I kept losing eBay auctions for the wire when the price went over what I wanted, I think it was the $35-40 range. And then I snagged it for $17 including shipping. And it's a real box set with all 5 seasons and it was brand spankin' new and all the discs work perfectly.

The Wire is a great achievement that I haven't seen matched again. They created a world with such solid characters and settings (used as characters) that things like Hamsterdam or Season 5 don't seem nearly as outrageous as they would in other shows.

I think it ages better than the Sopranos. I think it does more as a show than the Sopranos. It takes some time to adjust to the style but that time is well spent.

I think that The Sopranos final season might be weighing too much on the entire series in my head. The final season was rushed and frankly, garbage, when compared the the first 5. I think The Sopranos would have benefited from combining season 6 and 7 (fuck this a and b shit, it's 2 seasons, so it's 6 and 7) into 1 13 episode season.

Cut most of the Vito shit, keep Bobby's development, If I had the access to the video and the software I'd try it myself, it'd be a lot of work and it might suck but it'd be neat to see the results. I've always wondered what it'd be like to cut each season down to a movie length just as a cool personal project.

I think another factor in how I view The Sopranos ending is the fact that The Shield went 7 seasons and the final 3 might be the best 3, where the last 2 with The Sopranos are not the quality I'd expected from the show.

The Wire is a better show than The Sopranos. The Wire is the Best Show. Period. But that doesn't mean it's my favorite. We can all agree that Michael Jordan was the best NBA player ever and he was great to watch, but that doesn't automatically make him your favorite player.

The Wire is the Michael Jordan of TV. Yeah, that fits. The Sopranos might be Shaq.