The Sopranos Vs. The Wire

you don't get inside anyone's head in the wire - you have to gauge it all from externals, actions, surface effects - but in the sopranos that's all you ever seem to do

― Tracer Hand, Saturday, November 15, 2008 6:14 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

that's what i like about it, the character stuff is so intense and hardcore.

yeah. i've always admired gandolfini and falco for turning what was a pretty cheesy premise - "a mob boss with a shrink!" - into a venue for great acting

that said, the scripts eventually seemed more to serve the actors than the actors the scripts

the drug game is better material to dig into because it's a business with a product that people buy. the mafia are a throwback, they really are just parasites, with a main revenue stream of leaning on people in their neighborhood. the sopranos hinted occasionally that starbucks was a greater threat to them than the feds, but the wire never loses sight of the overall material picture.

watching ppl doing what they do while caught up in the gears of an infernal machine is more compelling to me than watching a crew who are too shortsighted to see their way out of some pretty obvious conflicts over and over again.

I like the parasites / throwback thing about the Sopranos - it always felt like they were trying to live up to some great past that wasn't there anymore and that the mob was going to die out when the current generation does.

There was some of this with the Wire - Cutty seeing how different the game had become, Prop Joe lamenting - but it hits you at the end how it's never, ever going to stop and a new generation is always going to be there to take over. Dookie as the new Bubs, Michael as the new Omar, and so on. The newspaper aspect was kind of like the Sopranos, with the business dying out and only a few dreamers sticking around.

the last season of the wire was pretty awful

nowhere near as bad as the gay-vito half-season of Sopranos imo

Sopranos at its best (season 1-2) might be better than The Wire but Sopranos fell off a lot harder by the end. redundant / spinning its wheels comment was otm. big chunk of the Wire final season got ridiculous but it still overall felt like the show had something to say.

i think we have determined that the sopranos = way more "drama nerd" than the wire.

^^^^

I had forgotton about gay Vito. That was terrible. They took what would have made a good episode and turned it into an interminable season that focused completely on a minor character.

This pretty much sums up the problem I have with The Sopranos: they had way too many episodes where it was obvious that they were struggling to find something with which to fill their hour each week.

i voted for the Wire which sort of isn't fair because i've only seen a couple of episodes of the Sopranos and have never really gotten into it. part of the reason is what ade was saying upthread about the unrelatability/inhumanity of the characters on the Sopranos. i kind of feel that way about mad men, too, to be honest. i have thought more than once, while watching a particularly good episode of mad men, "this still isn't as good as the Wire because i don't love/like any of these people." maybe i am reacting against some assumption that keeping sentiment out of a show makes it aesthetically "purer," which for all i know nobody who wrote for the Sopranos actually believed, but i do hate that idea and i think the wire is really brave about emotional stuff. this could all be bullshit, though, because like i said, i haven't seen that much of the Sopranos.

i also bristle at the idea that Gandolfini or Falco are necessarily better actors than those on the Wire! they just got more screen time because there are fewer characters on that show!

i miss the Wire so much.

also the last season is not "pretty awful"! it's just less good than the other four totally amazing ones!

The Wire is way more ambitious than the Sopranos in terms of the way the story is told, and the 'character' of Baltimore is fully fleshed just as any of the Sopranos' gang, if you like, and this is even before the amount of themes it credibly inserts into a cops and gangs shows.

I love both anyway and wouldn't vote.

Having said all that I think Wire and Oz are more comparable to each other.

The Wire also seems like a more "important" series in that it relentlessly skewered public institutions and policy orthodoxy and all that.

Also the Wire was basically a really long police procedural, and that's one of my favorite literary genres (I am not too embarrassed to admit).

The Wire also seems like a more "important" series in that it relentlessly skewered public institutions and policy orthodoxy and all that.

― Super Cub, Saturday, 15 November 2008 21:07 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Sopranos actually led to a shit tonne of IRL Mafia arrests though, due to NJ mobsters deciding to "take advantage" of their new-found fame

lol waht? link?

Sopranos, because it's the series I've actually seen some of. (I plan to watch The Wire, just haven't gotten to it yet.)

voted wire although im alright with sopranos - i cant believe everyone didnt point this out above but maybe after they read him say the shit about italian accents they just tl;dr'd the rest of his post but wtf @ matt p saying that the godfather's i & ii and goodfellas are "boring"

or "zzz" or whatever it was he said

Goodfellas is like the most watchable and entertaining 2 1/2 hour movie ever. I can't fathom someone being bored by it.

Next major ILx poll should be scenes from Goodfellas.

Wire character poll been done?

Race for second maybe?

"shit tonne" ftw

Omar Little vs Paulie Walnuts poll

And I'm trying to find the article about how The Sopranos led to these NJ mob arrests, but "sopranos arrests" just brings up details of how seemingly every Sopranos actor except Peter Bogdaonich has been to prison since the show ended.

i think we have determined that the sopranos = way more "drama nerd" than the wire.

― Tracer Hand, Saturday, November 15, 2008 8:08 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

hahaha true tho wire is i guess way more "message board nerd"

I took drama in college but like The Wire more.

You're excommunicated from the drama nerd club 4 LIFE. You can't reapply for re-entry until you've seen Angels in America four more times.

Who doesn't think "drama nerd" when they watch Tony Sirico or Steve Schrippa?

One thing in The Wire's favour is that at least none of the cast have gone on to release books entitled something like "HOW TO BE A BLACK MAN"

how is that in its favour??

i think we have determined that the sopranos = way more "drama nerd" than the wire.

― Tracer Hand, Saturday, November 15, 2008 8:08 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

hahaha true tho wire is i guess way more "message board nerd" stuff white people like

― s1ocki, Sunday, November 16, 2008 3:19 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

whiney how is that not true of the sopranos?

man that site was stupid

black ppl love the wire

yah but white people like it too dont you see??

black people hate the wire, its true. the re-runs on bet were totally random

the sopranos takes a soap opera premise and makes it 'tough'
the wire takes a cop show premise and makes made it operatic

wire ftw

other stuff white people like:

I mean, i def agree with that to an extent re the pieces he uses: R&B Autotuners, hipster-house squelches, Lil Wayne and Young Jeezy, Blue Man Group thwaps, even some Animal Collective style noises in the bridges.

But when he puts it all together it's uniquely Kanye. That's why it's great!

― Whiney G. Weingarten, Thursday, November 13, 2008 1:11 PM (3 days ago)

Stuff Whine People Like

White people like talking about Stuff White People Like.

i was just makin a joke about how some 20-something whiteys i have met are like OMG WIRE YES OMAR IS THE MAN!!!1 because it's their version of saying "I'm cool with black ppl"

the sopranos has a version too, which is older men working words like "gabbagool" and "mannagge" into everyday conversation.

I'm not talking about any of you, so you can quit pissing your pants now.

too late already pissed my pants when i was afraid other white people might like the same thing as me

The 20-something whiteys from the hilarious 'Williamsburg' neighborhood

There is a kind of suburban, middle class voyeurism thing about the Wire though. "Now I understand what the ghetto is all about."

Watching TV is voyeuristic? Who knew?!

Hey, I'm just trying to throw whiney a bone.

You people are fucking weird sometimes.