"The Sopranos" as a Soap Opera

"The Sopranos" has been a controversial show throughout its six seasons. Many people label the show with their own critiques based on their own culture. The show is based on the life of Italian-American, Tony Soprano, head of the most powerful crime family in New Jersey. Tony is often considered a bad guy and a good guy at the same time. The pilot episode of "The Sopranos" begins a story that explains this reasoning, and …

…The show contains many characters and plots, intimate dialogue, sensitive men, abrupt scenes, and so forth. These characteristics are those that categorize every soap opera, and function in their serial form. The Sopranos though contains an overwhelming amount of masculine references that make this show appeal to men, creating it as a male soap opera. These ideologies are often referenced throughout the show and add to the growing conflict between gender roles in society today.