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Post by notacrook on Mar 29, 2018 15:08:31 GMT
Which network had the better double-whammy of outstanding TV drama: HBO with The Sopranos and The Wire or AMC with Mad Men and Breaking Bad.
They are without a doubt my four favourite dramas of all-time, and all rank in my general top 5 (Mad Men #1, The Wire #3, The Sopranos #4 and Breaking Bad #5). It's therefore difficult to compare, since AMC has my clear favourite and least-favourite (relatively speaking) of the bunch. On the whole, I think I'd give the edge to the HBO one-two punch, since Breaking Bad does lag slightly behind the other three in terms of richness in storytelling and character work.
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Post by ibbi on Mar 29, 2018 16:57:15 GMT
Hell of a comparison! I feel the way about Breaking Bad that a lot of people tend to about Mad Men and The Sopranos - that it nosedived monstrously late on (in isolation season 5a might work, but joined up with the rest of the show it's a disaster), but recovered for its final run. I don't tend to feel that way about those other two shows, which to me never stopped being interesting even when they were not at their very best. The Wire's season 5 is definitely not on the same level as its first 4 years, but again, I think it's strong enough that I can forgive that. I'd go with the HBO pair too, though more and more I feel like I love Mad Men more than anything. What's really amazing about that HBO golden age is that it wasn't just those two shows, but a decade and change worth of near faultless awesomeness.
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Post by stephen on Mar 29, 2018 17:03:18 GMT
The Wire and Breaking Bad are so close that I might as well group them as 1A and 1B. Where the former show wins out in terms of writing and scope, the latter is stronger in terms of direction and acting. But they are pretty high flawless in my book.
Mad Men has an incredible first four seasons, but dear God it goes downhill after that, with the sixth season being one of the worst runs of TV I've seen in a long, long time. If the show had ended with "Tomorrowland," it would be in the conversation for being the greatest show of all time, but those last three/four years cripple it so hard.
The Sopranos needs a rewatch. I'd rate it lower than the other three, and I'd argue Deadwood and Carnivale are superior in every way to it, but as The Sopranos got to actually end on its own terms as well as being such an influential game-changer, I acknowledge it as worthy of comparison and importance here.
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Post by notacrook on Mar 29, 2018 17:55:42 GMT
Mad Men has an incredible first four seasons, but dear God it goes downhill after that, with the sixth season being one of the worst runs of TV I've seen in a long, long time. If the show had ended with "Tomorrowland," it would be in the conversation for being the greatest show of all time, but those last three/four years cripple it so hard. I love it to death, hence it being my all-time favourite show. I think it threatened to fall apart during the Season 6/7A run, with lots of new characters and subplots that varied in quality, but Season 5 was possibly the show at its finest and it really picked itself up with that final run. |
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Post by stephen on Mar 29, 2018 17:56:55 GMT
Mad Men has an incredible first four seasons, but dear God it goes downhill after that, with the sixth season being one of the worst runs of TV I've seen in a long, long time. If the show had ended with "Tomorrowland," it would be in the conversation for being the greatest show of all time, but those last three/four years cripple it so hard. I love it to death, hence it being my all-time favourite show. I think it threatened to fall apart during the Season 6/7A run, with lots of new characters and subplots that varied in quality, but Season 5 was possibly the show at its finest and it really picked itself up with that final run. There's a lot of good in Season 5 (Jared Harris and Christina Hendricks get incredible material to work with), but that's when the Megan encroachment begins and Don becomes incredibly uninteresting. The only reason I didn't bail on the show in Season 6 was Bob Benson. Best character of all time. |
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AKenjiB
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Post by AKenjiB on Mar 29, 2018 22:43:29 GMT
That’s a great question and a really difficult one since all 4 shows are phenomenal. I might give the HBO shows an incredibly slight edge. The 5th season of The Wire isn’t exactly the strongest but I still love the series finale.
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Post by theycallmemrfish on Mar 30, 2018 0:06:27 GMT
I only made it through 3 episodes of Mad Men before calling it quits, so I can't quite comment about that... but I think the HBO duo you chose are WILDLY overrated. Both have some absolutely great moments, but there's also a good amount of filler that I think people tend to overlook that dragged them down for me.
While I love BB, I think it definitely went off the rails a few times, but I'd comfortably rate it much higher than the other two shows.
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