The Wire and GOT

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.

We'll have to agree to disagree about his acting performance in The Wire. I thought he was nigh perfect.

Luther is also in my top 5 favorite shows. His chemistry with Ruth Wilson was absurd.
 
We'll have to agree to disagree about his acting performance in The Wire. I thought he was nigh perfect.
It really was very, very, very good. I just think he overdid it a tiny amount at times. I actually think Wood Harris was better because Bell was a little too much. Still one of the best performances out there (not as good as in Luther though).
When talking about acting in these shows and comparing shows like The Wire and Breaking Bad we're really quibbling about small aspects.
 
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.


You played the hipster card; I guess that's easier than illustrating why you feel Breaking Bad is on a higher level.

Why don't you try?

Prove Breaking Bad was the best. Show what it had. Give examples of great writing, great character development, complex story telling. Anything.

Or, you can play another round of "I know you are but what am I" and just flip everything around again. That's always fun.
 
You played the hipster card; I guess that's easier than illustrating why you feel Breaking Bad is on a higher level.

Why don't you try?

Prove Breaking Bad was the best. Show what it had. Give examples of great writing, great character development, complex story telling. Anything.

Or, you can play another round of "I know you are but what am I" and just flip everything around again. That's always fun.
I can't prove Breaking Bad was the best anymore than you can prove The Wire is the best. Both were fantastic. In my opinion the overall run of Breaking Bad was more coherent and stronger but I don't disagree that the best episodes of The Wire were as good or possibly even better than the best episodes of Breaking Bad.

I'm not interested in quibbling about details, hence the hipster comment. However, the issues that you point out in Breaking Bad apply, in my opinion much more to The Wire. You're seriously going to grumble about the machine gun given the much greater importance of the serial killer silliness to the fifth season of The Wire? That's asinine.

This is basically like arguing between Fedor and Anderson Silva.
 
Literally FINALLY finishing watching the Wire (up to s5 e4) and I have to say, one of the best shows I've ever watched. The development and portrayals of characters like Omar and Bubbles are amazing!

Having said that, I still enjoy GOT but don't rate it anywhere near as highly as the books which were so freaking good!
 
The Wire is completely different from GOT or Breaking Bad. The Wire is a commentary on blue collar workers, blue collar workers, urban youth, the drug problem, politics, and the media. The reason why the show works as well as it does because the show doesn't portray any of the characters as being black or white. With the kids, it is easy to see how good kids can get dragged into bad situations. The most "unrealistic" character is maybe Omar and that is just due to how he talks. The show was written by beat journalists so it is ground on actually characters, especially the season dedicated to the media. It is a show that changes your perspective or at least makes you rethink a lot of your opinions on things.

Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones are both great stories. I like Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones but both are both just really good stories. Comparing these two to the Wire isn't really fare because it is like comparing apples to oranges. There isn't anything like the Wire but if you were to compare it to something similar, I might compare it to a Kevin Burn's documentary but even at that they are two different things.

The only thing that I think you can compare between Breaking Bad and The Wire is the level of acting. I can't think of one actor in either show that didn't do a great job.
 
If Game of Thrones Characters Were on The Wire, Who Would They Be?
140530_BB_GOT-WireMashUp.jpg.CROP.original-original.jpg


http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat...ing_the_characters_on_each_show_to_their.html
 
This thread needed a poll...

But I'm with the majority...Both are awesome.
 
this thread restored my faith in humanity, thanks guys
 
I wasn't a fan of the school stuff.
S3 is about as good as a tv show can get.

Agreed

I like both. Game of thrones is incredibly well acted, but I don't think the story is on the same level of enthralling as the Wire was.

There's some great series around right now:

GoT
The Knick
The Leftovers
Homeland
True Detective

All great shows.

The season finale of the Leftovers is possibly the greatest finale I have ever seen.
 
If Game of Thrones Characters Were on The Wire, Who Would They Be?
140530_BB_GOT-WireMashUp.jpg.CROP.original-original.jpg


http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat...ing_the_characters_on_each_show_to_their.html

That's pretty damn good. The only ones I disagree with are Jamie Lannister/Carver and Baratheon/Daniels.

I would say Jamie is closer to prop joe, in always trying to find a way to deal himself out of a mess, very sure of themselves in their skill sets and position/role they play in the game and both have a similarly sardonic wit.

Baratheon is more like Lester Freeman. Both clung for very long to the old ways and wound up stuck in a world that passed them by, so they're having to adapt and play catch up, sacrificing some of their beliefs for the greater good.
 
It seems that most people who like the Wire don't like GOT
Does anyone around here like both?
No clue what you're talking about. The Wire is the GOAT, but I easily get more excited for new GoT episodes than any other show on television right now.
Take it one word at a time.

It's....incredibly....well....acted. Better?
sandor-clegane-the-hound-rory-mccann-in-mockingbird-844676094.jpg
 
The Wire is a far better show. I have read the books and understand the difficulty of adapting it to TV, but I'm not crazy about a lot of the choices they've made. I still think GOT is one of the better things on TV, but The Wire was exceptional.
 
I don't like GOT. There is just way too many stories that don't come together. I watch it with my roommates and take it for what it is. I only care about the Lanister's story and Jon Snow's. In shows, I like characters and I like to see them exploited. Obviously the show (and books) dosen't follow that same pattern with characters.

I prefer the wire over GOT all the way. The stories and characters all come in full circle. GOT seems like it's getting to be like Lost. Even though we all know George Martin isn't finished, it really doesn't seem like the show knows where it's going. As long as it keeps killing it's main characters, it'll stay as one of the most edgy shows around because thats very unconventional for tv. I'm all for unconventional, but I just can't dig my favorite dudes dying every week. It gives me no reason to go back.
 
I liked both shows.
The Wire is GOAT though, just started rewatching season 1.
Can't say enough about the show.
 
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