Breaking Bad, The Sopranos or The Wire

I have five episodes left in my latest series rewatch of The Sopranos. I have probably watched the series at least 20 times. I love that I keep finding clues and foreshadowing in each episode. Brilliance.

 

In my opinion, The Sopranos was the best acted and written show ever to grace a TV (was gonna say the small screen). I enjoyed BB and consider it one of the better series ever. We never got into The Wire, but in all fairness we didn't really give it a chance. Frankly, I thing Better Call Saul is better than BB.

 

This scene cracks me up

 

The Sopranos

 

Hilarious, how can you forget "Pine Barrens"

 

Nearly every episode had some instances of incredible humor. Pine Barrens was great, but I dunno why it gets all the love. One episode in particular I find funnier was when Christopher confronts the cop who Tony says was responsible for killing Christopher's father after the cop's retirement party. Meanwhile Tony and Bobby sit in a diner and have the classic "hunchback of Notre Dame" conversation.

 

The Wire is my second favorite show of all time. The Sopranos is my fourth favorite show of all time. Breaking Bad is my fifth favorite show of all time.

(Buffy is 1) (Twin Peaks is 3)

I sure hope something new comes along soon to knock one or two of those off the list. My top five is looking kinda aged.

 

You and I think alike!

 

I knew if I waited long enough, someone would agree with one of my posts.

 

Breaking bad although I hate to admit I never finished watching them all...

 

Watched Episode 1 Season 1 tonight.
I also found it tough to get through.
Will keep watching, sometimes these shows take a while to get going. Or maybe we adjust to them?
And after blowing a fair amount on the Blu-ray box I feel I need to justify the expenditure by watching it LOL

 

Stick with it - it's worth it.

 

Yeah, definitely stick with it. Can be tough at first to adapt to the show's grittiness, but if you do, you'll be hooked.

 

I just finished watching The Sopranos for the first time yesterday, it's a little too soapy at times but overall I enjoyed it a fair bit. The series finale was a dog's breakfast, terrible.

 

In retrospect, the show hasn't aged quite as well as one might hope. You can see how, as a result of being a pioneer of the "new TV," the show actually had a lot of transitional qualities and might not now come off as groundbreaking as it once did. It did very much obey general tenets of traditional TV dramas in ways that later shows would not.

 

The Wire is not an easy watch. Season 1 involves you more as it goes on, personally hated 2, all about docks and honestly (if you find yourself hating it) could be skipped as it has nothing to do with other seasons .
3, return to form, 4 completely different but good, think 5 was mixed. But while it's an achievement it wouldn't be a show I'd say absolutely see this and it's not the most entertaining of the great shows of the 00's.

 

On second watch, I liked season 2 a lot. The first go-round I felt like you do. My experience is the whole series is significantly better the second time around - just give it plenty of time before you dive in again.

 

Could be, but I couldn't/ wouldn't want to see it again.
Even Breaking Bad which I loved and I thought was so much more entertaining on every level,I don't know that I'd want to sit thru whole thing again. Maybe years from now .. When it was ending and Sopranos, too I did a run thru of both, particularly of certain shows, seasons.
BB surprised you often, I'm not sure it would be as impactful on a re-watch. I did see Mad Men once more for the commentary and another to watch it thru before the finale.
It reminded me of a novel , many nuances, depth that you could miss only viewing once.

 

The Wire hooked me from the opening scene in the 1st Episode of Season #1:

McNulty: "If Snot Boogie always stole the money why did you always let him play?"

Corner Boy: "You got to. Its America, man."

 

The Wire was literally designed to be this way. I've probably said this elsewhere on this thread, but creator David Simon compared it to Moby Dick, or most novels really, in that nothing happens in the first chapter, or even the first few.

It is the antithesis of movies in which the instigating incident must happen on page 9 (as mentioned in a Sopranos episode, although I may have the page number wrong), or shows in which the hook comes at the 20-minute mark of episode 1 or whatever it is.

Keep with it. It's trusting you to be smart enough to follow it without having gimmicks thrown at you, and once you make that transition, it will reward you plenty.

 

Meanwhile, this thread is having its seventh birthday in a couple weeks. How shall we celebrate?

I also think there should be a pool for predictions of when this thread will eventually auto-lock.

 

To repeat my Post #533 in this Thread on The Wire:

Although should have added below this Quote by Lester Freaman that best sums up the Entire Series(especially the last 3 Words so you cannot just watch certain episodes):

We're building something here, detective. We're building it from scratch. All the pieces matter.

The Wire is similar to a Novel as I knew a person who watched an episode in one of the middle Seasons, and he found it boring, but I told him that is like opening a Novel and starting to read it on Page 247, so you need to watch it from the beginning to appreciate how all the pieces fit together. There some 'Slower' Episodes where it seems like not much is happening, but you need to take the Series as a Whole Event(or Series of Events).

Also, the main character(with apologies to Omar and Bubbles) is actually the City of Baltimore itself. The issues though really are similar to most Cities with the Police, Drug Trade, Politicians, School Systems with Difficult Problems, although the 2nd Season deals with the Ports, so only other Cities with Ports with Ship Deliveries could share potential similar issues.

Basically The Wire is a DocuDrama and is like holding up a Mirror to the City of Baltimore, like 'Friday Night Lights' held of a Mirror to Odessa, Texas, which their Citizens did not like how they were portrayed(in the Book that the Movie was based on), and Buzz Bissinger(Book Author who moved from Philly to spend a year living there to write the book) received Death Threats after his Book was released, but the Mirror doesn't lie.

There is also a lot of Real Life People from the Streets of Baltimore, who Simon casted in Roles despite those People having no Acting Background, so it leant an Authentic Feel to The Wire. The Actor who played a Pastor, was in real life a former drug dealer-IIRC the story I read on him.

Even the person(Felicia Pearson), who played Snoop, came from a tough life as she was raised in an East Baltimore Foster Home as according to her memoir, Grace After Midnight, she met her biological parents very few times; her mother was a crack addict and her father was an armed robber. Felicia also was involved with crime early in her teen years(served time for 2nd Degree Murder), and getting a Role on The Wire seemed to be the chance she needed as she wanted to pursue an acting career after her role as Snoop(same real life nickname given to her) on The Wire, but after the show ended, the draw of the Streets had its hooks back into her and she had some legal problems caught in a Drug Arrest, but checked her Wikipedia Page, and looks like she got probation and got herself back on the right track and had a few other Acting Jobs in Movies and TV Shows in recent years, so good to read about it.

There were several Great Professional Actors on The Wire, and one person, who has shot to fame is Michael B Jordan(Wallace), who went on to star in both Creed Movies and was in the Black Panther Movie among a few other Movies.

Idris Elba has become a Big TV & Movie Star(I would make him the next James Bond).

Michael K Williams(Omar) went to work on 'Boardwalk Empire' and other projects.

Seth Gilliam went on to play Father Gabriel Stokes on The Walking Dead.

Lots of other Great Actors, you can look up their careers after The Wire ended.

 

I agree with your entire post. I highlighted this section because Friday Night Lights belongs in the same company as the three other shows we are discussing. I'd argue it has more pure heart than any of them.