Baltimore based drama: The Wire

UK TV critic Charlie Brooker was singing the praises of this show the other day. He said it was one of the best TV shows your ever likely to see. I was thinking of ordering it on DVD.

Should I bother?

[Charlie Brooker describes The Wire]

It's ok. I gave up after the second episode, but I'm not a big fan of TV so two episodes is pretty good going for me.

Have you seen 'The Shield'? Completely ace. I made it through two entire series.

I'd say get it. It takes more than a couple of episodes to get into it. Some of the street lingo is difficult to understand (especially being a non-American as I am) so DVD with subtitles is a perfect way to see it. The way it is written means you may not get a handle on it until about four episodes in and by then you should be hooked. I've seen the first two seasons on DVD and was completely hooked by the stellar writing and ensemble cast. Season two was better I think but you have to see season one. I'm no fan of TV drama usually but The Wire was an exception. DVD is also good because you can watch the whole season over a week or less if you get as hooked as I did.

The WIRE is the best American TV series ever IMO.
NOT CRAP!

boilermaker wrote:I'd say get it. It takes more than a couple of episodes to get into it. Some of the street lingo is difficult to understand (especially being a non-American as I am) so DVD with subtitles is a perfect way to see it. The way it is written means you may not get a handle on it until about four episodes in and by then you should be hooked. I've seen the first two seasons on DVD and was completely hooked by the stellar writing and ensemble cast. Season two was better I think but you have to see season one. I'm no fan of TV drama usually but The Wire was an exception. DVD is also good because you can watch the whole season over a week or less if you get as hooked as I did.

The WIRE is the best American TV series ever IMO.
NOT CRAP!

I couldn't agree more. I think The Wire is the best show on TV. It makes Law and Order look like a Nancy Drew mystery.

I tried The Sheild too, but only got about half way through the first season. It seemed cartoonish compared to The Wire.

I am really surprised that more people don't watch it.

Also, Season 3 just came out on DVD this month and Season 4 starts airing on HBO next month.

Fuck this show. They make it exceedingly difficult to get in and out of my friends' apartment building while they're taping.

Good show. I've lived in B'more for 1.5 years now, in a transitional neighborhood where the HBO filming goes on from time. It's highly entertaining, if anything to see the neighborhood bar and corner store featured on the telly.

I think it also does a fair job of showing a big city police department with the politics and bureaucracy and the constant struggle of both good and bad cops between morality and corruption. It paints a very human picture of the antagonists and the protagonists. It's the anti-Spielberg approach. You watch the heroes and the villains fuck themselves up into a quagmire.

You can actually relate to the bad guys from time to time, and some of the cops are worse than the villains in the show (instead of the usual CSI/Matlock/Law&Order good guy-bad guy dichotomy). I feel sorry for those killed, but I also feel sympathy for the murderers too. This show shows that it is possible to make a tragic realistic drama out of empathy.

Much like the landscape of East Baltimore, the show is grey. It doesn't take sides. It's ambigious. I would expect most people who watch TV can't handle this approach. I'm surprised it has made it this many seasons.

Not crap.

liked the first season. wish i could find the time to watch the rest.

The show is not crap. but the fact that the new season is (so far) only available on HBO On Demand is crap.

Crap because I do not subscribe to HBO On Demand.

How's the new season, cable subscribers?

As good? Better? Different?