures. He tries to bond with his uncle Junior, but the latter's increasing dementia makes it hard for them to make a full connection.
-->'''Tony''': I mean, don't you love me?
** Having lost his father at a very young age, Christopher always tries to find a surrogate. The most obvious choice is Tony, but given their line of work, their chain of command, and their respective mental situations, the relationship slowly sours until it's rotten.
* IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight: Tony tries this with Uncle Junior when the latter is in the grips of Alzheimer's, but he's only able to get the slightest bit of recognition when he says a talismanic Mafia phrase: "This thing of ours."
* INeedAFreakingDrink: Dr. Melfi takes a shot of vodka upon noticing the next appointment is Tony in "House Arrest."
* IdiotBall: LoanShark Tony takes an [=SUV=] used by David Scatino's son as collateral from the busted-out Scatino, and then gives it to Meadow, who is a close friend of the boy. Not surprisingly, a fight emerges between father and daughter. Tony is normally a lot cannier than that.
* IgnoredEpiphany: Nearly every character:
** One of the sharper examples is Phil Leotardo, who wages a brutal turf war against Tony during the final seasons. Tony attempts to put an end to it while Leotardo recovers from a heart attack in the hospital, pleading that they could bury the hatchet and live long enough to see their grandkids, which moved Phil to tears. But ultimately Phil's anger and resentments overrode his willingness to compromise, with disastrous results.
** Tony, of course, struggled constantly with the bad man that he is, and his therapy sessions often forced him to admit his faults. But his attempts at self-improvement never really take, and by the end of the show, it's difficult to say that he's changed much at all.
** Janice also saw a therapist for anger management, though her sessions were court-ordered. She seemed to be making progress at first, but Tony goads her into losing control basically out of resentment shortly after. By the end of the show, whatever stability and self-control she'd managed were completely undone after the murder of her husband.
* ImagineSpot: Adriana has a particularly sad one in "Long Term Parking".
* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: A few times in the series, most notably when Matthew Bevilacqua and Sean Gismonte attempt a hit on Christopher. Sean connects with the first shot, then empties his clip at a range of only a few feet, managing only to graze his shoulder. Matthew fires over 15 shots and doesn't even come close once.
* {{Implausible Deniability}}: This describes the Mafia code of silence, or ''omerta'', in which members of the mob not only deny their involvement with it, but also argue that it doesn't even exist in the first place, in spite of evidence to the contrary. Tony first demonstrates this in "College", where, when Meadow presses him about his mafia connections, tries to argue he's not involved, and that there is no mafia, before admitting that, yes, he is involved in ''some'' illegal activities.
* ImNotHereToMakeFriends: Mentioned often by Tony. "I'm running a fuckin' business, not a popularity contest!" Besides his close family and business associates, [[LonelyAtTheTop he has no real friends]]; he manages to alienate Artie, David Scatino, Hesh Rabkin, and Zellman among others.
* InLoveWithTheGangstersGirl: Furio with Carmela. Subverted in that Furio is a gangster too, but Tony is ''the'' boss.
* InSeriesNickname:
** "Big Pussy" gets a second one, much to his chagrin, Tony keeps calling him "beached whale".
** Phil gets called "The Shah of Iran". He resents it [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and brings it up]] when he summarizes the reason why the [=DiMeo=] family sucks.
* IndulgentFantasySegue: Tony has several sex fantasies, including one where we see him [[FanDisservice with a woman while wearing a Centurion uniform.]] Melfi even has one about Tony!
* InherentlyFunnyWords: A lot of the series' more light-hearted (or, blackly comedic) moments tend to involve the characters' favorite foods, which always seem to have really silly names. Choice examples include "gabagool"[[note]]Over here![[/note]], "buffalo mozzarella"[[note]]pronounced "moozarell"[[/note]], and of course, that time Chrissy shot a rude bakery cashier in the foot over a box of sfogliatelle[[note]]pronounced "Shfuyatelle", due to lingustic drift and the fact most Italian-Americans came from Southern Italy, before Standard Italian based on the Tuscan language spoken in Northern Italy took a hold there, doesn't help[[/note]] and cannolis[[note]][[Film/TheGodfather he did not leave the gun]][[/note]].
* InjunCountry: Tony visits an Indian casino that is owned and run by a shady white businessman with perhaps a drop of Indian ancestry.
* InnBetweenTheWorlds: In "From Here to Eternity", Chris has a near-death experience where he visits Hell or Purgatory that's an Irish bar where every day is Saint Patrick's Day and you spend all eternity getting beaten in card games.
* InsistentTerminology: Tony has an issue with a "retirement community" being called a "nursing home" and corrects the term every time. In later seasons when his mother is no longer in one, he does the opposite correction.
* InterruptedByTheEnd: The series infamously ended in the middle of the lyrics of "Don't Stop Believing" as part of its GainaxEnding.
-->''Don't stop--''
* IronicEchoCut: "Whoever Did This" has a darkly funny example: Ralphie's son Justin is tragically injured, and he suffers significant blood loss and brain damage, with doctors saying that he could potentially end up being disabled. Later on, as Ralphie sits beside Justin's hospital bed, Rosalie Aprile comes into the room. She consoles him, saying:
-->'''Rosalie:''' Justin's gonna be alright. You'll see. He's gonna be fine.\\
''[cut to Rosalie talking to Carmela over dinner at a restaurant]''\\
'''Rosalie:''' He's gonna be a vegetable.
* IronicNurseryRhyme: "Denial, Anger, Acceptance" had Chris being abducted and mock executed by Russians while Meadow sang "All Through The Night" in the school choir.
* {{Irony}}: Tony, along with Silvio and Jackie Aprile ascended in the Mafia at a young age by some audacious violations of mob protocol, as they were respected for their moxie. Brendan Filone, Jackie Aprile Jr, Dino Zirelli, Carlo Renzi, Matthew Bevilaqua, Sean Gismonte... pretty much the entire cast of young De Meo gangsters aside from Chris... are all killed trying to follow this example.
* IsThatAThreat:
-->'''Tony:''' What's that, a threat?\\
'''Carmela:''' No, Tony, it's a rave review!
* ItaliansTalkWithHands: Some characters do this more than others, especially if they get excited or aggravated. Paulie is a particular example. Pointing with his pinkie extended is practically a nonverbal catchphrase.
* ItCantBeHelped: All the time, in the form of "[But] What are you gonna do?"
* ItTastesLikeFeet: In "The Strong, Silent Type," Tony and Junior are sampling some wine Furio brought back from Italy, which Junior grumps "reminds [him] of people's feet." After which, he continues drinking it.
* ItsAllAboutMe:
** Livia Soprano. She's always complaining about how everyone's mistreating her and how her son does not appreciate her.
** Janice makes a big show of being an all-loving, progressive hippy, but she's extremely self-centered and manipulative, twisting every situation around her own feelings and insecurities.
* IvyLeagueForEveryone: Meadow is an undergraduate student at Columbia. However, it's made clear she only got in because Carmela implicitly uses [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections the nefarious power of their surname]] to grant her admission.
* JammedSeatbelts: Sean Gismonte and Matthew Bevilaqua try to kill Christopher by shooting him from a car. When Christopher starts shooting back, Matthew exits the car and gets away, but Sean gets tangled up in his seatbelt. Unfortunately for him, this makes him a pretty easy target.
* {{Jerkass}}: The show doesn't shy away from portraying the Mafia as full of people with anti-social behavior or outright sociopathy, and while a lot of guys do qualify, ''nobody'' matches up to the level of sheer obnoxiousness that is Ralph Cifaretto, who stands out as the meanest character in the show; rude, disrespectful, obnoxious, depraved and pointlessly violent.
** Tony is rude, [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain racist]],[[BadBoss verbally abusive to his underlings]], a serial womanizer and has [[MoralMyopia high standards for people that he fails to meet himself]]. He is also a violent criminal.
* JoggersFindDeath: Mikey Palmice is killed by Chris and Paulie in the middle of his jogging routine.
* {{Joisey}}: Most of the series takes place in Essex County, and much of the rest is in Hudson County.
** Tony was born in the Ironbound neighborhood of Newark; like any true Newarker of his age he calls the neighborhood "Down Neck." Livia's house (later Janice's and then Tony's during his separation) is here, as is Uncle Junior's. Uncle Junior's trial also takes place in Newark, at the federal courthouse. Additionally, "the Esplanade", one of the most important plot points in the series, is an urban redevelopment project in Newark.
** The Soprano [=McMansion=] is in North Caldwell.
** The series makes the occasional foray into Montclair.
** Furio's house is in Nutley.
** It's not quite clear where Bada Bing and Satriale's Pork Store are supposed to be (there are some indications that Satriale's is supposed to be in or very near Newark, as there's a sign with directions to the [[UsefulNotes/PortAuthorityTransHudson PATH]] right next to it); the place that doubled for Satriale's is in Kearny and the place that doubled for the Bing is in Lodi.
** "Pine Barrens" takes the series on a rare trip to South Jersey, going as it does to, um, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the Pine Barrens]].
** A few episodes also take us to Atlantic City.
* JuryAndWitnessTampering: Corrado Soprano Jr. persuades a juror not to deliver a guilty verdict against him by using Eugene Pontecorvo to threaten the safety of the juror's family.
* JustGotOutOfJail: Various characters (Richie Aprile, Tony Blundetto, and Phil Leotardo, most prominently), only show up once they're released from jail, as a fairly justified way of having the characters be old friends without using RememberTheNewGuy.
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'''A-J''' | [[TheSopranos/TropesKToZ K-Z]]
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[[foldercontrol]]
* AbusiveParents: Tony is emotionally manipulated and terrorized by his difficult mother throughout his childhood and well into his adult life. One notable incident featured his mother threatening to stick a fork in his eye when he was only ten years old. Tony's father was outwardly friendly, but also a manipulative sociopath who indoctrinated his son into violent crime and the mob. It's implied that the various degrees of emotional manipulation and terror Tony suffered under his parents are what turned him into a violent, sociopathic adult. [[spoiler: As the series goes on, after the cumulative effects of therapy, separation, and a near-death experience, Tony ends up subverting this trope with his own kids; he's nowhere near father of the year material, but still manages to be a better parent than the people who raised him.]]
* AcidRefluxNightmare: In "Funhouse", Tony eats some bad shellfish [[spoiler:and has an extremely long dream sequence where he finally admits to himself that Big Pussy Bonpenseiro (in the form of a talking fish), one of his few real friends, has become a federal informant. When he wakes up, he acts on this information and murders Pussy]].
* ActorAllusion:
** In "The Blue Comet", Paulie says, "I lived through TheSeventies by the skin of my nuts when the Colombos were goin' at it." Tony Sirico, the actor who plays Paulie, actually was an associate of the Colombo crime family before turning to acting.
** There are several references to Music/BruceSpringsteen in the show (Chris: "The turnpike is jammed with broken heroes on a last-chance power drive."), whom Steven van Zandt has played with for years. But it's difficult to tell if it's a deliberate Allusion because, hey, it's Jersey.
** Gloria Trillo really loves a song played on the radio, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qk2g9FEtr4k Steve Van Zandt's "Affection"]].
** A recursive one. The lead in Christopher's movie ''Cleaver'' is named Michael. The character is based on Chris himself, who is played by Michael Imperioli. In-universe it is probably a ShoutOut to Michael Corleone from ''Film/TheGodfather''.
** Chris shoots a bakery worker in the foot for taking too long with his order. In ''Film/{{Goodfellas}}'', he was shot in the foot for taking too long to make a drink.
** The murder of [[spoiler: Angelo Garepe]] referred back to the death of Billy Batts in ''Film/{{Goodfellas}}''; both were beaten, thrown into a car trunk, and shot while pleading for their life. Batts was played by actor Frank Vincent (Phil Leotardo) who reverses his role from victim to executioner.
** Michael Imperioli [[WrittenByCastMember wrote five episodes]] and was the only actor to write multiple episodes. This would probably explain Christopher's interest in screenwriting and production.
* ActorRoleConfusion: Tony idolizes Creator/GaryCooper, who in his mind epitomizes "the strong silent type," the ideal kind of American from a long-gone era. He's called on this by Silvio, who points out he's mixing the real life person with the characters that he played. Tony still argues that the icon is what matters.
* ActuallyPrettyFunny: There are many times throughout their therapy sessions where Melfi can't stop herself from laughing at a remark of Tony's.
* AdamWesting:
** Creator/JonFavreau appeared on as a name-dropping, overly-pretentious jerkass version of himself who'd come to New Jersey to make a movie. Star-struck gangster Christopher was delighted to hang out with "Jon"...until "Jon" stole all his ideas.
** Creator/FrankSinatra couldn't show up to lampoon his own mob ties, so instead we get Frank Sinatra Jr. playing poker and Nancy Sinatra performing a private concert.
** When Christopher pitches his idea for ''Cleaver'' to Sir Creator/BenKingsley, Kingsley is unimpressed with the idea and turned off by Chris's lack of professionalism. So instead, they have to settle for Creator/DanielBaldwin.
** The same episode features a cameo by Creator/LaurenBacall, who pretty much plays herself––a charming, potty-mouthed Hollywood legend.
* AdventuresInComaland: After getting shot by a delirious Uncle Junior in season six, Tony spends a few episodes in a coma dream sequence. He was in a distant city, where he'd accidentally switched his wallet and briefcase with a man named Kevin Finnerty, and everyone else thinks he actually is this man. Curiously, in this dream, Tony's heavy New Jersey accent drops significantly and his posture is better.
* AgeGapRomance:
** Virtually all of the "goomahs" of the mob men are significantly younger than them. Irina is 12+ years Tony's junior, Bobbi even more to Junior. Tracee is 20 years old with the 40+-year-old Ralphie, [[spoiler: making her murder at his hands all the more tragic.]]
** A 20-year-old AJ starts a relationship with Blanca, a 30-year-old single mother. His parents disparage the relationship (Tony because she's Puerto Rican, Carmella because of the age gap), but figure it's a good thing that she's at least Catholic. The relationship doesn't last; it's implied that while Blanca recognizes that AJ has a good heart, she was better off with someone her own age. AJ becomes so depressed that he attempts suicide.
* AintTooProudToBeg:
** Christopher in Season 1 when he suffers a [[ItWorksBetterWithBullets mock execution]]. [[DefiantToTheEnd Reversed]] later in Season 5 when [[spoiler: Tony is about to kill him and Chris doesn't back down from an accusation.]]
** Lorraine Calluzzo offers to blow the Leotardo brothers during what turns out to be a mock execution.
** Matthew Bevilaqua's last action was to [[UndignifiedDeath pitifully beg for his life]]. [[MakeAnExampleOfThem Tony wasn't moved.]]
** Fabian "Febby" Petrulio's last words before Tony garrotes him: "Please, Tony...I'm begging you".
* AlasPoorYorick: Christopher holds a skull this way when he is relocating the bones of an old murder.
* AlasPoorVillain: In a rare occurrence, [[spoiler:Johnny Sack]] is given a touching and empathic death scene, dying after a long illness and surrounded by his anguished family. The show makes a point about a broken mobster dying [[spoiler:of cancer]] is still a human being, a father and a husband. In-universe, even the mobsters who felt betrayed by the man mourn his loss and honor his memory.
* AllBikersAreHellsAngels: "The Ride" had Tony and Christopher coming across two bikers stealing fine wine. When they decide to steal the wine from them, the bikers arrogantly proclaim, "We're with The Vipers!" Tony and Christopher are naturally unimpressed.
* AllForNothing: The show invests significant time in Tony's therapy, building out Dr. Melfi as a character and using the therapy sessions as a way to look into Tony's psychology and motivations. Ultimately, though, Tony's therapy fails to meaningfully change his behavior. At the end of the series, Dr. Melfi comes to the rather horrified realization that, for some sociopaths, therapy isn't just worthless, it can actually make things worse by giving the individual a new set of therapeutic tools and languages with which to manipulate people. She ends her sessions with Tony at that point.
* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Played straight for almost all the female characters. Played with by Melfi, who feels an unhealthy attraction to Tony but is able to fight it off.
** Noticeably subverted in AJ's case. As the series goes on, he dates a succession of very attractive young women, despite being a sullen, scrawny wimp.
* AllJewsAreCheapskates: In the episode where Tony's debts with his Jewish friend and loan shark Hesh grows out of control, he complains about him fitting this trope to his shrink. She responds by saying that it's an ugly stereotype. In a first-season episode Hesh does almost spoil Tony's and Johnny Sack's plan to bail Hesh himself out of some hock with Junior, who has instituted a retroactive tax on Hesh's businesses upon becoming boss. Junior listens and "magnanimously" lowers the rate, and the back taxes owed to "three hundred". Before anyone else can react, Hesh says, "Two-fifty!" There's a moment of brittle silence, and then Junior smiles. "What did I tell you? Hang on to your cock when you negotiate with these desert people!"
* AllJustADream: The series has a lot of these as a way to get into Tony's head, although it was made apparent to the audience what they were.
* AllPsychologyIsFreudian: Played with. Tony Soprano cites UsefulNotes/SigmundFreud (whom he learned about in his "semester and a half" of college) to explain to Melfi that he understands therapy "as a concept", but in the show's subsequent explorations of psychology, it really isn't there. Often called the most accurate fictional depiction of what ''actually'' happens in therapy. Tony is, however, diagnosed with a compelling FreudianExcuse and Melfi often brings up the UsefulNotes/OedipusComplex (one of the specific FreudianExcuses that Freud identified) despite Tony's repulsion. Ultimately subverted since at the end of the series, [[spoiler:Melfi decides that FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse and fires Tony, deeming him to be an irredeemable sociopath.]]
* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: The show focuses on the lavish lifestyles of gangsters, but it will occasionally undercut how successful they really are in the grand scheme of things.
** Tony Soprano is TheDon, but his crime family is just a big fish in a small pond compared to the New York gangsters across the river.
** American gangsters overall are humbled when they visit Italy and see how actual Italian gangsters live in opulence.
** Meadow is a high achiever in high school who grew up in a life of luxury thanks to Tony. When she begins attending Columbia, she has to adjust to the reality that most of the students there are just as, or even more, intelligent as she is and many of them come from families whose lineage or careers are far more prestigious than her family of mobsters.
** AJ waxes philosophical about the trials of being born rich. Then he's embarrassed to discover that his girlfriend is SecretlyWealthy and lives in a stately mansion far greater than his own home. The Sopranos, for all their underworld power, are upper-middle class at best.
** Little Carmine, a mafia prince who could have run all of New York City had he wanted to, is just as flabbergasted as Christopher by the lifestyle of Hollywood elites, who have luxury goods thrown at them for free just for the publicity.
* AmbiguousEnding: After disposing of his arch-nemesis Phil Leotardo, Tony is seen taking his wife Carmela and son AJ to a diner, later to be joined by their daughter Meadow. It's seemingly an upbeat scene, with the exception of Tony discussing potential legal troubles on the horizon. Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" starts playing in the background, and you begin to see curious shots of seemingly random persons in the diner mixed in with shots of Tony and his family happily chomping down on onion rings. The music swells, an unseen person enters the restaurant, Tony looks up, and suddenly--cut to black, series over. Was Tony suddenly shot as the screen cut to black (perhaps by the man in the Member's Only jacket?), or no? Or is it symbolic of how the possibility of a whacking always hangs over Tony's head? This was left a mystery for years.
* AmbiguousSituation:
** Did Ralphie kill his racehorse Pie-Oh-My for the insurance money? He never admits anything, but it's absolutely the kind of thing he'd do.
** Johnny Sack's wife and eldest daughter are both substantially overweight, while his youngest daughter (played by a young Cristin Milioti) is unusually thin. The subject of food is a BerserkButton for the youngest daughter, as seen when she yells at her family for even bringing up the subject. It's implied but never explored, that she has an eating disorder.
* AmoralAttorney: Neil Mink and Harold Melvoin, traditional and very expensive mob-lawyers who reinforce the genre-savviness of the bosses and their ability to commit crime or get away with it.
* AndADietCoke: Vito orders a Grande Nacho and a Diet Coke at Crazy Horse in "Pie-O-My".
* AngstySurvivingTwin: Patsy Parisi angsts about it often enough to make the rest of the cast frustrated, and when he finds out that Tony had his brother killed for trash-talking him, Patsy gets drunk and pees in Tony's pool (after seriously contemplating killing Tony in revenge).
* AnimalMotifs: Several used as symbolism throughout the series, e.g felines represent Adriana or Chris and migratory ducks the fragile family of Tony. A more concrete example is the parting gift Tony gives to his goomahs, a horseshoe-shaped jewel.
* AntiHero: Dwight Harris is the KnightInSourArmor variant. He possesses a cold and humorless demeanor, but he is a good guy who is doing his job to maintain the peace.
* AnyoneCanDie: This pretty much became the hook of the show, to the extent that it was called "The Big Pussy Rule". No one was safe, be it the lowest goon or Tony himself. Due to the fact that they were never informed well in advance, many of the actors explicitly expressed suspense and fear for their careers should the writers suddenly choose the sword to fall on their head. (Though in the case of Livia, it was the actress that died first.)
** Most of the most notorious deaths of major characters such as [[spoiler:Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero, Vito Spatafore, Adriana La Cerva and Bobby "Bacala" Baccalieri]] came, predictably, as a result of mob hits. However, arguably the most shocking death occurred in Season 6 when [[spoiler:Christopher Moltisanti]] is wounded when the car he is riding in with Tony flips over (his death hastened by Tony suffocating him.)
** [[spoiler:And then there's the series' infamously inconclusive ending, which led many viewers to assume that Tony himself may or may not have been assassinated as well]].
* ApparentlyPowerlessPuppetmaster: Played with in regard to Corrado "Junior" Soprano. After a brief power struggle in the first few episodes, he winds up under house arrest and, now that he's removed from direct power, his nephew Tony allows him to believe he's The Don while Tony is the ''de facto boss''. However, Junior still tries his best to leverage his seniority and the loyalty of his underlings to run things behind Tony's back, undermining and even attempting to organize a hit on his nephew. To the feds, of course, he plays the part of a bemused senior who doesn't know anything, while simultaneously trying to act tough and in-control around Tony and the other gangsters; the truth is somewhere in the middle, and as he gets older he begins to show signs of genuine dementia.
* ArcWelding: At the end of the first season, Big Pussy has vanished. No one knows anything. The writers were just going to let it go at that--people do, indeed, vanish with no explanation, though it's rare. However, when they heard how the fans were wondering what happened to him, they welded Pussy into the story of Jimmy's being TheMole, with him being a second one.
* ArcWords: "Oh, poor you," Livia's sarcastic rejoinder to Tony's complaints. When his mistress also says it, Tony realizes he'd sought her out because she is like his mother. In season 6, Tony in turn says it to ''his'' son.
* ArcadeSounds: Bobby Baccalieri's son plays a computer full of generic laser blasts, beeps, doots, and other such game noises. The game he's playing is ''Videogame/MaxPayne''...
* ArmorPiercingQuestion:
** Meadow catches Tony off-guard when she asks him "Are you in the Mafia?". Tony replies there is no Mafia and [[ConfessToALesserCrime discloses that he's indeed into some illegal activities]] such as gambling.
** Tony asks "Don't you love me?" to Junior who is going through the early stages of dementia and has behaved badly toward Tony. Junior is left shaken, speechless, and showing a SingleTear.
** "Hey, Pussy... did she even really exist?"
** Carmela to Tony after he says he was attracted to the one-legged Russian because he could converse with her: "what about the thousand other fucking pigs you had your dick in over the years, the strippers, the cocktail waitresses. Were you best friends with all of them too?"
* ArtisticLicenseLaw:
** Or at the very least, Legal VoodooShark, respecting Junior's indictments and jail in Seasons 1-2. The indictments appear to be federal ones, but then Junior is apparently detained before the hearing. After a few weeks, his lawyer gets him out by claiming health problems, allowing Junior to be held on house arrest. All of this is a big to-do in the family. However, federal defendants are rarely held before trial and rarely have to post bail; instead, they are simply detained, released with conditions (like Junior's house arrest), or released without conditions, and this decision is made within a few days of the arrest. Junior would have never been held for more than 2-3 days in a real federal prosecution. Now, Junior could have been held longer on state charges (at the time; New Jersey would later adopt a federal-like system), but the charges are clearly federal. Adding to the confusion is that the judge who hears the motion to put Junior on house arrest has a New Jersey flag in his chambers (federal judges generally only have U.S. flags), but also clearly refers to the prosecution as "the Government" (which is only done in federal prosecutions; in a state criminal case in N.J., the prosecution is "the State").
** Several episodes show convicted felons like Phil Leotardo visiting prisoners who are incarcerated. Unless they are blood relatives, this is not allowed by most prison systems, including the ones shown in the series.
* ArtifactTitle: In-universe: the [=DiMeo=] Crime Family, of which the Soprano crew is a part, still bears Ercole "Ecky" [=DiMeo's=] name, even though he's been in prison for decades, and no one named "[=DiMeo=]" has any part in running the family or even appears on-camera.
* AsHimself:
** Frank Sinatra Jr. is a player at a high-stakes poker game hosted by the [=DiMeo=] family in Season 2.
** Creator/JonFavreau plays a manipulative version of himself who screws Chris out of his ideas.
** Creator/JaneaneGarofalo and [[Film/TheKingOfComedy Sandra Bernhard]] appear in a movie directed by Favreau.
** Creator/BenKingsley and Creator/LaurenBacall make a cameo when Christopher is pitching his own movie. The role finally goes to Creator/DanielBaldwin.
** Music/NancySinatra is the entertainment at a party hosted by Phil Leotardo.
** Invoked in "The Test Dream". Creator/AnnetteBening is playing Finn's mother in Tony's dinner dream. He recognizes her, and later in Tony's episode-long dream, she appears as herself.
* AsTheGoodBookSays: Despite their dubious morals, the mafia members all appear to be Catholic, which is TruthInTelevision, and make occasional references to Literature/TheBible. Religion is also used as a plot point on occasion; for example, when [[spoiler:Christopher recovers from his shooting]], he mentions he had a vision of going to hell (or possibly purgatory), and in another episode, Tony tries to persuade A.J. that God exists when he loses faith.
* AsYouKnow: In season 5, Barbara's first scene after being [[TheOtherDarrin recast]], she greets Tony with a "Hello, big brother!" to help the audience figure out who she is.
* AscendedExtra: Many characters start out with minor roles and grow more prominent as the series goes on.
** Johnny Sack and Vito Spatafore are both barely seen in Seasons 1 and 2 but are major players later on (In Vito's case, his actor Joseph R. Gannascoli plays an innocent bystander during an incident with Christopher at a bakery in Season 1)
** Bobby Bacala is another notable example.
** Adriana originally appeared in the series pilot as an unnamed hostess at Artie Bucco's restaurant with just a couple of lines. However, producers of the show were so impressed by what they saw of Creator/DreaDeMatteo's acting skills, that she was quickly promoted as Christopher's love interest and a major character in the show.
* AsianAirhead: Of the Indian variant - Ambujam, Meadow's college acquaintance who appears in maybe 2 scenes. "Fock you, betch!" and "Mead, he was soch a drep!" referring to Jackie Jr.
* AssShove: It's mentioned off-handedly that [[spoiler:Vito Spatafore]] was sodomized with a broomstick while they were murdering him.
* AssholeVictim:
** "College", has a rather famous invoked example. It was the first episode in the series' run that actually showed Tony Soprano committing a murder on-screen; before it, he had always left the dirty work to his underlings. Being an early episode, though, network executives at HBO still had their doubts about whether or not the show could sustain an audience in the long-term, and they argued that viewers would drop out in droves if they had to see the show's protagonist remorselessly killing an FBI informant without consequences. First, they tried to convince David Chase to write an alternate version with Tony letting the informant live, or just having Christopher kill him instead. When that didn't work, Chase compromised by agreeing to make the guy as unsympathetic as possible, writing in additional scenes where he's seen peddling drugs to local teenagers.
** Towards the end of Season 4, Paulie suffocates an elderly woman to death while trying to steal her money. However, she was a snobby bitch who was mean to Paulie's mother for picayune reasons, and Paulie (at first) had no intentions of killing her. No one even rose an eyebrow after she died.
* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: While Tony recovers from a severe gunshot wound, he notices that his old lieutenants don't follow his orders as readily as they used to, and he suspects that they now see him as weak. Tony responds by goading his hotheaded, musclebound bodyguard into fighting him. He kicks the everloving shit out of the much younger man in front of his entire crew, to their visible shock, then calmly walks into the bathroom and coughs up blood into the sink. No one questions his orders after that.
** All of the capos and bosses in the mob are either capable fighters and killers, or they used to be in their younger days before they rose so high that they no longer need to get their hands dirty.
* AutomobileOpening: Tony driving from New York to his home in New Jersey. His route is deliberately inefficient to provide more interesting visuals (nobody in their right mind would go from Manhattan to North Caldwell by going through surface streets in Kearny and Newark).
* AuthorAppeal: Many references to media figures reflect the tastes of the show makers. The band Scout appears as the fictional band Miami Relatives because the episode's writer Michael Imperioli is a fan. A Creator/WCFields film is on the television in the same episode because David Chase is a fan.
* AuthorityInNameOnly: Corrado Soprano (Junior) is the official boss of the family, but not the one calling the shots. Invoked by Tony in season 1 when he sets up Junior as a fall guy to shield himself. The FBI tries to use it as wedge against them, but Junior denies it.
-->'''Junior:''' My nephew running things? Not that strunz. Not in this life.
* AutomobileOpening: The intro features Tony driving from New York to his home in New Jersey. His route is deliberately inefficient to provide more interesting visuals: it runs through Newark and Kearney to get to Tony's house in North Caldwell, but any reasonable driver going from New York to North Caldwell would never get as far as Newark on the Turnpike but rather get off the Turnpike onto NJ Route 3 at Secaucus and get home from there. One supposes that perhaps Tony intends to visit Satriale's (fictively in Newark, with the actual building being in Kearney), but we don't see that in the intro.
* AwfulWeddedLife: Johnny Sacks being HappilyMarried to Ginny is an outlier for the mob family. Husbands having several "goomahs" is simply expected; being emotionally or even physically abusive to their wives even moreso. Divorce is out of the question, however, largely due to the characters' Catholic upbringings. One such example is Angie Bonpensiero, wife of "Big Pussy," who devolves into a nervous wreck when he returns home. Carmela is sympathetic, but actively tries to steer Angie away from divorcing him.
-->'''Carmela:''' (To Tony) And then you would come down the stairs...And I felt probably like someone who is terminally ill and somehow they managed to forget it for a minute...And then it ''allll'' comes back...
* AxCrazy:
** Richie Aprile.
-->'''Richie''': Did you ever meditate?
-->'''Beansie''': Me, meditate? Ha, are you crazy?
-->'''Richie''': Not as crazy as I used to be, still crazy enough to take an eye out.
** Other mobsters with an extremely homicidal behavior definitely qualify... or with a temper that would not have any mentally balanced person: Paulie, Christopher Moltisanti, Ralph Cifaretto, Feech la Manna, Johnny Boy Soprano and Phil Leotardo are straight examples. Even Tony Soprano has traits of one.
* BadassInANiceSuit: Zig-zagged. The mobsters like to wear plain sportswear, showcasing their rather common and vulgar hoodlum condition, but they tend to dress up according to their fancy businessmen status when the occasion requires it. Members of the Lupertazzi crew can usually be seen in suits, befitting their more successful and refined nature when compared to the Jersey crew. Carmine Lupertazzi keenly states to Tony that "a Don doesn't wear shorts".
* BadBoss: Tony is a successful manager, but he verbally shreds his underlings on a regular basis. He is entitled by the hierarchical level of the Mafia, but crosses the line once and gets called on it when he physically assaults Ralph, as beating another made-man is a violation of Mafia protocol. He later [[spoiler: kills Ralph]], which is also against the rules. Christopher is another victim of this kind of abuse.
** Ironically, while Tony was out of line when he beat the piss out of Ralph Cifaretto, he could have had the man killed at any time that he wanted, for any reason. [[spoiler: Which is more or less why no one asked any questions about Ralph's death; that, and ''no one'' was sad to see him go.]] The world of the Mafia, folks.
* BadGuyBar: The Bing.
* BadGuysPlayPool: The Bing's back room.
* BadPresent: A mundane example: a large number of Mafiosi are released from long prison sentences throughout the series; Season 5 sees the release of "the class of 2004", a group of New Jersey and New York wiseguys convicted and given 20-year sentences in the big Mob prosecutions of the early 1980s. Many of these guys have some issues with the way the Mob works in the 21st century--including its increasing suburbanization (both the Jersey boss and Lupertazzi underboss live in ''North Caldwell''), its increasing cooperation with other criminal organizations, and the laxity of certain Mob traditions.
* {{Bambification}}: A minor character has a quiet moment with a deer. Then it runs away and Tony brutally garrotes him.
* {{Bathos}}: Nearly all the characters are horrible people doing horrible things and caught in bleak and violent situations, which only gets worse as the series progresses, but it's kept from getting too grim by continuous comedic moments, silly juxtapositions, and lots of fast-paced witty dialogue. For example, Tony's realization that his friend Big Pussy has turned government informant comes from a fever dream where Pussy is a talking fish (who makes a "sleeping with the fishes" joke to boot).
* BearsAreBadNews: In season five, a marauding bear drops by the Sopranos' compound a number of times, alarming Carmela and panicking A.J. At that moment, Tony isn't living there, so he posts some of his underlings as guardians. Eventually he defends the fort himself, posted through the night with weapon in hand, emphasizing the necessity of a strong male family leader.
* ABeastInNameAndNature: Phil Leotardo takes to referring to Tony Blundetto as "Animal Blundetto" after the latter [[YouKilledMyFather murdered his brother Billy]] during the Lupertazzi civil war. In reality, Tony B. was more of a BewareTheNiceOnes-type guy who got in over his head when he recklessly tried to make a name for himself, with the vicious, hotheaded Phil himself being a much better candidate for that title.
* BeautyToBeast: Valentina loses her beauty after being disfigured in a kitchen fire.
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: In Season 1, Chris is upset that he is too unestablished for the FBI to bother targeting him. In later seasons, the FBI actually ''does'' make Chris a major target... and it ultimately ruins his life.
* BeingEvilSucks: Though the series has a DoNotDoThisCoolThing element, it does also show the Mafia to be an insecure life of murder, violence, threats, paranoia, betrayal, and relentless police investigations, that often ends in a sudden and violent death (Tony himself says the only outcomes for a guy like him is an early grave or ending up in the can). It is suggested, particularly by Dr. Melfi, that Tony's business is actually the cause of his health problems.
* BeingPersonalIsntProfessional: One notable concept that Tony never neglects. Particular examples include [[spoiler:David Scatino, Tony B, Vito, and Christopher]].
* BerserkButton:
** Tony always loses it when he learns of animals being harmed. Chris and Ralph learn it the hard way when they kill a dog and presumably a horse.
** Johnny Sack is usually calm and collected unless someone makes a remark about his wife.
** Tony doesn't take it well when he is reminded on several times that he never had the makings of a varsity athlete.
** At one point, Tony thinks Janice is acting way too nice and out of character, so he deliberately invokes Janice's [[RelativeButton button by asking questions about her strayed son]]. Janice being Janice, it's [[KickTheDog malignant]] and amusing at the same time.
* BetterWithNonHumanCompany: Tony Soprano loves animals and animal abusers are a major BerserkButton for him but he has absolutely no problem maiming, torturing, or killing someone. This is part of what makes his therapist realize he's an incurable sociopath and sever ties with him.
* BigApplesauce: The much larger NY families become major players in the final seasons.
* BigBad: Season 2 has Richie Aprile and the final season has Phil Leotardo. Partial examples include Junior in season 1, in tandem with Livia, and Johnny Sack in season 5, as they stay agreeable for the most part and while there is some build-up or major conflict, it gets resolved or defused very quickly before becoming an arc.
** Alternatively, the show has three successive Big Bads, each lasting two seasons: Livia Soprano, Ralph Cifaretto, and Phil Leotardo.
* BigBadEnsemble: Season 2 initially sets up both Richie Aprile and [[spoiler: Big Pussy]] as the plot's main antagonists. Upon being released from prison, Richie actively undermines Tony's authority as boss of the [=DiMeo=] crime family and ultimately moves to have him killed towards the end of the story arc. [[spoiler: As for Pussy, he is revealed to be a FBI informant whose likable persona is revealed to be a facade masking his growing bitterness towards Tony. However, whereas Richie's actions are a constant threat to Tony's control over the family, Pussy ultimately proves to be an unreliable asset to his FBI handlers and is abruptly whacked in the season finale after having little impact on the course of the plot]].
* BigBadWannabe:
** Jackie Aprile Jr., the spoiled and overly-ambitious son of a deceased mobster who thinks he can rise through the ranks like Tony did and become the boss. Nobody wanted him in the business, not even his father, but he insists on pushing his way in and feels entitled to respect because of his heritage. All he ends up doing is causing tensions with the [=DiMeo=] crime family after he stupidly attempts to rob a card game held by them, which results in his crew getting slaughtered when the robbery predictably goes south. He never once approaches anywhere near the power needed to take on Tony and the second it looks like he might, Tony casually has him killed.
** A later example is Feech la Manna. Like Jackie, he tries to scheme his way to the top, but by that point, Tony's learned to nip this sort of nonsense in the bud and manipulates him into getting sent back to prison before he can cause trouble.
* BigEater: Pretty much everyone, bordering on FoodPorn. They're eating in every episode: big, heavy, Italian meals of pasta and meat and sauces and alcohol.
* BigFancyHouse: Tony is a successful mobster and lives in a nice, large house with a big backyard and a pool in a good neighborhood. His son waxes philosophical about the trials of being born rich to his new girlfriend, humble-bragging about the nice home he lives in. Then he visits his girlfriend's house and discovers to his horror that it's five times the size of his own. He's really only upper-middle class, while his girlfriend has been SecretlyWealthy the whole time.
* BigScrewedUpFamily: The Sopranos, the two families (the criminal one also called [=DiMeo=] sometimes). Tony tries his best to avert it. The mere basis of the show.
* BilingualBonus: Too many to mention if you know Italian.
* BlackComedy: A gritty portrayal of the mob life where the hypocritical nature and sociopathic deeds of the characters [[RefugeInAudacity generate humor, sometimes bordering on the absurd]] while keeping the realistic feel. The show places such an emphasis on humor that David Chase is quoted as once having said that sometimes he and the writers weren't sure whether they were making a drama or a comedy.
* BlackScreenOfDeath: Debatably used in the finale, [[spoiler:as Tony Soprano may have been killed just after a quick cut to the credits. Among the suspects: a character identified in the credits as "Members Only", plausibly, a Call-Back to the episode of the same name]].
* BlandNameProduct: Zig-zagged, especially as regards certain items of New Jersey culture:
** In some cases, it's played straight. For example, in "Mr. Ruggiero's Neighborhood" ([=S03E01=]), some of the FBI agents disguise themselves as utility maintenance men from "New Jersey Gas and Electric"--which is clearly based on the real electric and gas utility in North Jersey,[[note]]And most of Central Jersey and much of South Jersey[[/note]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Service_Enterprise_Group Public Service Electric and Gas]] (PSEG).
** In other cases, it's averted. For instance, the newspaper practically everyone reads is ''The Star-Ledger'', an actual Newark-based paper that serves as North Jersey's newspaper of record.
* BlatantLies: Chris arrives at Ralph's house to find Ralph's dead body on the floor and Tony looking beaten up and covered in blood.
-->'''Tony:''' I found him like this.
* BleakAbyssRetirementHome: {{Inverted}}. Livia constantly refers to her nursing homenote as if it's a hell-hole (and that Tony doesn't visit her often), but on the whole it's shown to be a relatively pleasant place to live (and that Tony visits as frequently as his schedule allows, and substantially more often than a lot of others might).
* BolivianArmyEnding: The famous ending uses this somewhat. Fans have long debated whether the cut-to-black means somebody shot Tony, or if a deeper symbolism is in play.
* BookEnds: Implied. Although the show's infamous AmbiguousEnding makes it difficult to know for sure, it's strongly hinted that the final season begins and ends with Tony getting shot, and with a man in a "Members Only" jacket shooting someone to death in a diner.
* [[BornInTheWrongCentury Born in the Wrong Decade]]: Tony and his friends are well aware that the mob's heyday is long over with, but they have a hard time coming to terms with it. Especially as modern technology and science continues to make it more and more difficult to run protection rackets and commit crimes without getting caught.
-->'''Meadow''': It's the '90s. Parents are supposed to talk about sex with their kids!\\
'''Tony''': No, you got it wrong. Out there, it's the '90s. In this house, it's 1954. '90s... ''(points to the open front door)'' ...1954 ''(points to the floor)''. Got it?
* {{Bowdlerization}}: The syndicated version survives relatively unscathed sex and violence-wise, as Creator/DavidChase filmed alternate scenes (the scenes at the Bada Bing Strip Club have scantily-clad dancers who don't take off their clothes and the violent deaths are often replaced with shots of someone's face or shown at an angle so the violence won't be as severe). However, all of the profanity and explicit sexual lines are redubbed with toned-down versions that either weaken the dramatic impact or are just plain {{Narm}}y. One particularly notorious instance of editing came when the line "...sucking on a Cub Scout's dick" became "...chewing on a Cub Scout's ear" [[note]]which still implies sexual molestation to a Boy Scout, no matter how you slice it[[/note]].
** Before the show went syndicated, ''Series/{{MADtv}}'' had [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgBD94cs0T8 a parody of the show]] that depicted just how disjointed they thought the show would be if it was shown on a non-premium cable channel and edited for all manners of violence, sex (the scene of Tony getting a lap dance was so severely edited that it just showed the stripper coming in and finishing up), and foul, abusive language (even going as far as editing out all mention of Big Pussy's name). The actual syndicated version on A&E isn't as bad as the parody ''[=MADtv=]'' came up with (which depicted ''The Sopranos'' on PAX, of all channels, and featured an entire episode lasting ''less than five minutes''), but it's still pretty funny that the show predicted how the show might be EditedForSyndication.
* BrainlessBeauty:
** Lorraine Calluzo's "life partner" (aka boyfriend) Jason Evanina. Made obvious when Jason tries to weigh in about Phil in a meeting and Lorraine tells him ''"Jason, be quiet. Men are talking"''.
** Adriana is so dumb she believes a drug dealer when he says that the money from drug dealing goes towards poor children.
** Jackie Jr is a great example of this. Uncle Junior states that he once came close to drowning in three inches of water.
* BrattyTeenageDaughter: Meadow during the first few seasons. Of course, what teenager ''wouldn't'' be a little bratty with parents like Tony and Carmela?
* BreakTheCutie: Tracee gets no respect from anyone she tries to impress and is beaten to death [[{{Jerkass}} by Ralphie]].
* BreakingTheFourthWall: A subtle case in 5x03, "Where's Johnny?" When Junior is returned to his home by a couple of cops, Junior tells the one of the cops to "Go shit in your hat." The scene briefly changes to Bobby's daughter Sophia looking at the camera and giggling.
* BrickJoke: Several, but the one with the longest payoff between setup and punchline involves Phil Leotardo. When he is first introduced, one of the first things you hear anyone say about him is that he is "a pimple." His last scene has him [[spoiler: shot multiple times, falling to the ground in such a way that an SUV left unattended rolls over his head, crushing it]], followed almost immediately by an FBI agent informing Agent Harris that [[spoiler: "Phil Leotardo got popped."]]
* BringMeMyBrownPants:
** Christopher "does a number two in his pants" as girlfriend Adriana puts it when he is mock executed by a pair of Russian gangsters.
** Later on, Jackie Jr. pees himself in a car seat when Christopher and another mobster rob a benefit concert.
** And then there was a "businessman" who wet his pants as he was dragged into a dark room so a bunch of mobsters could bash him up.
* BrokenAce: Tony Soprano is the mob boss of all New Jersey; charismatic, powerful, ruthless, and has keen business acumen. Underneath it all, he suffers from some ''serious'' ParentalIssues and other mental problems, which cause him to have panic attacks.
* BrokenPedestal: Chris and Tony, Tony with his father, uncle, and other old-schoolers. Zig-zagged most of the time as things are never black or white and the character's internal struggle is one of the dynamics of the show.
* BrosBeforeHoes: Adrianna reveals to Christopher that she is an informant for the FBI, and asks him to run away with her. Christopher instead chooses to reveal this to Tony and cover up her murder.
* BungledSuicide: A.J. tries to drown himself in his pool by tying a cinder block to his feet. A last minute change of heart leaves him stranded in the middle of the pool with his head barely above water.
* BurialAtSea: [[spoiler: After Tony Soprano and his gang kill Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero (a long-time friend who betrays them to the FBI), they wrap up his body, and with heavy hearts, give it a decent burial at sea.]] Overlaps with CementShoes, a common way of body disposal during the series. Chains and actual concrete blocks are used as an anchor.
* BurnerPhones: Tony and other mafia figures would use burner phones from time to time in order to avoid eavesdropping by law enforcement.
* BuryMeNotOnTheLonePrairie: Tony angrily mocks this when Janice asks him what was done with [[spoiler: Richie's remains.]] "We buried him on a hill overlooking a little river, with pine cones all around. C'mon Janice, what the fuck? [[YouDoNotWantToKnow You want to know?]]"
* BusinessTripAdultery: Tony does this throughout the series. In one episode, he goes to Vegas to inform Chris's ex-mistress [[spoiler:of his death]]. Not surprisingly, they have sex that night and do peyote. Carmela asks about the "business trip" when he returns home, unaware of what it entailed. He sweetens her up with a new gold watch.
* BusmansVocabulary: Near the end of an episode, Tony tells a guy that a job might involve "getting messy. Real wet work." The FBI agents listening prick up their ears, only to realize a few seconds later he's asking someone to fix his burst water heater.
* ButtMonkey:
** Tony once told a story about a boy with a speech impediment he and his bully friends used to abuse in school (namely, made him sing silly songs and laughed their asses off). It took him quite a while to understand this wasn't the nicest thing to do.
** Artie Bucco becomes increasingly pathetic to watch as the show progresses.
** Georgie, who is often beaten up brutally for...well, no reason at all.
** A.J. too, though this is only in the later seasons. He's one of the dumbest characters on the show but lacks the ruthless spirit that a mobster needs, so he has no real place in the world.
** Bobby Baccalieri, who, along with Vito, is ''constantly'' mocked due to his weight and his non-mobster-like niceness toward others. Even Tony, who isn't exactly a male model, can't seem to stop harping on how fat Bobby is - to his face, of course, as often as possible.
** Sal Vitro is a gardener keeps running afoul of the Mafia, getting his hand stomped by Feech, and then arrested by the FBI when they take down Johnny Sack.
** Adriana, once the feds get their meat hooks in her.
** J.T. Dolan, the TV writer and recovering addict whom Christopher lures into a high-stakes card game - and a correspondingly high gambling debt - and later bullies into writing a screenplay for him.
* CallBack:
** Carmela and Tony reference Christopher's drug-fueled rant at [[spoiler: Livia's wake]] the year prior.
** Chris and Paulie relate the then-three-year-old story of the Russian in the woods in Season 5.
** Tony mentions the troubles he and Junior have had in the past (i.e. Junior trying to have him killed) to Janice.
** While talking to Hollywood screenwriter J.T. Dolan in Season 5 Episode 8, Chris disparages the industry by referring to the time when his ideas were ostensibly stolen by director [[Creator/JonFavreau Jon Favreau]] back in Season 2.
** In several of the therapy sessions throughout the series, Tony refers to the time he saw his father chop off a debtor's pinky finger with a butcher knife as a child.
** Carmella and A.J both reference A.J's actions in previous seasons; both his side-business organizing parties in high school and the "god-is-dead business" on the day of his confirmation are brought up.
** "Remember When" is replete with references to past events; Paulie reminisces on Ralph and the madcap stories related to him, while Tony repeatedly tries to get Paulie to admit that he was the one who told Johnny Sack about the infamous "mole" joke.
** In the season one finale, in a restaurant, Tony advises his children to "try to remember the times that were good". A.J. brings the phrase back in another restaurant in the series finale, but Tony doesn't remember his own counsel.
* CallingTheOldManOut:
** {{Subverted}}: After Tony finds out that his mother tried to have him killed, he goes to her retirement home to call her out, only to find that she's had a stress-induced stroke, and is probably unable to consciously hear any of his rage-fueled confrontations. This continues in later seasons, as Tony tries to call her out more than once about her attempt at killing him, and the heaps of psychological abuse she's put on him and his family over the years. Each attempt never comes to any kind of definitive resolution of their issues. In the end, she dies at the beginning of the third season, leaving Tony psychologically scarred with no clear picture or resolution of his feelings toward his mother, and this affects him for years afterward.
** Meadow calls Tony out a number of times on his {{hypocri|te}}sy and line of work. Tony calls her back, pointing out he is the one who puts food on the table and that [[MafiaPrincess everything she enjoys]] is based on that. She gradually becomes less [[IAmNotMyFather rebellious]] and more assimilated by the masquerade.
* CarFu: Tony and Richie viciously rely on the pedal to enforce their wills ''over'' hirkers.
* CassandraTruth: Tony's (truthful) denials that he had an affair with Adriana are disbelieved by pretty much everyone, given his reputation as TheCasanova and a serial philanderer.
* CastFullOfCrazy: Pretty much inevitable for a mafia show. Special emphasis on Ralph, Ritchie, and Phil.
* {{Catchphrase}}:
** Tony has "You've gotta be fuckin' kiddin' me", "End of story", and "She's dead to me" in Season 2.
** "Fuhgeddaboutit" and overuse of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRkE_Gv6ALM OH!]] for everybody.
** "Always with the drama!", recurringly used by Johnny Boy, Tony, and AJ Soprano.
** Silvio's impersonation of Michael Corleone in the first season invokes "Just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in."
** Livia mournfully saying "He was a saint" regarding her late husband.
* CaughtInTheBadPartOfTown:
** In "The Strong Silent Type", Chris tries to buy scag in a rundown Latino neighborhood. He gets robbed of his Range Rover and wallet, and then gets the absolute shit beat out of him.
** A downplayed example in "Watching Too Much Television". The locals in the rundown Black ghetto make it clear to Tony and A.J. that they aren't welcome if they aren't there to buy drugs. Despite one of the locals drawing a gun, and Tony TemptingFate being a DeadpanSnarker, they're allowed to drive out without further incident.
** In "Moe N Joe", Bobby picks up a late-night collection in the run-down neighborhood late at night. He gets ambushed and beaten by several Black youths armed with baseball bats, robbed of his cash and his gun, and takes a ricochet bullet in the eye.
* CelebCrush: A throwaway line by [[TheDon Uncle Junior]] after he's been arrested by the FBI and they're trying to get him to turn federal witness:
-->'''Junior:''' I want to fuck Angie Dickinson, let's see who gets lucky first.
* CelebrityParadox:
** In one episode, Tony watches ''Film/TheFugitive'' -- oddly, he doesn't notice that [[Creator/JoePantoliano Ralph Cifaretto]] has a minor role in it.
*** Same goes for ''Film/TheMatrix'' DVD that AJ buys for Carmela.
** ''Film/{{Goodfellas}}''. It's mentioned quite a few times in the series, even though ''half of the major cast are in it'', including but not limited to Michael Imperioli (Christopher), Vincent Pastore (Pussy), Tony Sirico (Paulie), Frank Vincent (Phil), and Creator/LorraineBracco (Dr. Melfi), who played a major supporting role in the film as Henry Hill's wife.
*** Other actors who appear in ''Goodfellas'' and have secondary roles include Tony Darrow (Larry Bares) and Charles Lewis Low (Shlomo).
** Similarly, ''Film/TheGodfatherPartII'' is referenced a number of times, in which Dominick Chianese (Uncle Junior) has a supporting role as Johnny Ola.
** Christopher mentions ''Film/{{Scarface 1983}}'' as a film in the first season. In season 5 Robert Loggia, who played Frank Lopez in the film, appears as Feech la Manna.
** "Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond" can be heard on the TV in Adriana and Christopher's apartment in a few episodes. David Proval appears in several episodes as a native Italian character similar in tone to Richie Aprile.
** [[Music/FrankieValliAndTheFourSeasons Frankie Valli]] is mentioned several times, is an acquaintance of Tony's and the names of some of his songs are used in a few episode titles. He appears in seasons 5 and 6 as Lupertazzi capo Rusty Millio.
** Music/BruceSpringsteen is referenced several times, even though Steven Van Zandt (Silvio) is the guitar player for the E Street Band.
** Noah Tannenbaum's father, a Hollywood attorney who frequently represents celebrities, claims to have met the actor Creator/TimDaly before. Tim Daly would later go on to play the recurring character J.T. Dolan.
** The similarities between Tony's life and ''Film/AnalyzeThis'' don't go unnoticed, but no one seems to note that Benny Fazio (Max Casella) has a small role in it.
** Tony gives his mother an audio version of Creator/MarioPuzo's ''Literature/{{Omerta}}'', read by none other than Christopher.
** Christopher watches ''Film/SawI'' leading up to his making ''JustForFun/{{Cleaver}}'' - Creator/TobinBell plays both Jigsaw and the administrator of the Hudson Military Institute, Major Zwingli.
*** Bell also played the parole officer of Jimmy Conway (played by Creator/RobertDeNiro) in ''Film/{{Goodfellas}}'' (see above).
** In the finale, Tony hums the ''Film/{{Rocky}}'' theme. Burt Young (Paulie) also played Bobby's father.
* TheChainsOfCommanding:
** Most of Tony's angst derives from his position as boss. He mentions the trope often, argues that his greedy underlings have no idea how hard it is to be a boss, and [[IWarnedYou warns his friend]] Johnny Sack about it several times.
** In season 6 [[spoiler: Silvio]] doesn't last more than a few days as regent because the responsibility quickly takes a toll on his health.
* CellPhonesAreUseless: Poor telecommunication service is the source of problems in "Pine Barrens", where [[HilarityEnsues Paulie and Chris get lost in a frozen forest]]. Tony gets gradually more and more agitated and has to give them orders [[NoIndoorVoice very loudly and full of profanity]] while his parents-in-law are in his house. Justified to no small degree; if any part of New Jersey would have patchy/poor/nonexistent cell phone coverage in 2001, it would be the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_Barrens_(New_Jersey) Pine Barrens]].
* CementShoes:
** In "The Second Coming", AJ tries to commit suicide in a manner similar to this.
** Also Subverted: In "I Dream of Jeannie Cusamano", you are led to believe that, since Tony plans to have Chucky Signore whacked on or around a boat, cement shoes or something like it are in the offing; it turns out that no, Tony shoots him in port and then takes him out to sea to dispose of the body.
* CentralTheme: BeingEvilSucks, no matter how one tries to deny or justify it.
* ChairReveal: During Tony's NightmareSequence in "Meadowlands", Dr. Melfi is replaced by his mother, who reveals herself to him in this manner.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn:
** Carmela in the first season is more of a gun moll than in later seasons. In ThePilot, after hearing a noise in the night, she expertly locks and loads an assault rifle, ready to throw down. In later seasons she's more of a sheltered suburban housewife. A later episode has her again looking for a possible intruder in the house, and she's much less prepared.
** In the pilot, shot a year before the dubious greenlight, Tony is already a peerless boss, not a mere capo, and provides a voiceover. Some [[TheOtherDarrin later recasts]] and several physical changes are noticeable.
** Christopher is absolutely terrified during his mock execution, soiling himself and begging for his life. This is the one and only instance he shows fear in such a situation; every other time he stares down a barrel, it's with utter defiance. Possibly justified in that he's climbed the Mafia ladder since then and feels better protected by the PlotArmour his position affords him, but he's utterly fearless even when dealing with assailants who have no reason to respect this.
** Bobby Baccala is hateful, cynical, and outspoken in private towards Tony in his first appearances, in contrast with his GentleGiant[=/=]ExtremeDoormat usual behavior.
** Adriana mentions that Vito was bombarding her with leering texts when Christopher was indisposed; Vito tells the same story but with her as the initiator. It's a bit weird in either case, as with the [[{{Gayngster}} late series twist surrounding him]] he clearly wouldn't have been interested.
** In the pilot, Silvio speaks about Artie as if he doesn't know the guy at all. They're both long-time friends of Tony's and all three have daughters the same age, attending the same school; Silvio and Artie are also portrayed as decent friends in subsequent episodes and the three interact frequently at barbecues and soccer practice. Not quite a PlotHole, but still quite weird.
* ChekhovsGunman:
** Deliberately subverted with Valery the Russian in "Pine Barrens". After his one big appearance, he seemingly escapes from Paulie and Christopher despite being wounded. The viewer is left expecting him to return in some way eventually and bring hell down on the protagonists. He never does. He becomes just one of those unsolved mysteries of life, his fate forever unknown.
** Subverted by the "Man in Members Only Jacket" in "Made in America".
** Played straight by Tony Blundetto, whose actions in the fifth season are arguably the main catalyst for the New York-New Jersey War in the last season.
** Subverted with [[spoiler: Furio. He goes back to Italy, seemingly intent on killing Tony so he can be with Carmela... and we never see him again.]]
** Subverted with [[spoiler: the cat in the final episode. It keeps staring ominously at Chris's photo on the wall of the pork store, even after Paulie moves it. We never find out why.]]
* {{Chiaroscuro}}: Used frequently in the lighting setup, to show the moral ambiguity of all the characters.
* ChristianityIsCatholic: Everyone is Catholic. Justified, in that they're all members of the same big Italian family.
** Subverted when he's visited in the hospital by a Protestant minister who preaches young-earth creationism. Tony and his mobster friends are simply baffled. (TruthInTelevision, as the Catholic Church has long accepted evolution.)
* ChronicVillainy: Played for tragedy in the case of [[spoiler:Cousin Tony]].
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: After appearing in several episodes, including one with a subplot focused on her, AJ's fantastically rich girlfriend Devin disappears between seasons 5 and 6. He shows up to the wedding of Allegra Sacrimoni with an new, unnamed girlfriend.
* {{Cliffhanger}}: Notably averted. Creator David Chase considered them a cheap narrative device and the sequences are never split between episodes. One very rare cliffhanger is used at the end of Season 6 opener [[spoiler:-- Tony laying on the ground with a bullet wound --]] and the end of the second to last episode could be interpreted as one.
* ClusterFBomb: [[http://vimeo.com/2998698 This video]] shows the nearly ''[[OverlyLongGag thirty minutes]]'' of ClusterFBomb employed throughout the series.
* ComedicSociopathy: While the series on the whole is aimed at creating disgust with the mob's brutality, the violence ''is'' often played for laughs. Paulie is particularly a bit of a Comedic Sociopath.
* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Christopher is the major offender, seconded by Paulie.
** Tony debriefs Paulie and Chris over the phone about a guy they have to deal with:
---> '''Tony''': "He is an ex-commando! He killed sixteen Chechen rebels single-handed! He was with the Interior Ministry. Guy's like a Russian green beret. He can not come back and tell this story. You understand?"
---> '''Paulie''': "You're not gonna believe this. He killed sixteen Czechoslovakians. Guy was an interior decorator.
---> '''Chris''': "His house looked like shit."
** Silvio and Chris get Tony exasperated when he argues about his strong, silent type role model:
---> '''Christopher''': "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2U5SABvU5A He was gay, Gary Cooper?]]"
** Paulie during a dinner, trying to appear cultivated:
---> '''Paulie''': "That's why dinosaurs don't exist no more."
---> '''Goomar''': "Wasn't it a meteor?"
---> '''Paulie''': "They're all meat-eaters."
---> '''Christopher''': "METEOR! METEOR!"
---> '''Paulie''': "Take it easy."
** Christopher, discussing Johnny Sack's daughter's name:
---> '''Christopher''': "Allegra? Ain't that a cold medicine?"
---> '''Paulie''': "It means happiness in Italian."
---> '''Christopher''': "...What the fuck's that got to do with cold medicine?"
** Subverted by Christopher when he punctures through a Young Earth Creationist theory.
--->'''Christopher''': "What's he saying? There were Dinosaurs back with Adam and Eve?"
---> '''Tony:''' "I guess."
---> '''Christopher''' : "No way. T-Rex in the Garden of Eden? Adam and Eve would be running all the time, scared shitless, but the Bible says it was paradise."
* CommutingOnABus:
** After essentially being the BigBad for the first season, Uncle Junior was gradually phased out as his ailments got worse and worse. In season 5 he only appeared in half of the episodes and season 6 carted him off to a nursing home where he spent most of his time offscreen. Notably, Junior only appears in two episodes during the final batch of 9 episodes.
** In season 6 Johnny Sacks got put in prison and appeared infrequently before dying of cancer after having been central to the storyline of the previous two seasons.
* TheCon: Tony and [[CorruptPolitician his associates]] scheme a very profitable real estate scam, whose boundaries cause some friction with New York.
* ConfessInConfidence:
** Discussed early in the show. In theory, everything said during therapy falls under doctor-patient privilege and is out of reach from the law, but there are instances where this doesn't apply so Tony remains cryptic in many conversations, hindering the effectiveness of his treatment and frustrating his doctor.
** The doctor-patient privilege is also used to have meetings with Junior in his doctor's office when he's on trial, as the government can't wiretap the doctor's office.[[spoiler: The feds get around this by having a female agent pose as a nurse and listen in on Junior's conversations, as well as detail the people present in their meetings.]]
** Junior also uses his lawyer's office for the same purpose, as the same rules apply.
* ConfessToALesserCrime: When Tony is asked point-blank by his daughter whether he's a Mafia boss, he denies it, but then grudgingly admits that his business does include some illegal gambling.
* {{Confessional}}: Carmela requires it during one of her crises of conscience.
* ConflictBall: Tony's gambling addiction in Season 6B. While he was gambling before that point, it wasn't shown nor implied to be this bad or destructive until then, and he effectively gets over it once the mob war with the Lupertazzis goes in full swing.
* TheConsigliere: Silvio Dante has that official role in Tony Soprano's crew/family. On several occasions, we see other mobsters complaining about Tony's decisions behind his back, and Silvio is the one to raise the issue with Tony face-to-face.
* ConsummateLiar: Lying and deceiving is a second nature to most of the characters. Tony is so adept at it that [[LivingLieDetector he can smell most lies a mile away]].
* ContinuityNod: Many episodes reference very minute details from several seasons ago. Unemphatic ContinuityPorn. Some examples:
** In "46 Long," which was barely the second episode in the series, Tony stops by his mother's house and starts looking over her pictures; one of them shows a younger Livia Soprano enjoying a cigarette. In Season 5, [[spoiler: years after Livia's death,]] Tony notices and briefly examines the same picture hanging in his Aunt Quintina's house.
** At the end of Season 1, "Larry Boy" Barese is formally indicted along with [[spoiler: Junior Soprano]], and is not seen or heard from again until much later. He shows up briefly at a mob event and is dragged away by police for violating his house arrest. He appears non-verbally in Season 4 during [[spoiler: Junior's]] trial because they were both taken into custody as part of the same wave of indictments, and are therefore being tried for the same crimes at the same time.
** In an early episode, Tony tells A.J., "There's an old Italian saying: you screw up once, you lose two teeth." Much later on, in season five, Tony has a lengthy dream and during it, he loses two of his teeth.
** Pussy Malanga, the enemy that Junior wants dead in the pilot episode, shows up again in Junior's mind in the first episode of the last season.
** [[spoiler:Christopher]] is shot in the torso and critically wounded in Season 2. While he recovers, the scarring is visible on his stomach for the duration of the series. He also mentions later that he had to have his spleen removed.
** Carmine Sr. dismissively calls the Jersey Family "a glorified crew" in Season 4. Phil Leotardo cites his words near the end of the show.
** In Season 3, Tony sees Carmine Sr. telling Johnny Sack to "answer the fucking thing," referring to the latter's phone. In a dream sequence two seasons later, Carmine appears telling Tony to "answer the fucking thing," referring to a ringing hotel phone.
** In Season 4, Christopher references the crow that was ostensibly watching him when [[spoiler:he got made the prior the season.]]
** Also in Season 4, Carmela's cousin Brian secretly meets with Tony under the pretense of picking up a power drill, taking the tool with him as he leaves. A season later, Tony searches for the tool to no avail.
* ContrivedClumsiness: Paulie Walnuts drops Valery's universal remote and gives a sarcastic ''oops'' after Valery tells him sternly, in his thick Russian accent, that "remote goes on docking station". Unsurprisingly, the conflict escalates from there.
* ConversationCasualty: Christopher shoots Emil Kolar in the back of the head after a polite discussion.
* CoolBigSis: Carmela is angry with Meadow for covering up for little brother Anthony getting a downtown hotel room and getting drunk with his friends; Tony responds, based on his own childhood, that that's what big sisters should do.
* CoolBoat: Tony's yacht, ''The Stugots''. Envied and praised by some characters, and a common place for Tony's escapades. The name is a derivative of ''stu cazzo'', the Napolitan term for "these testicles" (or perhaps more fittingly, "deez nuts"), and an insult.
* CoolCar: Lots of them, as befits the lavish lifestyle of the mobsters. One of the primary ConspicuousConsumption objects. Examples with plot relevancy include:
** The Jersey crew steals high-end vehicles which are later sold to the Camorra in Napoli (yes, like in Italy), which then sells them in Eastern Europe.
** Gloria Trillo is a saleswoman for Mercedes.
** Johnny Sack buys a striking Maserati during his happy days. The car has to be sold later unofficially to Christopher and is finally impounded.
* CoolHorse: Pie-O-My, Ralph Cifaretto's racehorse. Tony grows immensely fond of the horse, referring to it as "our girl," in direct contrast to Ralph, who brusquely instructs the trainer to whip it good. Tony's growing expectation of an increasing share of the winnings creates tension between the two. The poor animal dies in a mysterious fire which ends up ruining a few lives and sending ripples through the entire criminal underworld.
* CorruptPolitician: Several examples, most notably State Assemblyman Zellman, who is Tony's equal partner in a major scam.
* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot:
** Tony's reflections about the struggle with his uncle.
--->'''Tony''': "Uncle Junior and I, we had our problems with the business but I never should have razzed him about eating pussy. This whole war could have been averted. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbDL4rI4zu8 Cunnilingus and psychiatry brought us to this.]]"
** Little Carmine slides from pompous to pragmatist in late seasons and mentions the trope identifying phrase sometimes. Other New York bosses do the opposite.
** The episode "Pine Barrens" features probably the most heralded example. Paulie and Christopher, making a collection for Silvio, assault former Russian special agent Valery, attempting to dispose of his supposed dead body in the eponymous woods. But when Valery turns out to be NotQuiteDead and turns the tables on his assailants, escaping into the wilderness even after being shot in the head, Paulie and Chris end up getting lost overnight in the freezing cold. All because Paulie felt like being a dick and needlessly broke the guy's universal remote.
** Inverted in "Irregular Around the Margins." Despite a growing attraction to Adriana, Tony makes an actual effort to avoid an intimate relationship on the advice of Dr. Melfi. A car accident where Tony and Adriana are both in the vehicle leads to salacious rumors, bitter resentment from Carmela, and a near-fatal confrontation with Christopher. The irony of the situation is not lost on Tony.
---> '''Tony (in Dr. Melfi's office)''': You know, I might as well have fucked her. Thanks.
* CountryMatters: Regularly. It's generally not treated as a big deal nor used for shock value, with some exceptions.
** Season two has a scene where Tony applies the word to Big Pussy's wife, causing Carmela to stop him mid-sentence and shut him up.
** [[NotGoodWithRejection Tony insults]] Melfi with the term when she carefully refuses his advances. He gets called on it when he later apologizes.
** Silvio's PreMortemOneLiner delivered to [[spoiler: Adriana]]: "Come on, come on! Fuckin' cunt!"
** Paulie refers to the old lady who is mean to his mother as a "malignant cunt."
** Uncle Junior, a by-definition old geezer, breaks his hip in the shower and exclaims "YOUR SISTER'S CUNT!"
** In another case, Christopher gets to go on a movie set and suggests a curse word alternative to bitch -- ''pucchiacha''. When asked what it means, he simply deadpans: "Cunt."
* CrapsackWorld: Any character at any moment [[AnyoneCanDie can be killed]] by [[TheMafia mobsters]] or meet death in any other way. Crime is rampant, and most mobsters get away with every murder they commit [[spoiler:([[KarmaHoudiniWarranty even though most of them gets their comeuppance at the end of the series]])]]. As if that was not enough, there are a lot of AxCrazy people out there who could hurt you [[DisproportionateRetribution for the slightest offense towards them]]. It's telling something that the most remotely likable characters are {{Punch Clock Villain}}s.
* CrazyJealousGuy: Christopher could be this way with Adriana.
* CreatorCameo:
** David Chase is the Italian man who ignores Paulie in "Commendatori". He also appears as an extra in "Luxury Lounge" and is the voice on the phone in "The Test Dream".
** Matthew Weiner plays TV pundit and mafia expert Manny Safier in "Two Tonys" and "Stage 5".
* CriminalCravesLegitimacy: Carmela is in deep denial about her husband Tony's crimes, but they do give her a life of luxury. The only way she truly expresses how much she truly knows is that she's desperate for her and Tony's daughter Meadow to become a paediatrician, a highly-respected career that's nothing to do with the mob. It doesn't happen. Meadow switches majors and is well on her way to becoming a mob lawyer.
* CriminalProcedural: Organized crime variety. A relatively "blue-collar" gangster family overshadowed by New York. The focus is set on how the professional and personal issues tend to overlap and conflict.
* CriticalPsychoanalysisFailure: In the first few seasons, Dr. Melfi gradually gets distraught by her therapy sessions with Tony Soprano, leading to weight gain, {{dr|owningMySorrows}}inking, and needing therapy herself. In season 6, Dr. Melfi learns of a psychological study which discourages the use of traditional psychoanalysis with career criminals, as it too often validates the use of hypocrisy and deception for them; this is apparently a significant factor in her decision to end Tony's therapy.
* CrypticConversation:
** The mobsters actively avoid using incriminating words and have colorful euphemisms and TroubleEntendre for their illegal enterprises.
** Tony tells a guy that a job might involve "getting messy, real wet work". The FBI agents listening prick up their ears, only to realize a few seconds later he's asking a plumber to fix his burst water heater.
** Parodied in the last season when Johnny Sack's 'civilian' brother-in-law gives a shot at the SpySpeak, but [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZbd0xpP1Z8 his efforts]] comically complicate the conversations.
* CurbStompBattle: A rare nonlethal literal example occurs in "The Second Coming", where Tony gives Coco a vicious beatdown for messing with his daughter, capping it off with a curbstomp on a step. He finds a tooth in his pants leg later.
* CureYourGays: When Finn asks what is going to happen with Vito, Chris tries to ease his mind by telling him that they'll make Vito pay for some therapy. A classic mix of BlatantLies with amusingly ignorant comments so prevalent in the show. Vito also tries to discuss it with Tony, to no avail.
-->'''Vito: ''' It was the medication I was on. For my blood pressure. It fucked with my head, but I'm over that now. I could probably get a letter from my doctor\\
'''Tony:''' A note from your doctor saying you don't like to suck cock?
* CutHimselfShaving: After the "intervention" for Chris' drug addiction (where he gets the crap beaten out of him), he is taken to the ER. Tony explains to the nurse that he sustained his injuries "slipping off the kitchen counter while spraying for ants". At her skeptical look, Tony elaborates, "Well, he was wearing socks."
* DarkerAndEdgier: This may explain the show's success. Much like ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' did for comics, The Sopranos had a significant impact on the shape of the American television industry, creating a huge push for more DarkerAndEdgier TV shows with difficult and controversial subjects including crime, Italian-American stereotypes, graphic sex, graphic violence, BlackComedy, EvilVersusEvil conflicts, [[HateSink unsympathetic characters]], and [[VillainProtagonist villainous protagonists]]. The show itself became increasingly dark and violent starting with Season 3. As for cinematography, there's the bleak, almost eerie atmosphere, especially in the final season.
* DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster:
** Zig-zagged and deconstructed. The show can make gangsters look cool at times and uncool at others. Working in TheMafia has its own perks, but we're also shown how much of it is not so glamorous and sometimes even dark. Sure, Tony has a nice house and is relatively well-off, but he has to face his boorish family all the time (and vice versa), suffers from depression and anxiety attacks, and he always worries about his "friends" turning on him, maybe leading to his arrest or assassination. As Tony's nephew Christopher learns the hard way when he finally gets made, it means that he's under even more pressure to earn when he thought it was much easy.
** {{Discussed}} when Christopher runs into gangsta rapper Massive Genius and is invited to a party at his villa to set up a meeting with Hesh, one of the Soprano Family's associates. The rapper is outrageously smug, purposely showing off his vast wealth and success (including his BlingBlingBang) and generally trying to act as tough as possible to Christopher, a character the audience knows full well to be a sociopathic murderer. Christopher later laments that in the modern day being a fake gangster is clearly a lot more profitable than being an actual one. In a subtle dig, Massive Genius admits to having seen ''Film/TheGodfather'' 200 times (a favorite among Tony's crew, who frequently quote it), illustrating that Tony's crew are looking back at the old Mafia days with rose-tinted glasses just as much as a genuine outsider.
* DarkLordOnLifeSupport: Jackie "The Chemo-sabe" Aprile Sr.is a realistic example, until the cancer finally kills him. Later, Johnny Sack becomes this as well, also due to cancer.
* DatingWhatDaddyHates: Tony gets very angry when his daughter dates a boy who is half African American and half Jewish. Downplayed with AJ, who dates a Puerto-Rican/Dominican girl ten years his senior (and mother to another man's child to boot), [[DoubleStandard as Tony is much more forgiving]] of his ''son'' dating outside their race.
* DeadManHonking:
** When TheMafia [[AssassinsAreAlwaysBetrayed disposes of two would-be assassins]] to be absolutely certain that they won't tell tales, they crash their car so the dead driver slumps over and sounds the horn as the mobsters make their own getaway.
** Evoked with Tony Soprano. In two separate car crashes caused by [[spoiler:an assassination attempt and a panic attack]], Tony is incapacitated and falls onto the steering wheel, leaving his Suburban honking.
* DeadlyBath: Brendan Filone is inside his bathtub when Mickey Palmice visits him to deliver a MoeGreenEspecial on Junior's orders.
* DeadlyClosingCredits: The series might have ended with this. Maybe. We don't really know for sure.
* DeadpanSnarker: Almost the entire cast. Silvio, Carmela, Junior, and Dr. Melfi deserve special mention, although Tony can hold his own with them himself.
* DeathAmnesia: Tony's coma dream flows steadily out of his memory, with the exception of the beckoning light.
* DeathByIrony: The ends with an infamous AmbiguousEnding, but it's ''very'' strongly implied that Tony suffered this in the final scene of the series. In "Johnny Cakes", AJ mentions that Tony's favorite movie scene of all time is the famous scene in ''The Godfather'' where Michael Corleone shoots Sollozzo and Captain [=McCluskey=] in a restaurant after retrieving a hidden gun from the bathroom. In the final episode, it's very possible that Tony is murdered in exactly the same way; while having dinner with his family in a diner, he gets several suspicious glances from a mysterious fellow in a Members Only jacket, who is last seen walking into the bathroom. Of course, the screen abruptly cuts to black before we ''actually'' learn whether he lives or dies.
* DeathByRecognition: One (of several) fan theories about the ending is that it's Tony having a heart attack as he sees who's entering the restaurant.
* DeathEqualsRedemption: [[spoiler: After his son is shot in the chest with an arrow, Ralphie starts to regret the bad things he's done; soon after, he is killed by Tony during a fight over Ralphie's "possible" involvement with killing Pie-O-My.]] Tony even had a dream about him that showed a caterpillar one moment and a butterfly the next, all while perched on his bald head.
* DeathGlare: Tony gives Chris a venomous one at the meeting with Johnny Sack... Tony warned Chris to stay quiet beforehand. Chris keeps yapping, and the situation goes south pretty fast.
* DecapitatedArmy: Invoked by Phil in season six. [[spoiler: Killing Jersey's leadership would make its crew assimilable or at least easier and cheaper to deal with.]]
* DeceasedFallGuyGambit: The FBI investigates the killing of Willie Overall, Tony's first murder way back in 1982. After Overall's body is found and excavated, the investigation is eventually called off, when, thanks to misinformation provided by Di Meo capo "Larry Boy" Barese, the decades-old murder is pinned on Jackie Aprile, Sr., who has been dead himself for several years.
* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: Tony Soprano deconstructs TheDon. He's not a ridiculously powerful kingpin with high resources like most Mafia bosses in fiction. Sure, he's well-off, but these resources are limited. It makes sense as the show is set in modern times, where tougher anti-racketeering laws and possible informants give Tony nightmares. Besides, his crime family shows that the Mob today is at a downfall from informants, the government, hostility from other families, and drugs. All these attributes make him one of the most realistic representations of an American mob boss in the modern-day.
* {{Deconstruction}}: Easily one of the biggest deconstructions of TheMafia. Instead of portraying the Mafia as a synonym of [[UndyingLoyalty loyalty]], [[DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster power]], and [[EvilPaysBetter success]] (like ''Film/TheGodfather''), here it's the opposite. Very few members are really loyal (it's telling something that Silvio was the single most loyal member of the mob) and most of them are more than willing to betray their partners for vengeance, resentment, or greed. Also, while many of the mobsters live in the lap of luxury, it comes at the cost of being in constant fear over imminent death or indictments, in which all of that wealth and status can completely evaporate.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: In its desire to authentically depict the Italian-American criminal subculture, the series does not shy away from the casual racism, sexism, gay-bashing and Moral Myopia that are commonplace within it, even among the (by comparison) more sympathetic characters. Among other things, Tony disapproves that his daughter dates a black man in college; it's seen as normal for mafiosos to have affairs with women but a mob boss' wife having an affair is generally not tolerated; the crew are considering giving the gay Vito a pass for his homosexual activity until they find out he's the receiver; and even Hesh catches a few slurs (clearly intended as affectionate, but the character often seems to be holding back irritation when it happens).
* DelusionsOfEloquence: Little Carmine Lupertazzi, in his constant efforts to demonstrate erudition he never had and couldn't begin to spell, fell prey to this with monotonous regularity.
* DemotedToExtra:
** Lorenzo Barese. After he is sent to jail in the season 1 finale he only appears from time to time but maintains his captaincy throughout the series.
** Father Intintola is a major character in the first season, making only occasional appearances afterward.
** Irina Peltsin is Tony's regular mistress until he dumps her. She makes continues to make occasional appearances over the next couple of seasons, but her role is greatly reduced.
** Undercover FBI agent Deborah Ciccerone is introduced in season three and has a major role through a number of episodes in season four. We even get scenes from her point of view with her husband and child. Once her cover as Adriana's friend is blown, however, Adriana gets a new handler in Robyn Sanseverino. From that point on, Deborah only appears in a few brief office meetings and has no further effect on the plot.
* DidYouGetANewHaircut: In "All Happy Families...", AJ's friends shave his eyebrows off while stoned. It takes Tony a minute to catch on the first time he sees him.
-->'''Tony:''' ''(stares blankly)'' What's different about you?\\
'''Carmela:''' He has no eyebrows, Tony!
* DigitalHeadswap: Creator/NancyMarchand (who played Livia Soprano) died in the interim between filming seasons 2 and 3, leading the producers to have to drop a story arc and kill her character off. In the second episode of the third season, "Proshai, Livushka", the producers combined this with a stunt double and alternate takes of dialogue to give her one last scene, at a cost of $250,000. The results were... less than convincing.
* DirtyBusiness: [[spoiler:When Tony Blundetto kills Billy Leotardo as revenge for the murder of Angelo Garepe, Billy's brother Phil swears revenge. Despite Tony Soprano being subject to heavy pressure to deliver his cousin to Johnny Sack (who has taken over the Lupertazzi crime family after Little Carmine's abdication) explicitly so he can be tortured and killed, Tony refuses and protects Blundetto against Phil. But Phil begins stalking New Jersey looking for Blundetto, hounding Christopher's mother, and brutally beating up Benny Fazio. It soon becomes clear that Tony's men refuse to allow themselves to be endangered all for the sake of protecting Blundetto, so Tony is forced to act. He tracks down Blundetto at their uncle Pat Blundetto's farm and kills him with a 12-gauge shotgun point-blank in order to save him from the worse fate he would've received at Phil's hands. Tony then gives Johnny Sack the location. Phil is furious to be deprived of his vengeance, but Tony and Johnny reach an accord over Blundetto's demise]].
* DisappearingBullets: Many mobsters who have talked to the Feds, pissed off the wrong capo, or just outlived their usefulness to the organization get clipped in a car. Apparently, the side windows of their cars are bulletproof.
* DismemberingTheBody: The Soprano crime family uses a bunch of different methods to clean up murders that they generally do not want to become public ([[ConspicuouslyPublicAssassination unless that's the point]]). Most commonly, they dismember the body and bury the pieces in different places. Ralphie Cifaretto and "Fat Dom" Gamiello, both of whom were murdered over personal beefs instead of business reasons, had this happen to them.
* DispenseWithThePleasantries: Tony Soprano usually has little tolerance for beating around the bush, particularly when in an irritable mood (which is a lot of the time). He's very much a "let's get straight to business" kind of guy.
* DisposingOfABody: Pops up frequently. CementShoes or BurialAtSea (after some body hacking) are the standard methods of choice but straight ground burial is also used. It tends to generate problems in the long-term as the threat of unburial and discovery is always a possibility. The trope is discussed in an early episode, where Big Pussy explains to Chris why it's better for a dead rival mobster to "disappear" than for them to send a message by leaving his corpse somewhere it'll be found.
* DisproportionateRetribution:
** Ralphie makes a joke about Ginny Sack's weight. Johnny Sack's reaction? [[spoiler: He attempts to place a hit on him.]]
** "Doc" Santoro takes a piece of food off Phil Leotardo's plate during a very private meeting. Phil's reaction? He orders a few hitmen to shoot him and his bodyguard multiple times.
* DistractedByTheLuxury: One of the main traits of Carmela Soprano. For her husband and mob boss Tony, the standard way out of a marital problem is to bury it under gifts or loads of money.
* DivorceIsTemporary: Season 4 ends with a violent confrontation between Tony and Carmela and she insists that they separate. A season later he's OutGambitted her in the divorce proceedings because he's talked to most of the major divorce attorneys in town and the others won't take Carmela's case because of Tony's reputation. Later on he wins her back and they stay together for the rest of the series.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Played with in "College", where Carmela's relationship with her priest, Father Phil Intintola, is portrayed in such a way that recalls Tony's relationship with Dr. Melfi. Carmela clearly lusts after him, but the episode ultimately shows her taking the same solace in religion that Tony takes in therapy--complete with a private confession session that recalls a therapy session. Amusingly, Tony even accuses Carmela of having an affair with him after finding out that [[ItMakesSenseInContext he spent the night at their house while Tony was away]]; barely a minute later, Carmela accuses Tony of doing the same with Dr. Melfi after finding out that she's a woman (a fact that Tony had tried to conceal).
* TheDon:
** Tony, who is nominally the acting boss for [[AuthorityInNameOnly Junior]] and for the now jailed Don, Ercole [=DiMeo=].
** Carmine Lupertazzi in New York. He scolds Tony for doing un-Don-like things like wearing shorts, and disregards the Jersey Family as "a glorified crew".
* DontAsk / YouDoNotWantToKnow: A rare instance where Tony slips some true information about whackings to Carmela when she asks about [[spoiler: the Janice and Richie situation.]]
-->'''Tony''' He's gone [...] Carmela, after 18 years of marriage, don't make me make you an accessory after the fact. [...] Stop asking. I took care of it.
* DontExplainTheJoke:
** Johnny Sack describes the joke Ralphie made about his wife. "He said she was having a 90-pound mole removed from her ass. The implication was that her ass is so big she could have a mole that size removed from it."
** Paulie has a habit of repeating the setup and punchline to his jokes.
* DontMakeMeTakeMyBeltOff: Done between adults when Tony uses his belt to hit his corrupt congressman lackey for sleeping with his mistress. Even though he had (apparently) okayed it earlier.
* DoppelgangerDating: Almost all of Tony's mistresses are impossible-to-please dark-haired beauties with serious psychological issues -- that is to say, just like his mom. The most striking example comes in the third season when Tony starts seeing a new mistress, the beautiful but depressive and temperamental Gloria Trillo. After complaining about her to Dr. Melfi in therapy, Melfi points out that his description of her (much more psychologically than physically) sounds eerily like his recently deceased mother, Livia. Tony had a bit of a shock when Gloria told him, "Oh, poor you!' just like his mother used to.
* DoubleMeaningTitle: Used occasionally in episode names:
** "Boca" (Spanish for "Mouth") revolves around Uncle Junior's relationship with his mistress in Boca Raton, Florida, but it also involves a sensitive bit of word-of-mouth gossip that Tony exploits to damage Junior's reputation. For the hat trick: the gossip involves Junior's willingness to give his mistress oral sex, which is seen as unmanly in the Mafia.
** "Eloise", the penultimate episode of Season 4, includes a pivotal scene where Meadow and Carmella have brunch at the Plaza Hotel under the famous painting of the eponymous character of Eloise at the Plaza. More subtly, though, the title alludes to Carmella's dissatisfaction in her marriage and to the Unresolved Sexual Tension between her and Furio, which evokes the tragic love affair of Abelard and Heloise. The latter meaning is made clearer in the following season when Carmella takes an interest in the letters of Abelard and Heloise shortly after separating from Tony.
** "Rat Pack", which can refer to the famous Rat Pack from the 60s, a picture of which Tony receives as a present, though the same episode also focused on the FBI's multiple informants within the Mafia, making them a "rat pack" too.
* DoubleStandard: The writers didn't really have any. The characters, on the other hand...
* DownerEnding: Everyone loses by the end:
** [[spoiler: Even though Phil Leotardo is killed and the New Jersey and New York crews successfully call a truce, the future of the [=DiMeo=] crime family is pretty grim; most of Tony's key guys are either dead or otherwise incapacitated. Even worse, Carlo, one of the last trusted members of the organization, decides to go into witness protection.]]
** [[spoiler:While A.J. finally gets his life back on track, Meadow has embraced the MafiaPrincess life, with prospects of becoming an AmoralAttorney (to the dismay of Carmela). Uncle Junior completely loses himself and is left to die in a mental hospital, and Bobby's kids are stuck with Janice, who's essentially become [[EvilMatriarch her and Tony's late mother Livia]].]]
** [[spoiler:Dr. Melfi abruptly drops Tony as a patient after she realizes he cannot be saved, ending their therapy sessions.]]
** [[spoiler:Finally, the last scene of the series implies Tony may or may not have just been killed in front of his family. Even if he weren't, he's likely to spend time in prison on RICO charges.]]
** [[spoiler:Paulie and Patsy are the only ones not shown to have anything bad happen to them immediately, so [[KarmaHoudini make of it what you will]]. Of course, with Carlo becoming a federal witness and the [=DiMeo=] family near the point of collapse, they're probably going to have to tighten their belt in the near future at the very least even if Carlo doesn't directly implicate them.]]
* DramaticDrop:
** Meadow drops the phone after she's informed of [[spoiler: Jackie Jr.'s death.]]
** The same situation happens again when [[spoiler: Kelli]] is told the news about [[spoiler: Christopher's death]].
* DreamSequence: Done several times over the course of the show, but {{exaggerated|Trope}} in "The Test Dream", in which the titular dream lasts a full 20 minutes. It's [[SerialEscalation taken even further]] in "Join the Club" and "Mayham", where Tony [[AdventuresInComaLand falls into a coma after getting shot and has a long dream that extends over ''two episodes'']].
* DreamingTheTruth: How Tony finally realizes that Big Pussy has been turned.
* TheDragon: Abundant. Paulie, Sil, and even Christopher serve in this role for Tony. Johnny Sack was Carmine Lupertazzi's, and later on, Phil Leotardo was Johnny's.
* DragonAscendant: Phil Leotardo in the second part of season six.
* DragonWithAnAgenda: In season 1, Tony allowed his Uncle Junior to become the official Boss of the family since he would become the FBI's main target instead of Tony, who could still exercise power through the other capos, who recognized him as de facto leader. Eventually, it resulted in a minor MobWar when Junior realized that his nephew had fleeced him, one which Tony won.
* DreamingTheTruth:
** Tony had a dream where he was forced to face that he knew [[spoiler:Big Pussy]] was wearing a wire.
** Dr. Melfi has a dream which leads her to realize that she can, if she wants to, have Tony punish her rapist -- though she chooses not to.
** Carmela has a dream where she's forced to confront the possibility that Adriana was killed. Previously, she'd been led to believe that the latter had abandoned the family.
* DrivenToSuicide:
** Vin Makazian, [[spoiler:Gloria Trillo]], and [[spoiler:Eugene Pontecorvo]].
** [[spoiler: A.J. and Artie]] both attempt it, but fail.
** Satriale's aka the pork store that Tony and company hang out in was acquired by Johnny Boy Soprano when the owner Mr. Satriale killed himself over his debts to the mafia.
* DrugsAreBad:
** Christopher struggles with heroin and cocaine addictions and is berated and judged hopeless and unworthy by Tony and the gang. Paulie particularly. They resent more the weak nature of Christopher than the ''badness'' of drugs since the mobsters casually indulge in the habit too and selling them is a regular source of income.
** TruthInTelevision, as Mafia members are supposed to be banned from dealing in drugs. Not due to any moral objections, but [[PragmaticVillainy because the prison sentences associated with drug trafficking are so severe that those who are caught inevitably turn on their associates and become government informants to save themselves]]. This is exactly what happens with Big Pussy, Eugene Pontecorvo, and Carlo Gervasi (to save his son).
* DudeWheresMyRespect:
** A major issue for Christopher. He spends the entire show carving a status for himself, [[spoiler: yet after deep personal sacrifices and the rank of Captain, he gets and feels disrespected. Near the end of the show, after a long struggle, he seems redeemed and happy; he is a captain, has a new and stable family, and his long-awaited movie project is a reality. Then comes an ugly feud with Paulie, some disrespectful jokes, and a general lack of empathy with Tony, which, when combined, make him snap and relapse into his drug habits, with fatal consequences.]]
** Bobby struggles to be taken seriously by his fellow mobsters. In season one he's a glorified gofer for Junior Soprano. He complains a lot about it, and eventually rises to become Tony's de facto third in command.
* DumbassTeenageSon: Anthony Junior (AJ) is a lazy and spoiled kid without any real drive or ambitions in life. He frequently performed poorly in school, until eventually dropping out of college.
* DwindlingParty: By the end of the series, almost all the significant members of the [=DiMeo=] crime family are dead, incarcerated, have disappeared from the narrative, have gone into witness protection, or have suffered an arguable FateWorseThanDeath. It's basically just [[spoiler: Tony, Paulie, and Patsy at the end.]]
* DysfunctionJunction: You'll be hard-pressed to find a single regular character that doesn't suffer from deep psychological issues manifesting as either hysteria or sociopathy. At the very least, the characters will be involved in dysfunctional relationships. An interesting example in a world that averts ThereAreNoTherapists; it's just that the therapist herself is also dysfunctional.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
** The first season is a mild example, playing somewhat more like a lampoon of the gangster genre. It emphasizes the zaniness of Tony's two lives as a family man and a "Family" man. His wife gets this treatment as well. In one scene she expertly cocks and loads an AK-47 when she thinks there's an intruder. In the following seasons, she's just a typical housewife. The supporting gangsters are also constantly quoting famous mob movies, showing that modern mob culture is partially based on imitating fiction. This is de-emphasized in the rest of the show, though never completely goes away.
** In the pilot episode, it clearly has not yet been established that Tony has sisters.
** In the pilot, the pork store used as the mob's hangout is named Centanni's Meat Market instead of Satriale's Pork Store.
** Tony giving Ralph a beating after the Tracee incident is the source of a lot of conflicts, as physically assaulting a made man is against the Mafia's rules. He attacked Mikey Palmice, another made man (and Junior's right-hand man to boot) in the first season with no such drama.
* ElvisImpersonator: Big Pussy kills an Elvis impersonator named Jimmy Bones for running into him while [[spoiler: meeting with his FBI handler]].
* EndOfAnEra: The series takes place in the waning days of the Mafia. Various Mafiosi lament that things used to be different back in the mob's heyday. Even Tony comments on the changing times:
-->''"But lately, I'm getting the feeling I came in at the end. The best is over."''
* EnragedByIdiocy: Tony has a HairTriggerTemper in general, but the stupidity of his mooks and his son ranks near the top of his list of triggers. In "Remember When", he considers ''murdering'' Paulie for his annoying and dimwitted tendencies.
* EpiphanyTherapy: Subverted to hell and back; Tony mostly uses what he learns in therapy to be a more efficient mob boss. [[spoiler: Dr. Melfi eventually realizes this and terminates the sessions for good.]]
* EqualOpportunityEvil: When it comes out that Vito was spotted at a gay bar, most of the crime family's members are either crying out for his blood or at the very least, calling for him to be removed completely. Patsy is the only one to declare that he has no problem with homosexuality. While Tony does have a problem with it, he has a far bigger problem with the fact that Vito is extremely competent and makes him vast amounts of money and wants to keep him on in an indirect fashion. However, his most homophobic members start crying too loud for him to ignore. Though the decision is eventually taken out of his hand by an even more homophobic member of another family.
* EroticDream: Tony Soprano has had more than a few erotic dreams throughout the series, including one with his psychiatrist Dr. Melfi in her office, and another one with his friend Artie Buco's wife as he's cheering them on. Interestingly, Dr. Melfi [[UnresolvedSexualTension also dreams about]] having sex with her patient at one point.
* EskimosArentReal: Christopher thinks the Cuban Missile Crisis was a fictional event made up for the film ''Film/ThirteenDays''.
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Deconstructed. While the values of mafia and home life nominally require the men of the series to show respect and affection towards their mothers, the show also shows how mothers end up receiving the brunt of their sons' scorn.
** Tony Soprano, in spite of his serious MommyIssues, will instinctively defend his mother. In an early episode, he goes berserk when Dr. Melfi diagnoses Livia with borderline personality disorder and reads the symptoms to him. It's zig-zagged many times, as Tony is full of love and hate.
** Paulie Walnuts is extremely protective of his mother and serves as a doting son. It's his one virtue. However, even ''his'' love is tested when he finds out that [[spoiler: his mother is actually his aunt and has been lying to him his whole life]]. He gets over it, however, and soon reconciles with her. In season 6, [[spoiler: he mourns his mother's passing and is enraged at the skimpy showing at her funeral]].
** Christopher has also a soft spot for his mother, and Phil Leotardo harassing her comes out as one of the nastier KickTheDog moments for Phil.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Tony is a VillainProtagonist through and through and over the course of the series, discards nearly every virtue that he seemingly started with. However, the redeeming quality he carries to the end is his adoration for his two children and he tries his absolute best to be a much better parent to them than his mother and father were to him.
* EvenEvilHasStandards:
** Tony and the crew are appropriately horrified and disgusted when Ralph beats a stripper, pregnant with his own child, to death.
** Tony, Sil, and Paulie are all disgusted and angered by Richie Aprile running over Beansie and crippling him for life, to the point where it casts a grey cloud over Richie's standing within the [=DiMeo=] family permanently.
** [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain Phil Leotardo]] is disgusted that Tony would screw over his own uncle to become Don.
** The gang is downright appalled when they hear about Coach Don Hauser's affair with one of Meadow's high-school friends.
** The mobsters all express disapproval of Christopher's drug habits. Taken up a notch at his intervention. They freak out when it comes out that Chris accidentally sat on and killed Adriana's dog while high.
** Richie Aprile condones the beating of a woman if, and only if, she's your wife.
** When Gigi Cestone [[UndignifiedDeath suffers a fatal heart attack on the toilet]], the mobsters seem to be genuinely sorry for him.
** During the uproar within the gang after [[{{Gayngster}} Vito]] gets outed, Tony is (or at least tries to be) the lone voice of tolerance, suggesting that perhaps Vito's sexuality is his own business and not sufficient reason to have him whacked.
** Even after all the homophobia expressed by mobsters after Vito was outed, [[spoiler:they were all disgusted and grossed out upon hearing of the CruelAndUnusualDeath inflicted upon him by Phil Leotardo. And when Carlo praises Phil for taking care of Vito himself, pretty much all of them ignore him.]]
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Mobsters might be amoral bastards, but family is a big deal to them.
** For all of Dr. Melfi's accusations that Tony is a sociopath, he does clearly love his family in his own way. He feels guilty about what he puts his wife through, sees Meadow as an innocent in need of protection, and is tortured by AJ's floundering.
** Phil Leotardo really loved his brother and mourns his murder bitterly for years afterward.
** Johnny Sack's family seems to be quite loving.
* EverybodyDiesEnding: The last few episodes "take care of" [[spoiler: Christopher, Bobby Bacala, and Phil Leotardo]] while [[spoiler: Silvio]] is in a coma he may never wake up from, and [[spoiler: Tony himself]] may have been shot in the final scene.
* EverythingIsRacist: Sil viewing Anti-Columbus Day protesters as racist against Italians.
* EvilIsEasy: Tony's curse is that he has a measure of self-awareness, and on some vague, ephemeral level he wants to be a "good guy." He's just completely unwilling to accept any sacrifice or inconvenience required to actually be one because it's just easier for him to do what he's always done -- hurt people for profit.
* EvilIsPetty: The mobsters all do horrible things at various points but still find time to be complete dicks too. Notable examples include:
** Tony forces the kind, gentle Bobby to commit murder, his first, as payback for Bobby offending his pride by beating him in a fight. This was after Tony deliberately and repeatedly antagonized Bobby's wife Janice with crude insults, even after Bobby asked Tony to stop.
** Paulie is especially petty. For instance, when Chris is forced to pick up the tab, he pointedly drives up the bill any way he can.
** Ralphie Ciferetto is passed over for the promotion to capo in favor of Gigi. Ralphie immediately starts antagonizing Gigi every single opportunity he gets.
** "Fat Dom" Gamiello takes rather [[ForTheEvulz obnoxious glee]] at gloating over Vito Spatafore's death to Silvio and Carlo. [[OffingTheAnnoyance Bad move.]]
** Christopher seems to have a genuine friend in his AA sponsor, a man who he met while in rehab for his drug use. Chris then gets the guy to play in Tony's card game, covers his losses, then ensnares him in the same debtor cycle gangsters have been subjecting people to for centuries. He even beats the hell out of the guy for not paying up. When the guy understandably relapses, Chris looks at him with disgust and eventually takes possession of his car to cover part of the loan.
* EvilMatriarch: Livia is the mother of Tony and has held a vice grip over his emotions for many years, using spite, jealousy, and guilt as her weapons.
* EvilOldFolks:
** Possibly the evilest person in the show (which, for the record, is about Mafiosi) is Livia Soprano, Tony's aged mother. Extraordinarily manipulative, and not above putting a hit on her own son if it gets her what she wants.
** Uncle Junior, Tony's uncle, and of Livia's generation. In the first episode, he is plotting to kill a rival at his favorite restaurant. He becomes boss of the North Jersey Mob shortly thereafter and conspires with Livia to kill Tony.
* EvilParentsWantGoodKids:
** Tony Soprano is adamant that his son AJ doesn't go into the mob life like him, mainly because he's simply not cut out for it. AJ is spoiled, sheltered, not particularly bright, and starts suffering from the same panic attacks that his father was diagnosed with as an adult. Tony himself also grew up in a mob family, but he was exposed to the realities of this lifestyle early on and as ''Film/TheManySaintsOfNewark'' shows, he was already profiled as a high-IQ individual with "leadership qualities" when he was in high school.
** Even more than AJ, Tony has big dreams for his daughter Meadow. In talks with Dr. Melfi, he often expresses his wish that she'd be a doctor, maybe even a pediatrician, something far removed from his own life of violence and crime. Unfortunately for him, Meadow wants to be a mob lawyer.
** Jackie Aprile Sr. also felt this way towards his own son, and [[GiveHimANormalLife arranged with Tony]] to make sure this wouldn't happen before he himself died in the fourth episode. [[spoiler: Tony doesn't succeed and [[TurnOutLikeHisFather Jackie Jr.]] ends up dead later on, further strengthening his decision to keep A.J. out of it]].
** While calling Carmela 'evil' might be a stretch, one of the ways she shows she's not in complete denial is that she longs for her daughter, Meadow, not to follow in her footsteps. [[spoiler: It fails completely, as Meadow drops out of med school and decides to become a lawyer]].
* EvilVersusEvil: Tony and his friends ain't no saints, but the other mobsters who are against them are much worse.
* ExiledToTheCouch: ''Self''-exile in "Army of One": In the midst of their fight about sending A.J. to MilitarySchool, Carmela starts picking up blankets and pillows; then Tony grabs them, and says, "leave it to me!"
* {{Expy}}:
** Done in-universe. The nasty boss from ''[[ShowWithinAShow Cleaver]]'' is modeled almost verbatim after Tony, who fails to realize this at first. [[spoiler: It becomes a major wedge between him and Chris.]] Chris, terrified by the implications, strong-arms the nominal writer into taking credit for the character. He claims that [[SincerestFormOfFlattery he stole the character from another movie]], but Tony (who's on the fence about the thing) easily sees past the lie, checks the original movie, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero and takes serious offense to the whole issue]].
** Steven van Zandt takes Silvio on the road wholesale for the show ''Series/{{Lilyhammer}}''.
* EyeBeams: Paulie mentions hallucinating Uncle Junior doing this after taking LSD in the 60s.
* EyeScream:
** Mikey, before executing [[spoiler: Brendan Filone]]:
---> '''Mikey''': "Hijack, bye, Jack."
** Lampshaded by [[spoiler: Big Pussy]], who requests not to be shot in the face so he can keep his eyes.
** [[ButtMonkey Georgie]] is whacked in the eye by a ball-and-chain-like weapon by Ralphie.
** Bobby gets mugged and beaten up by a gang of kids in season 6. They don't kill him, but one of them shoots the pavement next to his face, which causes asphalt to shoot in his eye.
** Happens to minor season 6 character Faustino "Doc" Santoro during a power struggle over the next New York boss.
* FaceDeathWithDignity: Zig-zagged with [[spoiler: Big Pussy's death. He first tries to talk his way out of being killed, but once he realizes it's not working, he calmly walks to the middle of the room allowing the men to shoot him, only politely requesting that they don't shoot him in the face. However, after they pull out their guns he starts to lose his composure and begins to panic, asking that he be allowed to sit down first; at that point, the men just shoot him. (They do spare his face as he had requested, though it's unclear if they were intentionally honoring his wishes.)]]
* FaceHeelTurn: From Phil's point of view, "The Leotardo family has been taking shit from everybody the minute they got off the boat from Italy."
-->'''Phil''': [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLrlIpoQfQg No more Butchie, no more of this.]]
* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: Because Tony is the show's main character, it's impossible for the FBI to actually catch him. Despite numerous subplots involving their agents attempting to ensnare or incriminate Tony, they all fail due to his ProperlyParanoid tendencies, the loyalty of his capos, and a lot of bad luck. Although it's ''possible'' they finally got enough evidence to indict him in the very last episode, [[AmbiguousEnding it's ultimately left uncertain]].
* FakeGuestStar: Jerry Adler guest-starred as Hesh Rabkin in 27 episodes throughout the course of the series yet never received billing. This was in a series that tended to eventually give in-episode billing to actors in recurring roles.
* FakeShemp:
** Nancy Marchand died between seasons two and three. Her final scene was in the premiere of the following season and was cobbled together using voice clips from previous scenes and a CGI head of her character (whose lighting does not match the rest of the scene) pasted onto a body double.
** Several seasons later, while Tony is in a coma and envisions standing before a house that is implied to be the gateway to the afterlife, there's a shot of an old woman at the door who turns away before we see her face -- based on her hairstyle and movements, this is almost universally interpreted as being Marchand's character (Tony's mother).
* FamilyBusiness: The lack of an appropriate heir is a source of concern for Tony; since A.J. is not cut out for it, Christopher is groomed as one.
* FamilyMan: Just like the mafia films, the series is also about the family and the patriarch who wants to get their family united, no matter the cost.
* FamilyRelationshipSwitcheroo: In the final season, it is revealed that [[spoiler: Paulie Walnuts has been raised by his aunt his entire life because his mother was a nun who broke her vow of chastity with an American soldier]].
* FamilyValuesVillain: While there is some serious variability in how good they are at it, most of the mobsters at least attempt to do this.
** Livia Soprano seems at first to merely be a grumpy old lady. She is very insistent that nobody swears or smokes in her presence. Then she all but encourages her brother-in-law to put a hit out on her own son.
* FanDisservice:
** Whenever Tony gets at least half-naked, especially during his sex scenes.
** Lorraine Calluzzo in season 5. She's in the shower when Phil Leotardo and the hitmen go after her, and she runs through the house completely naked before they shoot her. It's not pretty.
* {{Fanservice}}:
** The Bada Bing! Half-naked strippers galore!
** [[SheIsAllGrownUp Grown up Meadow]] sexy-dancing in her underwear for Finn in the season 6 opener.
** Not to mention most of Tony's goomahs over the course of the show, half of whom appear naked at one point or another.
** Dr. Melfi herself has a few erotic dreams where she appears naked and having sex.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EScVpo-1zlw This scene with Sean Gismonte and Matthew Bevilaqua in their underwear.]]
* FanserviceExtra: Any stripper we see on stage at the Bada Bing qualifies, unless, of course, one of them becomes part of the episode's plot.
* FatBastard: Tony Soprano and many other mobsters are very noticeably overweight or even obese. Tony even calls other people "fat fuck". Averted with Bobby Baccalieri, who's both the fattest mobster and the TokenGoodTeammate.
* FatalFlaw:
** Tony Soprano's [[UnstoppableRage Wrath]] and short fuse sometimes got the better of him.
** Despite being one of the most ruthless characters in the series, Phil Leotardo considers himself too agreeable in nature and willing to compromise for his own good. In reality, it is his obsession with preserving his alpha-male persona at all costs that proves to be his downfall.
** Christopher Moltisanti's DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster tendencies. He doesn't realize being a made man in TheMafia comes with a lot of responsibility, which means he cannot goof around when he's under tremendous pressure from his bosses to earn more money. [[spoiler:By the time of his death, Tony had realized that Chris was TheLoad to the family]]. While being a mafioso has its perks, Chris should have known that some parts of a mobster's life can be boring and dangerous at times.
* FauxAffablyEvil: Tony Soprano Zigzags between this and AffablyEvil. He can be genuinely friendly and does make an effort to look out for those he cares about, but he gradually loses any real redeeming qualities. He will often act friendly to those he is just about to do something horrible to, like Jackie Jr and Phil Leotardo, just to taunt them. This is mostly relegated to people who piss him off, but Tony clearly gets a kick out of it.
* FellOffTheBackOfATruck: Or, just stole the whole thing.
* FeverDreamEpisode:
** "Funhouse" contains multiple fever dreams after Tony gets a bad case of food poisoning. In one of them, Tony douses himself with gasoline and lights himself on fire.
** Similarly in some early Season 6 episodes, after falling unconscious from some gunshot wounds, Tony has a series of strange dreams during his coma.
* FiveStagesOfGrief: Alluded to from time to time. One season 1 episode is titled "Denial, Anger, Acceptance".
* FishOutOfWater:
** Chris and Paulie in "Pine Barrens".
** The visit to the Mother Country in "Commendatori".
* {{Flashback}}: Used occasionally to recall significant events of Tony's life.
* FlorenceNightingaleEffect: Discussed. Tony quickly develops feelings towards his therapist, which are unrequited for pragmatic reasons.
* FoeCooties: Tony was more than happy to have sex with his rival Ralphie's girlfriend, Valentina, but refused to make her his permanent mistress until he found out she never had sex with Ralph (due to sexual tastes being for [[UsefulNotes/{{BDSM}} S&M]] rather than conventional sex).
* FollowTheLeader: An in-universe example. Jackie Jr. learns that Tony and co. had their major breakthrough in the criminal world when they robbed Feech la Manna's poker game, so Jackie decides to follow the example. [[spoiler:It ends badly, Furio is injured, while the card dealer is killed, and Jackie Jr. gets whacked for it.]]
* FoodPorn: The series is a delight for food-watchers, as they're eating in almost every scene. Chef Artie Bucco is a particular purveyor of this as he loves to discuss his ingredients at length.
* FoodSlap:
** An enraged Gloria Trillo [[TantrumThrowing throws a steak]] at Tony's head.
** Christopher throws a sandwich at Vito and insults his weight.
** A literal example happens when Christopher slaps an ice cream out of Patsy's hand.
** Artie and Tony's frustration with each other culminates in a childish food fight after Artie throws bacon at him.
** Junior breaks up with his talkative girlfriend with a dramatic PieInTheFace. A shout-out to ''Film/ThePublicEnemy1931''.
** Carmela is about to throw a glass at Tony's face when he is making a confession. Subverted as soon as she hears the topic is the start of his therapy.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** In the Season 5 episode [[Recap/TheSopranosS5E13AllDueRespect "All Due Respect,"]] Carlo Gervasi asks [[spoiler: Bobby "Baccala" Baccalieri]], "You really think New York would come after you?"
** After [[spoiler: Johnny Sack confesses in court his involvement in the mafia]] and is sent to prison, a disgusted and infuriated Tony tells Silvio:
--> "To think that piece of shit was my friend once. [[{{Foreshadowing}} I hope he dies in there!]]"
** At Christopher's intervention, Tony threatens to suffocate him. [[spoiler: Later on, he does.]]
** In the Season 1 finale, the feds tell an incarcerated Junior that the guy they're really interested in busting is Johnny Sack. Come the Season 5 finale...
* FormerlyFat: Vito Spatafore loses 160 lbs between seasons 5 and 6. This was RealLifeWritesThePlot, as actor Joseph R. Gannascoli had lost a similar amount of weight for health reasons.
* FrenchJerk: The man who embarks Artie in a very bad business deal, if not an outright con.
* FreudianExcuse: Constantly explored. He hates the mere concept of the excuse, yet he's diagnosed with a very powerful one; Tony was literally born into the mob, and his abusive parents wrote the proverbial book about how not to raise a model citizen. His mommy issues are one of his major malfunctions. He still goes out of his way to please his miserable mother, a manipulative, self-pitying control freak who resents her children for being happier than her. The MoralEventHorizon comes when she tries to put a hit out on him. Despite this, Tony seems to be a much better parent. Janice, on the other hand, inherited her narcissism, self-pity, and lack of empathy.
* FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: Whenever Meadow's boyfriend Finn voices his reservations regarding Tony and his associates' work, Meadow justifies on the basis that the poverty and dire conditions of Southern Italy bred their mindset and it can't be helped. Finn finally calls bullshit on this after he's forced to tell the mobsters he saw Vito giving a man a blowjob, telling her that they are generations separated from that environment and nothing their ancestors went through justifies executing a person just because they're gay.
* FreudianSlip: Tony has one about [[spoiler: Vito]] in the season six episode "Live Free Or Die."
--> '''Tony:''' This guy that got outed, look. The guys that work for me are asking for head. ...''his'' head. (''rolls eyes'') What the fuck?!
* FreudianThreat: In Season One, Tony Soprano is having a guy beaten up, but he proves stubborn. He's advised to try this trope instead, and it works. So we have a Soprano threatening to make someone else a soprano.
* FriendlyLocalChinatown: The New York family that Tony's feuds with hang out in Little Italy, which is rapidly being swallowed by Chinatown in real life. The characters comment on this.
* FromCamouflageToCriminal: A few of the gangsters have some military background:
** Corrado "Junior" Soprano was a veteran of World War II.
** Paulie Gualtieri served for a few years in the US Army. Though it's downplayed because he never experienced any wars.
** Russian mobsters Slava Malevsky and Valery are both veterans of the First Chechen War. Valery in particular was reportedly such a badass, that he allegedly killed 16 Chechen rebels by himself.
* FromTheMouthsOfBabes: An occasional source of humor: the adults swear constantly, but when a child (especially their own) does the same they're appalled.
* GainaxEnding: The series famously ended with a mid-scene cut to black. This may or may not have signified Tony's death. The explanation of the showrunners has it make a lot more sense. Since he is unable to bring himself to leave his life of crime, every day brings the uncertainty of being mundane or the day he is whacked. The audience does not know whether he experiences a routine day or finally meets his fate, and that's how he's going to have to live the rest of his life.
* TheGamblingAddict:
** Tony's friend David Scatino, who tragically gets TrappedByGamblingDebts.
** Chris's friend and [[TheSponsor sponsor]] J.T Dolan, in a very reminiscent way, but he manages to stay afloat.
** Tony himself ends up 'chasing it' after a bad luck streak. Being rich and powerful, he can afford it, but goes through it in a very unpleasant mood and insults his friend and moneylender Hesh with the AllJewsAreCheapskates trope.
* GangstaStyle: In "46 Long", Brendan berates Special K for holding his gun this way during a truck hijacking. The idiot immediately goes back to holding his gun this way afterward. This is primarily to show them to be StupidCrooks; the hijacking inevitably goes bad and they end up dead as a result when word gets back to the boss.
* {{Gangsterland}}: New Jersey is portrayed as this in the series. It's a city filled with drug dealers, {{Loan Shark}}s, [[TheCartel drug cartels]], contract killers, criminal organizations, illegal business, corruption, illegal gambling, and [[TheMafia mobsters]].
* {{Gayngst}}: [[spoiler: Vito]] spends a significant amount of time in Season Six experiencing gayngst when he is inadvertently outed to both his and Phil Leotardo's (somewhat homophobic) crews, flees to a small town in New Hampshire, and struggles with his duties to his wife and kids, his crew, and the web of lies he has to tell his newfound lover in New Hampshire to protect himself. [[spoiler: His gayngst arguably results in his death at the hands of Phil]].
* {{Gayngster}}: [[spoiler: Vito Spatafore]] is a straight deconstruction; the other gangsters find it disgusting, Tony, his only defender, is given a hard time, and the guy has to flee [[spoiler: and is eventually killed for being gay. Vito essentially commits suicide by returning to the fold despite having found a new life and an attractive boyfriend.]]
* GeniusBruiser: Tony Blundetto's IQ was revealed to be 158. Given his line of work, he almost certainly qualifies for the bruiser aspect as well.
* GilliganCut:
** Uncle Junior confides in Tony that he has cancer, and makes him promise not to tell anyone. Tony assures him he will not. Next scene-
-->'''Janice:''' [answering the phone]: Hello?\\
'''Tony:''' Uncle Jun has cancer.
** Ralph Cifaretto's son Justin is accidentally shot with an arrow, resulting in significant blood loss and brain damage. Rosalie Aprile comforts Ralph, telling him "He's gonna be fine." Cut to Rosalie then telling Carmela, "He's gonna be a vegetable."
* GirlsWithMoustaches: In one episode, several of the wiseguys are sitting around their no-work jobs, "breaking balls" about each other's girlfriends. One teases another, saying his girl had a mustache so bad it must have been like kissing a fireman.
* GoIntoTheLight: When [[spoiler: Tony Soprano]] is comatose after a shooting, he dreams that he's going to a family reunion. He's greeted in front by his dead cousin, who urges him to hand over his briefcase (despite his protest that "my whole life's in here") and go into the party in the white building they're standing in front of. As he approaches the door, the inside of the house becomes a white blur--but he hears his family calling him to come back, refuses to hand over the briefcase, and wakes up on the hospital bed.
* GoKartingWithBowser: Once the FBI agent tasked with Tony's crew is reassigned to anti-terrorism, he starts frequenting Satriale's, Tony's hangout, because the sandwiches are so good.
* GodIsDead: Stated by A.J in season 2, as part of his briefly becoming a StrawNihilist.
* GolfClubbing: "Mustang" Sally cracks Bryan Spatafore's head with a putter for talking to his girlfriend. Of course, because the man he did this happens to be Vito's brother, Sally gets a bullet to the head shortly thereafter.
* GoodIsNotNice: The FBI are portrayed as manipulative, condescending jerks, but still [[BlackAndGrayMorality unambiguously better than the mob]].
** The Feds do everything they can to ruin Allegra Sacrimoni's wedding day. They succeed by brusquely taking her father into custody, embarrassing them all in front of the entire wedding party.
* GoryDiscretionShot: Most of the mob executions are shown in their bloody entirety... except [[spoiler: Adriana's]].
* GossipEvolution: Tony gets in a car accident with Adriana as a passenger. Rumors circulate about Tony crashing the car while Adriana was giving him a blowjob and go from there; the rumors aren't true, but the two did share a lot of UnresolvedSexualTension that they most likely would have ''resolved'' (if you follow) had they made it to their destination.
* GothsHaveItHard: Vito Spatafore is murdered by his cousin-in-law Phil Leotardo for being gay, which is a huge no-no in the highly homophobic mafia. His son, Vito Spatafore Jr., starts to dress in all black and act out in school. Phil rather sanctimoniously tries to teach him to "man up" and take charge of his family now that his father is gone, and when he still refuses, Tony has him shipped off to a MilitarySchool.
* GrinOfRage: Tony Soprano does this very effectively, often smiling or grinning as a way to hide how angry he is, but also as an intimidation tactic. It usually doesn't take long for the mask to slip, making the other person realize a little too late that they're seriously screwed.
* GroinAttack: Mobsters fight dirty.
* GunboatDiplomacy: A real estate agent refuses to do business with Tony, so he has some of his men park a boat next to the agent's beach house and play loud music.
* HairTriggerTemper: Anyone would want to watch their step around pretty much anyone in the cast. While there are a few exceptions that are a little more level-headed, they all fly into a rage pretty quickly.
* HandsOnApproach: A throwaway subplot in season three sees a lesbian tennis coach show blatant favoritism towards Adriana when she and Carmela take up tennis. The reason why is all but spelled out, but Adriana herself doesn't get it.
* HarsherInHindsight: In-universe example: Chris groused about the Feds not investigating him like they were the senior Mafiosi, and he even bought a stack of newspapers that referred to him as a "local mobster". One has to wonder if he ruefully reflected on this in later seasons when the FBI spent what must have been thousands of taxpayer dollars to specifically bring him down -- oh, and it indirectly/directly resulted in Adriana's death, too.
* HeWhoMustNotBeSeen: Janice's estranged son Harpo is mentioned repeatedly over the course of the show, but never seen.
* HenpeckedHusband
** Tony's father.
--->'''Tony''': Now that my father's dead, he's a saint. When he was alive, nothing. And my dad was tough. He ran his own crew. A guy like that, and my mother wore him down to a little nub. He was a squeaking little gerbil when he died.
** Artie is under constant criticism from his wife Charmaine, mostly about his decisions when running the restaurant. This and other factors lead to the two nearly divorcing.
* HerCodenameWasMarySue: Christopher produces a horror film, ''Cleaver'', where undead mobster Michael comes back for revenge on his boss Salvatore and his cheating fiancé It's quite obvious that Michael is a stand-in for Christopher, Salvatore for Tony, and Michael's fiancée for Adriana, but Christopher vehemently denies it.
* HeritageDisconnect: A recurring theme throughout the show is that, while the mobsters and their families take a lot of pride in their Italian roots and culture, the things they know and practice are really a bastardized version of it caused by being generations separated from living in Italy and the insular nature of their group. The result is that many native Italians and even civilian Italian-Americans look down on the group and consider them a bunch of uneducated, boorish louts. It's best shown when Tony, Christopher, and Paulie travel to Naples and the mobsters there witness Paulie's behavior:
-->'''Neapolitan Mobster:''' ''(to his associate in Italian)'' And you thought the Germans were classless pieces of shit.
* HeroAntagonist: The FBI agents who oppose the mobsters provide anti-hero, manipulative, and callous versions. Agent Harris in particular is a FriendlyEnemy of Tony's and eventually [[spoiler: forms an EnemyMine against Phil]] because of some developments about UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror.
* HiddenWeapons: When assassinating Chucky, Tony hides a gun in a ''fish''; this is because he's ambushing the guy at the docks.
* HighClassGloves: Carmela and Meadow have a tradition of going out to a fancy restaurant wearing long gloves on her birthday. Meadow decides that it's a childish custom and refuses to participate.
* HighTurnOverRate: The Aprile crew experiments an even higher mortality rate than the rest of the organization, with the other members believing the head position is jinxed.
* HollywoodGenetics: Meadow has a noticeably darker complexion than everyone else in her family. Jamie-Lynn Sigler is actually half Cuban and half Ashkenazi Jew rather than Italian-American. This gets brought up in dialogue in the fifth season when Carmela recalls how her mother lamented "She's so dark!" when she first saw her granddaughter.
* HollywoodPsych: Dr. Melfi acts as both a psychiatrist (a medical doctor that prescribes the medication) and a psychologist (a counselor or therapist who engages in talk therapy). In reality, those are two separate professions, a psychiatrist generally only sees you for about 15-20 minutes once a month to adjust medication levels while a psychologist is the one who will see you for an hour a week to talk through issues (but cannot prescribe medication).
* HomophobicHateCrime: The murder of Vito Spatafore by Phil Leotardo and his men was motivated by Leotardo's homophobia and the homophobic culture of the Sicilian mafia in general. This one's especially wrenching because of the cold-blooded way the whacking is carried out and the look on poor Vito's face when he realizes that he is going to die. The Sopranos were also seriously contemplating murdering Vito (who was one of their captains) for his transgressions, but Tony was hesitant to do so [[PragmaticVillainy because Vito was a good earner]]. He eventually relents because Phil kept pressing the issue and reluctantly puts a hit out on Vito. Phil's men just beat them to the punch, although Tony and his men would not have gone the extra mile of torturing Vito and desecrating his body. This murder deepens the wedge between the Lupertazzis and the Sopranos because killing a made guy of another Family without an ok from the Boss is a big no-no.
* HonoraryUncle: The mob guys are all honorary uncles towards their associates' respective children.
* HookersAndBlow: The Bada-Bing is a magnet for this.
* HopeSpot: After her fallout with Christopher regarding [[spoiler: the FBI]], Adriana is seen driving alone with a suitcase and possibly leaving everything behind to start a new life. [[spoiler: Turns out it's just a daydream and she's a passenger with Silvio at the wheel, taking her on the last car ride of her tragic life.]]
* HospitalHottie:
** PlayedWith in "Denial Anger Acceptance]]". A woman in a Hello Nurse outfit comes to check on Jackie Aprile, who insists she's not his nurse. About the point her tits start falling out of her jacket, he realizes that she's one of the girls from the Bada Bing club, whom Tony hired to come out and show Jackie a good time.
** Junior is fooled by an attractive nurse who is revealed to be a mole planted by the FBI.
* HotForPreacher: The sexual tension between Carmela Soprano and Father Intintola is a plot point in season 1.
* HowTheMightyHaveFallen: [[spoiler: Silvio, by the end of the show. Throughout the series, he swaggers around his strip club, always totally in control of "his girls." At the pork store, he always knows what to say as Tony's consigliere. As an executioner, he is able to take out victims like Adriana La Cerva and Burt Gervasi with ease. By the finale, after nearly getting shot to death in the previous episode, Silvio is in the hospital, comatose and breathing through a respirator. (Symbolized by his hair, of all things: his pompadour is gone, for the first and ''only'' time in the entire series.)]]
* HowWeGotHere: Done at the beginning of an episode when Tony suffers a panic attack, the action is literally rewinded to the moment he meets Meadow's black-Jewish new boyfriend.
* HumansAreFlawed: Selfishness, myopia, and dysfunction are portrayed as the constants of the human condition.
* HumiliationConga: Season six includes a neutral one with [[spoiler: Johnny Sack going through hell once he's the big boss; arrested, incarcerated, embargoed, and humiliated in front of his family and friends on the day of his daughter's wedding. He shames himself by breaking the ''Omertà'' code of silence to lower his sentence, only to die of cancer not much later]].
* {{Hypocrite}}: If you ask most characters, being a mafioso or abetting a family member of one doesn't go in the way of being a good Christian or upstanding citizen.
* HypocriticalHumor: The characters' numerous hypocrisies are frequently showcased for laughs and irony:
** Many of the mobsters consider themselves to be observant Catholics, and the mob wives, who live on blood money, are very devout and self-righteous.
** Carmella is finally told this explicitly in Season 3 in her one meeting with psychiatrist Dr. Krakauer, who tells her he's refusing her payment because he won't take blood money, and the only way for her to ever feel good about herself is to leave Tony and never again accept anything from him.
** There is also season 4's "Christopher", where many characters associate protests against Columbus Day as a slight against Italian-Americans and complain about how the media portrays them as violent, uneducated mobsters. It becomes humorous when you realize that almost every character in the series falls into at least one of those categories.
* IGaveMyWord: When Carmella and Tony are discussing ratting out other criminals and going into witness protection, Tony says this. Carmella replies: "What are you, a kid in a treehouse?" A nice way to point out how ridiculous this trope can be when the choice is following your word or protecting your family.
* IHaveAFamily: A waiter uses this argument when he comes out to confront Christopher and Paulie over the small tip he was left. [[KickTheDog It doesn't help his cause.]]
* IJustShotMarvinInTheFace: One of Brendan's truck-robbing associates in "46 Long" accidentally kills the driver when his gun slips out of his waistband and discharges.
* IJustWantToBeLoved:
** With the overall poor parenting of his father and mother, Tony has one chip on his shoulder when it comes to parental figures. He tries to bond with his uncle Junior, but the latter's increasing dementia makes it hard for them to make a full connection.
-->'''Tony''': I mean, don't you love me?
** Having lost his father at a very young age, Christopher always tries to find a surrogate. The most obvious choice is Tony, but given their line of work, their chain of command, and their respective mental situations, the relationship slowly sours until it's rotten.
* IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight: Tony tries this with Uncle Junior when the latter is in the grips of Alzheimer's, but he's only able to get the slightest bit of recognition when he says a talismanic Mafia phrase: "This thing of ours."
* INeedAFreakingDrink: Dr. Melfi takes a shot of vodka upon noticing the next appointment is Tony in "House Arrest."
* IdiotBall: LoanShark Tony takes an [=SUV=] used by David Scatino's son as collateral from the busted-out Scatino, and then gives it to Meadow, who is a close friend of the boy. Not surprisingly, a fight emerges between father and daughter. Tony is normally a lot cannier than that.
* IgnoredEpiphany: Nearly every character:
** One of the sharper examples is Phil Leotardo, who wages a brutal turf war against Tony during the final seasons. Tony attempts to put an end to it while Leotardo recovers from a heart attack in the hospital, pleading that they could bury the hatchet and live long enough to see their grandkids, which moved Phil to tears. But ultimately Phil's anger and resentments overrode his willingness to compromise, with disastrous results.
** Tony, of course, struggled constantly with the bad man that he is, and his therapy sessions often forced him to admit his faults. But his attempts at self-improvement never really take, and by the end of the show, it's difficult to say that he's changed much at all.
** Janice also saw a therapist for anger management, though her sessions were court-ordered. She seemed to be making progress at first, but Tony goads her into losing control basically out of resentment shortly after. By the end of the show, whatever stability and self-control she'd managed were completely undone after the murder of her husband.
* ImagineSpot: Adriana has a particularly sad one in "Long Term Parking".
* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: A few times in the series, most notably when Matthew Bevilacqua and Sean Gismonte attempt a hit on Christopher. Sean connects with the first shot, then empties his clip at a range of only a few feet, managing only to graze his shoulder. Matthew fires over 15 shots and doesn't even come close once.
* {{Implausible Deniability}}: This describes the Mafia code of silence, or ''omerta'', in which members of the mob not only deny their involvement with it, but also argue that it doesn't even exist in the first place, in spite of evidence to the contrary. Tony first demonstrates this in "College", where, when Meadow presses him about his mafia connections, tries to argue he's not involved, and that there is no mafia, before admitting that, yes, he is involved in ''some'' illegal activities.
* ImNotHereToMakeFriends: Mentioned often by Tony. "I'm running a fuckin' business, not a popularity contest!" Besides his close family and business associates, [[LonelyAtTheTop he has no real friends]]; he manages to alienate Artie, David Scatino, Hesh Rabkin, and Zellman among others.
* InLoveWithTheGangstersGirl: Furio with Carmela. Subverted in that Furio is a gangster too, but Tony is ''the'' boss.
* InSeriesNickname:
** "Big Pussy" gets a second one, much to his chagrin, Tony keeps calling him "beached whale".
** Phil gets called "The Shah of Iran". He resents it [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and brings it up]] when he summarizes the reason why the [=DiMeo=] family sucks.
* IndulgentFantasySegue: Tony has several sex fantasies, including one where we see him [[FanDisservice with a woman while wearing a Centurion uniform.]] Melfi even has one about Tony!
* InherentlyFunnyWords: A lot of the series' more light-hearted (or, blackly comedic) moments tend to involve the characters' favorite foods, which always seem to have really silly names. Choice examples include "gabagool"[[note]]Over here![[/note]], "buffalo mozzarella"[[note]]pronounced "moozarell"[[/note]], and of course, that time Chrissy shot a rude bakery cashier in the foot over a box of sfogliatelle[[note]]pronounced "Shfuyatelle", due to lingustic drift and the fact most Italian-Americans came from Southern Italy, before Standard Italian based on the Tuscan language spoken in Northern Italy took a hold there, doesn't help[[/note]] and cannolis[[note]][[Film/TheGodfather he did not leave the gun]][[/note]].
* InjunCountry: Tony visits an Indian casino that is owned and run by a shady white businessman with perhaps a drop of Indian ancestry.
* InnBetweenTheWorlds: In "From Here to Eternity", Chris has a near-death experience where he visits Hell or Purgatory that's an Irish bar where every day is Saint Patrick's Day and you spend all eternity getting beaten in card games.
* InsistentTerminology: Tony has an issue with a "retirement community" being called a "nursing home" and corrects the term every time. In later seasons when his mother is no longer in one, he does the opposite correction.
* InterruptedByTheEnd: The series infamously ended in the middle of the lyrics of "Don't Stop Believing" as part of its GainaxEnding.
-->''Don't stop--''
* IronicEchoCut: "Whoever Did This" has a darkly funny example: Ralphie's son Justin is tragically injured, and he suffers significant blood loss and brain damage, with doctors saying that he could potentially end up being disabled. Later on, as Ralphie sits beside Justin's hospital bed, Rosalie Aprile comes into the room. She consoles him, saying:
-->'''Rosalie:''' Justin's gonna be alright. You'll see. He's gonna be fine.\\
''[cut to Rosalie talking to Carmela over dinner at a restaurant]''\\
'''Rosalie:''' He's gonna be a vegetable.
* IronicNurseryRhyme: "Denial, Anger, Acceptance" had Chris being abducted and mock executed by Russians while Meadow sang "All Through The Night" in the school choir.
* {{Irony}}: Tony, along with Silvio and Jackie Aprile ascended in the Mafia at a young age by some audacious violations of mob protocol, as they were respected for their moxie. Brendan Filone, Jackie Aprile Jr, Dino Zirelli, Carlo Renzi, Matthew Bevilaqua, Sean Gismonte... pretty much the entire cast of young De Meo gangsters aside from Chris... are all killed trying to follow this example.
* IsThatAThreat:
-->'''Tony:''' What's that, a threat?\\
'''Carmela:''' No, Tony, it's a rave review!
* ItaliansTalkWithHands: Some characters do this more than others, especially if they get excited or aggravated. Paulie is a particular example. Pointing with his pinkie extended is practically a nonverbal catchphrase.
* ItCantBeHelped: All the time, in the form of "[But] What are you gonna do?"
* ItTastesLikeFeet: In "The Strong, Silent Type," Tony and Junior are sampling some wine Furio brought back from Italy, which Junior grumps "reminds [him] of people's feet." After which, he continues drinking it.
* ItsAllAboutMe:
** Livia Soprano. She's always complaining about how everyone's mistreating her and how her son does not appreciate her.
** Janice makes a big show of being an all-loving, progressive hippy, but she's extremely self-centered and manipulative, twisting every situation around her own feelings and insecurities.
* IvyLeagueForEveryone: Meadow is an undergraduate student at Columbia. However, it's made clear she only got in because Carmela implicitly uses [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections the nefarious power of their surname]] to grant her admission.
* JammedSeatbelts: Sean Gismonte and Matthew Bevilaqua try to kill Christopher by shooting him from a car. When Christopher starts shooting back, Matthew exits the car and gets away, but Sean gets tangled up in his seatbelt. Unfortunately for him, this makes him a pretty easy target.
* {{Jerkass}}: The show doesn't shy away from portraying the Mafia as full of people with anti-social behavior or outright sociopathy, and while a lot of guys do qualify, ''nobody'' matches up to the level of sheer obnoxiousness that is Ralph Cifaretto, who stands out as the meanest character in the show; rude, disrespectful, obnoxious, depraved and pointlessly violent.
** Tony is rude, [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain racist]],[[BadBoss verbally abusive to his underlings]], a serial womanizer and has [[MoralMyopia high standards for people that he fails to meet himself]]. He is also a violent criminal.
* JoggersFindDeath: Mikey Palmice is killed by Chris and Paulie in the middle of his jogging routine.
* {{Joisey}}: Most of the series takes place in Essex County, and much of the rest is in Hudson County.
** Tony was born in the Ironbound neighborhood of Newark; like any true Newarker of his age he calls the neighborhood "Down Neck." Livia's house (later Janice's and then Tony's during his separation) is here, as is Uncle Junior's. Uncle Junior's trial also takes place in Newark, at the federal courthouse. Additionally, "the Esplanade", one of the most important plot points in the series, is an urban redevelopment project in Newark.
** The Soprano [=McMansion=] is in North Caldwell.
** The series makes the occasional foray into Montclair.
** Furio's house is in Nutley.
** It's not quite clear where Bada Bing and Satriale's Pork Store are supposed to be (there are some indications that Satriale's is supposed to be in or very near Newark, as there's a sign with directions to the [[UsefulNotes/PortAuthorityTransHudson PATH]] right next to it); the place that doubled for Satriale's is in Kearny and the place that doubled for the Bing is in Lodi.
** "Pine Barrens" takes the series on a rare trip to South Jersey, going as it does to, um, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the Pine Barrens]].
** A few episodes also take us to Atlantic City.
* JuryAndWitnessTampering: Corrado Soprano Jr. persuades a juror not to deliver a guilty verdict against him by using Eugene Pontecorvo to threaten the safety of the juror's family.
* JustGotOutOfJail: Various characters (Richie Aprile, Tony Blundetto, and Phil Leotardo, most prominently), only show up once they're released from jail, as a fairly justified way of having the characters be old friends without using RememberTheNewGuy.
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