David Chase (3rdL) with some of the caste. (From L) Vincent Pastore, David Proval, Chase, Anabella Sciorra, Drea de Matteo, Steve Buscemi and writer Terence Winter
© AFP/Getty Images/File Peter Kramer

NEW YORK (AFP) - For fans of the show since its 1999 pilot, the only question is whether New Jersey mafia boss Tony Soprano gets "whacked," sent to jail, offered witness protection or lives to taste another day of freedom.

The program has at every turn had its critics -- those who say it's too violent, those who say it's not violent enough -- but it has found a devoted audience worldwide addicted to the comings and going of the Soprano household.

Tony's struggles to keep his children and crew in line makes for a dark but amusing storyline, punctuated by murder, extortion, surreal dreams and flashbacks, where a twisted version of morality takes hold.

The dysfunctional family goings on, characterized by Tony's tortured relationship with his psychiatrist, his countless affairs and problematic ties with his son AJ and daughter Meadow, make for compulsive viewing.

"These characters don't have much in the way of goals that they're trying to achieve. The adults are rooted in their spot, they stay in their own neighborhoods," series creator David Chase recently told Entertainment Weekly.

For Hollywood director and writer Peter Bogdanovich, who directed one episode and appeared in around a dozen others, the fact that the Sopranos are so dysfunctional is the key to the show's success with the American public.

"That's why I think it resonates with people. It isn't just a mob show. It's more down to earth. It's about you and me and your neighbors," Bogdanovich said in an interview with HBO, the cable network behind the show.

The US media latched onto "The Sopranos" from the moment the first episode hit the screen and has been gushing with tributes ever since. The show has also picked up dozens of awards and been broadcast in more than 40 countries.

The New York Times once said the show "just may be the greatest work of American popular culture of the last quarter century," while Vanity Fair hailed "perhaps the greatest pop-culture masterpiece of its day."

"It's no exaggeration to say that 'The Sopranos' is the best-written dramatic series in the history of television," the magazine said in a recent special dedicated to the show's 86 hours of television.

The show, which was originally planned for the Fox network, grew out of a feature film script by producer Chase.

And while fans have been poring over every word from Chase in recent interviews for clues as to how the show will end, he has given little away.

"There'll be people who will like the finale, and people who won't like it," he recently told Entertainment Weekly.

"But I think that if people look at what the show was, or could even watch the whole story again, they'll understand what the ending is."

Internet blogs have been humming with rumors that Tony ends up killing the boss of a rival New York family, or that Chase filmed more than one ending, just to make sure it would still be a surprise on Sunday.

And while many fans make no secret that they would like to see the Sopranos carry on indefinitely, some of the cast are happy to call it a day.

"I don't have much trepidation about it ending," James Gandolfini, the actor who plays Tony, recently told Vanity Fair. "I think it's more than time."

Even Chase, who went from being a frustrated writer to one of television's hottest properties with the show, says it is time to move on.

"It'll feel like relief," he told Entertainment Weekly. "Creatively, artistically -- it's finished."

And as any of "The Sopranos" themselves might say: "Whaddya gonna do?"

©AFP