Television The Sopranos

Rado_N

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Yea Season 2 of The Wire is fantastic, I've never understood the criticism it gets.

As for The Sopranos; it's apples and oranges with The Wire and Breaking Bad, yea it's slow at times, but the story telling is brilliant and the character development is absolutely incredible.

I've said it before but I don't think many (if any) television characters have a better development arc than Christopher Moltisanti.
 

Varun

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Yea Season 2 of The Wire is fantastic, I've never understood the criticism it gets.

As for The Sopranos; it's apples and oranges with The Wire and Breaking Bad, yea it's slow at times, but the story telling is brilliant and the character development is absolutely incredible.

I've said it before but I don't think many (if any) television characters have a better development arc than Christopher Moltisanti.
Absolutely sensational character. Cant state enough how brilliantly he was developed throughout the show.

The way his relationship with Tony was developed and the ultimate demise of his, superb
 

Revan

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All seasons of The Wire are brilliant. Fact.
The fifth season isn't brilliant at all. In fact, it is a weak season. But the other four are fantastic and have better writing than any other TV show.
 

LARulz

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Just finished it. I liked it overall, but the ending bugs me. I knew how it ended before I watched the show so wasn't surprised but was still even weirder than I thought. I think thats a huge cop out ending. I wouldn't want to see Tony die but I want an ending one way or another.

Also, I'm a fan of Meadow :drool:
 

Zen

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The Wire and Sopranos obliterate Breaking Bad. sorry p.
 

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Varun

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Did the writer/director ever confirm that the black screen ending was supposed to signify Tony's death?
 

Zen

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Because it's all there to be fair. Kills half the greatness of the show if he has to spoonfeed it to someone instead.
 

Decotron

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The Wire and Sopranos obliterate Breaking Bad. sorry p.
Glad to read some sanity on this debate.

Im actually beginning to develop a severe dislike for BB due to fans of it telling me its the bestest thing ever.

I know television as a medium is a very subjective thing but there are 7 or 8 shows that blow BB out of the water.

The offense people take to me even saying that is hilarious. I then ask them have they watched the rest of the shows and the answer is invariably no!!!
 

Red Pavan

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Breaking Bad is an amazing show in it's own right and one of the most enjoyable and entertaining shows that have ever been produced. But as Blasphemy said above, it doesn't have the depth of The Wire or Sopranos - not even close. (or even Game of Thrones)
 

sullydnl

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Breaking Bad was great TV, at its best it was insanely tense and gripping, maybe more so than any of the other TV shows mentioned.

Problem is, it was ultimately quite shallow compared to The Sopranos and The Wire. As someone said earlier in the thread, it really depends on what you want but I think those two were a bit more ambitious.
 

Revan

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I liked Breaking Bad slightly more than The Wire and much more than The Sopranos. However, I agree that The Wire is better. The Sopranos, on the other hand, seems quite overrated to me and I think that Breaking Bad is easily a better TV show.
 

adexkola

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The Sopranos, along with the Shield and Oz to a lesser extent, were the pacesetters for quality drama television series IMO. The Sopranos may look dated and less focused in comparison to other contender GOAT series like the Wire and Breaking Bad. However the acting was outstanding. Gandolfini, Falco, Imperioli, Bracco amongst others were world class. I think that alone places the Sopranos in that GOAT contender category.
 

Red Shorts

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Finished it and absolutely loved it. Thought the quality reached its peak in season 3 and went downhill, but still thoroughly enjoyed it.

And the ending? Never-ending cliffhanger ffs.
 

Sally Cinnamon

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The final scene was top. Far more interesting than say, Breaking Bad's finale.

I've watched the series through once and from memory, 'Long Term Parking' was the best episode. Brutal.
 

Red Shorts

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Am I safe in saying I wasn't the only one who was really bemused by the ending at first? It had to take me an article to understand what had happened, because I had the pieces there when it was playing, but the sudden ending threw me off big time. The way they delayed Meadow's entrance and to where she was going to sit, the way he kept looking up at the door whenever the bell went, journey's "don't stop believing". Looking back at it now, it was probably the best finale episode I have ever seen, so sudden and leaving you at first with nothing answered, yet going back to it and looking it over makes you think it was the perfect ending. Just brilliant.
 

Sally Cinnamon

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I still don't know what the point was in having Meadow take about fifty attempts to park her car.
 

Red Shorts

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I still don't know what the point was in having Meadow take about fifty attempts to park her car.
After reading that article which pretty much got it spot on, it gave the gunman time to go to the bathroom and come back with the perfect angle to shoot Tony. If she parked quicker and sat down, he wouldn't have had the angle to shoot him from the bathroom as she would have been sitting down, and gangsters never harm family members. Her bad driving led to her father's death without her even knowing.
 

Sally Cinnamon

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After reading that article which pretty much got it spot on, it gave the gunman time to go to the bathroom and come back with the perfect angle to shoot Tony. If she parked quicker and sat down, he wouldn't have had the angle to shoot him from the bathroom as she would have been sitting down, and gangsters never harm family members. Her bad driving led to her father's death without her even knowing.
Yeah, I suppose that makes sense. It frustrates the viewer too, you're dying for something to happen. I'm tempted to watch it all again now. Tbh I've forgotten nearly everything, my memory of shows and films is awful.
 

Alock1

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@Red Shorts @Sally Cinnamon
Remember your spoilers folks.

Yeah. It was only the penultimate episode where Tony reminds Carla that 'families never get touched'.

I also think the parking attempts were meant to symbolize the attempted hits on Tony's life, with the 3rd being successful as previously in the series there had been 2 attempts on his life.

Chase has said numerous times that he felt that he needed to rip it away for people to emotionally understand how fragile his life (and life in general) was. But perhaps that we hadn't intellectually understood it as he hoped - he says perhaps he could have executed it better.
 
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Scrumpet

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The Sopranos ending has been retroactively ruined by the weird Don't Stop Believing revival a few years ago.
 

Red Shorts

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You've only just finished the show but have to ask that?
From the Spoilers thread:

TV threads
- spoiler tags do not need to be used if the episode has been shows on television anywhere in the world AND the thread title relates to what you post.

So yeah, I do have to ask that.
 

Alock1

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From the Spoilers thread:

TV threads
- spoiler tags do not need to be used if the episode has been shows on television anywhere in the world AND the thread title relates to what you post.

So yeah, I do have to ask that.
I don't get what the underlined means. Surely the bolded bit would only apply here if the thread title was 'what did you think of the Sopranos finale' - that way, nobody who hadn't seen it would come in.