It's overrated.
People talk endlessly and use pretentious words to describe it, but that will never change the fact that its just plain boring.
In good shows every scene has a purpose, it has a start and an end, it unravels like a story should; drip feeding the viewer interesting plot developments. Sopranos doesn't do this. Episodes are filled with pointless scenes that serve no purpose. Each episode of The Sopranos is a tasteless gourmet meal. From the appearance it looks like it should be great, but then you start eating it. The first bite tastes pretty good, the second slightly less good. The remaining bites are bland, occasionally you get a bite that tastes just okay. And then its over.
The dialogue is essentially the gangster equivalent of small talk. Its never interesting. Its rarely funny. And it gets boring really fast.
Sopranos is incredibly ahead of its time in terms of the sheer production value. Its cinematic. Its definitely fair to say it laid the ground work for modern high quality TV shows, but that doesn't automatically equate to the show being entertaining in its own right. Thomas Edison's original lightbulb was a genius innovation, but compared to the stuff we have now, its complete garbage. Its inefficient, it dies quick and its expensive. Would modern LED lightbulbs exist now without Edison's pioneering invention? No. Does that fact make Edison's original design a flawless masterpiece? I think you can agree it does not.
A story should also have build up and a pay off. Sopranos doesn't. It feels like the story doesn't progress. When you watch a show like Breaking Bad you feel the story progressing, you feel the build up throughout the season and then the insane pay off at the end. When I watched Sopranos I felt nothing. Its a rollercoaster that goes in a flat line, with occasional small bumps. Breaking bad is a rollercoaster that constantly twists and turn, rising and falling, keeping you engaged and interested not knowing what will happen next.
Conclusion:
Innovative? Definitely.
Entertaining and interesting? Definitely not.
