"The Wire" vs. "The Sopranos" vs. "Deadwood"
Three critics debate which HBO drama by a guy named David is best, David Simon's "The Wire," David Chase's "The Sopranos" or David Milch's "Deadwood." yup yup

Anonymous said...
I've felt that Deadwood and The Wire are sort of complimentary, in that one shows the building of a community as institutions are being established, and the other shows the community 150 years later when the institutions have deep roots. In Deadwood, there's optimism; people are building something that's going to last. In The Wire, there's pessimism; their institutions did indeed last, but there's nothing left to build, and the institutions have been around for so long that there's no hope that they can change.
Almost all of the institutions on The Wire are captured by an individual in Deadwood. Bullock -> the Baltimore police. Swearingen -> drug dealers and politicians. Wu -> the Greeks, international traffickers. Alma -> addicts like Bubbles. Mrs. Bullock -> the Baltimore schools. Merrick -> the Sun. I suppose Frank Sobotka doesn't really have a predecessor, and while Deadwood had many business owners, The Wire never really tackled business as an institution.
So once those institutions are established and unchanging, how can they be escaped? Only by burning the whole thing down, which is the direction I felt Deadwood was going.