TV - The Wire. Any good?

[Alfa]

IMDB is extremely positive about this series. Did anyone of you see it and how did you like it?

[Nature Boy]

It's rather decent. I suppose it's critically acclaimed because it displays a good knowledge of the apparent reality of crime. Some decent enough characters but personally I didn't find it to be as good as HBO's jewel-in-the-crown The Sopranos. Like many largely police-based TV series, unless you're really interested, it might not seem so great. I'd give it about 7/10 overall. (7 being comfortably above average)

[infekt]

I love that show, one of the most engaging shows I've ever followed. The character development is top notch.

[Jatelka]

I am EXTREMELY partial to the wire. It took me about 3 episodes to get hooked and I've been hooked ever since.

It may be something to do with a certain Irish cop character with a squashed nose who just oozes sex appeal, (possibly not a reason for you to watch it Alfa) or it may be the tight story lines and excellent plot development.

It also has one of the most fascinating characters in any show I've ever seen: Omar, a homosexual gangster, with a curious moral code of his own, who robs drug dealers for a living.

[lulz]

The Wire is one of the best shows on TV in years. It probably isn't very well known because of the way it's shot, it's more like a film split into episodes than a TV show. Each season is basically a 13 or 14 hour film, so if you only see one episode at random you won't fully understand what's going on. But if you watch the show starting on the first episode and go along chances are you'll love it.

Another show that's kind of similar is Deadwood, I wish there was more TV like this.

[stephy171072]

Swim can't really get into it as she thought she would. Swim would say that it is very accurate and knowledageble, more so than lots of other shows swim has seen about the drug world but swim just couldn't really find any characters she really connected with herself.

[frenchywife]

YES - LOVED IT! Great show! Very realistic - give it a

[stephy171072]

Ok after reading this thread and posting on it I went back upstairs and decided to give it another go and watched the last disc of the first series and iv changed my mind that was pretty good

[Alfa]

I found it OK. I watched the first season, but never felt the urge to move on to the 2nd.
Maybe my expectations of TV series are to high, after the Soprano's.

[Mammon]

If it's a question of is The Wire better then the Sopranos I'd say no. The Sopranos is, though, one of the best things I've ever seen on TV. The Wire lacks the blend of comedy/tragedy/drama that makes Sopranos so good.

That said, I’d still say The Wire is in a different league to the most of the HBO mega-series that they seem to churn out. I’ve only seen the first series but I thought the characters of D’Angelo and Omar really stood out as original, well defined and interesting. I also like the epic scope that these mega-series offer. I could see The Wire as a film, but so much of its depth would be lost if compressed into that timeframe.

One other thing, which is probably me being a retard, but I found the mixture of accent and slang so difficult to understand in the first 2 episodes I had to watch it with subtitles. After that I found it O.K., but I was wondering if anyone else here who’s non-American found it tricky at first.

Like I say, probably me just being a retard.

[RaverHippie]

The first season is very good. The rest don't quite reach the same level but they are still VERY good. In a period of unemployment my raver friend downloaded them all off bit torrent and the quality was surprisingly good and he watched about 6 episodes a day for a week or so. He enjoyed it all very much. He told me about each episode so I'll have to agree with him. Omar is a great character as Jatelka mentioned and the actor does an amazing job. I found it interesting that McNulty was an actor from the UK. It was funny when he went undercover as a british business man at one point and they made fun of his accent

[Mammon]

In a period of unemployment my raver friend downloaded them all off bit torrent and the quality was surprisingly good and he watched about 6 episodes a day for a week or so.

Yup, you're hungry but surely there's time for one more episode...

When I watched the last minutes of the last episode I felt actually depressed that it had to end. I feel you, mate, I feel you.

[jesica]

No other television drama comes close to the scope of its ambition. As co-creator and executive producer David Simon says: "Our model when we started doing The Wire wasn't other television shows. The standard we were looking at was Balzac's Paris or Dickens's London, or Tolstoy's Moscow." Over four seasons, the show has never flinched from that ambition and managed to realise it when they described the show as, "a Homeric epic of modern America".

[podge]

Originally Posted by RaverHippie

I found it interesting that McNulty was an actor from the UK.

Stringer bell ( idris elba ) is also from the UK, which completely shocked swim.

[Louid]

Originally Posted by podge

Stringer bell ( idris elba ) is also from the UK, which completely shocked swim.

According to the NME site it appears he's releasing an album soon, though due to having less than 50 posts I can't post the link but if you google it you should find it.

Stringer is easily one of the best characters on that show, this thread's inspired me to go watch some now.

[Bajeda]

I feel that 'The Wire' is a far higher quality television series than 'The Sopranos'. It doesn't have the same entertainment value perhaps, in the sense of escapist potential, and you really have to pay attention in order to keep track of repeatedly diverging and converging plotlines and the large multifarious ensemble of characters. The ultra-realistic rendering of societal institutions, practices, and problems doesn't make it an easy sell (too educational and/or too depressing). Still, on the whole, it's a better show. I would go so far as to say it is one of the best television series I've seen.

My only complaint -and its a weak one at that - is that the seasons tend to start out fairly slow. The pacing is obviously going to be slow in general due to the realism the producers are aiming for (some plot lines go for 4-5 seasons before they are resolved), but the action side of things tends to pick up as the season goes on, so things get more exciting as you see more plot strands head toward their long awaited resolution. This would have killed me if I had watched the show as it aired, but since I started watching it after the series had concluded I had the pleasure of watching each season without considerable delay between episodes.

Originally Posted by Mammon

One other thing, which is probably me being a retard, but I found the mixture of accent and slang so difficult to understand in the first 2 episodes I had to watch it with subtitles. After that I found it O.K., but I was wondering if anyone else here who’s non-American found it tricky at first.

Like I say, probably me just being a retard.

Its entirely understandable. I know Americans who wouldn't understand what the dealer characters are saying alot of the time, though you can get the main idea easily enough.

If you have trouble with the slang, UrbanDictionary is your friend (the website).

Originally Posted by Nature Boy

Like many largely police-based TV series, unless you're really interested, it might not seem so great.

I might as well add that I hate most all police and crime based television series. Find them boring as hell.

'The Wire' doesn't fit into that genre because it isn't about the cases. Its about the people and the institutions. Its all about the character development, and the resultant reflections on society. Shit, on what other cop show have you seen a top level policeman try to legalize drugs?

If you know of another television series with intelligent and resonant commentary on the War on Drugs, inner-city poverty and crime, police brutality, systemic corruption, bureaucratic inefficiency, failing schools, the consequences of political expediency, and a host of other relevant real-world issues, please let me know, because this is what makes 'The Wire' so interesting to me, in addition to the great character development and performances of course.

Feel free to not like the show, but don't try to throw it in with all the other crime centric shows it bears little to no resemblance to other than the fact that they both have police officers as characters.

[cra$h]

I saw this on demand, but never really noticed any direct drug reference. How's it compare to Breaking Bad, which I think is the best show on TV right now

[soloe]

I've only seen the first season which took me awhile to get into but it was pretty good. Doesn't compare to Sopranos though as others have mentioned. Like someone else mentioned the way it is shot is a bit different and takes a bit of getting used to. All in all its worth watching but I wouldn't say its the best TV show out there.