In the last month, ESPN’s documentary series The Last Dance, about Michael Jordan and the 1998 Chicago Bulls, has set viewership recordsand dominated the cultural conversation (it surely helps to have no other sports to talk about right now). But it’s not the only show starring an ornery, megalomaniacal and larger-than-life figure and his colorful turn-of-the-millennium supporting cast that you probably can’t seem to get away from if you’re spending any (all) of your time on social media during social distancing.

The Sopranos, the James Gandolfini-starring crime family drama that took HBO to new heights of relevance and jump-started the Prestige TV era upon its 1999 debut, is “back,” and being binged by seemingly everyone. We’re talking older fans on their sixth rewatch, as well as millennial and Gen Z fans immersing themselves in it for the first time—27-year-old pop star Charli XCX mentioned in a recent interview that she was briefly pausing work on her new album to burn through three episodes—and just about everyone in between.

The numbers support the anecdotal evidence. According to stats provided by HBO, viewership of The Sopranos has skyrocketed 179% through the network’s on-demand HBO NOW service in the weeks since stay-at-home restrictions went into effect, from the four-week period before. The only shows that have outpaced it on HBO NOW during this period are the Westworld (which just finished airing its third season) and the stratospherically popular Game of Thrones, which has been off the air for a year now.

“I’ve definitely seen a lot of people pinging me since the quarantine started, saying, ‘Well, now is finally the time! I’m gonna watch The Sopranos,’” says Alan Sepinwall, co-writer of The Sopranos Sessions and chief television critic for Rolling Stone. “A lot of people [are] using the quarantine as an opportunity to finally watch or rewatch different shows they’ve had on their list for a while. But this is definitely one of the high ones, just because of its importance in TV and pop cultural history.”

One such viewer seizing on that opportunity is culture writer and journalist Jeff Weiss, who started on his Sopranos odyssey in April. “I haven’t owned a TV since college and the prospect of watching 83 hours of a single Prestige Drama always seemed daunting in a way that watching every 30 Rock episode three times somehow didn’t,” he says. “It became an Easter egg that I wanted to save for later in life… A biblical plague seemed to really be the [appropriate] time.”

He’s certainly not alone in feeling that way. Socially distancing has given countless viewers who’d put off committing to the show’s six seasons and 86 episodes the proper setting, timeframe and motivation to dig in. HBO also provided a push by making several of their most popular current and older titles, including The Sopranos, free to watch for non-subscribers via HBO Now for most of April—with the show ranking as the most-watched series overall among all free series, and the series premiere the most-watched episode, according to the channel.

“I tried watching it when I first bought it but I was in a more chaotic living situation where I couldn’t commit,” says Laura Snapes, deputy music editor for The Guardian, who started the show just before the pandemic hit the U.K. “I think the first season requires immersion to get into the pace. I really had to concentrate for the first six episodes.”

Viewers might also find the show’s ultimately cynical perspective resonating especially loudly during a pandemic. The Sopranos is, at its core, a show about the feeling of being a part of the final days of something that used to be great—and about men doing whatever it takes to maintain whatever power the