Breaking Bad, The Sopranos or The Wire

I'll bet this 2012 thread is still active on its 20th anniversary.

 

Supposed be a Pinkman one off /series in the making I read.

 

Hahaha! Sorry about that. For some reason I read it as more than 20 years.

If it's last 20 years it's...

Deadwood
The Sopranos
The Wire

 

Make a poll include LoSt - Mad Men- Boardwalk..

 

Best seventies tv series ?
Walton’s ?

 

Sweeney (at least I got the timeline right this time).

 

I'd put in Justified and The Shield too. Possibly Six Feet Under.

Bored To Death is my favourite comedy of the last 20 years.

 

Isn't the actor doing Westworld's next season? His agent must be making rain.

Curb for me.

 

In re-watching Season Four of THE WIRE -- the one where the series goes into the schools -- and it only reinforces my opinion that this is the best television show ever and better than all but a few movies I've ever seen . . .

The sheet amount of detail in the series is staggering. By Season Four you're jumping between politicians, the streets, the police and the schools with nary a pause. Hard to imagine how anyone not already committed and immersed in the show could possibly keep it all straight. I can see why the show would shed rather than gain viewers as the story arcs deepen . . .

The series bears re-watching, as little crucial details that escaped me the first time are now jarring, like the ring that passes from Andre to Marlo to Omar to the dirty cop. The first time through, stuff was happening so fast I missed it. The actors are amazing and they get dialogue worthy of their talents. This stuff is Shakespeare at times.

Omar the rip-and-run artist ("I robs drug dealers") steals the show and there's a fan-cut superclip on You Tube of just his story over the five seasons. Recommended for those a bit intimidated by the show's sheer mass, who'd like a movie-length sample of THE WIRE at its most mainstream. But like that first taste of hero'n, you'll be back for more . . .

 

How about opinions on The Americans? Have not see it .

 

Pretty good. Though I didn't see all the seasons. As is a 7/10 ie; watchable ..not necessarily a keeper imo.

 

Dennis Waterman Up The Junction.

 

Yeah The Shield, fast paced series like 24.

 

On the top right hand side of the page, there's a 'search' box. If you type in 'the Americans' you'll find what yr looking for.

 

I saw Sopranos and realize its impact, start of the strong quality tv in 00's,I really liked a good deal of it, Gandolfini was terrific. But to me it could be uneven , think of season 3 , heavy with Meadow and AJ storylines and 4 got better and I think it ended strong. BBad IMO and many others did not have a bad , or dull or unnecessary episode in the whole series. It also was more edge of your seat, can't wait to see what they do next tv to me .

 

Yes I get Sopranos was more about him as a family man as Chase had said many times so the kids factored in , but too much time spent on them in 3rd season and wasn't particularly good storylines involving them. I did see some of Sopranos again , don't think I'd want to watch it thru another time. BB was so fantastic, I did a run thru before it ended and I don't want to revisit for some time if ever, it is so memorable , the characters all three dimensional . Those that thought it was camp , I think missed the point that it had all elements to it, black humor and the everyday man stepping in to this criminal element was big part of it. Yes about Tuco those were incredible episodes.

 

Yeah, I binged The Sopranos with a friend watching 3-5 episodes some nites, and there were several episodes that I thought were just boring(especially the episodes that involved Tony's annoying Sister). The Series tilted too much towards his Family Life and not enough Organized Crime in several episodes for my taste.

That being said, James Gandolfini was excellent and he was worth watching the show alone. It is sad that he passed away so young in 2013.

I do agree though that The Sopranos was a Groundbreaking Show that lead the way for Vic Mackey(The Shield) and Walter White(Breaking Bad) where we pull for the Anti-Hero.

I still rank 4 Shows(Breaking Bad, The Wire, Sons of Anarchy & Hannibal) above The Sopranos. Also think Rescue Me, Damages, Homicide-Life in the Streets and Justified were Top Tier Shows. I still need to see House of Cards, Narcos and Ozark though(and somehow missed 24 so need to watch that series), which get Top Reviews(Critical Professional and TV Viewers). Also heard the Mr. Mercedes and Goliath(I love Billy Bob Thornton) are good.

 

Then there was "the priest " love interest for Tony's frustrated wife.

 

BB really was a 'Dark Comedy'. The scene where Walt was addressing the the Students at the school grieving on the Plane Crash, and he said "it could have been worse, as the Plane could have been full", made me laugh, but I have a dark sense of humor.

Also, I had watched BB from the start when it was on AMC, as read that it stared Bryan Cranston, and the plot intrigued me. The first episode where he is running from the RV in his Tightie Whities with the Police closing in, I was like,'Woah, what happened to that dude who was the Goofball Dad from Malcolm in the Middle?(he was a brilliant comic actor in that show). So watching it in it's original run, I could not only not wait for the next episode and the next season, I could not even wait for the commercial break to end for most episodes, as it was that gripping and intense.

 

100 percent to your post! I honestly don't think there's every been anything like it before. Can't exactly say that with The Sopranos as there has been so many mob productions done albeit this was a unique humanizing take, with the family and the therapist. It was the first of its kind so it may get knocked off its perch of top rated with some but probably never lose its influence. Personally I've had enough of mob related stuff, used to watch many of the great gangster flicks and following the real families in NY years ago , been saturated. That and the show could be very violent and too profanity laden , for me rewatching now, although I know it was fitting. There was great moments with Tony's Mother and Junior , even Janice although she was annoying. I particularly loved his scenes with Melfi, they worked off each other so well. Gandolfini was like a big teddy bear with a sinister side. I have rewatched Mad Men twice , when it was going off the air I wanted a refresher and then I wanted to hear the commentary. I think it's such a nuanced series , plays out like a novel. There were things I didn't care for that Weiner did and feel the fifth season was weak ( too much of Lane and Sally and way too much on Megan) but overall there was a progression that really made sense for those characters .
I see Justifed mentioned here, I recently saw first season and it's entertaining , cool character , I'll get back to it. Walt Goggins is so good.

 

Wow, Sons of Anarchy better than Sopranos? Even if you like biker gang genre better, you've still got to overcome the superior writing, directing and acting in Sopranos--I mean several orders of magnitude beyond SoA. The Sopranos episodes with Janice were important to understand Tony's upbringing, and the arcs with the kids also helped inform his conversations Melfi, all of which were key to character development and making Tony a more sympathetic character that most people relate to in terms of the family life. It also got you deeper into his head, which was important in enjoying the show.

 

I find it hard to get into the Italian Mafia world. It's really a bunch of total A-Hs with severe anger management and other psychological problems, perfectly happy to do despicable things. That is the way of their world, and I hate it. And then the writers try to make them all seem cute and endearing; e.g., Tony's love of the geese in the first episode. In BB Walt at least tries at first to stay "good" -- badness is not built into his world. Later, circumstances cause him to slip into badness. He fights against it but slips into it, yet still keeps a foot in the door of "goodness".

 

Someone mentioned HOCards , first 2 seasons were good , especially for Spacey's portrayal then the 3rd focuses almost solely on his aide, rather boring , 4th seemed to lose direction, too many stories, hard to follow , too much of his wife Claire and the last season has its moments but it's a mess and the ending is ridiculous ! Think this is big reason with me that BB stands out above rest , didn't hang around too long or lose focus , stray from the main characters or what drew you in from the start. Gilligan to me had to be the most organized show runner , he even talked about Mash ( obviously one of the best shows , although it was on too long like many are ) and how it ended like it the series had been all along , he liked that and thought that's what his show must do. It had things to tie up and small group of characters left that you cared about, never wasted time with ones outside that realm . Think it was easier to have an ambiguous ending for Tony and family because he was part of that life , not apologetic about it and that's what happens to those guys. I think if they didn't get killed then , it was saying his number could be up at any time. Personally thought it was a brilliant ending and very unexpected .

 

True but I think many of us love the anti- hero. This show spawned many since. The mob guys had never been shown like that before , there was a realism , lack of glamor about it.
Remember that quote in TDetective season 1 " the world needs bad men to keep other bad men from the door". Even though the detectives were compromised men in their lives they were pretty moral in their professional roles and we liked seeing that contrast.

 

Gotta go with the Wire, just so vast. And Omar