These were the two shows who sought to claim the throne in the immediate aftermath of the Sopranos, and both became iconic, but we need one. Who is your pick?
I like Breaking Bad but this is right where the hype is lost on me. I can’t think of a single thing Breaking Bad does better than Mad Men. It’s good, sometimes very good, but Mad Men is a class above.
I enjoyed the last episode of Breaking Bad more (relative to their respective series) but that's about it.
The violence is actually what makes me personally like shows like Breaking Bad less lol. I’ve seen people describe The Sopranos as “like mad men but with guns” and I’m always like “yeah and that’s why I like it less”.
Violence in long-running shows runs the risk of being a copout for resolution. Killing off characters is a lot easier than trying to work toward other resolutions.
Mad Men never resorts to a cheap thrill or shortcut to illicit a reaction of surprise and shock. That is so hard to do, BB is great but had all sorts of tropes at their discretion because the show is about cooking and dealing meth. Not the most professional industry.