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Entry #5 How The Simpsons Made Me Realize The Wire Is Better Than The Sopranos Posted August 16, 2011, 3:00am by Aaron Brown
When it comes to ranking the best television shows of all time, it can be an arduous and arbitrary task. It might even be pointless to try and rank one show ahead of another, especially when it comes to top-quality shows that sustained success over a lengthy period of time. One thing we can say without argument is that The Wire and The Sopranos are regarded as two of the top television shows of all-time. So without further ado, I present the one reason why I believe The Wire is better than The Sopranos, using another top show, The Simpsons, to prove it:
It was this realization that made me think of the difference between The Wire and The Sopranos over their respective tenures on HBO. With The Wire, it was common to see characters from Season 1 appear in Season 4 or 5, and I felt the creators did an excellent job of incorporating them into the story so that viewers would easily remember them. For example, late in Season 5, Omar surprised one of Marlo's street gang members on a dark corner to ask him several questions. Viewers would know that the character was Savino, one of the former members of Avon Barksdale's crew back in Season 1. After asking one question, Omar also recalled that he was Savino and used to "run with 'dem Barksdale boys" before shooting him in the back of the head. Later in the episode during Mayor Carcetti's rally for the unveiling of a new property near the docks, we see Nick Sobotka and several other stevedores from Season 2 getting arrested while attempting to protest the event. We knew about their struggles for job survival at the ports, so we knew exactly why they were there to protest the event. The list of these types of characters that would appear and reappear over the shows five seasons is remarkable, as creator David Simon was able to blend the characters from each season so well that viewers were well aware of the intricate web of broad characters whenever they appeared on screen. Of course, he had to do that, as he was incorporating different groups and themes into each season, starting with the police and drug dealers, then adding the dockworkers, unions, schools, government, and newspapers/media into the following seasons.
On the other hand, one of the problems I had with The Sopranos, especially in the later years, was that I started to lose track of the characters on the show. I had no problem following the main characters throughout the show's run, nor was it difficult when new characters appeared after either getting out of prison or coming in from out of town (i.e. Feech LeManna, Tony Blundetto, Rickie Aprile, Ralph Ciffaretto). But what made things difficult was trying to manufacture a war with the New York mafia without having a grasp of who those characters were. When the Soprano crew killed Fat Dom at Satriale's, I really didn't have much of an idea of who he was or why it was that important. When Phil Leotardo was having Angelo Gerepe or Lorraine Calluzzo taken out, I was wondering why I really should care when they were characters who just seemingly appeared out of nowhere into The Sopranos' world. Take out Joey Peeps, have a meeting with Rusty Millio, or see Doc Santoro take out Gerry Torciano; when I'm reading those previous happenings I feel like I need a scorecard and have to go back and watch the later seasons much closer to find out what I missed.
These are both very complex shows and might require more than one viewing to fully grasp what happened. But I feel like The Wire did a much better job of making each character important to the point where I remember each individual and what their role was much better than The Sopranos did. The Simpsons and The Wire built such a great community of characters that meshed together perfectly. The Sopranos had a large web of characters during their six seasons, but I never felt like they all meshed together to perfection. It's a bit surprising that an animated show was what pointed me in the right direction to decide between these two epic shows, especially one that included a mafia character named Fat Tony.
In a close contest, I'm officially declaring The Wire the #1 show of all-time, edging out The Sopranos by the mole on Ginny Sacrimoni's ass.
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If
you have been an avid viewer of The Simpsons at any point since
the show began airing on Fox in 1989, you know that the show is known
for enormous list of characters that have played a vital role in the
show's success. A quick look at the picture to the left shows some of
the many characters that either provide either small, one-scene cameos
(for lack of a better word) in some episodes or play an increased role
when necessary in other episodes. The show's creators were able to
incorporate the characters so well that regular viewers would know who
was appearing and what they were known for on sight, making the town
of Springfield seem like a large but well-known community. The likes
of Professor Frink, Fat Tony, Comic Book Guy, Disco Stu, and Hans
Moleman are examples of several well-known Simpsons characters that
could pop up at any time throughout the show for a simple joke or to
advance the plot.
