Sopranos versus The Wire

The Wire.

Tough guys DO NOT visit psychiatrists.

The Wire and it isn't even a tough decision.

Homicide: Life on The Street Based on the book of the creator of The Wire.

You can thank me later.

My favorite show of all time is the Sopranos and my 2nd favorite of all time is the Wire. However, if I was going to re-watch a series it would be the Wire. I'm half Italian and I'm from Baltimore so "whada I says isz"

My Vote: Sopranos

The Wire, and as others have said, it isn't even close. Sopranos had one, maybe two, brilliant seasons then coasted. The Wire only started to show some cracks during that much-inferior final season, but even that was brilliant.

Vote: The Wire.

wolvendancer wrote: The Wire, and as others have said, it isn't even close. Sopranos had one, maybe two, brilliant seasons then coasted. The Wire only started to show some cracks during that much-inferior final season, but even that was brilliant.

Vote: The Wire.

The McNulty sillyness was... well, silly, and probably unfixible, but I still think if they'd have let Simon get his 11th and 12th episodes in Season 5 it would have turned out a lot better than it did.

The fourth season of The Wire is possibly the best TV has ever offered.

mikko_r wrote: The fourth season of The Wire is possibly the best TV has ever offered.

You know, it's funny, aside from everyone pretty much agreeing that 5 is the worst, everyone seems to have a different opionon on which season of the wire is the best, for me it's

2 > 3 > 1 > 4 > 5

I'll pile on. The Wire is great, Sopranos is merely very good.

Also, lucky for Paulie Walnuts, the local kids warned him that Omar was coming and he got the fuck out of there. Even he knew the inevitable conclusion of that fight.

Stonecutter wrote:

mikko_r wrote: The fourth season of The Wire is possibly the best TV has ever offered.

You know, it's funny, aside from everyone pretty much agreeing that 5 is the worst, everyone seems to have a different opionon on which season of the wire is the best, for me it's

2 > 3 > 1 > 4 > 5

My favorite season of The Wire was season 2. I went into it with some expectations about what would happen, and got shocked, again and again. I figured that they would either continue the Barksdale/Bell case or start a brand new case, but never expected that they would do both and weave them together so well. And one of the main characters in season two was such a tragic figure. He had good intentions and was willing to do anything to help his people out, but he got in way over his head.

I think the best seasons were 2 and 4, for opening up exciting new story possibilities. Season 1 was important for setting things up and introducing the special detail and many of the main characters. Seasons 3 and 5 were important because they wrapped up the major storylines, but they were less enjoyable, especially season 5. At the start of the series, I had three favorite characters. By the end of the series, I didn't like those three anymore, and had different favorite characters.

Season 2 of THE WIRE is my favorite as well. The fact that the main plotline got kicked off by two Polish guys fighting over a stained glass window in a church is classic.

Msample wrote: Season 2 of THE WIRE is my favorite as well. The fact that the main plotline got kicked off by two Polish guys fighting over a stained glass window in a church is classic.

"...two pollocks pissing on each other's shoes."

Season 2 of The Wire was really great... I second or third that! Good point about favourite characters changing by the end, like in real life.

One thing... haven't had time to google this - I know the final season was shortened - but what was the reason?

And did it fundementally change the wrap-up or just force the creators to be more economical in the story-telling?

I liked a lot of what season 5 said about the newsprint business and the news room and although that one plotline seemed outrageous, if you read the papers, a lot of crazy stuff goes down every day. It was certainly unpredictable. watching the first few seasons I would have never have guessed it would spiral into something like that.

Vote: The Wire

The Wire is more consistently good. Both series have several likable characters, and a lot of depth. One point for The Sopranos is that you have a true main character and the focus is never removed from him. That said, Tony Soprano may be the most evil character ever put to the screen. Very likable, but very evil.

Both shows should not be missed.

Obligatory Wire seasons rankings: 2 and 3 were the best, 1 was important (obviously enough) to set up the foundation for all to follow, 4 was literally depressing (I place it in its own division and thus won't rank it at all), and 5 was, frankly, a bit much in a lot of ways.

I've spent most of my adult life in newsrooms of one sort or another, and even I had trouble maintaining interest in what Simon (longtime newspaper guy) was trying to say in that final season. And there's places where he's just showing off; I have a hard time believing most of the audience was really that interested in the actual nuts-and-bolts of how a metro newspaper works. I might care about how a story goes from reporter to copy editor to slot editor to paginator, but I have to care; it's what I do. My guess is that most of the audience got a bit restless during the "aren't newspapers just fascinating!?!?" scenes.

Vote: Season 2.