Re narrative repetition, by the way, I actually think it's one of the show's many strengths - not only in how it faces the 'problem' of repetition (because life can often seem like a series of situations we've found ourselves in before, whether we've cared to learn from them or not) but in how it subverts these situations and forces itself down different narrative paths. There's a fine balance between affected realism and nuanced drama here.
As just a few examples: The central premise of the show is somebody suffering from panic attacks, so he actively seeks help with them. But this 'somebody' happens to be a gangster, and a large part of Tony's worries concern contemporary values as decayed extensions of a more romantic past. History looms large in this show: the final episode is called "Made in America".
A large part of Tony's view regarding contemporary values is the loss of honour and loyalty in La Cosa Nostra: perhaps the biggest in-joke - intended or not - in the show is its title. A soprano is a female singer, and this series is about otherwise models of masculinity 'singing' to the Feds. So naturally, Tony's biggest concerns are three-pronged: on a personal level there's the problem of recurring panic attacks; on a business level there's the lingering problem of people ratting him out - the biggest early fear of this culminates with 'Pussy' (the meaning becomes two-fold) 'singing' to the FBI; and related to and enveloping both of these recurring fears is the threat of familial and domestic security.
Toward the end of Season Two the writers look back at the end of Season One: Tony's leadership is preventing Junior from earning enough to pay for his legal costs, and so Richie Aprile tries to push Junior into whacking Tony - again. Junior, in a different position to what he was thirteen episodes earlier, decides against it and the series moves on...
Don't forget the recurring habits and lifestyle choices (from which recurring storylines seem only natural) such as Christopher's drug addiction; Janice's relationship progression from Richie to Ralphie to Bobby Bacala; the problems of upstarts who all resemble one another: Mikey Palmice, Richie, Ralphie, Feechy (Tony re the latter: "Didn't I learn anything from the Richie Aprile situation?"); the several times later on in the series where an NJ-NY war seems to happen, not for the fun of it but as a result of economic/business ebbs and flows as much as personal vendettas....
Suicide also plays a large part in The Sopranos. Several characters surrounding the show's central character - the 'somebody' whose recurring depression is the very point of the show - attempt to or do commit suicide: Vin Makazian, Eugene Pontecorvo, Gloria Trillo; Artie Bucco, Davey Scatino, Tony's goomar Irina... and most notably, AJ.
