Breaking Bad vs. The Wire

Earlier this month AMC’s critically acclaimed drama Breaking Bad concluded its fourth and, if you believe its creators, second-to-last season. As many viewers have grown accustomed, the characters were pushed to their limits and the stakes were upped about as high as they can go. Both in its content and its reception, Breaking Bad appears to have finally bridged the gap between its super fans and the more casual TV viewer.

Now, with such critical and commercial success, one has to wonder how a show like Breaking Bad is going to be viewed alongside classic contemporaries like Six Feet Under, The Sopranos, Mad Men and, of course, The Wire.

I’ve heard people say that Breaking Bad is the best show on television, and that may be true, but there’s certainly a lot to measure it up against. Because of the subject matter and overall grim tone to the show, it’s most often likened to the aforementioned Baltimore-based crime drama The Wire, a show that has received just about every kind of critical praise imaginable in the few years since its conclusion.

On one hand you’ve got your Breaking Bad, a show about Bryan Cranston’s character Walter White and his journey from high school chemistry teacher to key cog in a multi-million dollar drug trade. I think it’s fair to say there isn’t a single episode in the four-season run in which it’s not totally plausible that characters will die in sudden, jarring fashion.

The Wire, on the other hand, almost invented the whole anyone-can-die-at-any-moment kind of tension that Breaking Bad thrives within. If AMC’s show is a study in character development, then The Wire is much more of an ensemble drama; there are several constants but for the most part actors drift in and out of the scenery as the plot sees fit. The story follows both sides of the Baltimore drug war, the Baltimore police department, and the gang families who control the slums of the city.

The high points

  1. Road trip with Tuco (Breaking Bad) — Tuco served as one of the first kingpins Walter and Jesse encountered in the series. The relationship between the three was always volatile, but when Tuco took Walt and Jesse hostage in a violent, drug addled haze it was clear anything could happen. Here viewers were also introduced to pivotal character Hector Salamanca.

  2. Carcetti for mayor (The Wire) — Who would’ve thought that in the middle of a drug war the race for mayor of Baltimore would be such a compelling story arc. David Simon and company managed to stage everything in such a way that no matter who won there was sure to be consequences for many of the show’s characters.

  3. The heroin overdose (Breaking Bad) — Over the course of the show Cranston’s character Walt always seems to be evolving and adapting to survive the context of his lifestyle. When Walt witnesses a heroin junky overdosing and refuses to help, however, we know there is something truly dark happening within his psyche; the identity of the mild mannered chemistry teacher is slowly fading into obscurity.

  4. Omar goes to prison (The Wire) — Ask ten people who their favourite character is from The Wire and odds are the majority will tell you Omar Little. Omar is like a modern day Robin Hood, only he steals exclusively from drug pushers and doesn’t exactly give back to the poor. In season four Omar’s notoriety eventually lands him in prison for a stay and just about every drug runner in Baltimore has someone on the inside waiting to take him out. An incredibly tense story arc for a beloved character.

  5. The poisoned cigarette (Breaking Bad) — The proverbial hanging sword that dangled for most of season four turned out to be a red herring of sorts, but there were so many issues tied to this inanimate object. Walt’s desperation, Jesse’s allegiance, the constant threat of Gus’s vengeance — it was almost as if by simple fact that the cigarette existed, viewers were promised someone would meet their demise by season’s end.

  6. Michael one step ahead of Marlow (The Wire) — There are so many ways the story of the corner kids pays off in The Wire. You could point to Dukie’s last visit with Pryzbylewski or Bunny’s adopting of Namond as particularly poignant moments, but Michael getting the drop on Snoop and Marlow’s crew really shows how fast these kids have to grow up in the towers of Baltimore.

The Low points

  1. The fake serial killer (The Wire) — This one stinks because, even though it’s within the realm of possibility, it seemed like a real leap of faith for a show that prided itself in being brutally realistic. More often than not, stories on The Wire don’t get full conclusions because that’s the way life works; it’s more about the journey than the destination. Having said that, viewers had to watch the fake serial killer storyline play out for an entire season all the while asking, “Really, is no one from the BPD going to call them on their shit?”

  2. The cartel cousins (Breaking Bad) — Very similar to The Wire’s low point, Breaking Bad loses control of itself when it suspends reality to the point of trivializing previous events. Nearly every time the Salamanca cousins appear on screen something ridiculous happens. It’s not enough that the two share the exact same unique look and rarely ever say a single word, but we’re also expected to believe they’re the kind of people who will explode a truck without even looking at the wreckage. Cool guys don’t look at explosions?

5 Comments on "Breaking Bad vs. The Wire"

  1. jus boutded | October 20, 2011 at 4:24 am |

    dont read my stories
    never read my poems

    open.salon.com/blog/jusboutded

  2. dum ster diver | October 20, 2011 at 5:01 am |

    breaking bad ,
    kinda sad ,
    funnest show we ever had ,
    hate to see u end the party ,
    would like to see jesse at 40 ,
    chicken king without a face ,
    what he wanted left no trace ,
    cartel members drank the dust ,
    laundry burned for lack of trust ,
    walt’s a monster now we wonder ,
    can he steal the scarface thunder?,
    make his heart inside a new one ,
    see you back next year for more fun.

  3. knot hardly | October 20, 2011 at 6:43 am |

    It is a fascinating comparison, isnt it? And one that seems to suggest itself naturally. I think

    for the sake of this exercize I would also like to add a third victim for our merry vivisection,

    the AMC show The Walking Dead, and in fact to expand the conversation to ask “What makes any such

    show so engaging?” Its not enough, is it, to just say “good writing” or acting. TWD surprised me

    just because I thought the zombie genre in general had to be pretty much mined out by now, but no,

    they keep finding horrible and wonderful little nuances to goad our minds, hearts, and so very

    jaded gag reflexes. Family issues for one. The three dead (yet not) folks sitting in the church

    pews for another. And cutting open a dead man’s stomach to see if theres a child inside for one

    last more. I think one common element of all these shows is the sheer utter extremity of their

    given situations. If Walt had decided to simply embezzle money, or rob a bank we would have soon

    dozed off and wandered away to see who was torpidly stumbledancing with the never-were-stars. But

    to see him involved in quite literally poisoning mass numbers of people and then going home to his

    poignant son and befuddled yet demanding wife (arent they all?) draws our attention and keeps it

    as a happy prisoner. The familiar… laid in intimate juxtaposition to the extreme… is that it?

    Zombies could be just another kind of war movie except we are fighting not a foreign enemy, but

    our own deteriorated selves. It feels so very true to life somehow. We are all indeed inexorably

    rotting and staring blankly ahead while feeding off each other in one way or another. Arent we?

    No? Just look again at the people sitting around you. Can you really make out which are the living

    and which are the dead? Gotta mirror? Only the Wire, I think, offered itself as a pure celebration

    of writing for writing’s sake. Its easy to forget that this was a series of season long vignettes

    really, the Projects, the City Hall, the Newsroom, with only a slight continuance of any

    character’s thread to hold the whole grand framework together as a portrait of Baltimore. It was

    the precise and authentic construction of details and the complex plots and their perfect

    interweaving that held us as a demonstration of sheer intelligence, rather than any mere

    attachment to specific personalities. Although I must say I am delighted to hear that Omar is well

    remembered. He was an honestly self appraised and unapologetic demon, quite at home in his own

    glowing little corner of cozy hell. And even though I hated it when he was so absurdly killed by

    some anonymous child, perhaps a future version of another up and coming Omar, he himself would

    have shrugged it all off, “What did you expect?” he would have asked, and taking a drag on his

    endless cigarette, he would have resworn his perfect catchphrase… do you remember it? “Indeed”

    he would have said. Indeed.

  4. Knot Likely | October 23, 2011 at 3:35 am |

    oddly, weirdly, deeply strange… this is what the stars arrange , bryan cranston came from Malcolm , no one dreamed that he could act some , now Omar too is seen again , on Community big as sin, “Do you feel me?”, he still asks, a fine young actor with new tasks, he’s a teacher now, not deadly , come from The Wire to laugh with Chevy , Michael Williams makes the straddle , fun from sadness our minds addle , to see the villain turn the clown , hope they keep Mikey around , Boardwalk Empire’s overrated , glad to see him not so hated , a face like that with such a scar , Mr Williams is a star.

  5. Personally, I think ‘Breaking Bad’ is the more consistently entertaining and better produced show.

    However, ‘The Wire”s important social commentary makes it the more important show… Which is only amplified by its brutal realism. But, at the same time, it’s the brutal realism that can result in a, somewhat, anti-climactic moments (albeit, justified and the only way to actually do it).

    Both shows are amazing. I just think Breaking Bad is better entertainment, while The Wire is truly important for demonstration the messed up nature of our nation’s drug trade & our drug laws.

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