The Sopranos vs The Wire

Bounty Hunter

Argueably and IMO the two best television shows ever made, but which is better ?



the following links to critical arguements for both shows
http://www.salon.com/ent/tv/feature/2007/09/15/best_show/index.html


Sopranos- Created by David Chase, the series revolves around mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads.


The Wire- Created by David Simon, each season of The Wire focuses on a different facet of the city of Baltimore. They are, in order: the drug trade, the port, the city bureaucracy, the school system, and the print news media.

Jilm

I was a big fan of the Sopranos but the last 2 seasons were comparatively poor.

The Wire wins for me as it's the best TV series in recent times.

timmy69

Has to be The Sopranos! The Wire a close second though.

scholes19

A can of worms has been opened,

I didnt follow either from the beginning but at Easter I began watching the Sopranos. Finished the whole 6/7 series there about 2weeks ago. Twas quality.

So last week I began watching The Wire, finished season one, and Im impressed by what ive seen so far. However the pic up top has kinda given me a inkling that Omar(the fag) is gonna remain throught the series and compete with T. Im afraid T will win hands down.

Sopranos gets my vote 'cause of the shere wit and comic scenes, while the Wire has left me wanting more. Its a tough one, i must say!:rolleyes:

Mr.Nice Guy

The Sopranos. Why you ask? Well because...

/fade to black

madrab

the wire mainly because its plot actually went somewhere

ronnie3585

The Wire by a country mile. Sopranos is very good but The Wire surpasses it on every level I'm afraid.

godtabh

The Wire because I said so

JP Liz

The Wire

ojewriej

Even Steven. They are both great. I would throw The Shield to the mix too.

ixoy

'The Wire' by a long, long way. Always felt 'The Sopranos' is a very over-rated show.

Mossy Monk

A tough decision. But The Wire wins for me.

techdiver

The Wire all the way. Fantastic show!

The Wire by a long way. The sopranos had so much hype, looking at it now it's just a soap opera with blood and cuss words.

Davei141

Sopranos. I loved watching them both but the sopranos was more enjoyable to me. Both shows are over rated(especially the wire on boards) but both great to watch.

Ludo

Definitely The Wire IMHO...by a long way.

But having said that, The West Wing kicks both their asses

dr.bollocko

The Sopranos is one of the most well crafted television shows ever made whereas The wire is the carlsberg special brew of the crime genre.

lukin

I've never seen The Wire would you believe, but I intend to start watching season one soon. I think The Sopranos is the best series I've ever seen, The Wire would have to be pretty good to top it.
I saw a trailer for the first series on youtube, it looks like any other cop show to be honest.

godtabh

Davei141 wrote: »

Sopranos. I loved watching them both but the sopranos was more enjoyable to me. Both shows are over rated(especially the wire on boards) but both great to watch.

I dont think its a matter of it being over rated its just got a massive cult following.

lukin wrote: »

I've never seen The Wire would you believe, but I intend to start watching season one soon. I think The Sopranos is the best series I've ever seen, The Wire would have to be pretty good to top it.
I saw a trailer for the first series on youtube, it looks like any other cop show to be honest.

If you think the Wire is like CSi or the like you're very much mistaken. CSi is something you can jump in and out of any time you want. You cant do that with the Wire. Its a thinking mans show

ronnie3585

kearnsr wrote: »

Its a thinking mans show

Nicely put.

ilovemybrick

Its like asking which lung I need more. I vote both of them.

jor el

The Wire wins hands down. Sopranos is good, but I felt very let down by the way it all ended, and not just the final scene, but pretty much the whole final season.

Fighting Irish

Sopranos ftw

The wire was good but not as great as everyone makes out

Davei141

kearnsr wrote: »

I dont think its a matter of it being over rated its just got a massive cult following.

Its definitely over rated by this cult following on boards, i mean the show is great but the way people go on about it makes my eyes bleed.

Its a thinking mans show

Please...

shane86

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

The Sopranos. Why you ask? Well because...

/fade to black

Holy god no. Dont let terms like innovative and original overshadow terms such as lazy writing.


Cant judge, Ive only seen maybe 3 eps of The Wire given its biazrre scheduling (and I just cant be arsed going to the hassle of downloading tv shows)

The Wire by a long way. I never really liked the Sopranos, sure it's an entertaining show but it neveer went anywhere. I can easily sit down and rewatch all of the Wire, which I have done on numerous ocassions but I cannot bring myself to rewatch the Sopranos.

Kur4mA

The Wire easily.

godtabh

Davei141 wrote: »

Its definitely over rated by this cult following on boards, i mean the show is great but the way people go on about it makes my eyes bleed.



Please...

good argument. I'm sold

TheScript

It has to be The Sopranos, its the best show ever made!

GhostInTheRuins

When I saw the Sopranos first I thought it was brilliant, but when I went to watch it again I saw it in a completely different light, it just didn't seem anywhere near as good as the first time I saw it. The wire, on ther other hand, is entirely rewatchable, actually, it's better the second time around.

tvnutz

Has to be the Wire. Have always felt the Sopranos was way overrated. Great show,but overrated and not as good as the Wire. Both brilliantly written shows,both brilliantly acted,but the Wire just always had more for me. The Sopranos had about a dozen or so main characters for the run of the show while the Wire had probably double that,and I felt more for every character in the Wire than in the Sopranos.

Perhaps one of the main things for me was that I never liked Tony Soprano. I know he was a bad man,but a lot of people I have talked to love the character despite this. Its not uncommon in tv shows,in Dexter the guy is a serial killer,but for some reason you root for him. In the Wire,Omar is a gangster killing people but you root for him,same with Stringer Bell. Don't kwo what it was about Tony,I always wanted him to get what was coming to him,I was rooting for him to die in the last episode.

Sherifu

The Wire, easily. I still love The sopranos too.

niallk

shane86 wrote: »

Holy god no. Dont let terms like innovative and original overshadow terms such as lazy writing.

I hardly think it's lazy writing. David Chase spent over a year writing that single episode. Watch it again. See the level of detail. See the genius. He wasn't trying to be innovative. He just didn't conform to Hollywood's constant need to provide closure. Did we really need to see someone spray Tony's brains over his dinner?

Haven't seen the Wire BTW but have heard good things. Mostly in this thread. Can't imagine it could top the Sopranos. The Sopranos really was a thinking man's show but I admit it can be watched superficially as a ganster show with sex and violence, etc.. I disagree with it being called a soap however. Each episode (especially in early seasons) is like a short film unto itself. I can't see it ever being topped.

KerranJast

I love the Sopranos. It was a great show but it always felt like an extended homage to Goodfelllas or The Godfather. Yes there were more varied plotlines and they had more time to expand on characters but you never really lost the sense that it was all a stylised vision of what real mob life was/is like.

The Wire on the other hand is a masterpiece. It is not your regular "crime committed, lots of investigation, chase for suspect, suspect put away, lets do it all again next week" cop show like CSI or Criminal Minds. If TV can approximate real life then The Wire has come the closest to it. I used to describe it as The Sopranos but from the cops point of view but its so much more than that. In reality The Wire is a 5 season exploration of a modern inner US city using Baltimore as its canvas. The criminal angle is better than The Sopranos, the cops POV is better than any cop show ever made, the political machinations make The West Wing look tame and best of all it credits the audience with brains. It doesn't spend half an episode explaining five times over whats happening. That gives it an authenticity thats sorely lacking in most TV.

Sherifu

niallk wrote: »

Haven't seen the Wire BTW but have heard good things. Mostly in this thread. Can't imagine it could top the Sopranos.

You really need to see it before making a call.

niallk

KerranJast wrote: »

I love the Sopranos. It was a great show but it always felt like an extended homage to Goodfelllas or The Godfather. Yes there were more varied plotlines and they had more time to expand on characters but you never really lost the sense that it was all a stylised vision of what real mob life was/is like.

To me, The Sopranos is first and foremost about a man suffering from depression. That is essentially what David Chase is writing about from first hand. The mob thing is just a hook. A very entertaining hook at that. The Sopranos, on the level that I enjoy it is not for every one. I used to talk about it with one of my friends who stopped watching around season 5. While I was enthused about what was going on psychologically,etc., he became bored of the lack of t its.

Sherifu wrote: »

You really need to see it before making a call.

I haven't passed any negative judgementon the Wire yet. I have however voted for the Sopranos none-the-less. It was lightyears ahead of anything else on the box and if The Wire is as good as people say it owes to the Sopranos pushing the bar of intelligent TV programs.

Another great show which I've always prefered to The Sopranos and would call my 2nd favourite show of all time behind The Wire is Oz. And it never gets the acclaim it so rightly deserves.

Davei141

kearnsr wrote: »

good argument. I'm sold

Yawn. Its the thinking mans show. Lmfao.

dr.bollocko

Deleted User wrote: »

Another great show which I've always prefered to The Sopranos and would call my 2nd favourite show of all time behind The Wire is Oz. And it never gets the acclaim it so rightly deserves.

Oz kicks ass alright.
I dont know if it's sopranos good though, considering the last season of it was a major dip from the incredible tension built in the first 3.
It jumped the shark with the musical episode in my opinion.
That's not to say I am bashing it though, a masterful use of strong characters to elevate an incredible sense of tension.

I would put the wire fairly low on the list of my favourite shows to be honest.
Might revisit it, but I have to say... I just really don't get the furore.

KerranJast

dr.bollocko wrote: »

I would put the wire fairly low on the list of my favourite shows to be honest.
Might revisit it, but I have to say... I just really don't get the furore.

How much of it did you watch? I've not met or read posts by anyone who didn't love it once they watched it past ep 8 or 9 of Season 1. You can't dip in and out. It has to be watched all in one go to keep track of all the goings on.

Raoul

ilovemybrick wrote: »

Its like asking which lung I need more. I vote both of them.

I agree. There should be "can't decide" option in the poll.

Tristram

The Wire by a country mile. Intro'd it to discerning friends who also loved it.

transylman

Sopranos for me. Top class acting from Gandolfini and Falco as well as strong support, scenes involving the family that were completely believable, some really funny moments, and plot twists that made the show always capable of shocking. A lot of these qualities are on show in Chrissys intervention.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi-P-HWubbI

Having said that it was only at its best for the first four seasons, the last two series were a big drop off in quality for me.

Sherifu

niallk wrote: »

I haven't passed any negative judgementon the Wire yet. I have however voted for the Sopranos none-the-less. It was lightyears ahead of anything else on the box and if The Wire is as good as people say it owes to the Sopranos pushing the bar of intelligent TV programs.

You seemed to be saying it couldn't top The Sopranos and you voted for The Sopranos, both without seeing The Wire. I find that a bit strange.

As for pushing the bar I can't say one way or the other. I think The Wire owes a lot to it's Writers, Cast and HBO production values.

GhostInTheRuins

Don't forget folks, the new series of the Wire starts tonight on TG4

ronnie3585

GhostInTheRuins wrote: »

Don't forget folks, the new series of the Wire starts tonight on TG4

Nice one, forgot about that.

niallk

GhostInTheRuins wrote: »

Don't forget folks, the new series of the Wire starts tonight on TG4

If I've never seen it before could I watch it from the start of this series? Someone said each season focuses on a different aspect of society. Will it be mainly new characters or what? What time's it on at? Aertel only has TG4 covered up until Amu le Hector at 10.

Bounty Hunter

you could but I most certainley would not.

ojewriej

Yeah, it something you should watch from the start.

You're better of renting a boxset, by the time you watch 4 seasons, 5th might be out on DVD as well

godtabh

niallk wrote: »

If I've never seen it before could I watch it from the start of this series? .

Lots of back stories you wont get if you watch it from season 5

BenEadir

Hi all,

Silly question but I just got a present of the whole Sopranos series and have a problem with one disk which is disk one of Series 3. It has different graphics on the front to the rest of the disks (its plain silver whereas the rest of the disks have artwork) but that's not the proble. The problem is it is supposed to have four episodes "Mr. Ruggerio's Neighbourhood", "Proshai, Livushka", "Fortunate Son" and "Employee of the month" but it actually only has the first two, the second two are missing all together and not even listed on the disk onscreen menu.

I checked the next disk to se if they were on that for some reason but they are not, the next disk only contains the episodes it is supposed to.

The offending disk was brought back to the shop where they were bought and it was excahnged for a disck from an identicl set. It too looks different from the rest of the disks and it too only contains 2 rather than all 4 of the listed episodes.

Am I missing something here? Is this a 'feature' of the box set and I'm just not in the loop?

Really scratching my head here and would very much apreciate some input from the Soprano experts here.

Regards,

Ben