What does it mean for an episode of The Sopranos to be “underrated?” David Chase’s generation-defining drama is one of the most immaculate television series of all time, and even its weakest chapters are a cut above. Still, there are a handful of episodes from across its six seasons that critical or fan consensus has placed near the bottom of the heap. After all, no matter how many made guys you’ve got at the table, somebody’s gotta be the low man, right? Each of the following episodes has been singled out in one way or another as a sub-par entry in the Sopranos story, but I wouldn’t be so quick to dump them into the Hudson.

When The Ringer’s Justin Sayles ranked all 86 episodes of The Sopranos, I was shocked to find “Down Neck” near the bottom, at #82. This early episode is one of the first deep dives into Tony’s past, as Anthony Jr.’s escalating delinquency prompts the depressed Don of New Jersey to revisit his relationship with his own father, small-time racketeer Johnny Boy Soprano. Tony’s flashbacks to the summer of 1967 offer a taste of what we’d eventually see in The Many Saints of Newark, though, as that film demonstrates, this is really as much of a Sopranos origin story as we ever needed. Through a handful of scenes set a few weeks apart, writers Robin Green and Mitchell Burgess efficiently establish Johnny as a man with big dreams but a weak will, Livia as a terrifying authority figure, and even a hint of Tony’s rivalry with older sister Janice, who had yet to appear as an adult on the series. Most of all, as Tony unpacks his flashbacks with Dr. Melfi, we get to examine his complicated feelings towards the........

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