I’ve been waffling between which of these two shows is greater. I think my waffling days are behind me.
Yes, I know there are only two options. Take yer Deadwoods and yer Sopranos and yer Room 222s to another thread where you can determine who’s on third. 
mmm
The Wire. I’m rewatching again for the gazillionth time and still finding new stuff, a deeper understanding of the characters, connecting small stuff from S1 to big stuff from S5. I don’t think I could do that with BB.
Are you sneerious? I mean, it was a good show, from what little I can remember of it, but those were G.I. Joe-in-the-sandbox days for me.
Heck, I stopped waffling when I got to somewhere in the second season of BB.
BTW, I binge-watched the whole thing up until the end of season 5A just this year, and I have to say that sweating through season 5B one episode at a time with a week of waiting in between, like a normal person, was damned near torture. I’m never getting into a TV show until after the final episode has aired ever again.
Hah! You say that, but it will NEVER HAPPEN! (Insert Evil Laugh™ here.) I told myself back in July that I would not even PEEK at any of the 5B episodes until the deal was sealed. That turned out to be about as effective as me telling myself “I’m just going to smoke half of this rock cocaine tonight, and save the rest for next week.” Besides, if I did that, it wouldn’t have allowed me to come here and fanwank it until my right arm was necrotic with the rest of you bitches. YMMV.
I thought season 5 of the Wire was really weak. That might drag it down below Breaking Bad. Hmm.
I’m with AuntiePam, I think. It’s kind of an apples and oranges comparison, really. But in the end I think The Wire is just a deeper show.
That said BB is right up there and I think you can make an argument that it has been maybe the most consistent multi-season TV drama ever. It started strong, had a strong middle and ended just as strongly. The Wire arguably had some weaker moments, in particular in the final season.
Still, The Wire by a nose.
Both excellent shows. I voted for The Wire.
The Wire is a show with a macro scope,it is the story of a whole city, Baltimore is the main character. Breakiing Bad has a micro scope, it is the story of one man and the lives iin his circle he affected. They are both entirely different shows and I don’t think picking one as better is like asking which of your kids is better. But they are the two best shows I have ever seen.
The Wire is probably the better achievement, but on a strictly personal level, I’ve enjoyed Breaking Bad far more.
In the various threads/polls I have started about “Best Show” and “Favorite Show” my votes have been for The Wire, The Sopranos and after it was complete, Breaking Bad. I voted for BB here.
The characters, the plot, the acting, the production quality, and all the things that make those other two shows outstanding have been elevated to the top of the stack for me.
I just started watching Breaking Bad - we’re 4 episodes into the first season, and it’s great. Unexpectedly funny - I guess I didn’t anticipate it being so humorous. I don’t know about The Wire – I hear it’s great too – but I can see how BB sucks people in.
And there’s no reason you can’t do both, you know. Just pick one, then do the other after.
As much as I love The Wire, the last season of Breaking Bad took it to another level.
While the finale of The Wire was great, the first half of Season 2 and most of Season 5 of The Wire had a lot of parts that just dragged or had some eye rolling stupidity. And while I know we were supposed to hate Ziggy…that character just took me out of the show at times.
Breaking Bad never had any slow points, especially ones that stretched over multiple episodes. If Season 5 of The Wire was as good as Season 3 or 4 then I’d have to make it a tie…but for me that is where the two shows parted ways.
The Simpsons. /micdrop
Seriously though: I can’t choose. These are both amazing shows that are about as good as TV drama can be and they’re so different from each other that I think it’s very difficult to make a meaningful comparison. I do think Breaking Bad ended on a high note and The Wire didn’t. The fake serial killer story and the series of coincidences that resolved it had me shaking my head for most of the season, and almost everything else on the show was so much better than that.
c)
I’ve watched BB (it’s okay), but not the Wire. But c) is: stop telling people that they HAVE to watch Breaking Bad. And oh by the way did you watch the Wire? It’s the. BEST. SHOW. EVER.
I agree with every one of the 18 words in this sentence.
mmm
[QUOTE=Mean Mr. Mustard]
Room 222.
[/QUOTE]
It occurs to me that your username is nearly an anagram of whoosh.
mmm
Something to add to the Breaking Bad chorus, every episode (starting sometime around season 2 I think) has a podcast that goes with it. It’s one of the editors, the creator/writer and a rotating group of others depending on who’s available. They sit down and discuss the show. IMO that made the show immensely more interesting, because I learned about stuff I never would have noticed. Some little aspect that the layperson never would have caught and it gives you a bigger appreciation for what goes into it when you hear about all the work that goes on behind the scenes. After each episode I would put the podcast on a thumbdrive and listen to in in my car over the next day or two. Each on was, on average, about an hour and a half.
The Wire. Not even close, IMO. I loved Breaking Bad, but it had nowhere near the depth or humanity of The Wire.
Well I loved BB, favourite show since The Sopranos, Foxtel in AUS are now showing The Wire from Ep 1. So ask me when I have watched a few episodes, hope it is good as people say and even if it is only 75% of BB I will be happy.