Breaking Bad, The Sopranos or The Wire

in the same boat but after watching first episode I was hooked.
I vote for the wire. sopranos later season fell off a bit and as good as bb is , a lot of filler later on

 

I think a lot of people dismiss Game Of Thrones because of the fantasy element, thinking it's like Lord Of The Rings or the like. What a huge mistake! Especially the very fine 1st season.

 

It probably draws more fans due to the fantasy element than it dismisses. Supposedly it's HBO's most popular show ever.

 

That may be true. I might be in the minority in my feelings about these kinds of elements - they are certainly present in many successful shows and movies.

 

I have tried getting into "The Wire", but I couldn't get past the first 2 episodes (I voted BB). Does it get better? Someone talk me into it. Is it like an episode of "Homicide" on steroids?

 

I'm not familiar with Homicide, but The Wire is very much worth getting into. It's not easy to relate to any of the characters, and the moral equivalence gets old fast. But the show does an amazing job of digging into systemic problems in inner cities--in this case Baltimore. The way the police department, courts, schools, criminals, docks and news organization all work symbiotically in a cycle of total dysfunction is shown, along with the effect it has on the characters' lives.

 

Breaking Bad for consistency.

 

Deadwood
Watching this for a second time, even better i must say. Notice Breaking Bad/Lost cast in it this time.

 

My pick Breaking Bad.
But,they are all of a very high standard.

 

My personal favourite.

 

Also future Fear The Walking Dead and Sons of Anarchy actors in Deadwood.

 

D E A D W O O D
Sure went up in my estimation after second viewing. Apparently the 2 hr Deadwood movie is to start shooting 2018, Ian McShane's has read the script. That ..

 

You guys have only watched Deadwood twice!? I've owned the box sets 4ever and am almost embarrassed to admit how many times I've watched this extraordinary series. A lot more than twice, tellyathatmuch, love me some Deadwood! As much as I want it to happen, and I read some positive rumors, I kinda doubt we'll ever see it again.

 

Sopranos for sure. You could argue the others wouldn't exist without it.

Maybe I should give The Wire another shot. I watched the first episode and just never got into it.

 

So, what I hear you saying is that you really enjoy(ed) Deadwood.

 

It's essentially designed not to grab you. David Simon frequently compared watching the first episode to reading the first chapter of a novel. Nothing big ever happens in the first chapter. Nor do the episodes (or even scenes) in The Wire end with 'buttons.'

The Wire and Breaking Bad are complete opposites in terms of storytelling. Breaking Bad knew how to manipulate you and forced you to come back, and it did that well. I always came back. It's a great series for binge watching, or perhaps I should say a series that is almost impossible not to binge on. The Wire is more 'Hey, this is the story we want to tell. Hope you like it and come back for the next episode, but we're not going to rely on juicy cliffhangers so you do. And everything's there but we're not going to make the details blatantly obvious, so repeat viewings will pay off.'

 

A lot more detail rewatching that's for sure. Re:boot(hill) movie Ian McShane is up for it, if it doesn't happen he says " blame the producers".

 

I haven’t read the whole thread yet, but Breaking Bad gets my vote. Much as I loved the Wire, Simon et al had a tendency to polemicise when all I wanted was to see Omar pull another stick up. Breaking Bad had a political underpinning, about the US healthcare system, policing and education, but the writers managed to get it across without SHOUTING!!! at the viewer. That said, the Wire is the only programme I’ve seen starring Clarke Peters in which he doesn’t overreact so that has to count for something.

 

Out of the choices offered The Wire, for me, is the best show. However, I would certainly put Mad Men in this upper tier.

From a personal point of view....Northern Exposure. Loved that show.

 

Was that set in Canada /Alaska ?

 

Alaska.

 

I thought the Wire was incredible. I enjoyed watching the tech change with the times and whilst i have no reference points to judge how realistic it was, it had me convinced. I watched one of episode of breaking bad and turned it off - just seemed too contrived, too hard to believe. Kind of the opposite of the wire. The sopranos for me is somewhere in between, it’s definitely in soap opera territory but I kind of didn’t mind that. I liked the larger than life characters like Silvio and Pauli, I liked stevie and his wife and I liked the idea of Tony and his therapist. I do wonder what it would be like to go back to though. I haven’t seen it since around 2006 and in my mind it has probably aged, whereas The Wire is solidly of its time and is so realistic it can’t age, it can only act as a documentary style commentary on life in that place at that time

 

I have all of The Sopranos and Breaking Bad on blu-ray. I gave up on The Sopranos midway season three and can't bring myself to start season three of Breaking Bad. Never seen The Wire. So my answer is Fringe.

 

Almost unfair to be voting on this now since the thread was started in 2012 and my vote goes to Breaking Bad since IMO it had a satisfying ending, which I can't say was true for my runner-up The Sopranos. Not really a fan of The Wire and it's so unfortunate that Deadwood wasn't allowed a proper ending. Very much a fan of the first season of True Detective.

And along the line of more current TV series, I have found Game of Thrones to be tremendous. Not to say it's flawless, but it has in some respects written it's own set of rules, which I admire. And I'm not normally a fan of that genre, but the story-telling is so strong I'm hooked.

Along the lines of streaming I was a huge of the Netflix series House of Cards, at least the first couple of seasons, until it got bogged down IMO with the hunger strike gay guy in the Russian prison. Not subbed anymore and I guess that's come to a screeching halt after the situation with Spacey.

 

That should be interesting.