Breaking Bad, The Sopranos or The Wire

I'd have to admit that the Wire is a better made show, but for sheer entertainment value it is hard to top the Shield. Just a completely engrossing show.

 

Have to give it up to The Wire. My favorite show ever. Also thought Homicide was the best cop show on network TV.

 

I recommend that you always serve a bag or two of Combos pretzel treats whenever watching Breaking Bad, to honor the guy who most people agree was the best secondary character ever on the show.

 

I voted Breaking Bad, but to be more accurate it would be a tie with The Wire.

The Sopranos was great, but it could have been better. Can't imagine myself saying that about the other two choices.

 

Breaking was going pretty good till the end of the third season ,much like the third season of Dexter

The Shield wins ,even if it looked like crap

 

I liked all three. Sad to see how far down the cultural food chain that HBO's original programming has sunk of late.

 

Had to say "can't decide" simply because Breaking Bad hasn't ended yet, so I can't really judge it vs the other two that have finite runs.

Between the OTHER two, I choose The Wire handily. While I don't have a problem with the way the Sopranos ended, I DO think it went on about a season too long.

 

Tough choice. I'd say The Wire were it not for a weak Season 5. Otherwise, I have a very slight preference for The Sopranos over Breaking Bad.

 

The Wire gets my vote. If we could have included The Shield in the mix, then I'd have to vote:

The Wire > The Shield > Breaking Bad > Sopranos

Breaking Bad has the potential of eclipsing The Shield, but it has only 8 episodes left in which to do it.

 

Breaking Bad is my favorite show, period.

 

You lucky so-and-so! Can I prevail upon you to get hold of The Wire as soon as possible, and immerse yourself in it. Takes a few episodes to get hooked, but my god is it worth it. Quite possibly the finest television I have ever seen, especially considering there's sixty hours of it. Not always easy to watch, but amazing nonetheless.

 

No doubt the Sopranos is the worst of the shows mentioned (still good of course). The Wire is the best. The Shield was better than the Sopranos. They were on TV at the same time, but I always looked forward to the Shield more. Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't the Shield the first big time cable TV hit (non-HBO) that really reinvented TV as we know it? Now we have Walking Dead, Mad Men, etc. but I think The Shield was the first edgy breakthrough basic cable hit.

 

"Damages" is another one at the level of those mentioned. If you like how Glenn Close elevated The Shield to another level, check out "Damages".

 

Breaking Bad.

Breaking Bad is amazing and it not on cable like the other two were.
3rd season of the Wire was a complete different show for me.
There were some weak episodes in the Sopranos, the talking fish for instance.

All three are a great example the this the the real Golden Age for TV and I think it's just getting better and better.

 

Have to disagree. Some great shows on HBO
Game Of Thrones
Boardwalk Empire
Treme

 

It is on my list. My best buddy has all the season boxsets.

 

Breaking Bad is in another league. The best in everything, acting, cinematography, sound, locations, story. Its just a top notch show in all regards.

The others mentioned are very good, but not even in the same league as BB.

 

I have to go with The Wire.

 

I finished The Wire and my order is still the same - Sopranos, BB, Wire. I will enjoying viewing The Wire and Breaking Bad again complete. I've watched The Sopranos complete about 5 times already. Looking forward to Six Million Dollar Man complete too....finished Season 1 and waiting for Season 2 to come down in price. It was a favorite as a youngster.

 

I recently watched The Sopranos again and The Wire and have watched some of Braking Bad.

I think that The Wire was far and away the best - it had great characters, a thought provoking story line and looked great. Sopranos was awesome, to be sure, but it did have filler that frustrated me. I know that BB is popular (in this thread at least) but I am really struggling with it - I think that some of the cast/characters are not compelling and I don't find it engaging as a show and story line.

I asked my wife and she agrees that her fave is The Wire but she likes BB more than I do.

 

Justified.

 

I've just finished watching all the BB episodes to-date. Good show, but my marathon viewing slowed down at the end. I kept feeling the writers were manipulating me. It was all about 'buttons' and hooks. Something happened in the last scene of each episode that made you want to come back.

Don't most dramas do that? Sure, but not the Wire. They were anti-button. They trusted me to come back, which I did because I wanted to see what happened to the characters, not because I was manipulated into it. So The Wire is still number one for me. Every other show I've seen since pales. The Sopranos and Breaking Bad are good, but they're designed to keep you hooked rather than to tell a story that someone wanted to tell.

Although not one of the options, Treme would be my second choice.

 

Okay. I haven't seen it yet. My vote was for the wire but I'll take a good look at BB.

 

The Wire > Sopranos >>>>>> Breaking Bad

There has never been another TV show with the literary ambition as The Wire.

 

Breaking Bad is one of my favourite current shows.

I've never seen The Sopranos.

Just started watching The Wire a few days ago, but I'm on Episode 3 at the moment and I'm still not really "into it".