The Sopranos Vs. The Wire

Yeah, the margin for the Wire victory is way too fucking large. It's a definitely a much closer battle.

i'm w slocki and i think history will be on his side as well

They're both amazing, but the Sopranos has more going on in terms of rewatching certain episodes. Tons of wink winks and inside jokes.

The Wire is full of "wink winks and inside jokes"!!!

i don't think it's worth debating with "OldHamSweat"

there's a lot of things that I could say right now that I am not gonna say

it's not the winks that make it worth rewatching, it's the writing & acting. once you know how things play out so many scenes are so much more layered, characters' actions and motivations so much deeper. such a rewarding re-screen.

Good Wire game - count the Peckinpah refs.

once you know how things play out so many scenes are so much more layered, characters' actions and motivations so much deeper.

^^^totally co-sign this (which I was kinda ref'ing w/the quote above in a fairly oblique way I guess - that line gets repeated in a number of different scenes by different people at different times and its use and repetition reveals a lot of layers)

part of it is that characters in the Sopranos - esp the major ones - are rarely communicating openly and honestly (is Tony ever honest with anyone about anything, really?) and the dialogue is more often than not a really amazing excercise in misdirection, irony, flattery, manipulation, etc.

it begins

what does

"it"

slashfic

omar and tony team up to fight crime?!

me watching the Wire is what.

not totally blown away by the first three episodes but I'll assume it gets better

nope, those are the best three

I knew it

it begins

what does

me reading the thread is what.

"is"

is begins

hot dogs

hot dogs begin

"slashfic"

slashfic

http://i43.tinypic.com/2l9nrih.jpg

Oh man, got the complete series today. Am in high heaven right now.

It begins. . .

Way way late on this, but to me The Sopranos is about a lot of things, but its main concerns were: parenting and the raising of children, mainly in the ways Tony was affected/shaped most obviously by his mother but also importantly by his father and the way he and Carmela shaped their own children, and to what degree anyone can be expected to overcome their parentage. This of course extends to many threads throughout the series... Uncle Junior and even Paulie as father figures, Tony attempting to "re-mother" himself with Melfi, Ralph's influence on Jackie Jr, the relationship between Tony and Christopher, Christopher's father... I think that's the richest and deepest vein in terms of the show's thematic concerns. And that, of course, ties into another major concern of the show, which is whether/how much people can change, and at what point(s) they can reasonably be expected to do so. Other things I think the show is about/dealt with extensively: depression, therapy, dishonorable people attempting to be honorable (this if what the mafia is, essentially), corruption, heritage/cultural pride (obviously Italian here, but I think it might apply beyond that). And it was also about the love between Tony and Carmela, especially in the later years. People who complain about the show spinning its wheels or doing nowhere are only watching on a surface level, and yeah, I realize how pretentious/arrogant that might sound, but I think every episode had a purpose or theme or joke or something it was conveying... To write any of them off, I don't get.

Don't tell me The Wire is "clearly" the superior or richer show, goddamnit.

sing it, sister.

i think there's a little fronting in about 70% of the OMG WIRE IS THE BEST SHOW EVAR opinions I read on borads and hear IRL

The wire is the clearly superior and/or richer show.

116 Ilxors can't be wrong. . .

almost done with Season 1... its pretty good, as far as cop shows go. Still seems to have a lot of the same problems as most cop shows ("You're off the case McGarnigle!" "No you're off YOUR case, Chief!") in terms of heavy-handedness (lolz innercity kids using crack deals to do math problems! DO U SEE) and character stereotypes (the determined heart-of-gold cop, the noble criminal, the confused young kid caught up in a world not of his choosing, etc.)

I dunno, I'll rent some more but if the acting/character writing doesn't seriously pick up by season 2 I'm gonna say fuck it.

smart move

part of what it comes down to for me is that i don't mind the cliches The Wire indulges in nearly as much as the cliches The Sopranos indulges in

its the other way around for me. I have a very negative, visceral, gut reaction to cop shows and particularly "hero cop" roles.

in every cop show ever

^^^let's count the number of these that the Wire indulges in

i love cop shows

12. lesbionic supporting-actress cop who bails the principal male cops out of life-and-death jams

^^^haha

Hakim Bey's 80s essay on cop shows kinda turned me off of them forever

i think people have "cliches" confused with "signifiers of a genre"

^^^

I.... guess? Care to elaborate?

no, it's totally a cop show cliche when a bunch of cops start running around trying to solve crimes and stuff

makes me roll my eyes every time

no, it's totally a cop show cliche when a bunch of cops start running around trying to solve crimes and stuff

that's not what I said at all but thx for the strawman argument

you really need to discern between joshin' around and vicious attacks on your person

i hate it when cop shows involve criminals and also crimes