An Italian fan that just finished the show

I watched the Sopranos for the first time a year ago with italian dubbing and then few months ago i decided to watch the show in its original language. As a sicilian i was familiar with some slang and dialact words(neapolitan and sicilian are quite mutually intelligible), but i always wondered how was for the people when first watched the show back in the days who didn't have connection not even with italian-american culture to comprehend and empathize with the actors and the show itself.