If television programming is normally considered a wasteland, then "The Sopranos" may be thought of as a jungle: richly colored, teeming with life, dark with mystery. The Sopranos on the Couch is a must for all who are already caught up in the excitement, as well as for viewers who are coming to the show for the first time. Yacowar helps us understand exactly why we can't get enough of Tony Soprano and that colorful mafia family that we hate to love and often love to hate! This pop-culture sensation is not only the most controversial series on television, but also the most provocative, thoughtful, and complex. Its language and themes have stretched the norms of commercial television, many characters and phrases having entered our everyday life.The Sopranos on the Couch is the first book to provide a compact, lively, and authoritative examination of each episode and season - the themes, inside jokes, and allusions - thereby putting the series into a broader cultural context.