It was January 10th, 1999. Former pro-wrestler Jesse "The Body" Ventura had just been sworn in as governor of Minnesota. Britney Spears was still two weeks away from releasing "Baby, One More Time." La Vida Loca hadn't yet been lived. And on a new TV series called The Sopranos, a mobster, standing alone beside his backyard swimming pool, suffered an anxiety attack.

The show gave an intimate portrayal of the life of a fictionalized crime boss in the suburbs of northern New Jersey. It was also part of a new genre that treated television in a similar light as literature, sparking a trend that would later produce critical hit series like The Wire, Atlanta, and Transparent.

Matt Zoller Seitz is a TV critic for New York Magazine and Alan Sepinwall writes about television for Rolling Stone. They're out with a new book on the series, called The Sopranos Sessions, and they spoke with WNYC's Richard Hake about the enduring impact of the show, two decades later.

They'll be discussing their book at an event at the Strand Thursday evening. Also Thursday show creator David Chase will be holding a Q&A following the screening of his new movie, Not Fade Away.