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The Wire vs Breaking Bad no holds barred cage match!

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The Wire vs Breaking Bad

  • The Wire

  • Breaking Bad

Results are only viewable after voting.
I tried to watch it like 2 or 3 years ago and it felt sooooo dated. I imagine I would have really liked it in high school, you can tell the people involved had a lot of passion for the project.
 
everything on the internet has to be one or the other. why can't someone just like both shows? they both own in their own ways.

but as Jeebus said, the shield owns them both.
 
omar-little.jpg


BALTIMORE (WJZ)– Stranger than fiction. An arrest in Baltimore is making news across the country.

Omar Little Jr. is behind bars in Baltimore for a handgun violation.
The suspect shares the name of one of the most iconic characters on the former HBO series “The Wire.” The gritty crime drama was based on life in Baltimore City.

The real Omar Little is being held on $350,000 bond.

“The Wire’s” creator and former Sun reporter, David Simon, says the existence of a real life Omar Little is a complete coincidence.
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Thread seems to be going backwards a bit, but WTH I guess.

On a side note, had never noticed the Zig Ziglar quote before, I'd even forgotten he ever existed. Not really any offense intended, but really ?
 
Childs said:
I thought his turn to evil happened early on, at least in Season 2. Definitely when he raped his wife. I think letting Jessica Jones die happened before that. He was a despicable character.
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Even not saving her - she was threatening his going to prison basically, and he didn't actively killed but let her own actions do it - not nothing but 'less evil'.

That's what I mean - it wasn't simply an act of cruelty for its own sake, it was the sort of act a lot of people would have to ask themselves if it was that or years in prison.

So it's a lot more gradual move to 'evil'. It had another stage later when he told Jesse about it seeming to take some cruel pleasure in it he didn't feel when he did it.
 
MongGrel said:
Thread seems to be going backwards a bit, but WTH I guess.

On a side note, had never noticed the Zig Ziglar quote before, I'd even forgotten he ever existed. Not really any offense intended, but really ?
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You don't like Zig Ziglar or you don't like the quote?

I think it's ironic and funny that Zig Ziglar said that.
 
As much as I loved BB, one of the weakest point of it (and show/movies like these) are that all the thrill scenes where Walter was supposedly in "danger". A show that revolves around that main character isn't going to get him killed. So all such scenes and plot/story parts were really quite empty and silly

The Wire of course is a much deeper, profound work.
 
Craig234 said:
Whatever Gilligan thinks, I don't think it's that simple. White's motives to help his family much of the time, the fact that his targets of violence are typically people who are quite evil and threatening his life and leaving him little choice, greatly challenge that 'villain' label for him.

Rather, it seems a study in someone who has flaws, who finds he actually enjoys some of the wrongdoing he 'has to do' more than he's 'supposed to'.

The climax of his 'evil' seems to be like a moment late in the show where he admits his motive changed to become that he enjoyed the power and money.

Oh, the horror. Who wouldn't take a little satisfaction from killing a monster who was trying to kill him and others? In obtaining hundreds of millions?

The source of his money though, ultimately, was creating something very harmful to people - that harm rarely shown in the show, and White rarely concerned about the harm.

That is a sort of evil. But it's masked by the seemingly much more evil around him.

The show seems to me more an exploration of what is evil, than White as villain. He might be a villain by Gilligan's definition, but a lot of his actions were of the 'you didn't put yourself in jail, broke, instead of killing that drug lord' sort. (Spoiler next) Look at his first killing, of the relentless drug dealer who pretended to be happy not to harm White, but was found to really be plotting to kill him, leaving White little choice after he tried to avoid the violence. Just what was White supposed to do?

Gilligan might be 'trying to have it both ways' with his putting White in those situations yet wanting him to be a 'villain'.

Perhaps Gilligan was a bit of villain for his treatment of the audience at times.

The cold-blooded murder of Jesse's very sympathetic girlfriend, a mother, seemed quite gratuitous for the show to do - traumatizing the audience cruelly.

Gilligan's arc seemed intended to be 'watch a high school teacher family man become evil' - hence the name of the show - but he seems to have 'cheated' regarding him being a 'villain'.
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If you listen to Gilligan's interview on the WTF podcast, it's fairly clear the show didn't have the arc and scope it ultimately had from the get-go. Obviously it started with this somewhat simple idea of a chemistry teacher making meth. But Jesse was going to be killed off, they weren't sure the show would even last, and there were numerous writers working on the show shaping it.
 
Craig234 said:
Nope. No recency bias, I just think Breaking Bad - despite real flaws - was better.
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Was not talking about individuals, was just saying that is why the poll is so lopsided. More people have seen it and more recently.

KT
 
not even close. breaking bad isn't on the top tier

KT is right, people only remember the most recent thing (and more people have seen BB for sure)
 
The main reason why I chose The Wire over Breaking Bad is the development and execution of the story. Breaking Bad started to feel more and more like cheap thrills and one-upping the previous seasons. The Wire executed a story of crime flawlessly and managed to still leave the viewer very satisfied.

I think The Wire will hold up better to a rewatch due to the depth of the story compared to Breaking Bad as well. But I have not rewatched either so I may be wrong.
 
momeNt said:
The main reason why I chose The Wire over Breaking Bad is the development and execution of the story. Breaking Bad started to feel more and more like cheap thrills and one-upping the previous seasons. The Wire executed a story of crime flawlessly and managed to still leave the viewer very satisfied.

I think The Wire will hold up better to a rewatch due to the depth of the story compared to Breaking Bad as well. But I have not rewatched either so I may be wrong.
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The other thing that makes the Wire so great is that it was very much real. It was written and created by two blokes that lived in and understand every facet of the institutions that created and fed the drug trade within Baltimore--a homicide detective and journalist. It was also heavily populated by real Boston criminals (hell--Snoop was recently sent back to prison, right...and I think she might even be dead? I forget)

It was a very well-constructed piece of work that dissected each institution to its core, detailing the systemic failures at each level, despite some real honest people trying to make these things work. The only issue with it being "cut short" was that the final season was ordered two or three episodes shorter than written--I think it was one or two years before the strike, right? HBO "cancelled it," for some reason, by cutting out those final episodes, which is really strange. Still, I think the final season was great despite most people thinking it was the weakest. At least, what they were doing with it was great. Obviously it has issues because of the cancelled episodes, but I look at that as administrative issues.

Breaking Bad is also great but there really is an issue of bias due to the simple fact that far, far more people have seen it and it is certainly more entertaining. I think BB is a smart show and the writing is superb, but the Wire is far more cerebral. It requires a greater attention span than most modern viewers will ever allow. It's going to suffer popularity from this point on simply because shows like Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead have forever changed the perspective of the majority of viewers--The same people aren't really going to be watching The Sopranos anymore, either. ...which is why I am not sure that The Wire will hold up as well during re-watches. I much prefer the Wire, but I would rather re-watch Breaking Bad. Breaking Bad was also carefully constructed throughout the series, despite a handful of plot turns that probably were not predicted early, but it is a show that you can go back to and tease out some subtle hints about story lines and characters that you would have missed before. The Wire doesn't really have this because it isn't so heavily scripted as an overarching dramatic storyline. The Wire is very much character-driven as well, but they are all players in a grand morality tale about civic decay: "Baltimore" is, in a way, the main character.
 
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^ the walking dead would probably beat the wire and the sopranos in a poll, which just shows you polls are dumb and so are people
 
slayer202 said:
^ the walking dead would probably beat the wire and the sopranos in a poll, which just shows you polls are dumb and so are people
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Easily. I haven't been able to watch The Walking Dead for 2 and a half seasons now, it is so fucking stupid. Thing is, it seems that a lot of the long-time fans admit as much that it is awful, but they still must watch. Which pretty much explains everything, no? 😀

At least Better Call Saul is back on--which is a fantastic show. Were it not for that, I wouldn't like BB as much, I think.
 
KeithTalent said:
Was not talking about individuals, was just saying that is why the poll is so lopsided. More people have seen it and more recently.
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It's not always recency bias though - for example, I thought the Shield was great, but almost immediately dated by following shows that went further. Same with Hill Street Blues.

I call it the grittiness evolution - Dragnet was cutting edge when on. Barney Miller a little more edge. Hill Street Blues, NYPD Blue, The Shield, The Wire. Each evolved.
 
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