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Originally Posted by !@#$%!
well yes as a drama sopranos had a central character with a very long arc so there was a person to follow. and the other characters too had their individual arcs. so it allowed for more and better... drama.
the wire had characters coming in and out but nobody was central so in a way "the issues" were the object. you're right that it said things that needed to be said and it was celebrated for it, but i also see it as a development in that it broke the american/hollywood convention of "the hero" (or antihero) as the center of the universe-- the cult of the individual at the core of american ideology.
the wire rather focused on social relations, and that maybe made it look preachy, but i didn't see it that way. they were trying to portray... social forces, not individuals, so it's a matter of focus. and sure enough, the individual gets swept away by forces they can't control in spite of their heroic delusions or antiheroic superpowers. a bit of a return to pre-stalin soviet cinema in a way.
i've said this before but i think lukács would have loved the wire. and for that to me it's the better show, because it really defies hollywood narrative conventions beyond pure style changes, and it shows "the real" better than the red pill of morpheus-- the wire is ideological and critical in a way no other show is, except maybe for breaking bad, which uses individual antihero dramatics as a device to tear american capitalism and family values a new asshole.
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Haha, yeah, I know Family Guy is the enemy. But what you said made me think of this.
I have STILL not seen the Wire in its entirety. Not even close, actually. I watched a few when it was still new. I remember thinking Baltimore was the “protagonist” and different social systems and institutions in the city were kind of the “antagonists,” but honestly... I didn’t watch enough to really know shit, and I think the main reason I bothered at all was because Tom Waits did the theme song for the second (right?) season... so... yeah, I should probably watch it.
My gut reaction is to say Sopranos is a better drama, but I watched every season of Sopranos and followed those assholes for eight years. Hah.
Speaking strictly of things I know, I’d have to place Breaking Bad above Sopranos. I think part of this is due to my own hang-ups about violent sexuality and über masculinity. Sopranos was an uncomfortable viewing experience for me for many reasons, but one of them was the way Tony and other main characters treated women (Carmela was my favorite character by leaps and bounds). Breaking Bad presented an entirely different kind of make anti-hero, one inspired by desperation and survival and so on. Borderline asexual, so none of that over physical mistreatment of women was really taking place. Again that’s a personal hang-up of mine, and maybe I’m just super fucked up.
But I think Breaking Bad was informed by the Sopranos, and took a similar model and applied it to a completely different situation. An Everyman, everyfamily situation. And I think it was a few levels above Sopranos in terms of writing, cinematography, artistic and ambitious storytelling, and possibly acting as well.
Plus, Breaking Bad has a central protagonist who was actually relatable. Not talking about Walter. I’m talking about Jesse. Jesse was the “hero” and Walter was the villain of that story. I know morality is so pre-2000s, but it’s still helpful when constructing a narrative that resonates with people.