The Film Room's Top 10 TV Shows of All Time [FINAL LIST]
- Thread starter Uncle_Ruckus
- Start date
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Marl0 Stanfield
Yeshua Ben YHWH
The Sopranos is the greatest show of all time. Then The Wire, then Breaking Bad. Clearly. Brehs are srsly lacking an understanding of true subtext. There's a big difference between ur favorite shows (shows that are pleasing to the psyche) and "well crafted" shows (shows that shape the psyche thru clever subtext). Brosephs ranked a show that already had fukking books as its source material as the greatest. Also the character arcs within the show have to contribute to the overall arc of the show itself, because the show itself is a character.
The Sopranos was a morality play. The Wire was that same morality play thru the lense of western civilization. Breaking Bad was a morality play in which the characters determined their own morality.
The Sopranos laid morality at the feet of Freud. The Wire laid morality at the feet of the society. And Breaking Bad laid morality at the feet of the individual. I prefer The Sopranos because it posits the theory that all morality of an individual begins being formed before that individual is even conceived, hence the show focusing so much on the family aspect, all the boring parts ppl didn't like.
All the Juniors and sons and daughters of these bat shyt sociopathic individuals. Like how Chrissy was doomed first by his parents, then by the very individuals he gravitated to because of his nimrod fukktard parents. Like his mentor Tony did. Like how Carmela was destined to end up with a guy like Tony because of her bougie ass parents (her pops was weak so he aided and abetted by omission of his will).
You dudebr0s know Sopranos birthed this introspective realistic modern antihero shyt. (Clearly Hank is a narc version of Tony Soprano and Jesse is a wigger version of Chris Moltisanti, for example) The Sopranos was the first show to honestly reflect the decay of modern American civilization in relation to past generations, which then showed how past generations weren't shyt either. Wtf do u think the whole point of all the subplots with elderly decrepit nimrods was about? The first episode showed how Tony thought the best was over and that he came in too late. The rest of the show was displaying how erroneous that belief was because all his elders were pieces of shyt, just as he was a piece of shyt to his minions and family. Like how u hear stories of ur parents n their friends doing shytty things back in the day when ur older and it forces constant reevaluation of ur perceived purpose in life.
You may be able to alter course or u may not. The question of if men can truly affect how "the wheel in the sky keeps on turning" is never truly resolved. Chrissy ended up just like his dad, killed by his friends with a new baby and wife at home. But Chrissy knew this and he still went that route. It's a question of nature or nurture that's left up to the viewer to decide.
The Sopranos was a morality play. The Wire was that same morality play thru the lense of western civilization. Breaking Bad was a morality play in which the characters determined their own morality.
The Sopranos laid morality at the feet of Freud. The Wire laid morality at the feet of the society. And Breaking Bad laid morality at the feet of the individual. I prefer The Sopranos because it posits the theory that all morality of an individual begins being formed before that individual is even conceived, hence the show focusing so much on the family aspect, all the boring parts ppl didn't like.
All the Juniors and sons and daughters of these bat shyt sociopathic individuals. Like how Chrissy was doomed first by his parents, then by the very individuals he gravitated to because of his nimrod fukktard parents. Like his mentor Tony did. Like how Carmela was destined to end up with a guy like Tony because of her bougie ass parents (her pops was weak so he aided and abetted by omission of his will).
You dudebr0s know Sopranos birthed this introspective realistic modern antihero shyt. (Clearly Hank is a narc version of Tony Soprano and Jesse is a wigger version of Chris Moltisanti, for example) The Sopranos was the first show to honestly reflect the decay of modern American civilization in relation to past generations, which then showed how past generations weren't shyt either. Wtf do u think the whole point of all the subplots with elderly decrepit nimrods was about? The first episode showed how Tony thought the best was over and that he came in too late. The rest of the show was displaying how erroneous that belief was because all his elders were pieces of shyt, just as he was a piece of shyt to his minions and family. Like how u hear stories of ur parents n their friends doing shytty things back in the day when ur older and it forces constant reevaluation of ur perceived purpose in life.
You may be able to alter course or u may not. The question of if men can truly affect how "the wheel in the sky keeps on turning" is never truly resolved. Chrissy ended up just like his dad, killed by his friends with a new baby and wife at home. But Chrissy knew this and he still went that route. It's a question of nature or nurture that's left up to the viewer to decide.
You typed all this useless shyt for nothing. I don't give a fukk what birthed what. No Limit birthed the expansion of commercialized southern hip hop but the music was decent at best(and I'm a No Limit stan.) The Wire is the only one of the 3 that is a perfect show from every technical standpoint. Sopranos had serious plot and writing issues that drops it; its top 10, but it's not on the level on the Wire, I don't care if it came first.
TheGodling
Los Ingobernables de Sala de Cine
I already said The A-Team and Married... With Children, and deep down you all know this to be true.
married With Children Yes, but A-Team, no.
Uncle_Ruckus
We The North
The Wire had a great story but also some wack characters. The Sopranos had great characters all around minus AJ maybe. Sopranos is my favourite just off of Tony alone. No one on The Wire fukking with T.
I need great stories with great characters and Sopranos had some terrible storyline lulls throughout its run. Sorry, but it drops significantly for that.
Uncle_Ruckus
We The North
What stories were terrible on Sopranos?
Are you serious? The stupid fukking fake relationship story between Arnie and Adriana that fizzled after 2 episodes; How about Meadow getting speed from Chris and that story going nowhere? How about the non-resolution from the guy that Paulie and Chris shot in the woods? The Jackie Jr. story was sloppy and his murder and the resolution was stupid; EVERY EPISODE WRITTEN BY MICHAEL IMPERIOLI. I can go on and on...they had classic stuff, obviously, but they had lulls in every season.
Marl0 Stanfield
Yeshua Ben YHWH
Dudebr0, most of the characters on The Wire are 2 dimensional (especially the criminals). I understand it was because the depth was given to Baltimore as a whole instead, but still.
There are infinite mirrors of Wire characters in the hood, but their motivations are more clearly explained by The Sopranos. The Wire had opportunities to go further with their characters' backstory, like Chris Partlow being a war vet with PTSD, but I think they sacrificed a lot of that when they made the second season storyline. I enjoyed it but it doesn't fit well with the rest of the series; if the writers thought different they would've weaved those characters into subsequent storylines more prominently and been able to get the viewers on their side of reasoning. But they knew they couldn't pull it off.
I like movies and shows where the characters are dumber than the audience, especially when they're oblivious to their own doom and personal motivations for engaging in heinous acts. I like when characters fully reveal themselves as unsympathetic yet the audience has already identified with them so they become conflicted on whether to root for this person's behavior, just like how the character has moments of clarity but chooses to seal their own fate with more fukkery. It's why I've always liked Taxi Driver n Bad Lieutenant n To Live And Die In LA n Thief (shyt even Bridges of Madison County) etc.
Brosephs acting like I said The Wire was a piece of shyt. It's not, it's just 2 dimensional character-wise (mainly due to such a huge cast).
I fully understand the subtext of shyt (which is why I can see all the conspiracy theory angles in Breaking Bad) but at a certain point it becomes conjecture and ppl start making a show out to be smarter than it really is. The main problem with The Wire (only in ranking it number 1) is that the characters are too psychopathic, to the point of absurdity sometimes. It's the same problem I had with Breaking Bad, they had Walt acting like James Bond sometimes to justify his character's survival.
The boring moments in The Sopranos is real life shyt. It's all the shyt that makes up life in America. The characters engage in heinous acts to lengthen those boring moments because the excitement u see is the characters putting their lives on the line (ie the lull in Scarface after Tony becomes rich. The lull was the whole point of the movie, all the viciousness beforehand was the character fighting for that illusion and then rejecting it when he finally attained it.). Gangsters don't sit around dreaming of how to kill and engage in shootouts and setups, they talk about being rich living in a nice suburban neighborhood and fading into the sunset. The violence is a means to reach the sunset that 99.9% of the time ends up being violent itself.
And just like how violence is done in America, it's usually quick, painful, and devastatingly sudden. Then it's back to the Freudian rat race, even after the characters become aware of the rat race but are too flawed to do anything else. I got a sense that the characters in The Sopranos could do other things with their lives. When characters would turn a new leaf in The Wire it was clunky (dude who got shot in the leg did a fantastic job but they kind of abandoned him for the dope game power struggle), ie Prez becoming a teacher, that's some ppl pleasing buddhist bullshyt.
Uncle_Ruckus
We The North
None of those stories ruined the show for me. The Wire had shyt stories that ran all season 2 and 5. You nitpicking breh.
No I'm not. Those stories killed the momentum of the plot. The Wire had no weak stories.
Uncle_Ruckus
We The North
The serial killer in season 5? The newspaper storyline? The white guys at the docks in season 2? Freaman wifing a stripper? Mcnulty working on a boat?
