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We don't have to worry about which of these great shows is 'better', whatever that means. Cable TV is where contemporary writers get to stretch their wings, and these shows are like Victorian novels in their leisurely, enormous reach. The longeurs and distracted wanderings that some see as flaws in The Sopranos are part of the pleasure of this generous narrative flow.
Clive James's fine essay on the Sopranos (collected in "The Meaning of Recognition") traces its TV origins to "I, Claudius" -- not for nothing is Tony's mother named Livia. Tony's pathetic gang of deluded savages quote "The Godfather" at each other and perform as if in a great tragic opera, but mumbling their lines and falling over the props, while the truly tragic characters in "The Wire" are most of them wonderfully eloquent, and unfold themselves in almost poetic speech, even during one crime scene scene, where the only dialogue is 'Fuck!'
I gave "The Wire" my greatest personal accolade when, after watching the first two series from bittorrent, I went out and bought them.
