Sopranos Mania -- WTF?

HBO's miniseries "The Sopranos" has been revered as a masterpiece of television. I find it to be a master piece of shit. Rave reviews, awards, and notariety have surrounded this series since its inception sometime in January of 1999. Since then they have produced around 80 episodes-- not even one a month.

The writing is lazy, the characters are uninteresting and everyone I know says that is completely sucks. Every episode welcomes at least 6 new characters that come from nowhere and then disappear into nowhere without resolution. I know because Mrs. Schmootzie watches it every week and every week she tells me how much it blows.

My guess is that this is an elaborate experiment. How much can HBO get people to pay for something that is absolutely lame? Can they get people to buy something just by telling them how good it is? It works for Froot Loops.