To give a little support for my statement though, (cont)
Two arguements in The Wire's favor.
1) Compare first seasons. While Breaking Bad has gained a ton of steam with each season and has BECOME an amazing show, for the most part it didn't start that way. I, for example, watched the 1st season on BB and then forgot about it. I felt that it was kinda slow, sappy, and more like a almost edgy Fox show than a top-tier cable show. The first season of BB wasn't even close to as solid out the gates as The Shield, SoA, Sopranos, Homeland, and several others. Yes, it got good, but it started out ish. It may be hard to remember it properly, but I think it's true. Meanwhile, The Wire came out with both guns blazing. Most fans of The Wire wouldn't bother getting in an arguement about WHICH season is the best because they would want to argue that ALL of them were.
2) The storytelling in The Wire is just so much more realized. Each season not only had compelling storylines (something that BB also does really, really well), but they also went deeper by actually focusing each season on heavy themes. If I remember right it's The Carter (New Jack Coty reference to those not in the know), Shipyards, Schools, Politics, Newspapers. While BB is excellent in it's storylines, acting, and character developement, it's more like a serial pulp mag while The Wire was more like a novel.
I could actually come up with a dozen more reasons if I thought ya'll wanted to be bored, but I firmly think that The Wire is head and shoulders above Breaking Bad in almost every way. Actually, I don't think BB holds a candle to FX's The Shield too but I realize that is possibly based on my personal tastes. The Wire/BB debate though is a non-starter in my opinion.
For the record, I think that Breaking Bad is an amazing show and I look forward to it just like everybody else. I'm not trying to bash it. I just don't think it's even close to touching some of the actual GOATs.