Big question for fans of 'The Wire' and 'Breaking Bad'

[Social Distance Warrior]

The reason why I hate threads like this is that fans from both sides tend to nitpick the other show to death.

Sure both shows have their flaws, but without question are head and shoulders better than 99 percent of the other Shows in TV history.

 

[Breakage]

Same old shit around here man. Good to see you're around again.

Yeah I've noticed lol.

You could just leave it at "I didn't like it".

Clearly there are a lot of people who did, including me.

I think you're insane if you think nothing happened in season two. I thought it was pretty heavy.

If I want to voice a criticism, I will. To me it was boring as shit. Everyone else could realize that it's my opinion and leave it at that. Again, this has nothing to do who likes what, this is about condescending pricks who like to dismiss any criticism by telling you how you just didn't get it.

You've been respectful about it, so I'm not talking about you, but just look through the posts and it's the same shit in every Wire thread. The hilarious elitist attitude towards a tv show is a constant.

Of course saying literally nothing happened is hyperbole, but it was nothing that I found very interesting. Like I said a while back, oh well.

 

[Loiosh]

Yeah I've noticed lol.



If I want to voice a criticism, I will. To me it was boring as shit. Everyone else could realize that it's my opinion and leave it at that. Again, this has nothing to do who likes what, this is about condescending pricks who like to dismiss any criticism by telling you how you just didn't get it.

You've been respectful about it, so I'm not talking about you, but just look through the posts and it's the same shit in every Wire thread. The hilarious elitist attitude towards a tv show is a constant.

Of course saying literally nothing happened is hyperbole, but it was nothing that I found very interesting. Like I said a while back, oh well.

I love the show, and hearing someone describe season two as a sleeping aid gets under my skin. Also, I get the impression you really enjoy pissing off the "condescending pricks" by insulting something they obviously love, because this is the internet, and people suck on the internet.

A good friend of mine didn't like season two at all, but he didn't feel the need to beat people over the head with it.

 

[Breakage]

I love the show, and hearing someone describe season two as a sleeping aid gets under my skin. Also, I get the impression you really enjoy pissing off the "condescending pricks" by insulting something they obviously love, because this is the internet, and people suck on the internet.

A good friend of mine didn't like season two at all, but he didn't feel the need to beat people over the head with it.

I've really just been responding to people, if you noticed.

My first post was obviously facetious as I made a pretty reasonable follow up post. But yeah, pissing off someone who wants to talk down to people is pretty amusing. I'm really only an asshole to other assholes on this site.

 

[UpaLoompa]

I love both and watched both in basically marathons. Breaking Bad takes it with little room for discussion. I honestly think it is one of the best things ever done in movie or television.
I can think of no show that has been more coherent and solid throughout all of its seasons. Even the worst episodes are far better than almost anything else out there.
You can always nit pick things but on the whole I think Breaking Bad takes it easily. The Wire is one of the best shows of all time but Breaking Bad is markedly better.

Except Omar. Omar > All.

 

[UpaLoompa]

Marlo alone made season 5 badass. "My name is my name!"

Season 5 was overall one of my favorites. Proposition Joe finally got got, Omar too. Micheal and Dukie were two compelling transformations. Dukie was that familiar character you might recognize in everyday life but never quite saw realized on television.

I loved the follow up with Dukie and Michael. I really thought a lot of the season was too contrived though.

 

[DeeConn]

The Wire was good, New York Undercover was better
Breaking Bad is meh

The Sopranos, Dexter, Californication, Drew Carey Show-all better.

 

[UpaLoompa]

The Wire was good, New York Undercover was better
Breaking Bad is meh

The Sopranos, Dexter, Californication, Drew Carey Show-all better.

Dexter has had some great episodes and the premise is fantastic. It also has had some rather blah seasons.

In this and the last season of Dexter I've also gotten really annoyed and suspect that the current writers of the show never bothered to watch the first few seasons of the show they're now writing.
Last season and Deb trying to treat Dexter like an addict and talking about addiction. Yeah, we already had that with the crazy woman that killed Doakes. This season with Dexter taking an apprentice. Same thing in season 1 or 2. Fucking annoying.

 

[FishinWithFredo]

The main reason people don't like the Wire is because it's too complex and it's not all brainless action. Hence why its ratings cannot stack up against shows like BB and people find it 'boring'.

Lol'd so hard. 2deep4me I guess

 

[Diamond Jim]

Both bow down to The Sopranos.

 

[jukebox]

Lol'd so hard. 2deep4me I guess

Maybe.

Lots of people I know would not have the patience to watch all of the Wire. Ask yourself how much do you enjoy football, soccer, boxing, aeronautical engineering or organic chemistry. Then think about how much of an understanding you have about those subjects. It's simple, the more you understand something the more you fascinate you find it. Most people (myself included) don't know or care about how a councilman becomes mayor and tries to run a broke city. Or how stevedores operate daily. To those who know what they're watching it will be more interesting.

Not only that though, as David Simon said, bad time slots, ebonics and a mainly African American cast, many of which are gangsters, are also part of it. It's surprising to me that the Wire is so well received on here, maybe the mayberry is a little more tolerant than the war room.

 

[UpaLoompa]

Maybe.

Lots of people I know would not have the patience to watch all of the Wire. Ask yourself how much do you enjoy football, soccer, boxing, aeronautical engineering or organic chemistry. Then think about how much of an understanding you have about those subjects. It's simple, the more you understand something the more you fascinate you find it. Most people (myself included) don't know or care about how a councilman becomes mayor and tries to run a broke city. Or how stevedores operate daily. To those who know what they're watching it will be more interesting.

Never having lived in a really big city, let alone in areas like those featured in the show, I found a lot of those aspects fascinating. I don't think a lot of patience or any particularly high intellect was needed for the wire though. It was just a very, very good show, though not as good as Breaking Bad.

Then again, most people seem to watch reality show crap so maybe the viewership is different in intelligence.

(I liked Season 2 a lot by the way)

Not only that though, as David Simon said, bad time slots, ebonics and a mainly African American cast, many of which are gangsters, are also part of it. It's surprising to me that the Wire is so well received on here, maybe the mayberry is a little more tolerant than the war room.

The War Room is often pretty much Stormfront Lite / Fox News Comments section so yeah, you're probably right on that.

 

[WalkenWouldOwn]

I watched a few seasons of Breaking Bad and it's a pretty solid show, but The Wire in my humble opinion is a lot better.

Agreed. I enjoy BB but I don't think it's quite on the same level.

 

[UpaLoompa]

Agreed. I enjoy BB but I don't think it's quite on the same level.

I was watching all the seasons of The Wire while also watching all the seasons of Breaking Bad. While the first season of The Wire was on par with Breaking Bad, the rest weren't. The Wire also ended somewhat weakly in my opinion--despite the fantastic way they wrapped things up with Dukie and Michael (i.e. Bubbles and Omar). Breaking Bad meanwhile has slowly and tightly built over the course of 4.5 seasons. The coherence of the story, the writing, and the acting of Breaking Bad are just better. Not by much but consistently enough that the show ends up considerably better taken as a whole.

The Wire was an absolutely fantastic show and had some of the best scenes in television ever and, as others have talked about, very effectively made a city a driving character in the story.

The best episodes of Breaking Bad and The Wire aren't much different in quality. The difference is that Breaking Bad pretty much was always at that level.

 

[UpaLoompa]

As an aside, Omar's testimony and tie was one of the best scenes ever.

 

[WalkenWouldOwn]

I was watching all the seasons of The Wire while also watching all the seasons of Breaking Bad. While the first season of The Wire was on par with Breaking Bad, the rest weren't. The Wire also ended somewhat weakly in my opinion--despite the fantastic way they wrapped things up with Dukie and Michael (i.e. Bubbles and Omar). Breaking Bad meanwhile has slowly and tightly built over the course of 4.5 seasons. The coherence of the story, the writing, and the acting of Breaking Bad are just better. Not by much but consistently enough that the show ends up considerably better taken as a whole.

The Wire was an absolutely fantastic show and had some of the best scenes in television ever and, as others have talked about, very effectively made a city a driving character in the story.

The best episodes of Breaking Bad and The Wire aren't much different in quality. The difference is that Breaking Bad pretty much was always at that level.

Nah.

Characters make a show for me. The Wire had too many deep, interesting characters to count. BB, for me, I can't stand anyone except Hank, Gus, and Mike. Personal preference.

 

[Caution]

It has the potential to surpass it.

I just hope it doesn't end like The Sopranos.

 

[UpaLoompa]

Nah.

 

[Stringer Bell]

why did I read this entire thread?

 

[Striderxdj]

Both bow down to The Sopranos.

Sopranos is good but left without really concluding anything, had so many unbelievable and idiotic events, and aj is arguably one of the biggest crybaby piece of spoiled dogshit characters to ever appear on tv... he makes skylar from bb, laurie from wd, and agent stahl from soa seem likable.