The Sopranos Vs. The Wire

dude I drank a beer with delegate watkins

ha part of why i am so intense about the wire is that some of the characters seem crazy real to me, especially in season 4. but i am insane.

no i feel the same way so i am just as insane

stop sitting so close to the tv. if it completely fills your field of vision that's an easy mistake to make.

you got sonned by tombot s1ocki -- delegate watkins!!

a beer!!

rhonda pearlman was not a bad character

― Tracy Michael Jordan Catalano (Jordan), Tuesday, December 16, 2008 3:28 PM (26 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i agree with this and i don't think any of the female characters on the wire are bad. they're just not as complex/compelling as the men, by and large. i will admit that part of what made me think this was a weakness on Simon & co.'s part was an offhand comment he made about the actress who plays Shardene in a season one episode commentary, which is a kind of slim to hang that charge on. some dude seems right, too, that part of it is a function of the world represented in the show, but it did wear on me eventually that i felt like so much amazing characterization of male characters happened and there was really no comparable light shed on the women.

briana's greatness derives in large part from how good that actress is. she's playing a strong role, but she's basically playing a mother. not that there's anything wrong with that, but its not specified by much beyond the fact that she's domineering and she loves her son.

lol slocki

we're going to have to have a Rome vs. Deadwood poll eventually, you realize

not until I've watched all of Deadwood though. just been catching episodes here and there. is it just me or is the bad guy from live free or die hard/hitman not all terrible as an actor?

Timothy Olyphant is great, especially in Deadwood! He doesn't make the greatest choices in what roles he takes though - but I can't wait to see him in the second season of Damages.

is it just me or is the bad guy from live free or die hard/hitman not all terrible as an actor?

hahaha--maybe this should be a poll. the wife argued about if he was a good actor or not when we were watching Deadwood. she hates him, i think he's okay.

the wife and i argued

he's extremely one-note in 'deadwood', but i wouldn't say bad exactly. they demoted him from leading man to ensemble player right quick.

his one note take on Bullock gets a little old towards the last season i would have to say

deadwood kind of sucks... rome much better

yeah deadwood got real bad real quick

it was no 'lovejoy'

deadwood kind of sucks... rome much better

― s1ocki, Thursday, 18 December 2008 16:04 (17 minutes ago)

this is a nonsense

s2 deadwood > s1 deadwood >>> s1 rome > s3 deadwood (rip) >>>>>>>>>> s2 rome

deadwood season 1 is pretty dope, season 2 still really good, season 3 is pretty wtf. i think they spent 80% of the last few episodes focusing on brian cox's theatre troupe.

it was no 'lovejoy'

― special guest stars mark bronson, Thursday, 18 December 2008 16:19 (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Deadwood severely lacked Hothouse Flowers

i got so fucking sick of that theatre troupe. and i feel like they did nothing with the storyline either.

it was a setup for s4

i'm sure it was--i guess i liked most of seasons 1 & 2 but that last season, jesus

it was also about an order and an economy becoming entrenched enough for culture to arrive, about deadwood becoming a place on the map. plus, dramatic writers love writing about actors, whadyagonnado

brian cox slinging gay innunedo in a brogue at swedgin was much better television than all the 'major dad is a psycho capitalist' business

i think john from cincinatti showed what deadwood dude's true colours were

dude just wanted to surf

and rome season 2 is totally awesome! i'll take degenerate marc anthony and saucy cleopatra over frownyfaced sheriff olyphant any day...

or all that stuff with jeffrey jones wanting to take walks with his buddies or whatever

i watched the sopranos episode with omar last night and i thought of this thread

imagine how rad a crossover would be... tony starts doing business with marlo... the cops get a hold of it!! one episode set in each respective location...

and that is all we are allowed to say about that before things get too custos-y.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Harlem_Globetrotters_on_Gilligan's_Island

detective munch could be in it!!1!

xpost

man if the writing on rome s2 wasn't a huge step down from s1 the costumes sure as shit were

i have nothing to say to that.

i have never not liked the clothes on a show before! but there i was, watching, thinking 'holy shit what do they have these people wearing?'

i think the clothes, like most everything on Rome, were so accurate that I could almost smell the show. Deadwood same way btw - about smelling the characters.

yeah it should be a smellovision poll

Was Deadwood the one where everyone was always all "you have to watch it for the language and dialect, they're so unique and almost Shakespearean?" Because that does sound up my alley, but on the other hand (a) it is Deadwood and (b) I don't often get along with westerns.

i dunno, nabisco, aside from some stuff in season 1 w/wild bill hickok it doesn't really feel like a trad western in any way.

the language is amazing

the amazing shakesperean awesomeness of the language, or whatever, was fun at first but i eventually got really, really weary of it.

it feels like the language got denser as the series went on, if that makes sense. Farnum's language and raps and stuff=the highlight of the series for me.

nothing like a good western-style shakesperean rap!

they have those at subway now right

in the first season the language was really natural in a way, extremely well written but not show-offy in a noticeable way. the second season is where it started to get just a little bit too mannered, season 3 was admirable for being so weird but i can't say i enjoyed it, exactly. it mostly had to do with the dialogue.

yeah i really got into the dialogue and the ideas at play about social order etc -- how people make a character of themselves in public, how language responds to and creates power. i can see how this would be really unenjoyable to ppl but i loved it.