BE or Sopranos?

Sopranos. What a rich, fully-realized experience. Tony Soprano, the role of a lifetime for any actor, was, as embodied in James Gandolfini, that rarest of characterization: a personality who could charm and repulse you simultaneously. That’s hard to do. That takes GREAT writing and GREAT acting. The only others I can think of, offhand, to fill the bill are Anthony Hopkins’ Hannibal Lecter and Michael C. Hall’s Dexter Morgan. Not an exhaustive list, but you get the picture. I had high hopes for Boardwalk Empire. Its pedigree was impeccable; but it was always less than the sum of its parts. It lacked synergy. Where The Sopranos seemed to dance along, even with stupid episodes like the talking stuffed fish, Boardwalk plodded. It was not a BAD show. It just was not The Sopranos.

Sopranos

Sopranos as well.

I liked Boardwalk more. It had a lot of intertwined history with fiction. I loved the style, outfits, music... it was a different experience that capitated me much more.

Technically speaking, I might go as far as to say that Boardwalk Empire is overall better made. Also, as a fan of history, I enjoyed the many based on/inspired by a true story aspects of it (I loved this about both Deadwood and Rome, as well). But I think The Sopranos beats it simply due to the fact that I liked the characters more than I did the ones from Boardwalk Empire. Not that there weren't great characters on Boardwalk Empire (Richard and Nelson, in particular, come to mind), but I never cared about them quite as much as I did Paulie, Christopher, Tony, Pussy, Bobby, Junior, Silvio, Adriana, etc, etc. They were all so humanized and well-rounded, and there were so many of them that I loved. I could've watched any number of them just sit and have a conversation for an hour that was completely irrelevant to the story. I couldn't even stand Nucky or Jimmy half the time, by contrast, as much as I loved watching the story they were involved in.