re: Boardwalk Empire or Sopranos

Don't be a finook, watch The Sopranos

I like the time period and subject matter more for Boardwalk, but Sopranos is the far superior show

I don't think sopranos is THAT much better but overall it is better. Soparanos has way more filler episodes and meaningless subplots.

Both have strong lead actors in Buscemi and Gandolfini.

The fourth season of Boardwalk was really rushed. I think it should have gone five seasons.I don't think that the set and costumes in Sopranos are as good for obvious reasons.

There is also not a character in the Sopranos that equals Agent Van Alden ( Michael Shannon ) in Boardwalk.

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There is also not a character in the Sopranos that equals Agent Van Alden ( Michael Shannon ) in Boardwalk.

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Good point - for one thing, the acting Shannon brings is incredible and elevating. Now, he was kind of the whipping boy for stereotypical religious, conservative, prudish teetotaler. But, riveting to watch. And a third "pole" (protagonist gangsters, antagonist gangsters, and law enforcement) would have changed dynamics, beyond the rat storylines.

It looked like the Sopranos might have contemplated trying that with some of the FBI guys, but it never really got off the ground. Michael Kelly's character would have been a good jumping off point. I guess the fear was - if you made the FBI guys start looking like "the good guys" - it would have been impossible not to see Tony as a bad guy.

Keep in mind, for HBO's purposes, BE was the successor to Sopranos - Winter went almost straight from Sopranos to development of BE. I think what hurt BE at the end (and keep in mind I haven't finished it - I might have gotten into Season 3 but that's it) , was that Winter did Wolf of Wall Street (which was a big deal and time consuming), and then started gearing up for Vinyl, which was supposed to be the next period piece for HBO - sort of Mad Men in the 1970s, but with Rock and Roll. This may have been too much to keep focus squarely on BE.

But, I could be completely off base.

Sopranos by a big margin

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Sopranos is arguably the best thing HBO has ever done. That's saying something.


I would have agreed with your statement had it been made prior to GoT.

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I think Game of Thrones is the only show on HBO worthy of comparison to The Sopranos, and I wouldn't necessarily say it's better, just different and in current production.

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I think Game of Thrones is the only show on HBO worthy of comparison to The Sopranos, and I wouldn't necessarily say it's better, just different and in current production.

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The Wire is better than The Sopranos, IMO. They are very different though and it's 1A/1b

The Wire is like dramatized Frontline and The Sopranos is Mad Men but in the Mafia (Basically everyone who worked on Mad Men wrote on the Sopranos)

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Hold up. You legit chose Rutgers as your team of choice on here because it happens to be in New Jersey?

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My kids will only go to Rutgers or Seton Hall.

Sopranos by a country mile. Boardwalk didn't hold together through the end, and it was prone to some fairly cartoonish characters. Though I still really liked it, but when you are comparing to one of the GOATS you kind of have to nitpick.