Tony Soprano After that he also tells her that he murdered Big Pussy and his cousin Tony Blundetto. Following the dream, he acts differently to his friends and family, trying to see if they also feel relieved now that Christopher is dead. Following Gandolfini's death on June 19, 2013, Gandolfini's portrayal of Soprano was praised for its influence on subsequent other TV characters. "TV Guide" columnist Matt Roush stated, "Without Tony, there's no Vic Mackey of "The Shield", no Al Swearengen of "Deadwood", no Don Draper of "Mad Men"" (whose creator, Matthew Weiner, honed his craft as a writer on "The Sopranos").
The Sopranos Sopranos" is credited for creating a new era in the mafia genre deviating from the traditional dramatized image of the gangster in favor of a simpler, more accurate reflection of ordinary day-to-day mob life in a suburb. The series sheds light on Italian family dynamics through the depiction of Tony's tumultuous relationship with his mother. Edie Falco's character Carmela Soprano is praised in Kristyn Gorton's essay "Why I Love Carmela Soprano" for challenging Italian-American gender roles. "New Yorker" editor David Remnick described "The Sopranos" as mirroring the "mindless commerce and consumption" of modern America. "The Sopranos" has been called "perhaps