I think the appeal of BB and Sopranos is the inherent humanity to all the characters. Yes they do unspeakably horrible things. But they’re real people. There’s a little bit of Tony and Walt in all of us. Yes Tony is a mob boss, but the writers wrote him in such a human way that you can empathize with him sometimes. I’ve watched the Sopranos so many times now that I’ve begun to hate Tony. Not for the crime and all that, but the bullshitter that he is. He’s such a narcissist. He constantly lies, he manipulates people, he’s an addict, he’s a horrible father, he’s someone that I know irl. Walt is us.

In the opposite direction comes Walt. He’s us, he represents our wants and desires to be something of substance and meaning. He doesn’t want to be ineffectual and forgotten. Even if that something is terrible. He’s cruel because he’s lives a mediocre life despite his intellect. He sees others around him like Gretchen, who were successful, and he resents them. He resents people at home too because he’s stuck with them and their mundanities. He also suffers from pride. He wants to be successful on his own terms. Whether it’s the way he pays for his cancer treatment or cooks meth. He’s been nothing but a cog to other people’s success and he can’t stand it. That’s why at the end he tells Skylar he did it for himself.

I’ve watched bits and pieces of Lost and Dexter. They’re not comparable shows. They’re too far out in fantasy. The characters are “perfect.” Their flaws are superficial or typical. Many people have suffered a mother and father like Tony’s, or lived with a wife like Skylar, or had lived lives like Walt prior to his explosion in living. Dexter plays on a fantasy. It’s goofy and unrealistic.he sleeps with his sister, he’s a forensic scientist who catches killers and kills them. Lost takes place in the afterlife. It’s all very whimsical, not grounded in reality at all.

At least, that’s why I think Sopranos and BB will always be relevant. While the other two, and many others, will fall into obscurity. It’s the same reason Seinfeld is still comedically relevant. It’s taking reality, adding a little extremism to it (observational comedy, a mob setting, a a man who cooks crystal meth) and it blows things out of proportion while still honing in on the human element.