Best TV drama ever -- Breaking Bad or The Wire?
After the spectacular ending of Breaking Bad, I started thinking about whether it surpassed The Wire, which I had considered to be the best TV drama ever (or, more honestly, the best TV drama that I’d ever seen). I was on a high coming off of the six season (or five, depending how you count them) run of Breaking Bad, but I didn’t want to make an unfair or emotional decision. I first considered that they are not comparable and I could then have a favorite traditional, serialized drama (Breaking Bad) and a favorite realistic, allegorical indictment of all that is America (The Wire). That approach seemed to be a copout, so I started in on re-watching The Wire.
One fun thing about re-watching The Wire was looking for times when Dominick West misplaces his Baltimore accent; I recommend the scene with him driving Bubbles to the soccer game in Season 1 - He sounds more Brit than Baltimorean. But I don’t want to diminish his performance since he does excellent work throughout. He has a huge amount of competition, though. Both shows are loaded with great performances - Even the weakest links (Walt Jr. on Breaking Bad and Marlo on The Wire) have moments where they shine.
The great performances are top-notch and The Wire has more of those since it has about ten times the number of major roles. Just Season 4 (the schools) of The Wire is amazing acting-wise when you look only at the performances of the four main kids. Add in two of their moms (Namond’s mom - mother of the year), Cutty and Bunny and you wonder why The Wire was shut out of any acting Emmys (and pretty much shut out completely, with only two writing nominations). Of course Cranston is superb throughout Breaking Bad, with great assists from Anna Gunn and Aaron Paul. Top honors for The Wire (in my book, anyway) goes to Andre Royo’s journey as Bubbles.
Another point of comparison is theme. That they both have an objective of what they want to show sets them apart from most TV shows. Vince Gilligan wants to show a character who goes from Mr. Chips to Scarface. David Simon’s primary theme is (arguably) the inability of American institutions to remain uncorrupted and true to their original purpose. Both creators succeed in putting their theme across and keeping the story true to supporting that theme.
In determining a favorite, a comparison of the final seasons would give the nod to Breaking Bad. The final 16 episodes were stretched over two seasons. The first half of the final 16 had a number of strong and exciting episodes, but ultimately felt like it was marking time until they could get set for the run to the finish. And what a run it was. The last eight episodes went full tilt, culminating twice, with the Oxymandius episode which had scene after scene of emotional wallops, and the finale which was the best final episode of any series, bringing the story to an end that satisfied nearly all the fans.
The last season of The Wire is, unfortunately, the weakest season. While it is excellent by the standards of TV, it is a break from the tone of the rest of the show. The mini-theme for the season is to show that the bigger the lie, the more folks will believe it. It’s a not so subtle indictment of the Weapons of Mass Destruction lie that the Bush administration used to start the war with Iraq. The main lie that The Wire uses (faux serial killer created jointly by McNulty and a Baltimore Sun reporter) is too over the top, especially in the things McNulty does and in his stated motivations for doing them. And, in what has to be the nadir of the season and the series, there is a cameo by Richard Belzer as Detective John Munch, in order to add to his record of one character being on the most different shows. This isn’t HBO; it’s TV.
On the plus side, Season 5 also gives us the scene that has FBI profilers giving McNulty and Greggs (the great Sonja Sohn) their profile of the “serial killer”. Their description, as it slowly unfolds, describes McNulty to a tee. On the way out Gregg’s says, “What’d you think?” McNulty responds, “They’re in the ballpark.” The other major plus to the final season is Clark Johnson’s effortless performance as the seasoned, slightly cynical, but still engaged, City Editor. That he has to deal with an over-the-top serial killer plagiarizer plot line is not his fault.
My final category is emotional engagement. I ended up admiring Breaking Bad more than being emotionally engaged by it. Certainly there are moments that get to me such as Andrea’s final scene and some of Jesse’s pain. But for me, Breaking Bad can’t match the emotional impact of Greggs being shot of the scene of Randy and Carver in season four, with Carver walking away down the hospital corridor and Randy saying, “You going to look out for me Sergeant Carver? You gonna look out for me? You promise?” And that’s not even mentioning Bodie’s final scenes.
Television shows and movies can use all sorts of tricks to build emotional response. Neither The Wire nor Breaking Bad resort to those, but for me the story in The Wire naturally gets you emotionally involved. If you took just the relationship between Avon and Stringer, you may not have that sort of emotional reaction to the culmination of their storylines. I admired that ending from a story-telling point of view, but those characters are more about business and their focus on that is similar to Walt’s singular focus on success. It’s the other characters that engage you emotionally and with The Wire’s sheer number of characters, and with the desolation many of them endure, that series has the edge. Granting that both series have some of the best writing seen on TV, tremendous performances and had the good sense to end before wearing out their welcome, I give the best TV show nod to The Wire. That’s based on its successful execution of an ambitious theme, and on how it grabbed me emotionally. Walt dying while caressing his precious lab equipment was elegant; Bubbles finally being allowed to come upstairs to eat dinner with his sister had me in tears.