Lord God Jose Mourinho wrote:I enjoyed The Wire, but I just didn't think it was anything better than a decent cop show.
I think Walter White was about 50 times more interesting as a character than Jimmy McNulty. I think Stringer Bell and Omar Little were the most interesting characters in The Wire and the show would have been better if they played even bigger roles.
It's a small thing, but I always hated the opening music for The Wire. In none of the 5 series did the song ever do anything than bug the hell out of me. In BB they just had the ultra short theme tune and got on with the telling of the story.
For me The Wire just came across as a TV version of films like Training Day and LUV. And I much preferred Training Day and Luv to The Wire. I think BB is a great film expanded over 5 seasons of TV time.
I don't think there's much between them and I certainly rate The Wire as more than just a decent cop show; for me though, Breaking Bad was better written, more compelling and had a better story arc. Acting wise, I don't think there's much to choose - Walter White was a brilliantly realised character, but there were some fantastic performances in The Wire - like you, I think Omar was one of the best, and the same actor is now carving it up as Chalky White in Boardwalk Empire. There aren't many shows that could make an anti-hero out of a gay stick-up man, and I think Michael K Williams performance had a lot to do with that.
Either way up, thank goodness for HBO - if it wasn't for stuff like this, I'd never watch any telly at all.
