The Sopranos Vs. The Wire

i dont understand how that is a measurement of 'hypermasculine archetypes' -- isnt that a measurement of 'multi dimensional female characters'? but w/e, im arguing with shakey mo, time for a break

the men: hard-drinkin, hard-livin detectives, young black thugs, old hardassed corrupt politicians/administrators, blue collar Joe Luncpails etc

the women: lesbians (only one of which really has a good arc/fully fleshed out character), that terrible bird lady politician, the pixie-ish redhead lawyer with a heart of gold

and then there's Namond's mom, who is just a monster, but hardly on the multi-dimensional level of Livia

saying your idea of "oh noes our american cities" being what resonates, actually probably will not resonate nearly as immediately and universally as "having a family is complicated"

― gawka flocka flamewar (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, March 10, 2011 12:01 PM (1 hour ago)

and there are tons of good tv shows and movies about complicated families ... and far fewer that engage the details of industrial decline/drug problems etc. in American cities.

and there are tons of good tv shows and movies about complicated families

well now that two and a half men is off the air...

if I want to watch a tv show about complicated families, I'd rather watch 6 Feet Under or Roseanne, than the Sopranos

Kima, Beadie, Rhonda, Donette and Brianna were all worthwhile and not too one-dimensional female characters. was the cast pretty male-dominated? sure. is that a really valuable stick to beat the show with? ehh.

swag the dog (The Reverend), Wednesday, 6 January 2010 13:54 (1 year ago)

Namond's mom was hilarious.

i dunno - maybe I've just seen too many Coppola movies to find the concept of the Sopranos appealing.

was the cast pretty male-dominated? sure. is that a really valuable stick to beat the show with? ehh.

fair enough. but it does make it ridiculous ground from which to cast aspersions on the Sopranos as male-dominated/oriented, which is just innacurate.

there really aren't a whole lot of decent female characters in the wire, it's true; but yeah like deej says, if we're gonna bring up the one white guy i know who was super super super into repeating dave chappelle and samuel l jackson catch phrases in high school and is now indeed super into the wire, and who i'm sure is representative of a bunch of others like him, presumably we can bring up everyone who's ever thought mafiosos were AWESOME AND BADASS. or not because it's a dumb way to talk about shows.

i liked nick sobotka's girlfriend but maybe that's just because she was ADORABLE.

I prefer not to speculate on audience strawmen, it's just pointless. it's kidna deej's MO tho

swag the dog (The Reverend), Wednesday, 6 January 2010 13:54 (1 year ago)

― gawka flocka flamewar (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, March 10, 2011 5:15 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark

word -- i even searched 4 this

that was Whiney building the strawman, wasn't it?

a lot of people (not only in this thread) build that strawman and between that one and the LOL YOU LIKE SEASON 2 I WONDER WHY one they've kinda got you coming and going

tbh I've just been ignoring any posts that have to do with speculating as to who likes what for what hypothetical reasons

Pretty sure I'm one of the 30: Maybe I said this elsewhere, but The Sopranos' great subject was the subconscious, and this hit me personally harder than even the greatest stretches of The Wire. But that's really saying something.

defensive crackers itt ought to be mindful that this thread only went down that storied route after hm and myself cast aspersions on retard king k3vvy k's bad faith racial politicking

i guess most of u just like the wire cuz it's a great show!

shakey my only point was that its ridic to build wire strawmen bcuz you could do the same thing w/ a show about mafia dons. i wasnt building strawmen, just pointing out that doing so in defense of one of hollywood's timeless archetypes of violent baddassness is kind of a glass houses / throwing stones situation

wiremen, surely.

pretty sure k3vin was making a joke about the margin of the wire's win + number of black people in each show + absurd post-obama tea party convictions re: the balance of power in america; but i am not him so i guess i cannot confirm that he does not think that white people are always getting the short end of the stick

oh never mind i see what is going on, oh well

deej - don't worry - you were otm

fair enough deej, no worries

xp

pretty sure k3vin was making a joke about the margin of the wire's win + number of black people in each show + absurd post-obama tea party convictions re: the balance of power in america; but i am not him so i guess i cannot confirm that he does not think that white people are always getting the short end of the stick

― difficult listening hour, Thursday, 10 March 2011 22:41 (3 minutes ago)

nah he really is that stupid, but he'll appresh the alibi i'm sure

deej - don't worry - you were otm

― sarahel, Thursday, 10 March 2011 22:43 (2 minutes ago) Permalink

this goes w/out saying -- that post was abt tamtam butthurting me while i was banned

tams is the marlo stansfield of ilx

haha that's p good for the relentlessly secondrate horseshoe xox

― maxwell's silva hamartia (nakhchivan), Thursday, March 10, 2011 4:34 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

do i know you?

it's stanfield, fucknuts! j/k

nah i dont think so horsey, im tryna think where i saw you before

seem to remember u may have said some stuff was problematic once

no doubt

if u r in with sarahel then perhaps she can do the prop joe mediation stuff cuz im mostly chill with her ppl

was wondering when this was gonna get all pseudometa you think it's one way but it's really paulie walnuts

http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/266/7/5/20100602___chris_partlow_by_huxtable-d2zcawb.jpg

so did anybody see how Snoop got arrested...again? and I mean the character, not the rapper

the character

difficult listening hour has made some good posts in this thread!

i started season 1 of the sopranos at some point recently because of this damn thread. it was pretty good. i should finish it.

― horseshoe, Thursday, March 10, 2011 3:39 PM (7 hours ago) Bookmark

Yeah, I've been meaning to give Sopranos another go - I didn't even watch the last two seasons anyway.

omar little is the omar little of ilx

so did anybody see how Snoop got arrested...again? and I mean the character, not the rapper

― orville reddenflocka (San Te), Thursday, March 10, 2011 6:13 PM (2 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

the character

― maxwell's silva hamartia (nakhchivan), Thursday, March 10, 2011 6:15 PM (2 months ago) Bookmark

worst poll in the history of polls

hey, at least Mad Men wasn't an option

Any TV programme is going to suffer when compared to the Wire, frankly.

― Chopper Aristotle (Matt DC), Saturday, November 15, 2008 2:07 PM (3 years ago)

http://www.inhabitat.com/wp-content/uploads/bestof2008mostpopular.jpg

also you're leaving out the giant ironic tragic joke that takes several seasons to set up wherein stringer is portrayed to us as the smart ambitious forward-thinker who wants to go legit and is held back by his childhood friend avon's "posturing", and during his period of total control of the organization in avon's absence takes it in a direction that seems to us WHITE COLLEGE KIDS to be productive and sane and disconnected from avon's apparently irrational honor killings, and to be making an argument for the hoary old analogy between the drug trade and good ol' standard "legitimate" american entrepreneurism; and stringer "comes into conflict" with avon not because avon is a gangsta cartoon but because avon believes there are certain things about the socioeconomic situation into which they were born and to the top of which they've risen that make it fundamentally separate from and unable to successfully interface with the different one stringer wants to enter, i.e., avon thinks the analogy is incomplete; and only after he has sent his closest friend to prison for life in order to ensure his total severance from his origins is it brought home to stringer that he has made a mistake and that he has not escaped but is in fact being cynically used by all the people he looks up to as "legitimate", people whose fundamental sharkiness and sociopathy avon always understood better than stringer. then stringer is murdered, right after understanding this.

i mean that is what is going on with that arc, not "sometimes there is recidivism".

― difficult listening hour, Thursday, March 10, 2011 3:40 PM (1 year ago)

man this is an incredible post

yes

"but this is that other thing"

Sopranos tho

http://i.imgur.com/wJjensk.jpg?1