Greatest TV Drama in the Past 25 Years – End of Round 2

For those of you playing along at home, we have been following Vulture’s March Madness bracket of the Greatest TV Drama in the Past 25 Years.

The second round is over and here are the standings (winners in bold):

Sopranos vs The Shield: Not a surprise that Vic Mackey was whacked by Tony Soprano

Breaking Bad vs Twin Peaks: A damned good cup of coffee is no match for some of Heisenberg’s blue meth.

X-Files vs The Wire: The truth might be out there, but so is Omar Little, Stringer Bell and Snoop.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer vs Mad Men: Don Draper continues to outcool everyone.

Over the next two days, here is the breakdown of the semi-finals:

Sopranos vs Breaking Bad

The Wire vs Mad Men

It is really interesting how that works – 2 HBO shows that have completed their runs against 2 AMC shows that are still active.

When the series is yet to be finished, can you really compare it to a completed project? Or is Breaking Bad or Mad Men so remarkable that they can beat out either of HBO’s most revered shows? Either way, clearly these are the two networks that are truly creating compelling dramas.

I still think that this is the Sopranos to lose. It’s a show that helped change the face of television, bending the rules about what was acceptable and what sort of characters an audience would follow. But we’ll know for sure on Friday.

And now a moment of silence for all the shows that have fallen along the way:
Six Feet Under