Tony Soprano has panic attacks – he passes out from stress. Most of his sacrifices and loving gestures are ridiculed and used to make him feel guilty. His own uncle is being manipulated against him, and because of this he has an assassination plot hanging over his head. And these are just his problems with his mother.

But then, nobody said being a New Jersey mob boss and all-American family man was easy.

The first season of the HBO series “The Sopranos,” out on both VHS and DVD, is Tony’s battle to keep control of the struggling and anachronistic northern New Jersey Mafia in the face of the old boss’s death, while dealing with inadequacy and self-loathing caused by an unloving, borderline personality-disordered mother.

The first season sees Tony (James Gandolfini) suffering panic attacks brought on by guilt about caring for his dependent mother and static between he and his uncle, Junior (Dominic Chianese), over heists that two members of Tony’s crew pulled off on one of Junior’s trucking lines.

Settling things with his uncle is further complicated by the passing of the Jersey boss, which leaves Tony and Junior jockeying for the empty seat of power. Amidst the turmoil, Tony puts his mobster reputation (and life) on the line by seeing a psychiatrist, Dr. Melfi (Lorraine Bracco), on the sly.

It’s a good thing, too, because Tony has issues. He’s obsessed with a family of ducks, leads a double life in front of his own children, sees hallucinations of a beautiful Italian woman while his wife is hot for a priest. All this on top of impotence, depression, rage, and, well, did I mention his mother?

“I’m like King Midas in reverse,” Tony says. “Everything I touch turns to shit.”

Sound a little touchy-feely for a mob saga? Tony would certainly think so, but it’s largely the marriage of psycho-analysis and wiseguys that makes “Sopranos” work so well. Organized crime tales constitute just about as American a genre as there is. What “Sopranos” does is take our obsession with the mobster story, lie it down on a couch, pop some Prozac in its mouth, and ask it to get in touch with its feelings. As Dr. Melfi asks Tony, “Why are you like this, Mr. Soprano?” we ask “Why do we like this, Mr. Soprano?”

Of course, “The Sopranos” does amuse us. It has gotten more positive entertainment industry buzz than any TV show in recent memory and it deserves every bit of it.

In fact, even thinking of “The Sopranos” as a mere TV show seems disingenuous. While as funny as any prime-time sitcom, it also recreates the mobster life with all the depth, drama, and grittiness of movies such as “The Godfather,” “Goodfellas,” or “Pulp Fiction.”

And as with these other crime-story greats, “Sopranos” breathes fresh life into the gangster genre and redefines it, asking new questions about how violence, crime, and family relate to modern lives.

“Sopranos” is entertaining not just because it’s about mobsters, but about mobsters living in our world, dealing with the same crap as the rest of us.

The complete first season of “The Sopranos” is spread out into 13 episodes of about an hour each and recorded on five VHS tapes or four DVDs, so a word of warning is merited about the time commitment involved.

Once you get started, you’ll be hooked (practice up on your Pacino impression – “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!”), so you might have to make some sacrifices to clear up your schedule a lil’ bit.

My suggestion, though, is that you just get some garlic bread, bake some ziti, pull out some nice Italian wine (or pull the label off of a four dollar bottle of red and pretend), settle down with “The Sopranos,” and fuhgedaboudit.

Luke Thompson is a senior in English from Fort Dodge.