Via The House Next Door, my hometown paper has a short feature this week on the top-ten Sopranos episodes. Shankar and I were playing this game over Google Chat not long ago, so I can contribute my own list, roughly in order of preference—though since not everyone loves this show as much as I do, I'll hide it behind a [+/-].

1. "Long-Term Parking" (Season 5): The one where Adriana gets, you know. Almost certainly my favorite episode of the show.

2. "Funhouse" (Season 2): The Big Pussy episode from the end of season 2. The other strong contender for best episode ever.

3. "Pine Barrens" (Season 3): An obvious classic.

4. "The Happy Wanderer" (Season 2): The episode with Tony's high-school friend the degenerate gambler, who ultimately loses his sporting goods store. Surely the best guest-star in the show's history.

5. "College" (Season 1): The one where Meadow and Tony go to New Hampshire. Just a great episode.

6. "Stage 5" (Season 6b): The Johnny Sack episode. I'm tempted to pick others from the final nine, too—"Sopranos Home Moves" (first episode of the final nine), "The Blue Comet" (last week's episode), and "The Second Coming" (the episode from two weeks ago)—but they're still too fresh. In any event it's been a really fantastic season.

7. "Whitecaps" (Season 4 finale): Carmela throws Tony out. I love the ending of this one.

8 & 9. "Join the Club" and "Mayham" (Season 6a): Cheating a bit because these two episodes really can't be separated. The Tony's-in-a-coma arc from the first part of season six is one of the highlights of the show and (depending on how things go tomorrow) arguably where Chase should have left it.

10. "Employee of the Month" (Season 3): The episode where Dr. Melfi is attacked in her office's parking garage. I really struggled with this, as it's not an arc I'm especially fond of—but it's an unforgettable episode with a killer closing scene. It's got to make the list.