The Sopranos vs The Wire vs Breaking Bad

[BlakeyNoFlakey]

I think House of Cards is in this lofty company too. BB is still the best TV I've seen.

 

[rumply]

I've watch Mad Men for the first time since posting in this thread a couple years ago & would have to include it with these 3, also is great TV.

Sop's
Wire
MM
BB

 

[Fade to Gray]

I'd rank them
Breaking Bad
Sopranos
The Wire

Seems to be an unpopular opinion but the Wire is a pretty comfortable third. It wasn't terrible by any means, but I don't think it rates as one of the all time greats either, found it a bit slow moving. Maybe I just like things to be a bit flashier.

Sent from my HTC_PN071 using Tapatalk

 

[Silent Alarm]

I'd rank them
Breaking Bad
Sopranos
The Wire

Seems to be an unpopular opinion but the Wire is a pretty comfortable third. It wasn't terrible by any means, but I don't think it rates as one of the all time greats either, found it a bit slow moving. Maybe I just like things to be a bit flashier.

Sent from my HTC_PN071 using Tapatalk

You put Breaking Bad first so you probably do.

That was always a show with an aesthetic I didn't really dig. I prefer it more cinematic like the Sopranos or edgier and more real like the Wire (Oz is similarly shot and coloured). Breaking Bad was very Hollywood – lots of gloss, everything looked waxy and plastic, even things like the lack of swearing, it all came across as pretty second par. It is those small things, and the lack of the natural humour, that peg it down for me. I think it also lacked a social message, but it still had some very human and touching moments.

But yeah, Breaking Bad definitely the most easily engaging, which was its fault when it'll be looked back on.

 

[Glebehawk]

Such different shows that all played out at different times, so really hard to distinguish which is better. I'd throw Mad Men and Deadwood into this group.

For plot - BB
For direction - mad men
For script - deadwood
For setting new standards - sopranos.

Leaves the Wire a little outside the rest, but I'd watch it again and often do on BoxSets with pleasure!

 

[BEaston]

Haven't watched The Wire, however I can't see a TV show ever being better than The Sopranos. The writing, the characters, the acting and the music is just amazing. It's like watching an oscar winning movie every episode.

Well you'd be wrong.

In terms of the OP: The Wire > Sopranos >> Breaking Bad.

BB a bit too cheesy for me. Felt that the story got clogged down in some parts too. The Wire might have moved slowly but every single scene had a point and did something to add to the ongoing narrative.

 

[Seeds]

You put Breaking Bad first so you probably do.

That was always a show with an aesthetic I didn't really dig. I prefer it more cinematic like the Sopranos or edgier and more real like the Wire (Oz is similarly shot and coloured). Breaking Bad was very Hollywood – lots of gloss, everything looked waxy and plastic, even things like the lack of swearing, it all came across as pretty second par. It is those small things, and the lack of the natural humour, that peg it down for me. I think it also lacked a social message, but it still had some very human and touching moments.

But yeah, Breaking Bad definitely the most easily engaging, which was its fault when it'll be looked back on.

This is the weirdest take on the show I have seen. Did you even watch it?

 

[james Dean]

This is the weirdest take on the show I have seen. Did you even watch it?

He made some good points, it was a lot more in your face and than The Sopranos. Scenes like Gus Fring's death, Hank and Gomez's shootout and even the final scene, although fun and cool to watch, were incredibly Hollywood esque and would have looked at home in a Michael Bay movie.

There was also the issue of the supporting cast, the acting was good however not many of the characters were at all likeable. Even Hank who was a moral and good person, was ruined by his mannerisms in the first season and a half. Jesse was a selfish hypocrite, Skyler was self righteous, Marie was incredibly obnoxious and Walt JR was just irritating. When your most relatable character is a drug manufacturer then the writing team has made some basic errors.

It seemed as though Breaking Bad was about turning a happy-go-lucky guy who everyone can relate to, into a monster. The Sopranos was about turning monster's (Mafioso) into character's we can relate to, a much harder job for a writing team.

 

[Silent Alarm]

I never got the idea that the characters being bad people made the show bad. How many of The Sopranos are good people? Even Meadow is a preachy hypocrite with a painful hero complex. AJ is a lazy little s**t.

And come on it is so obvious that Breaking Bad is way glossier. You only have to look at the amount of casual series watchers who love it, but don't like The Sopranos, and hate The Wire.

Gus Fring's death was the worst moment of any great show. Absolutely cringeworthy, just terribly lame.

 

[rocker_oz33]

1The wire.
2Breaking bad.
3The sopranos.

That's my order.

 

[Marlowe]

I've watch Mad Men for the first time since posting in this thread a couple years ago & would have to include it with these 3, also is great TV.

Sop's
Wire
MM
BB

Mad Men is definitely up there. I imagine it would be a lot closer if HBO greenlit instead too.

 

[james Dean]

I never got the idea that the characters being bad people made the show bad. How many of The Sopranos are good people? Even Meadow is a preachy hypocrite with a painful hero complex. AJ is a lazy little s**t.

That's exactly my point, apart from probably Artie Bucco and Dr Melfi, there are no characters who are guilt free. Yet you still feel horrible to see someone like Bobby Bacala killed because the writing staff did an amazing job of humanizing career criminals

 

[Seeds]

He made some good points, it was a lot more in your face and than The Sopranos. Scenes like Gus Fring's death, Hank and Gomez's shootout and even the final scene, although fun and cool to watch, were incredibly Hollywood esque and would have looked at home in a Michael Bay movie.

There was also the issue of the supporting cast, the acting was good however not many of the characters were at all likeable. Even Hank who was a moral and good person, was ruined by his mannerisms in the first season and a half. Jesse was a selfish hypocrite, Skyler was self righteous, Marie was incredibly obnoxious and Walt JR was just irritating. When your most relatable character is a drug manufacturer then the writing team has made some basic errors.

It seemed as though Breaking Bad was about turning a happy-go-lucky guy who everyone can relate to, into a monster. The Sopranos was about turning monster's (Mafioso) into character's we can relate to, a much harder job for a writing team.

Really? He complains about it being hollywood and then says its not cinematic enough. Cinema is hollywood. How is it plastic? Did they use too many plastic props? I dont even understand how to interpret that comment. It was quite slow in parts, ie very anti hollywood and many of its characters had deep and very real flaws, which is again very anti hollywood. The sweeping landscape shots and little nuances was again very anti hollywood. You never see that stuff on regular tv or standard flicks.

The humour was awesome. One of the funniest dramas ever and not conventional humour either. The serious action moments were incredibly simple, unlike hollywood which overdoes the action to the extreme, but incredibly intense as the characters acted as if these were real life events.

The flaws of the show was that the plot was a little slow and you had to take some giant leaps of faith to not see plot holes. The characters relied on some very uncertain events for their plans to work. Although to be honest there arent much stories that dont. But to call it too hollywood was ridiculous. The gus fring death scene was 5 seconds out of the whole seven season series and wasnt repeated at any other point.

 

[Bomberboyokay]

'Hollywood' is Grey's Anatomy or whatever 40-year-old mums watch now where everything is shiny and clean and inauthentic. Suits is a younger, male audience example.

Breaking Bad liked to do scenes in the desert which I suppose is 'Hollywood' but not in a bad way. The characters didn't look like Kmart models.

 

[BEaston]

This is the weirdest take on the show I have seen. Did you even watch it?

Not really. Pretty spot on IMO.

 

[Roobs321]

Breaking Bad was dynamically cinematic (full to the brim with visual references) and the black humour stands up beautifully and proves highly rewarding on rewatch. It can be easy to mistake its plot immediacy as a slight, but reviewing it reveals how stocked full of genius it is.

Sure, it pulls in an annoying bro crowd, but what it did produce episode to episode was an outrageous level of excellence. Mad Men eclipsed BrBa for me until maybe 7.1 & 7.2, which lacked and failed to meet the standards of previous seasons. Both shows appeal to cineastes, although Mad Men offers less accessibility to certain demographics whilst at the same time getting empty praise from other casual demographics. You just have to separate from all that and treat these shows on their own merits, in a vacuum. I think it should be recognised that there are multiple audiences for a show like BrBa, it holds wider appeal without surrendering artistic integrity.

I highly appreciate The Sopranos, but as its own package separated from contextual influence it never really troubled my top handful. The Wire is GOAT-worthy, but Homicide: LOTS is closer to my heart.

 

[Coolangatta]

Anyone else seen Gomorrah? Only two seasons have come out so far but I think I can safely say already that it deserves a mention among these heavyweights.

 

[Silent Alarm]

Really? He complains about it being hollywood and then says its not cinematic enough. Cinema is hollywood. How is it plastic? Did they use too many plastic props? I dont even understand how to interpret that comment. It was quite slow in parts, ie very anti hollywood and many of its characters had deep and very real flaws, which is again very anti hollywood. The sweeping landscape shots and little nuances was again very anti hollywood. You never see that stuff on regular tv or standard flicks.

The humour was awesome. One of the funniest dramas ever and not conventional humour either. The serious action moments were incredibly simple, unlike hollywood which overdoes the action to the extreme, but incredibly intense as the characters acted as if these were real life events.

The flaws of the show was that the plot was a little slow and you had to take some giant leaps of faith to not see plot holes. The characters relied on some very uncertain events for their plans to work. Although to be honest there arent much stories that dont. But to call it too hollywood was ridiculous. The gus fring death scene was 5 seconds out of the whole seven season series and wasnt repeated at any other point.

What? This is a very basic and odd take on film. Cinema equals Hollywood? Cinema is so hard to define but Hollywood is typically easily engaging, and when discussing a 2010s show you compare it to 2010s/2000s Hollywood which is glossy, shiny, HD, and easy to digest with whispering lines and bold proclamations in apparently normal people's dialogue.

Honestly tbh you seem to be at the total opposite end of the string from me.

Slow? Not really. The Wire is incredibly slow. Breaking Bad was just poorly paced if anything; it had five episodes where it drudged along and there's a few pointless episodes (although I believe no TV is pointless if it develops character and atmosphere – I just think a lot of eps did not push the narrative) and then ones where everything happened.

I really don't think the action scenes were that 'simple' (I think you mean not hyperbolic?) either. Gus – again? Lots of really dramatic pauses before people are shot (ala Gale). Lots of deaths were teased and built up to, unlike shockingly random ones in the Wire or so gritty they were disgusting (the dancer in The Sopranos, Melfi's rape). It was pretty typically done.

And honestly man yeah sure the Gus scene was five seconds but we're discussing some of the finest examples of such a hugely popular medium. Five seconds counts. It was the end of probably the fifth biggest character in the thing, and it really changed the trajectory of the series. His demise is important as death was so rare in it, and important death even lesser.

Reality is Breaking Bad was a great show but I feel its legacy has been severely bloated and overrated. Love it, good stuff, but to me it's always missed so many crucial little things to elevate it.

For me its less intense as a social critique. David Simon and David Chase had something to say about the US and people. I understand BB did a little but yeah duhhh of course good people can be turned bad and many of us will do anything for money.

And as well rounded as many characters were, the Sopranos had second or third level characters more interesting than the son.

And that's without going into the incredible cliche of the way police are portrayed (good, hard, straight), Mexicans (oooo they're so bad!!!!!). There was no critique. I always loved how the Sopranos showed these gangsters getting manicures and The Wire, well all the street level guys were terrible shots with a gun. Those little things matter.

 

[superfraser]

Breaking Bad had Tucco who stupidly over the top and it had those two stupid twins who didn't talk.

It was a cool concept for a show, and it had some tenses moments.

But it's not near The Wire for the impact on the viewer.

In my opinion.

 

[Silent Alarm]

Yeah Tucco was a massive joke. He could have been a villain in just about anything, and in fact I'm pretty sure he has been the typical Cartel bloke in about six other shows. He was so corny, like the sort of thing you'd see in a kids movie. He was supposed to be intimidating but he just came across as incredibly unrealistic, which was unfortunate because I thought Walt's regression was really well done. Really believable.

 

[VineyIsLORD]

BB isn't on the same tier. I've probably posted that as an alias in this thread already, but its not.

Sopranos has the best acting, storyline, characters. Gandolfini carries it though, without Gandolfini it wouldn't have been nearly as good.

The Wire has the best themes, impact, ensemble cast and realism. Literally huge portions of The Wire are factual stories from Baltimore. It also has the best 'message' and its story is incredibly consistent and well acted (especially considering how young and inexperienced huge parts of the cast are).

The Wire and Sopranos probably stand as the two best shows ever.

Deadwood could have got there but got cancelled too soon.

BB is an intense and entertaining show, definitely a higher quality show than say The Shield, and Cranston and Paul are great in it. But its not on Sopranos or The Wire level.

 

[Bomberboyokay]

Breaking Bad started in 2008, I started watching in 2009.

It felt like its popularity exploded in 2011-12.

 

[PVF]

To be honest I would probably put Oz above Breaking Bad.

Underrated show imo.

 

[rocker_oz33]

OZ is awesome.

 

[PP34]

Always enjoyed Breaking Bad. It was the first TV series I went out and downloaded so I could watch it. When it came to an end I honestly doubted I'd find another TV series I'd enjoy like that.

Then I found The Wire which took me two attempts to get into, but after that I was amazed by it. Breaking Bad in the end just became one of those shows that became too unbelievable, too fast and was all about the big cliff hangers and famous scenes/lines very much like House of Cards is now. It's popularity like someone mentioned above really probably took off in 2012/2013 right when social media and these sorts of shows were going hand in hand. That doesn't make it a bad show, but when rating a show so highly like many are doing, you have to look at things like this.

Breaking Bad is a lot like a Scarface sort of show by the end. That doesn't make it bad, but I just think it makes it hard to compare to such a realistic and deep show like The Wire. Breaking Bad was addictive, I sat up countless nights glued to a screen in shock at what I was seeing happen to the normal suburban guy. Few too many corny characters and things happening.

The Wire is far more deep and portrays real world problems in a really honest manner. All the characters evolve a lot more naturally and the storylines all have a flow on effect. Breaking Bad obviously focuses on one character, which makes the show really enjoyable and easy to consistently go back to, but I don't think you can rate a show like that over one that has more to it.