>Re Tony, I don't think he was meant to be sympathetic. Only enough that he wasn't a caricature. He took out that snitch in Maine without a moment's hesitation. The pitch meeting for the series probably boiled down to "mob boss who sees a shrink." In the screenwriting business they call that high concept. You can fill in the details as you go along. Provided you have amazing writers, of course.
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Actually, in the first few seasons, the writing was intended to make him sympathetic. The episode when he decided to contact the cops instead of clipping the soccer coach who seduced Meadow's underage friend, the entire story of his mother and uncle wanting to take him out, and the scenario where Richie Aprile wanted to remove Tony - those were intended to bring conflict to viewers so that they could despise Tony for being a ruthless mob boss but also sympathize with him as a victim of sorts.

But after season 3, Tony just became nastier and nastier, and part of me hoped he'd get it in the end. The sequence where he was shot by Junior was a big cop-out by the writers. A much better story would have been Bobby B turning on Tony, instead of that silly fight at the lakehouse. So like I said, the writers just blew it after season 3.