The Sopranos Vs. The Wire

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

just kicking off season 4 of the wire and rly nothing actually touches this show, nothing

hankies at the ready, it’s heavy fuckin’ stuff

on the whole I feel more attached to Sopranos and Deadwood but yeah no one who's tried to do anything even remotely like it has come anywhere close since

s4 is the apex for sure

Liked The Wire a lot, but would definitely choose The Sopranos if I were re-starting one tonight.

it still blows my mind that David Simon is such an obnoxious, blowhard #resistance liberal, complete with verbose compound insults and whither-the-glorious-republic sentiment. has he watched this show called The Wire??

Saw this trailer last week:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_8U7gjb2k4

Took me a minute to recognize Dominic West...disconnect.

Wire season 4 is still safely perched atop my pedestal of things that are all-time.

Liked The Wire a lot, but would definitely choose The Sopranos if I were re-starting one tonight.

― clemenza, Wednesday, November 14, 2018 1:47 PM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

same, I think

the sopranos (iirc) felt more *consistent* throughout its run, and much more focused on the characters themselves than the wire. obviously the characters were great in the wire, but the show was p obviously about "the issues". I think the episodic nature of the seasons themselves (each built around an investigation) was both a help and a hindrance; each season obv had a theme, but they also felt more sealed-off/standalone as a result.

tbh i think that breaking bad, once it hit its stride, was better than both

Deadwood is special but gepetto died while carving it and it swoops between clunking and sensational

sopranos is great but the spinning wheels comment above is otm

breaking bad really doesnt belong anywhere near the conversation tbh im not sure ill even go back to it after getting sick of how nonsensical it got

mad men was shite always

what else

lol xp

Six Feet Under? Maybe still up there but I haven't revisited since it ended.

surely not at this tier

6FU has *not* aged well

BBad won't either, I don't think, not helped by the fact that watching week-to-week with a ton of suspense and anticipation was by far the best way to experience it.

In retrospect that setting and set of characters seems to cry out for an episode/season order half as long, also, imo

I like to imagine a world where Enlightened got like six seasons and a level of deserved acclaim enjoyed by these other shows, maybe if they'd made Laura Dern's character a dude.

enlightened is a half-hour comedy show, so not really comparable to these prestige dramas.

sopranos is the best show ever imo and sort of towers above the wire in characterization, and, you know, saying something about people and american society without beating you over the head with didactic left-liberal polemics

I'm probably biased in that I saw BB way more recently than Sopranos or the Wire, and also think that Better Call Saul should def be in the conversation

how i break it down to an extent:
- the sopranos was essentially an extended family drama with guns
- the wire skillfully dramatized lessons about urban sociology in america
- breaking bad very obviously aimed for epic tragedy

i think the reason i liked BB more was that once it figured out what it was (a chronicle of walt's moral decline), it was easier for the producers to find the endpoint and then work on how to get there. the wire seemed to be making it up as it went along, because there wasn't ever a real overarching narrative arc to guide things. that sprawl was part of its appeal to me, but ultimately i think the narrower remit (?) of BB's plot made the final seasons and the ending much more satisfying

(nb i haven't seen the last season of the sopranos)

I've seen The Wire three times through, though it's been a few years, but when I think of it I *always* go back to season two

despite the fact that it dragged on about 1.5 seasons too long, I would argue The Shield stuck the epic-tragedy landing way better than BBad did. especially since BBad's last two eps are largely disposable

it still blows my mind that David Simon is such an obnoxious, blowhard #resistance liberal, complete with verbose compound insults and whither-the-glorious-republic sentiment. has he watched this show called The Wire??

― wayne trotsky (Simon H.), 14. november 2018 21:48 (fifteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

You know what the trouble is, Brucey? We used to make shit in this country, build shit. Now we just put our hand in the next guy's pocket.

Also, tom about The Shield. Probably best ending ever?

sopranos is the best show ever imo and sort of towers above the wire in characterization, and, you know, saying something about people and american society without beating you over the head with didactic left-liberal polemics

^^^

these lopsided poll results still make me mad

It suffered from a few extraneous mid-series plots and characters that never went anywhere, but that whole last season is just incredible. It's a tough show to assess overall because it has greatness and dross scattered across its entire run, sometimes in the same episode. xp

also I will always be here to shove Spartacus into contention just for sheer emotional wallop, mostly-awful first season and all

was the sopranos the first drama to fully integrate "a beloved character could die/get killed p much anytime" as a persistent and always lurking plotting element? it seems like "prestige drama" has leaned pretty heavily on that one weird dramaturgic trick ever since

Even with the third season mess, I'd put Deadwood up with anything.

Breaking Bad was so plot-driven, I don't think it has as much to care about once you've seen it and know how everything will go.

Of the Simon series I've watched, I'd probably rather go back to Treme than The Wire, in retrospect it's kind of amazing how little drama there is to it, there are no evil characters. Even the Texas Republican carpetbagger who comes in to profit off Katrina is redeemed to some extent.

the first drama to fully integrate "a beloved character could die/get killed p much anytime"

yes, definitely, but surely this is inherent in the kind of story they were telling

Breaking Bad was so plot-driven, I don't think it has as much to care about once you've seen it and know how everything will go.

i'd agree with that -- def feel like the sopranos would most reward rewatching

xp oh no doubt, but it definitely wasn't the first crime show, yknow? "sudden, capricious death as verisimilitude" undercut more well-established dramatic practices/expectations; the criminal life just made it easy to implement

The middle stretch of Treme is amazing.

sopranos has entire seasons of fat, and brilliantly-performed fat still loses u srs marks in my book.

bb is not far off dan brown ito ridiculous cliffhangers and preposterous escapes every other hour

cant see the criticisms of narrative arc for the wire set against these two, regardless of the other charms of each

best narrative arc of em all might be jimmy in boardwalk empire tbh

don't take this personally but... you have bad opinions

i only take stuff personally after considering the source tbh

🤗

there are no seasons of Sopranos that are entirely "fat", that's just ridiculous. 1 is a little slow to get up to speed but that's about as far as I'll ago. the rest is gold.

how long did

sorry spoilers

tony spend in a fridge salesman dream again

one episode, and he's a precision optics salesman

how long did fabio spend mooning around mrs s

gonna say we got three episodes minimum of optical schlub tony tbh

might poll a suite of worst sopranos bulkup plots and note for how many episodes we suffered each actually thatd convince ye right

nb its still the second best show obv