I’ve been covering The Wire in my Jane After Dark column at TV Squad, and I can’t help but think about the similarities to another favorite HBO show: The Sopranos. They’re both edgy and well-written and filled with knock-out characters, but they’re also very different. Here’s my rundown on these two top-notch shows:

Reality vs. Storytelling. The Sopranos is an awesome example of great storytelling. We’ve got the panic-plagued mobster dealing with his biological family and his mobster family. What could be better? I know there are people like Tony Soprano out there, but to me, The Sopranos is just a really good story.

The Wire, on the other hand, is so real that you feel like you”re watching a documentary. I’m into season three now and just noticed that there’s no soundtrack, no music at all (yeah, it takes me a while). It’s like someone is following these guys around with a camera.

Good Guys vs. Bad Guys. The Sopranos is mostly centered on Tony Soprano and his thugs and family, while The Wire gives equal time to thugs and the cops, with some politicians and dockworkers thrown in (as mentioned, I’m just into season 3, so haven’t gotten into the school system or press yet). I guess you could say that Stringer Bell, Avon Barksdale and Omar Little are the Tony Sopranos of The Wire; Stringer’s got his real estate business, and Tony’s got his sanitation business. But that’s not quite right either.

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(Season 4, Episodes 5-7)

Season four just keeps trucking along! I have to admit that I don’t think I’m enjoying this season as much as the previous three. That’s not to say that there is a degradation in the quality of the show, because there isn’t; the show is still top notch. It doesn’t even mean that I’m not finding the stories interesting. It’s because the stories this season are heartbreaking. The poor kids that are being followed are just tough to watch. Talk about lost innocence. It’s beyond rough, and I really feel for them and their crappy situations. If we were only being presented the story of the school this season I think it would be just too daunting to watch, but it’s luckily broken up with the politics, police work, and drug dealing.

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(Season 3, Episodes 1-4)

Another season begins! I’ve really enjoyed the first two seasons of The Wire, and so far I’m enjoying season three as well. Much like season two, the beginning of the season seems to have a lot of focus on character development. New relationships are blossoming, old relationships are coming to an end, and new characters are being introduced. It does seem to be moving a bit faster than season two did, with the police out on the street investigating Stringer Bell right from the beginning.

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(Season 2, Episodes 8-10)

I guess I was wrong in my last diary when I was lamenting McNulty’s future on the marine unit. It just took one more episode for Daniels to pull him off the boat, even with Rawls kicking and screaming the whole way. I really enjoy seeing the politics at work within the hierarchy of the police department. I find it fascinating. Plus, I’m happy to have the drunken Irishman back in the fold.

These three episodes saw a lot of movement in the case, both good and bad, so let’s get to it….

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(Season 2, Episodes 5-7)

Well, I’m more than halfway through season two at this point and things are just starting to come together. The jigsaw puzzle isn’t quite done yet, but I’m pretty sure that all the pieces are on the table and all the edge pieces have been put together. Now that tricky middle portion needs to be figured out.

This season has definitely been slower than the first. So many more characters are involved, but luckily I am finding them engaging and interesting. Watching TV on DVD is a much different experience than watching it live, waiting a week or more for a new episode. I could definitely see myself getting frustrated having to wait in-between episodes during this slow-developing season. Luckily, I don’t have that problem, so I really don’t have anything to complain about.

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