The Wire and GOT

I love them both, with a slight preference for the Wire (at this point, who knows how GOT ends up).

I love them for very different reasons though - to use a terrible food related analogy:

The Wire is like having a fine meal at a Gastric Bistro. You don't necessarily appreciate the complexity and impact of the meal until you deconstruct it (combination of flavors, how they blend etc).

GOT on the other hand is like your favorite meal at a local hole in the wall. Probably won't win any Michelan stars, but damn you are jonesing for more the moment you leave the place.

Terrible analogy over.
 
Like he Wire a lot, and good crime shows in general, ones that use subtlety and realism well like The Wire did; but I think Game of Thrones is too over the top in every way (cinematography, acting, sex and violence, etc.). I like my over the top movies and shows to at least acknowledge how absurd they are. I recognize the story behind the show to be good, just not how it's realized on screen. I do not mind fantastical stories at all mind you so it's not that liking one because it's grounded in reality disqualifies the other because it is not.
I've never really seen the split opinions that you/o.p. are referencing though.
 
The people who pick one or the other are petty fanboys.

Both of them are very good shows.
 
Both are good in different ways. Neither is as good as Breaking Bad.
 
Both are good in different ways. Neither is as good as Breaking Bad.

*shrug*

I think you're insane, but everyone is entitled to an opinion.

What about Breaking Bad was better?
 
*shrug*

I think you're insane, but everyone is entitled to an opinion.

What about Breaking Bad was better?
General coherence over the show's run really. The best episodes of The Wire might have been better than the best episodes of Breaking Bad--though that's arguable and they're very close regardless--but The Wire had many missteps. The whole fake serial killer bit was stupid too. They did do a nice job with the ending though. Michael as clearly Omar, what's his name as Bubbs, etc.

Game of Thrones is entertaining and good but doesn't really compare to either in my opinion. Part of that are the compromises that the show has had to make in what they've included and time spent on each story and the general difficulty with trying to shoe horn so much into short seasons.
 
General coherence over the show's run really. The best episodes of The Wire might have been better than the best episodes of Breaking Bad--though that's arguable and they're very close regardless--but The Wire had many missteps. The whole fake serial killer bit was stupid too. They did do a nice job with the ending though. Michael as clearly Omar, what's his name as Bubbs, etc.

Game of Thrones is entertaining and good but doesn't really compare to either in my opinion. Part of that are the compromises that the show has had to make in what they've included and time spent on each story and the general difficulty with trying to shoe horn so much into short seasons.

I feel Game of Thrones is (much) better than Breaking Bad, and The Wire is an entirely different level of television than either of them, but that's just my opinion.
 
thread has provided interesting results. In my experience in RL almost all people I had surveyed (about 9) would either like the Wire and hate Got or just watch GOT and not really know about the wire
 
I feel Game of Thrones is (much) better than Breaking Bad, and The Wire is an entirely different level of television than either of them, but that's just my opinion.
I feel The Wire is (much) better than GOT, and Breaking Bad is an entirely different level of television than either of them.
All three are very good.
 
thread has provided interesting results. In my experience in RL almost all people I had surveyed (about 9) would either like the Wire and hate Got or just watch GOT and not really know about the wire
The first group are probably hipster-ish folk. There were a lot of them on the Breaking Bad threads. The second group is most people, The Wire didn't get a lot of viewers whereas GOT gets people to subscribe to HBO.
 
I feel The Wire is (much) better than GOT, and Breaking Bad is an entirely different level of television than either of them.
All three are very good.

What, in your opinion, elevated Breaking Bad?

It had loose, on the fly writing, and the show bent over backwards to cater to the lowest common denominator. Don't get me wrong, I loved the show, it was incredibly entertaining, and if you want to argue that it was more so than The Wire or Game of Thrones I can see it.

However, if you want to argue that it is the "best" show, or that it is better than the other two, I can't see that at all, the writing was far too inconsistent. They would write themselves into a corner and bluff their way out. The entire finale was based around elements they threw in at random for the final season mid-finale; they had absolutely no idea where those elements were going to go, and as a result we got a magical automated machine gun in the trunk of his car.

So what puts this show on another level? The only thing I felt this show had that really put it on the map was Cranston's performance.
 
What, in your opinion, elevated Breaking Bad?

It had loose, on the fly writing, and the show bent over backwards to cater to the lowest common denominator. Don't get me wrong, I loved the show, it was incredibly entertaining, and if you want to argue that it was more so than The Wire or Game of Thrones I can see it.

However, if you want to argue that it is the "best" show, or that it is better than the other two, I can't see that at all, the writing was far too inconsistent. They would write themselves into a corner and bluff their way out. The entire finale was based around elements they threw in at random for the final season mid-finale; they had absolutely no idea where those elements were going to go, and as a result we got a magical automated machine gun in the trunk of his car.

So what puts this show on another level? The only thing I felt this show had that really put it on the map was Cranston's performance.
Seems like you could make a lot of similar criticisms about The Wire. The whole fifth season was a wreck in terms of writing with tons of, in my opinion, major missteps. As for bluffing your way out of things, that was McNulty that whole season. It was a ludicrous plot device, far moreso than the remote controlled machine gun. I know what they were trying to do but think they failed, with the exception of a very good and poignant wrap-up.

Generally I thought that the writing in The Wire was much more erratic. While the highs of The Wire might have been higher than of Breaking Bad, the lows were much, much lower. That level of consistency mattered to me. I also liked that the story was generally well contained, also good about The Wire. I am also of the opinion that Breaking Bad was also more entertaining as well.
 
Seems like you could make a lot of similar criticisms about The Wire. The whole fifth season was a wreck in terms of writing with tons of, in my opinion, major missteps. As for bluffing your way out of things, that was McNulty that whole season. It was a ludicrous plot device, far moreso than the remote controlled machine gun. I know what they were trying to do but think they failed, with the exception of a very good and poignant wrap-up.

Generally I thought that the writing in The Wire was much more erratic. While the highs of The Wire might have been higher than of Breaking Bad, the lows were much, much lower. That level of consistency mattered to me. I also liked that the story was generally well contained, also good about The Wire. I am also of the opinion that Breaking Bad was also more entertaining as well.

No, I don't see any of this. Yes, the serial killer angle was poor, but it was one of several things going on the fifth season. Detractors of The Wire cling to that like a life raft.

In any case, I don't really have anything else to add to this discussion.
 
No, I don't see any of this. Yes, the serial killer angle was poor, but it was one of several things going on the fifth season. Detractors of The Wire cling to that like a life raft.
I'm hardly a detractor. I think it is the second best show ever to air on television. And, again, one could counter critics of Breaking Bad in the same way. The machine gun was only one thing but detractors cling to it like a life raft. Unfortunately, the serial killer angle was far more relevant to the fifth season of The Wire--it drove investigations, the fall of several key characters, and the newspaper story line--than the machine gun was.

Both are great shows but The Wire devotees always seem pretty hipsterish in their criticisms of Breaking Bad. Frankly the criticisms levied seem quite niggling.
 
I loved both.

The Wire was top notch television, though. Nothing else touched it. I also loved that it brought the acting genius of Idris Elba to the attention of 'Murican audiences.
 
I loved both.

The Wire was top notch television, though. Nothing else touched it. I also loved that it brought the acting genius of Idris Elba to the attention of 'Murican audiences.
Elba was great, though I think that he was a little overly pensive in how he portrayed Bell. Just a little bit, it was still a fantastic performance.
Luther was fucking awesome.
 
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