If i had to recomend just one to someone whod never seen either id go with breaking bad for two reasons. Where it fails, though, is in its focus on just two shows. Calling the sopranos a novelistic approach to the medium means praising both its new approach to television and its longform storytelling. Id go with breaking bad, followed by the sopranos, and then the wire. The sopranos carmela has more personality, but the problem is that she does nothing with it. I am a big fan of this show so i was delighted to read a book all about breaking bad. Part ii and the french connection, the black comedy of fargo, westerns such as the great train robbery and the interplay of crimebossmeetsfamilydrama of hbos the sopranos. How the sopranos launched a tv revolution telegraph. Breaking bad still resonates on 10th anniversary of its. Revolution from the sopranos and the wire to mad men and breaking bad.
Life on the streets was based on a book written by wire creator david simon titled. And while breaking bad fans grew frustrated with skyler white anna gunn, sopranos carmela soprano edie falco frequently held her own against her husband and was every bit as complex as he was. Join us for the best pics and posts and relive the. The show helped spawn such outstanding shows as mad men and breaking bad, giving the industry respect it had struggled to obtain almost from its inception.
Excellent behindthescenes look at how possibly the best tv series ever vying for first place with breaking bad was put together. As tv critics for tony sopranos hometown paper, new jerseys the star. On a wifetowife basis, its breaking bad s skyler for the win. Alan sepinwall on breaking bad, bad fans and what makes. Peppered with interviews, the environment that fostered the creation of these ground breaking shows is examined in detail. The sopranos and breaking bad movies and the end of. Alan sepinwall on turning points in breaking bad, the.
Each chapter focuses on how breaking bad was put together. The shows in the spotlight and spoiled are the sopranos, oz, the wire, deadwood, the shield, lost, buffy the vampire slayer, 24, battlestar galactica, friday night lights, mad men and breaking bad. From tony soprano to don draper, male characters drive this new and yet. Despite its focused prison setting, oz offers depth and intrigue by shifting between different characters of various traits and moral standings bouncing from prisoners to the staff, all the way up to the warden. Difficult men dwells largely on the creators of those four celebrated dramasdavid chase the sopranos, david simon the wire, matthew weiner mad men, and vince gilligan breaking badplus a few others, especially alan ball six feet under and david milch deadwood. Neither the sopranos or breaking bad projects are straightup reunion projects the sopranos movie, titled the many saints of newark, is a prequel set in the 1960s and starring jon bernthal and. Thats due more in part to the fact that breaking bad is, in a lot of ways, directly inspired by the sopranos. Your buddies always namedrop the heavy hitters first. Breaking bad, the sopranos or the wire steve hoffman. In a piece comparing the show to the sopranos, mad men and the wire, chuck klosterman said that breaking bad is built on the uncomfortable premise that theres an irrefutable difference between whats right and whats wrong, and its the only one where the characters have real control over how they choose to live. How breaking bad breaks away from the sopranos and the wire and why vince gilligan should run the sec allen st.
Breaking bad in particular feels much more relatable to me. On january 10, 1999, a mobster walked into a psychiatrists office and changed tv history. In this book, he visits a dozen series that expanded how television approaches the storytelling form. Breaking bad refusing to fall into a whack of the week mob drama trap, the sopranos took bold creative risks with its narrative remember tony trapped in. Spoilers the sopranos vs the wire vs breaking bad which. Lots of insights into the characters, the actors who played them and the writers who created them. It is loaded with all kinds of facts about the show. Television learned the wrong lessons from the sopranos. Difficult men chronicles the rise of the allpowerful showrunners of such iconic television shows as the sopranos, the wire, deadwood, mad men, breaking bad, and other television shows of that era. Bad, one of many cable shows brett martin discusses in his book. The sopranos and that adopted its central conceit of a flawed antiherobreaking bad.
From the sopranos and the wire to mad men and breaking bad kindle edition by. But hbo has shifted its model to produce televised novels, in which chapters unfold as part and parcel of a larger whole. I was 42 when, with only a month left in its run, i somehow watched 52 episodes of breaking bad in a week, not stopping the heroin like flow of that amazing story into mmellon. This group portrait of the guys who made the sopranos, six feet under, the wire, deadwood, mad men, and breaking bad is a deeply reported, toughminded, revelatory account of what goes on not just in the writers room but in the writers head the thousand decisions fueled by genius, ego, instinct, and anger that lead to the making of a great tv. Breaking bads showrunner vince gilligan is, in stark contrast, is a.
The sopranos, along with several other stellar hbo dramas and comedies, did bring television up to a much higher standard, where it even gave the movie industry a run for its money. Indeed, breaking bad is rife with allusions to or scenes influenced by gangster movies such as the godfather. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. Alan sepinwalls breaking bad 101, released earlier this week, is the ultimate guide to vince gilligans defining antihero drama, an episodebyepisode journey through the series that. Ultimately, if you didnt like the ending of the sopranos, youre not a real fan of the sopranos. Ever since the sopranos changed the game at the turn of the. The sopranos sessions by matt zoller seitz, alan sepinwall. Oz, the sopranos, the wire, deadwood, the shield, lost, buffy the vampire slayer, 24, battlestar galactica, friday night lights, mad men, and breaking bad. Mad men, breaking bad couldnt have happened without the sopranos. Breaking bad by vince gilligan 52705 amc sony pictures television. The wire, mad men, friends, the simpsons, breaking bad. How the sopranos, mad men, breaking bad, lost, and other groundbreaking dramas changed tv forever. On a wifetowife basis, its breaking bads skyler for the win.
Breaking bad proved that kind of quality could be produced on basic cable and helped expand the playing field, while raising the bar of expectation. The sopranos set the stage for that golden era of television. Difficult men is an insightful history of popular us tv drama which traces the emergence of shows such as the sopranos, breaking bad, mad men and the wire, and explores their engagement with important social issues around love. The sopranos breaking balls goes too far shineboxtv. By shattering preconceptions about the kinds of stories the medium should tell, the sopranos launched our current age of prestige television, paving the way for such giants as mad men, the wire, breaking bad, and game of thrones. Pages public figure the sopranos members only videos how much more betrayal can i take. This creative revolution is documented in two new books. Visit the writers rooms at the sopranos, the wire, breaking bad, and mad men. The shield, mad men and breaking bad each get a chapter, while everything else sons of anarchy, damages, justified and so on are relegated to just a passing mention or two. There are times when the amount of praise heaped on the sopranos and its imitators by critics and bloggers and bookwriters and, yes, times columnists as well might almost make you imagine that. Shows such as the wire, breaking bad, the sopranos, mad men, deadwood, the. The nook book ebook of the the revolution was televised. The latter is by far the most realistic of the three, but you cant beat breaking bad for sheer intensity. The authors offer recaps of every episode, a variety of essays and the authors newspaper articles from 1999.
As is the case with breaking bad, tom fontanas oz presents a rich and memorable drama with a gritty bent over the course of just a handful of seasons. Breaking bad by vince gilligan 52705 amc sony pictures. Martin is able to make the byzantine landscape of television production intelligible to laymen. Below them, black and white cows graze the rolling. And vince gilligan, the creator and show runner of breaking bad. How the sopranos, mad men, breaking bad, lost, and other groundbreaking dramas changed tv.
It was a masterstroke that ended the best television show thats ever been created. Which is the better show, breaking bad or the sopranos. Great show and each season has gotten better and better, which was not true for the other shows. The main pleasure of this book is its detailed descriptions of the creation. The importance of the writers the difficult men of the title being the focus of the book on shows such as the wire, the sopranos, deadwood and mad men. Havent seen the wire or breaking bad, but the sopranos stuck around longer than it should have. The book is perhaps everything youve ever wanted to know about the sopranos. Acting would definitely go to sopranos and so would as far as being a break through show but the plot line of breaking bad was insanely innovative, the plot line was way more intriguing in. Did the sopranos do more harm than good hbo and the. Alans book, chapter after chapter breaks down with sugical precision. Shes a doormat with lowrisk moments of brassy sternness and minor revolts theres.
For a fan of hbo shows and the new golden age of tv this book is essential reading. The sopranos members only, jersey city, new jersey. The breaking bad creatorexec producer recalls, after meeting james gandolfini, being struck by the disconnect between the scary mob boss and the warm and friendly man who played him. From the sopranos and the wire to mad men and breaking bad 4. In new book, david chase opens up about tonys fate. Eventually, everyone settles on the sopranos as the consensus. Alan sepinwall discusses his new book the sopranos.
1296 1056 1216 501 1328 163 563 625 1322 768 1535 1379 1275 131 1219 250 113 1561 1503 432 302 46 713 514 831 398 1236 794 1291