The Wire - any good?
- Thread starter TonyM19
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The shield is fantastic.
The last series is hard going though, as its hard to suspend your belief as much as the script demands.
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Yeah once The Wire is over, I felt like that too.
I'd suggest either The Soprano's to fill that gap with, or The West Wing. Both lengthy shows with several seasons and plenty of drama/twists etc.
I might start to watch The Wire again tbh, it's been about a year since I finished watching it.
<3 McNulty and Bunk
Anyone that has saw it would agree that I am not exaggerating by saying it is without any competition the greatest TV show ever created.
And I only watched it for the first time around this time last year.
It is mostly talking, but this is real life, the violence when it is in there is often shocking though.
For the people saying it is slow to get into, I watched the very first 10mins of the pilot show, about how they trick the court to get away with murder, and then the chat between the judge and Macnulty, and was hooked from then on.
So I think if you do not like the pilot you will not like the rest of the 5 seasons of the show either.
And I only watched it for the first time around this time last year.
It is mostly talking, but this is real life, the violence when it is in there is often shocking though.
For the people saying it is slow to get into, I watched the very first 10mins of the pilot show, about how they trick the court to get away with murder, and then the chat between the judge and Macnulty, and was hooked from then on.
So I think if you do not like the pilot you will not like the rest of the 5 seasons of the show either.
Watch me: it is certainly a great series, but it is not the greatest. The first three series of The West Wing are better for instance.
M
When the viewer is first introduced to Snoop, Marlo refers to her as 'girl'.
And following that, there are other clues. For example: her mugshot pinned on the Major Crime Unit's board with her name [they use her real name, by the way] written underneath.
But Sheeeeee... I'd be lyin' out my ass if I say I picked up on any of those the first couple of times around.
Hell, I wasn't even sure after the opening scene of season 4, where she's buying a nailgun.
"The man said 'f we wanna shoot nails, this here's the Cadillac, man. He mean' Lexus, but he ain't know it..."
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So you say the West Wing is better, but you did not go on to say what you believed is the greatest show ever created.
Put it this way, if it is not the Wire then I would like to see that TV show that is as I must have missed it so far.
For most of the show I thought she was a he too.
I also did notice when she/he was called girl but figured it could have been some kind of street slang insult.
You would call someone a girl if you wanted to insult them or at least put them down.
The one scene the cemented she was a she was when she killed someone on the back of a motorcycle and she looked very feminine.
Put it this way she may be a girl, but she is a girl I would never, ever want to meet.
I haven't seen every TV show, so I couldn't tell you what is best. Of the ones I've seen, I'd rate The West Wing as the best (as I said though - until about halfway through series 4). I'd put The Wire in the top five at it's best, but there are too many flaws for it to rate top (let's start with the clichéd character of McNulty for starters), and series five was a mess in this case.
M
Not very sporting to criticise one show on its entirety yet laud another selectively, old chap. Foundations built on sand, and all that
I've yet to see West Wing, but I doubt it manages to avoid cliche. Some tropes are necessary to create a good story, be they brilliant maverick cops who play by their own rules or treacherous politicians with their own agendas [he said, taking a wild backstab in the dark].
Picked up the Wire boxset in Tesco yesterday for £50. Have seen three episodes so far - am certainly enjoying it, although at the moment there are a few things that don't quite gel (the character of D'Angelo for example - his personality seems to change from minute to minute), although I'll put that down to my getting used to the series. Certainly looking forward to the rest, given the comments here and everywhere else.
Re the West Wing: I've watched the entire thing twice through now and while I enjoy the final few series, I start thinking that maybe there are better things around. Then I go back to the beginning and I remember just how good the earlier series are. I can't believe how good a writer Aaron Sorkin is and how obvious it is the show missed him.
Re the West Wing: I've watched the entire thing twice through now and while I enjoy the final few series, I start thinking that maybe there are better things around. Then I go back to the beginning and I remember just how good the earlier series are. I can't believe how good a writer Aaron Sorkin is and how obvious it is the show missed him.
Dexter will do that for you.
You could watch Homicide: Life on the Street.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106028/
Which is the show from the same creators as The Wire and very similar.
I am deliberately not saying The Wire is a spinoff off of homicide as I got someone that knows the shows seemingly too well give me a right bashing for suggesting that on Avforums some time back.
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Not very sporting to criticise one show on its entirety yet laud another selectively, old chap. Foundations built on sand, and all that
All shows peak and then fall off, unless they only last a couple of series. The Wire peaked in the first series, fell off, recovered a lot (but not completely) in series four, then fell off a cliff for series five. TWW hit its peak and series two and three, fell off halfway through series four, and recovered (albeit as an unrelated series featuring characters with the same names) halfway through series six. Taking all that into account, I still consider the overall standard of TWW better than The Wire. As to which had the best single moments, that's a bit more open to debate. I'd also argue that TWW pretty much never developed into clichés, if for no other reason that it trod ground hardly anyone else had ventured into.
M