The other night, after watching this week’s episode of The Sopranos, I had one of those “ah-ha” moments, an epiphany about the entire final season of the show. My realization was this:

At some point, the writers of the show decided to transform their gangster series into a subtle political statement. Symbolically, they have chronicled what they perceive as the end of the American Empire. Through both of Tony’s families, his personal family and his crime family, we’re watching the fictional, small-scale telling of the degradation of American world dominance.