Sopranos VS Breaking Bad

[Lejuan]

Deadwood was brilliant while it lasted, but it's an incomplete and unfinished work, so outside of my top 3 (The Wire, The Sops/BB)

 

[Snake Plissken]

The show was cancelled?

 

[Lejuan]

The show was cancelled?

Never made it to a fourth season...and the narrative threads that were all being so neatly set up and arranged were all left hanging

 

[Snake Plissken]

Ughh, I don't think I could take the pain of starting it now, only to be left out in the cold at the end.

 

[Lejuan]

I'm still glad I watched it, but at the time I didn't realise I'd be left hanging. The writing is the most beautiful writing I've come across in a series in terms of how the language and script is crafted. And some really solid characters... Ugh, it coulda been epic.

 

[Snake Plissken]

HBO is the cream of the crop with writing.

 

[Deckard]

That's not entirely true. Alot of what there was wrapped up.

The thing is, you look at the show as being about the Gold Claim and it pretty much comes full circle. That's the reason the camp and eventual town exist, it's the reason Al and Bullock are at odds, it's the reason Hearst comes to town, it's the reason the town unites itself. They win as much a victory as real history will allow. They drove Hearst off and kept what they had fought to put togeather, something bigger and more important, something for people and a legacy that's still standing today.

You go another season and you don't get a happy ending. Al goes back to Chicago and dies and the town burns down.

 

[Lejuan]

David Milch was the writer, but he and HBO couldn't make it work.

 

[Lejuan]

That's not entirely true. Alot of what there was wrapped up.

The thing is, you look at the show as being about the Gold Claim and it pretty much comes full circle. That's the reason the camp and eventual town exist, it's the reason Al and Bullock are at odds, it's the reason Hearst comes to town, it's the reason the town unites itself. They win as much a victory as real history will allow. They drove Hearst off and kept what they had fought to put togeather, something bigger and more important, something for people and a legacy that's still standing today.

You go another season and you don't get a happy ending. Al goes back to Chicago and dies and the town burns down.

I kind of agree, the broad arc is sort of resolved in that way...but what about the individual characters and their relationships to the town and each other? Cy Tollver? Joanie and Jane? The theatre company? The Doc? Lots was set up and primed for some interesting storytelling that of course never happened.

But despite all that well worth the experience of watching it. Great writing and solid characters.

 

[Deckard]

Yea I guess the way you kinda have to look at it is there doesn't always need to be a definitive ending all the way to death for a
character and when you have so many, I like that some people just kept on living a life the way people do. Sometimes you just stop hanging out or around people, you move and at least before Facebook that's the way it's left. Don't get me wrong, I'd have loved to seen Cy "get his" or whatever happened to the Doc, did he die or is he dying? Cy could have made his move at the end there on Hearst but didn't so I just assume he'll go on being the ******* he's always been and trying to get by.

But again that's just life. As Al would say we're all dying, you want me to tell ya something pretty?

Even in the Sopranos, you can ask, did Meadow end up getting married, what happened with A.J., did he avenge his father, get all f'd up?

 

[snappahead]

I still haven't been able to get into BB, so Sopranos is an easy choice for me. Maybe it'll be one of those things that I just don't "get"

 

[Lejuan]

But again that's just life. As Al would say we're all dying, you want me to tell ya something pretty?

I wish I was as satisfied with the lack of character resolution as you. Like eating a handful of delicious strawberries and the last one turns out to be a bit sour. But Al Swearengen. If he were the only reason for watching the show it'd still be well worth the price of admission.

 

[Deckard]

I wish I was as satisfied with the lack of character resolution as you. Like eating a handful of delicious strawberries and the last one turns out to be a bit sour. But Al Swearengen. If he were the only reason for watching the show it'd still be well worth the price of admission.

Yea again though, the Sopranos leaves just as many character threads hanging. What happens to Paulie? Does he take over or retire? Carmella? Can she make it without Tony? A.J.? Does he die trying to get revenge for his father? Does he finally sort himself out and just grow up happy?

I was best friends with a kid from like 4-16 then he moved and I've never bothered to Facebook him. Did he ever get that PS2 he wanted? you gotta draw the line somewhere and say, my part in sharing this person's story has ended.

 

[Lejuan]

Even in the Sopranos, you can ask, did Meadow end up getting married, what happened with A.J., did he avenge his father, get all f'd up?

I just never cared enough about those kids

The one I really wanted to know about was Furio. Went back to Naples, wasn't it, and never heard from again.

 

[Deckard]

Chase can make a movie where Furio and Carmella fall in love and AJ finds it disrespectful so he and Paulie take over NJ.

 

[Lejuan]

The Junior Sopranos

 

[Deckard]

I guess for me what it comes to is you will always have the idea of what happened with so and so or to this guy, in shows, in real life, you just don't always know everything. Unless every show ends with the apocalypse, like the earth crashes into the moon, or the ice caps melt but even than you can still say, aw McNulty never got to say this to this guy or whatever.

Certainly Arrested Development was no less a comedy for being canned. So I judge it as evenly as anything else and when you do that, you have a show with argueably an even higher production value than Sopranos being a period piece with so much going on in every shot, and a show that didn't ever get a chance to get comfortable. BB and Sopranos have experianced massive success in their runs and as a result, have had money thrown at them to elongate the story and have some filler. The Fly episode and Sopranos comas come to mind. Deadwood never had filler and to me is just consistent in giving you information important to the main narrative always and always made it compelling.

 

[Eli26]

If you guys like good TV, watch Dead Like Me and Orange is the New Black. Brilliant writing and characters in both. Too bad DLM only lasted two seasons. It's a hidden and almost forgotten gem.

 

[Snake Plissken]

Chase can make a movie where Furio and Carmella fall in love and AJ finds it disrespectful so he and Paulie take over NJ.

AJ was infuriating from beginning to end

 

[filip629]

I like them both. Glad I was able to see the entire run of the Sopranos and will feel the same way when BB is over.