Better TV Show The Shield vs The Wire

W

wildcpac

Banned
No spoilers please.

I watched all 5 seasons of The Wire last year and I thought it was the best tv show ever.

I just recently started watching The Shield and I am halfway done with season 2.

I find it sad that I start watching each show at the end of their run. They have to be two of the greatest tv shows out there. I love how The Shield not only breaks but destroys the formula for a TV Cop show.

The Wire is by far and away the best tv show that HBO has ever done. The character development, story arcs, etc were far better than The Sopranos. By the way The Sopranos sucked hard the last several seasons and was only considered great because of the first 3-4 seasons.
 
The Wire is better, but don't let that dissuade you. The Shield is still damn good. The only two police dramas I've ever enjoyed.
 
Those are two of the best TV shows ever. Period. You are cheating yourself if you don't watch both. You are actually in the cat bird seat by watching them on DVD, because you don't have to suffer the agonizing months of waiting for the next season to start. I watched both of them during their initial run and suffering through months and months of waiting was cruel.

I agree that the Sopranos did have a bit of a dry spell, but it is still one of the better shows out there.
 
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Never watched The Wire but I loved The Shield. The last episode is probably the best acting I have ever seen in a television show.
 
Just got done watching the Wire. One of my top series of all time. One aspect I loved was most of the characters were multi-dimensional, there were good guys and bad guys, but both sides swayed back and forth on good & evil.
 
the wire hands down. that show really hits on a level of reality thats disturbing. never really got into the shield. i like that one shw thats been on about a guy who helps people get over addictions. id pick that over the shield too.
 
[quote name='homeland']Just got done watching the Wire. One of my top series of all time. One aspect I loved was most of the characters were multi-dimensional, there were good guys and bad guys, but both sides swayed back and forth on good & evil.[/QUOTE]

Bodie was a pretty good example of that. JD Williams is a very underrated actor. He should be doing alot more than what he is doing now.
 
I'm going to go with the Wire, simply because almost every side story was interesting. The Shield had a couple of side stories I didn't care about, and some (Julian) felt dropped.
 
The Wire, but not by much. Like one of the other posters stated, The Wire was indeed better than The Sopranos. But thats not really a knock on The Sopranos, it just tells you how great The Wire is.

I didn't start watching The Wire until after the third season. I decided to rent season one & was hooked after a couple of episodes. I started watching The Shield about 4-5 episodes into the first season. My father-in-law showed me an episode & got me hooked.

Imo, the best season of The Shield is season two. Not that there are any bad ones, but a couple of seasons took a few episodes to really get rolling(season 5 & 6 I believe). But definitely DO NOT stop at season two, watch'em all and let us know what you think. If you've gotten this far I doubt you'll be disappointed.
 
[quote name='darkdaze73']The Wire, but not by much. Like one of the other posters stated, The Wire was indeed better than The Sopranos. But thats not really a knock on The Sopranos, it just tells you how great The Wire is.

I didn't start watching The Wire until after the third season. I decided to rent season one & was hooked after a couple of episodes. I started watching The Shield about 4-5 episodes into the first season. My father-in-law showed me an episode & got me hooked.

Imo, the best season of The Shield is season two. Not that there are any bad ones, but a couple of seasons took a few episodes to really get rolling(season 5 & 6 I believe). But definitely DO NOT stop at season two, watch'em all and let us know what you think. If you've gotten this far I doubt you'll be disappointed.[/QUOTE]

I think you mean 4 and 6 because season 5 was probably the best season of the show. Forrest Whitaker fucking held it down that season. Every episode that season got better and better and the ending to that season was off the fucking chain. Few shows have ever ended a season with a cliffhanger that good.
 
[quote name='darkdaze73']Sheeeeeee-IT. Too many to count.[/QUOTE]


His ex wife was hot so whenever he banged her was a great episode. My favorite was when he was banging the prostitute and they did the raid on the escort agency. He kept on banging her while everybody was coming in to make the raid.

Thankfully Snoop didn't have any sex scenes. I would have been unable to have sex for the rest of my life.
 
The Shield is probably my favorite TV drama ever. Season 5 with Forest Whitaker all over Vic like white on rice, and the final season (7) were some of the most intense viewing experiences I've ever had.

Wake the fuck up, Emmys.
 
The Shield was an excellent show and The Wire is one of the all-time best. Don't bother with comparing the two and just enjoy them. If you don't like either show then just go watch some more American Idol.
 
I LOVE the shield, Watched all 7 seasons on DVD, cause I couldent bear to wait a week between new episodes. I really want to watch the Wire, never have before, no HBO
 
[quote name='Poor2More']I LOVE the shield, Watched all 7 seasons on DVD, cause I couldent bear to wait a week between new episodes. I really want to watch the Wire, never have before, no HBO[/QUOTE]


Netflix and rent the show. If you look hard enough you can find it online.
 
I never saw the first season of the shield during it's initial run (have it on my netflix list though) but watched seasons 2-5 while they were on. Excellent show all the way. Have yet to watch season 6 or 7 but looking forward to doing so one of these days. Have never watched the wire , but its on my to watch list as well.

While not trying to derail this topic , but while my father watched and enjoyed the shield (never saw the wire either) he always preferred 24 (still does) as well as preferring another FX original series by the name of Nip/Tuck. I never really got into Nip/Tuck that much , and 24 started off good but really should've ended at the 3rd or 5th season.
 
The Wire fucking wrecks The Shield. A vastly superior show, probably because FX can only push the envelope a little while The Wire has almost total freedom as long as they don't have scenes of baby seals being clubbed.
 
[quote name='crunchb3rry']The Wire fucking wrecks The Shield. A vastly superior show, probably because FX can only push the envelope a little while The Wire has almost total freedom as long as they don't have scenes of baby seals being clubbed.[/QUOTE]

Thats what was so great about The Wired. I remember watching the first episodes and always on the edge of the seat expecting forms of violence, since a large portion of the plot dealt with drug dealers, but it didn't materialize. Instead you got to know the characters as people, police and hood rats alike. They never really showed that much violence. With all the murders that took place you only witnessed a small handful. It didn't need the violence, the story and characters were good enough.



edit: Though maybe they were able to get away with a few .shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiets and tits since on cable.
 
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I have the Wire complete series waiting for me to watch it sometime. The Shield is my favorite TV show of all-time (very close second being Deadwood) so I'm looking forward to comparing it to the Wire. But no matter how much I love the Wire I don't think I could ever love it more than The Shield, that show was just so great.
 
I gotta say that The Wire absolutely demolishes the Shield. That being said The Shield is my second most favorite after The Wire, of course.
 
The Wire is vastly superior. That isn't to say that The Shield isn't a fine show, because it is, but there's no comparison. The Shield is great tv, The Wire is art.

The Wire is my second favorite show of all time (behind only Battlestar), I've watched it all the way through 4 or 5 times and see something new every time.
 
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