The Sopranos Vs. The Wire

History has proven me right on this.

― Whiney G. Weingarten, Monday, October 7, 2019 5:15 PM (four days ago) bookmarkflaglink

curious what spurred this on btw... imw sopranos still occupies a large space in the culture while the wire is mostly forgotten, but not sure what i would point to empirically to verify that aside from the one show being so vastly superior to the other

imw sopranos still occupies a large space in the culture while the wire is mostly forgotten

idk what your "w" is, but whatever it is, is the opposite of my experience.

well, yr w is yr w i guess, part of why i asked the q. but iMw, no one cares how the wire ended. the wire didn't create prestige tv. the wire didn't have tony soprano. all the ppl upthread who said the wire is like a book, otm.

in my wankfest

Xp - guy who played Wallace on the Wire went on to play Oscar Grant and Black Panther. Most people in my world find that more relevant than whether the show invented prestige tv

He didn't play Black Panther, although he was in the film. He's also Creed.

he's the bad guy (who was right) in black panther

google trends tells me that in the years since both the shows were finished the wire is searched for consistently more than the sopranos! marone!

Lol oops

Also in terms of cultural relevance, Idris Alba is probably ahead of “tony soprano” atm

Elba

not super familiar w google trends but i think maybe you are comparing the term 'sopranos' to the term 'wire'? bc when i use the thing that sets it to 'TV Series The Sopranos' vs 'TV Series The Wire' it's sopranos by a mile, US + worldwide.

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=%2Fm%2F0kfv9,%2Fm%2F03d16q3

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=sopranos,wire

but i dunno, the actor who played groundbreaking character 'wallace' was also in a comic book superhero movie so i stand corrected

Sopranos fandom waayyy more prevalent than Wire fandom, at least in my world.

The actors from the Wire are obviously more popular... NOW.... but between the two shows, more people I know recognize Paulie Walnuts more than they do Snoop or Chris or fuck, even Bodie.

Not saying it's right, but it is what it is.

all due respect xp

better to compare side projects by supporting cast members, maybe book sales of Steve Schirripa's books A Goomba's Guide to Life, The Goomba's Book of Love, and The Goomba Diet: Large and Loving It, vs Snoop's memoir.

Weird, I did search for "the x" TV show or thereabouts but I see different results now. Oh well. Google trends proves Sopranos is better luck thread

xp pplains - was he the guy with the bouffy hair or the goofy face/annoying voice?

Yeah, that guy!

the one from the car commercial or the other one?

or was it insurance? i don't remember

anyway, a lot of the Sopranos characters/actors were distinctive looking, whereas most of the Wire characters/actors weren't

^^ in terms of casting intent -- like if The Wire producers were to have given such distinctive hair styles and outfits to the characters, they would be more "identifiable" by the average viewer of the show years later

I mean, popularity ≠ quality. You know this.

I could make an argument for which show is better depending upon which way the wind was blowing that day. But The Sopranos are more ingrained into The Fabric of American Popular Culture than The Wire.

You may want it to be one way, but it's the other way.

more people I know recognize Paulie Walnuts more than they do Snoop or Chris or fuck, even Bodie.

BNBG?

i only saw one episode of sopranos and had no interest in ever seeing it again

― ketchup dood (harbl), Saturday, November 15, 2008 9:19 AM (ten years ago)

lol @ me ELEVEN years ago. must have been 5 years later i watched all of sopranos and loved it and now in the middle of a very slow re-watch on amazon prime. sopranos is better than the wire.

No surprise that the Sopranos is more popular in general - it's an easier sell, a family drama take on the mobster tradition.
The Wire is in the cop tradition but the cops aren't heroes, the not-cops are mostly a new cast every season and largely a group not particularly understood by or sympathetic to the average American.

Of my friends that don't like The Wire, their dislike is generally for one of two reasons:

1. too much focus on and sympathy for cops -- which I won't argue
2. not enough character development or focus on characters as people with agency; characters serve the plot -- which I respect, but consider a matter of personal taste preference, and is more about "why you watch tv/movies" and "what do you look for in a show" etc.

my 73 year old parents started watching it at one point because they had heard good things about it and they worked in Baltimore for a year in the 60s, but they gave up because there were too many characters, plus it was too violent and way too much swearing

The Wire is in the cop tradition but the cops aren't heroes,
Lmao

Sarahell has accurately covered my complaints

Granted they're not heroes in the way they are in like, "Blue Bloods" ... but, they are definitely portrayed as heroes in a lot of ways, and fairly sympathetically.

It does give me a certain amount of cognitive dissonance -- in that I like something that isn't aligned with my politics or ethical beliefs -- similar to liking some music that has misogynistic elements ... it's messy

The most beloved character on the show is the gay guy who robs drug dealers. The cops are primarily corrupt, drunk, lazy and uninterested in actually serving people/making the city safer.

Omar is a joek as a character. He has RPG attributes, not character traits.

Pfffffft

at the risk of repeating myself: The Sopranos Vs. The Wire

The cops are primarily corrupt, drunk, lazy and uninterested in actually serving people/making the city safer.

"The cops" as a system, as an institution, but not most of the individual ones the show focuses on, who are the heroes because they do care and aren't corrupt -- like, in terms of adult characters, after Omar, the most beloved character is Bunk, a cop. And also, Lester Freaman, I mean ... he's the sage, the bearer of wisdom. And the show wants us to empathize with, and like, McNulty -- it gives him so much screen time, so much attention, it does this elaborate series of things to get him "back on the team" multiple times -- the show literally ends with him.

Omar is a joek as a character. He has RPG attributes, not character traits.

apparently he was actually based on a real person.

Yeah we’ve been over this. Being based on a real person doesnt mean the character as portrayed is realistic or believable or convincing.

Most of the characters in the Sopranos felt more like jokes or stereotypes (or references to stereotypes) than actual people, except for Edie Falco's character tbh ... it reminded me a lot of the part of Pulp Fiction with Sam Jackson, Travolta, Walken, and Tarantino ... just East Coast, and whole multi-season show based on the banal, suburban lives of organized crime dudes.

I just read that Tony is only 40 when the show starts. That is insane.

Like Omar is no less realistic, believable, or convincing than 99% of Sopranos characters tbh ... and I don't dislike the Sopranos, and I don't hate Pulp Fiction or everything Tarantino -- maybe your point is that in the context of the Wire, a character like Omar doesn't fit?

Gandolfini was what maybe 36 when the show started?

These boomers aged like (fill in the blank).

Season 1 Don Draper being 33-34 is another one in that realm.

Yeah I just finished the first season of MM on my first rewatch since it aired. He looked age appropriate.

He seemed mid-40s to me but that might be the suits and adultery.

These boomers aged like (fill in the blank).

― Yerac, Friday, October 11, 2019 7:47 PM (eight minutes ago)

idk, I watch Riverdale, and it's like ...Luke Perry, Molly Ringwald, Skeet Ulrich ... oh damn, yeah ... my generation is aging, I'm aging.

Jon Hamm is actually 48 now ... and a Pisces ... (sigh, so dreamy)

Jon Hamm and Christina Hendricks are tall glasses of whole milk in the first season of MM.

they are both very attractive people -- then and now