Sopranos VS Breaking Bad

[The Iron Koob]

Wow that guy nails those impressions

 

[Road Blaster]

breaking bad is by far the best show of all time and the only show i could even compare it to is the wire.

 

[Preshea]

Sopranos was good but there's nothing like Breaking Bads writing. No filler episodes. Watches all the way thru so well. Walts character development was brilliant.

I also have to agree The Wire is HBOs best offering to date. (side note)

 

[Danstangoe]

I enjoyed the sopranos enough to watch all 6 seasons 3 times over. When BB is finished I doubt I will watch them again, its good dont get me wrong, just Walt is really annoying.

 

[Lejuan]

To be fair, the writing challenges of the two shows are very different. The Wire is closer to the Sops in terms of the scope of the world it presents and the characters that populate it. The Sopranos had a vast cast to flesh out, while Breaking Bad presents a very contained world of around half a dozen characters. Even though I never liked most of the personalities in The Sops, there was a clear attempt to put meat on a number of the secondary characters. With BB we go deep into Walt, Hank, Skyler and Jesse, and then it's a very shallow take on the secondary characters around them: Walt Jnr, Marie, Saul, Gus, Mike, Lydia, Skinny Pete & Badger etc.

 

[jonny88]

Sopranos was good but there's nothing like Breaking Bads writing. No filler episodes. Watches all the way thru so well. Walts character development was brilliant.

I also have to agree The Wire is HBOs best offering to date. (side note)

Don't agree with "The Wire" being the best from HBO. I watched the whole series a few weeks ago. It was good, but nothing amazing. It was like a more mature version of "NYPD Blue", or "Law And Order" or something. I still wish they had focused on the Criminals a little more, it was 60-40 for the most part l found.

My Favorite from HBO Is "The Sopranos", then "Oz". "Oz" had some amazing writing, and for sure had the most dramatic relationships and backstabbing l have ever seen in a show. "Oz" is very underrated and many have never seen it.

"Sopranos" was great because it was day to day life, not a single story line, like maybe breaking bad. That's why "The Sopranos" never had that filler episode feel.

 

[Lejuan]

The Wire presents a socio-political polemic within a palpably rich and textured world that is unparalleled in TV or cinema. It's a fair bit more than a mature version of other TV shows

 

[Invictus Sol]

I loved The Wire and it probably is technically the best written TV show ever but the premise of looking at a different aspect of the socio-political life in West Baltimore by the fifth season had worn thin (also think it was cynical to a fault by the end). They definitely ended it at the right time.

Other thing with it is it requires such a huge investment in time and attention that it's difficult for me to see ever watching it again (might binge watch it, one more time someday, but that would be it). It's not like certain shows where I'll just watch a favourite episode in isolation. With The Wire, you have to watch several all together and it's dense viewing, which I don't always enjoy. For my tastes, Breaking Bad has cracked the formula of being intelligent but without feeling like I'm reading an essay. It's just got sort of an effortlessness about it.

 

[Lejuan]

Breaking Bad is great viewing and one of my favourite all-time shows - but essentially it's an elaborate cat-and-mouse format where each cause-and-effect scenario is relatively contained. It's slick, but it doesn't reward active viewer engagement in the way that The Wire or The Sopranos does. The Sops vs The Wire would be a more apples-and-apples show comparison.

But character is important for me - I prefer the characterisation in BB more than the Sops, and I prefer the characterisation in The Wire more than BB. I guess I've just decided on my top 3, but I still can't decide well enough to vote in the poll

 

[devilof76]

I've never seen The Wire, but from what I can tell, I'd be bored to tears.

Going by purely personal motivation to watch what entertains me, I'd put Game of Thrones over any show ever made. I can't say that it's a superior work of art compared to Sopranos, simply because I can't judge 30 episodes against 86. But in terms of raw drama, Game of Thrones is unparalleled.

 

[ironwez20]

You would be. I use to be a fan of the wire and last last season was so damn boring. I know they had to show the newspaper company and how things were run but it bored me to death. I still think season 4 of the wire was the best.

 

[Invictus Sol]

Yeah, I was burned-out on The Wire with season 5. For me that's when the premise was really starting to show some flaws.

I'd agree about Game of Thrones. Definitely one of my all time favourites shows. Can't really rank the shows as one being better than the other. I'd just say GoT is first tier for me, along with The Wire, Breaking Bad and The Sopranos.

 

[Lejuan]

And Boardwalk Empire has had a solid start. This is a golden age of TV. Even the lighter stuff can be worth sitting on the couch for.

 

[Snake Plissken]

I love both dearly, but Sopranos has much much more rewatchability than BrBa.

 

[Invictus Sol]

And Boardwalk Empire has had a solid start. This is a golden age of TV. Even the lighter stuff can be worth sitting on the couch for.

Yep, after a disappointing season 3, yesterday's Boardwalk premiere was a nice surprise. Thought it was about perfect for the series.

 

[Brent72]

I tried watching the first season of The Wire and couldn't get into it at all. I'm sure it's probably a great show if you stick with it from start to finish, but it just wasn't my cup of tea.

I've also watched all 3 seasons so far of Boardwalk Empire and it's good, but doesn't hold a candle to The Sopranos or Breaking Bad IMHO. Someone made a good point about how Buscemi, while a great actor, was miscast as Nucky. There's nothing imposing about him whatsoever and when you compare his "boss" role to Gandolfini's Tony Soprano it really is almost laughable.

I think it's pretty clear that BB and The Sopranos are on a completely different level than pretty much all other TV shows. If I had to rank my all-time Top 5 TV dramas, right now it would be:

The Sopranos
Breaking Bad
The Shield
Sons of Anarchy
24(the first 5 seasons before it went completely downhill)

 

[jonny88]

^^ The first season of "The Wire" sucked, I agree. After that it really picked up, and was way better.

Unlike what many said about season 5 of the wire, I really liked it. McNaulty, Staging homeless murders making it look like there was a cereal killer in order to get funding for the drug case was hilarious. Season 2 of the wire was my favorite personally. It's good series, but it will be a wile before l watch it again.

"Game Of Thrones" is incredible as well of course.

Boardwalk" is great as well, but season 3 was so horrible it's hard to get over, pretty much every main character was cut from that season. Hope season 4 starts fresh. They really need to cut out Margaret, or just stop focusing on her.

MY fav 3 shows I would say is "Sopranos", "Oz", "Game Of Thrones"

 

[Snake Plissken]

After getting pretty much the full fill of BrBa. I can say with certainty that the Sopranos is the better show, even though this last season of BrBa has been stellar.

 

[pturtle]

Sopranos, and it isn’t even close in my opinion.

 

[CelticPredator]

Staging homeless murders making it look like there was a cereal killer in order to get funding for the drug case