BEST
3. THE SOPRANOS (HBO)
The labored, stuck-bull breathing of Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) set the weary pace for the final year of David Chase's inspired family crime saga. Over those nine ragged episodes, both business and family collapsed under the weight of guilt, fear, and utter apathy. Tony ended the series much as he began: joyless, contextless. His most powerful legacy ends up being the depression that now bedevils his son (Robert Iler). ''It's in his blood, this miserable f---ing existence,'' Tony says. It was a cold ending to a superb series — and that final scene was simply.