Round 1, Heat 16 - Prison Break v The Sopranos

[Uncle Leo]

Two strong contenders to end the first round...

 

[MK Shrimper]

Prison Break season 1 was great, then it got sillier and sillier with each season. The Sopranos is peerless, possibly the best thing ever on TV.

 

[OldBlueLady]

Errr....wrong time to admit to never having seen either? :sad: I know you boys all love them both though, so, convince me! :smile:

 

[steveo]

As MK says, Prison Break started off well but they just dragged it out too long and the story became more and more ridiculous.

The Sopranos is probably the 3rd best American TV show I've seen, so it gets my vote here.

 

[Mad Cyril]

The Sopranos.

So many great characters.

Especially Uncle Junior.

 

[Kenny]

no real contest on this one, Sopranos all the way. By the time Prison Break got to season 4 it turned into some kind of poor Hustle rip off.

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

Prison Break season 1 was great, then it got sillier and sillier with each season. The Sopranos is peerless, possibly the best thing ever on TV.

Have to agree with that. Even though I'm backing 'Prison Break', I knew I couldn't be totally committed to it when I saw this draw. I would daringly say that if you were only judging the first seasons, 'Prison Break' would just edge it. And the character of T-Bag oozed menace until he became something of a self-parody in the later seasons.

[video=youtube;mfaG8SZzDx0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfaG8SZzDx0[/video]

 

[EastStandBlue]

I loved Prison Break's first season, but like so many of the shows listed here (Lost being a prime example), because it was on a network rather than HBO it became a victim of its own success as network execs attempted to wring as much money as they could from the show's premise. By the time Fox finally let it die, the show had become a parody of its former self.

The Sopranos, on the other hand, is a titan of television. One of, if not the, finest television show ever produced. Tony Soprano is the perfect antihero, and that's without even mentioning the unadulterated brilliance of Paulie Walnuts, Silvio Dante and Christopher Moltisanti.

I won't post any spoilers or plotlines, as I'd hate to ruin the show for anyone who's curious or may want to watch it in the future, but this is a great scene in portraying the way in which Tony's job as boss often blurs the lines between his two families.

[video=youtube;dg-dtdupzbE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dg-dtdupzbE[/video]

 

[Dick Bate's Protege]

The Sopranos was one of them programmes that could have you sitting there five minutes after the credits have rolled still speechless. Sheer brilliance and second only to The Wire by my reckoning.

The episode when Paulie and Christopher are stranded in the woods in heavy snow has got to be the best bit of TV I've ever seen.

 

[Pubey]

The Sopranos is so good even the new Pope wants to look like Uncle Junior.

 

[Pubey]

The episode when Paulie and Christopher are stranded in the woods in heavy snow has got to be the best bit of TV I've ever seen.

A cracking example of how a show can do a 'curve-ball' episode which is unrelated to the plot but develops some characters in a really important way. Pine Barrens is so so good, and a few other shows have looked to emulate it (to varying effects). The Fly episode in Breaking Bad is one such example.

 

[Uncle Leo]

No great surprise to see Tony et al comfortably through