I love both 'True Detective' and 'Sopranos', but 'True Detective' really spoke to my love of pulpy, nhilistic noir. It was like watching a Vertigo comic properly adapted for the screen. I just can't get over what a brilliant, layered character Rust Cohle is (and amazing that in 2014 a character can come along that's this unique and fresh). Everything just came together, the writing, the directing, the cinematography and acting to produce something that I'd truly call a masterpiece. And that opening song….
'Sopranos' I like a lot too. As someone else said, it was a pioneer in the renaissance of television dramas. Before 'Sopranos' (and a few other HBO dramas that kicked off around the same time, like Six Feet Under and Oz), TV drama was truly still in the dark ages. We had exceptions like X-Files and Twin Peaks, but the overall quality of TV drama up until the late 90's was just…. crap.
'Sopranos' changed the way people thought about their protagonists in TV (they can be bad people, what a revelation) and infused it with a gritty realism, not like the other earlier action-oriented dramas where the hollywood handsome hero would give knowing looks to the camera, there'd be a 'bad guy of the week' and some important lesson was learned every episode. The later seasons of 'Sopranos' were still good, but there was definitely a dip. I was one of the few who liked the ending, because it was[BLACKOUT] such an innovative way to end a POV series (I think Tony's dead btw)[/BLACKOUT] and hey, we're still talking about it 7 years later. Sure there were kinks to be worked out and sometimes Sopranos tried to get too clever for its own good (like the coma stuff) or it would drag out an arc like Furio/Carmela and Vito being closeted, but it's still a classic as well. And as someone once said "it did it first. That doesn't mean it always did it pretty."
I still prefer 'True Detective', but I have a lot of respect for 'The Sopranos' and the doors it helped open.
