Video: The Sopranos

Herald rating: * * * * *

Rental: 19 April

Review: Ewan McDonald

Part-soap opera, part-black comedy, part-psychodrama, part-satire of Middle America, even part-business school, The Sopranos is wholly the best thing on TV.

Not just American TV: this masterpiece of writing, production and performing has completely rewritten the rules for small-screen drama. The first season, starring James Gandolfino as the conflicted Mob leader Tony Soprano and Edie Falco as his tacky, asserting wife, is on rental.

Compulsory viewing for those who missed the series and don't know what the fuss was about, and for those for whom it went by too fast and they missed a rubout or two.