The Wire

sozbox

This is one of the greatest TV shows I have ever seen.

Does anybody else watch?

Mossy Monk

just finished watching season 1 this evening. it is excellent. the plan is to watch an episode every day. tomorrow sees the start of season 2

sozbox

What do you think so far?

I've seen all 4 season so far, can't wait for 5, pity it will be the last!

ixoy

Bunch of thread already on it here,here, and here.

Most of them featuring me going on and on about how brilliant this show is, how it's one of the best things I've ever seen, if not the best. It has me talking about how S4 was one of the most heart-wrenching seasons of any show I've seen and how I still think about it frequently. See? I did it again.

Fantastic show and I'm 100% certain that S5 will not disappoint. It's looking now that, season for season, quality for quality, it could be the most perfect show. Ever...

sozbox

I couldn't agree more. Thanks for those links, I had a browse through before I posted but must have missed them!

Edit-Just looked at the other threads, refreshing to see I'm not the only one watching!

godtabh

In the middle of season 3.

One thing about the show is that I never want to go to Baltimore!

chalkitdown1

Probably my 3rd favourite show ever(after Six Feet Under and Deadwood). It knocks every other cop show for six.

God love HBO.

sozbox

Deadwood is also excellent, watching season 3 at the mo but I still think The Wire is a better show.

tvnutz

The Wire=Best TV show every made!

kencleary

Yeah another recent convert here too! Can't believe that this show isn't more widely watched.

Also agree with the poster above on Season 4 being just gut wrenching at times. Anyone any idea when Season 5 will be broadcast?

TarfHead

www.radiotimes.com

MONDAY 19 MARCH
The Wire
11:25pm - 12:20am
TG4

Boys of Summer

New series of the critically-acclaimed, hard-hitting American crime series, which follows the Baltimore Police Department's fight against the city's drug trade. As the summer draws to a close, four neighbourhood boys begin to contemplate their return to school. The major crimes unit's attempts to trace the political donations made by the Barksdale Crew land them in trouble. The mayoral race heats up. Prez starts his new career as a teacher in the local high school.

sweetie

How this didn't make channel 4s recent 50 best dramas I don't know. Token entries for twin peaks, west wing, hill st and sopranos. I really like it but I find I only watch an episode every now and then as there is so much to digest in it.

Basq

Watched the 1st few episodes of season 1 a year or so ago.. and couldn't get into it so abandoned it.

Lost my copies of the seasons and no regret it!

Plan for the summer months: watch 'The Wire"

Wertz

Compulsive viewing...you just want to keep watching ep after ep....but at the same time you don't want to watch the season too quickly lest it be over and leave you with that empty feeling you get after wtahcing the montage type thing they do in each season's last episode.
No-one makes em like HBO.

Mossy Monk

basquille wrote:

Watched the 1st few episodes of season 1 a year or so ago.. and couldn't get into it so abandoned it.

i tried watching it on TG4 a year or so ago and couldnt get into it then. found the pace too slow. i made an impulse buy of the season 1 dvd and it was spectacular. brilliant story telling. have bought seasons 2 and 3 since

ixoy

basquille wrote:

Plan for the summer months: watch 'The Wire"

You owe it to yourself. I mean can we all be really that wrong in our effusive praise? No. No we can't.

sozbox

The pace is slow but I think that's one of the show's strengths. Everyone I've introduced to the show usually becomes hooked only after watching the first 4 of 5 episodes.
The thing is a lot of people lose interest after seeing only the first episode.

kencleary

TarfHead wrote:

www.radiotimes.com

MONDAY 19 MARCH
The Wire
11:25pm - 12:20am
TG4

Boys of Summer

New series of the critically-acclaimed, hard-hitting American crime series, which follows the Baltimore Police Department's fight against the city's drug trade. As the summer draws to a close, four neighbourhood boys begin to contemplate their return to school. The major crimes unit's attempts to trace the political donations made by the Barksdale Crew land them in trouble. The mayoral race heats up. Prez starts his new career as a teacher in the local high school.

That's Season 4 - already seen that. Season 5 is in filming or production or something i was wondering when that is going to be broadcast.

ixoy

kencleary wrote:

That's Season 4 - already seen that. Season 5 is in filming or production or something i was wondering when that is going to be broadcast.

Pretty sure nobody knows that. What I do know is that Aidan Gillen (Carcetti) is just wrapping up a play in The Gate theatre and he said, in an interview, that shortly after that he'd be going back to film some scenes for the new season.

As to broadcast times - nobody knows yet I imagine. Hopefully this year, although there was a long gap between S3 & S4.

godtabh

ixoy wrote:

As to broadcast times - nobody knows yet I imagine. Hopefully this year, although there was a long gap between S3 & S4.

Was posted above the it starts on Monday

Wertz

^ He means season 5....the radio times schedule is on about season 4

godtabh

Wertz wrote:

^ He means season 5....the radio times schedule is on about season 4

I thought it refered to season 5!

Mossy Monk

season 5 hasnt even been filmed yet

Wertz

Mossy Monk wrote:

season 5 hasnt even been filmed yet

But it's still rumoured to have been leaked onto popular torrent sites

Mossy Monk

really?

the most recent season i can find is 4

sozbox

I think he was joking...:)

dudara

We just finished watching Season 1 and we're hooked! Excellent show, with great story and characterisation. Season 2 is hopefully in the post as we speak.

godtabh

dudara wrote:

We just finished watching Season 1 and we're hooked! Excellent show, with great story and characterisation. Season 2 is hopefully in the post as we speak.

I think season two is the weakest but it still beats most of the shows out at the moment.

Season 3 was class. About to start season 4 but so far season 1 was my favorite

ixoy

kearnsr wrote:

I think season two is the weakest but it still beats most of the shows out at the moment.

Season 3 was class. About to start season 4 but so far season 1 was my favorite

S2 is a bit more of an aside than other seasons but, as you say, great TV. For sheer emotional impact and, many other reasons, I think S4 is actually the best. Given you know how good the show is, you'll know that this is strong praise indeed.

sozbox

I read somewhere that S2 actually had higher ratings than S1 and S3 due to the larger white cast. The overall poor ratings for the show are a shame, we're lucky it hasn't been cancelled.

So far I think S3 was my personal favourite, S4 a close second. S3 and S4 were some of the best television ever. I'm re-watching S3 at the minute. Can't get enough.

godtabh

Jason1984 wrote:

I read somewhere that S2 actually had higher ratings than S1 and S3 due to the larger white cast.

i'd love to see that article.

sozbox

It wasn't an article but a post made by the show's creator and writer David Simon. HBO had him answer viewers questions on their online forum a while back.
If you're interested here's the link, he makes references to Season 2's higher ratings and his opinions on why he thinks it such. As you will see the thread is quite large and the link above directs to one page containing one such comment by Mr. Simon. There are more but you will have to look through the thread, something I would highly recommend regardless as it makes for excellent reading.

BE WARNED- The thread contains spoilers, many of them, up to the end of S3 so if you haven't watched that far I would advise against reading as it will no doubt have a detrimental effect on the rest of your viewing.

So, here's one of the quotes-

"I listed the reasons why the show struggles to grow its audience in an earlier post. But in response to one of your points, I agree that the racial composition of the cast is part of that struggle.

Our numbers started low three years ago, and they were higher second season when the port story introduced more white characters. (We didn't do it to change the racial composition, we did it because the port story required a different composite.) Incredibly, there were many viewers and critics who suggested that the show was "easier" to follow in its second season than the first -- despite the fact that we were actually running two unrelated storylines (three if you consider that the Valchek-Sobotka fued and the establishment of the detail had almost nothing to do with Bunk's investigation of the dead women for at least four episodes.) What they were saying was, "When I saw white people being depicted, I figured it was worth paying attention."

With the possible exception of Roots -- which was an enobling, mainstream story -- no drama with a majority black cast has ever succeeded in winning widespread popularity amount white viewers.

We don't write this show for black viewers, or white. We write it because the story feels real and purposeful to us. It's a shame the rest of the country is so Balkanized when it comes to race."

-David Simon, Dec 14, 2004 12:37 PM

The monthly how great the Wire is thread. I'll just repeat my previous thoughts on the subject. Greatest TV show in the history of the medium.

Got into a big arguement concerning the Wire last week. Some guy was telling a friend about this crap new show from Ed Burn's the guy behind The Brothers McMullan. I walked in half way throught his conversation and tried to set they right. Turned into the funniest conversation I have ever had. Half an hour of this guy saying that there was only one writer called Ed Burns and that the Wire was his most ineptly written piece.

ixoy

That bit about the racial composition is quite interesting as it occurred to me yesterday, when watching "The Corner", about how "The Wire" has one of the highest percentage of black cast members of any show that I know.

Unlike other shows though - a comedy like "Everybody Hates Chris" - the race element was only an element of a large tapestry and it never felt overtly political so it never felt forced, just another component of a larger tale.

I also feel it's worth mentioning that this is one of the greatest shows ever made because I've not mentioned it in about 2 posts.

godtabh

Season 4 starts tonight at 23:25.

Have to program the dvd recorder.

The race card only gets played in bits of the end of season 3. I wonder was that done on purpose i.e did they write that in when they compared the ratings of season 2 and season 3 and read the critics comments

sozbox

The whole race thing is really a non-issue. The writers keep the demographics of the show in line with the demographics of Baltimore City. This way, it retains its realism and authenticity.
David Simon isn't the type to react to audience criticism, just read his comments on focus groups!

the1andonly1

David Simon recently gave a talk about what he meant the wire to be about (the death of industrial society, the end of the american empire), it was in a university in the states. Its really interesting and deserves a listen, though be warned he does spoil the end of season 3 in one of the videos.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJNkL12QD68
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhPZYjRgqTI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z42m_J8t18

ixoy

Jason1984 wrote:

David Simon isn't the type to react to audience criticism, just read his comments on focus groups!

Where can I find these?

The show is fanatical almost in its attention to authenticity and continuity and people have been trying to catch it out. At one point, in S4, a poster finally claimed to have spotted a mistake where a character was arrested over some particular clause in a law. The poster had some issue with how that was actually applicable and thought they had (unusually) screwed up. What was beautiful, was how the writer responded and said that the crime was applicable under Baltimore law because the actor whose character had been arrested for breaking it had himself been arrested for that crime. No wonder this show is the closest to being believable of any show I've seen.

sozbox

ixoy wrote:

Where can I find these?

The show is fanatical almost in its attention to authenticity and continuity and people have been trying to catch it out. At one point, in S4, a poster finally claimed to have spotted a mistake where a character was arrested over some particular clause in a law. The poster had some issue with how that was actually applicable and thought they had (unusually) screwed up. What was beautiful, was how the writer responded and said that the crime was applicable under Baltimore law because the actor whose character had been arrested for breaking it had himself been arrested for that crime. No wonder this show is the closest to being believable of any show I've seen.

In the link I posted above, if you have a read through at some point he makes some not so nice remarks about "test audiences".

I never heard that before, excellent though. Where was it posted?

godtabh

I cant remember the last time i saw anything so real. Its a simple story that isnt out of this world.

the1andonly1 wrote:

David Simon recently gave a talk about what he meant the wire to be about (the death of industrial society, the end of the american empire), it was in a university in the states. Its really interesting and deserves a listen, though be warned he does spoil the end of season 3 in one of the videos.

I would have thought that would have applied to season 2 and not the others.

I would have thought that the other series were more about how drugs can rule a city and the damage they cause.

the1andonly1

kearnsr wrote:

I would have thought that would have applied to season 2 and not the others.

I would have thought that the other series were more about how drugs can rule a city and the damage they cause.

While I think that the drugs war is a major theme in all the seasons (a little less so in season 2, and more so in season 1) I think that the overriding theme present in all 4 series is the lack of individual worth. In all 4 seasons the individual characters are subserviant to the organisations they belong to, and when the individual and the organisation come into conflict, it's the organisation that wins out. Whether it be

carcetti at the end of season 3 (advocates an increased war on drugs knowing it wont work because the alternative would lose him votes), wallace in season 1, or mcnulty in season 1.

Of course there are other themes present in all 4 seasons, some of which run through the entire show and some of which are specific to that 1 season

Sorry for going on for so long, the wire is one of the only tv shows where it's quite possible to write a dissertation on its subject matter and themes!


EDIT: I've tagged the spoiler, I dont think it gives much away, but sorry anyway!

tw0nk

Hi all, ive been trying to find a good place to buy the wire, but ebay still fairly expensive, anyone know of any good offers atm? or failing that second hand websites? cheers.

Wertz

S1 & S2 are £18stg each on amazon uk...and another 2-3 pounds for delivery
For the calibre of the show I think that is a great price for 12 solid hours per season.

DeepBlue

the1andonly1 wrote:

While I think that the drugs war is a major theme in all the seasons (a little less so in season 2, and more so in season 1) I think that the overriding theme present in all 4 series is the lack of individual worth. In all 4 seasons the individual characters are subserviant to the organisations they belong to, and when the individual and the organisation come into conflict, it's the organisation that wins out.

Whether it be carcetti at the end of season 3 (advocates an increased war on drugs knowing it wont work because the alternative would lose him votes), wallace in season 1, or mcnulty in season 1.

Of course there are other themes present in all 4 seasons, some of which run through the entire show and some of which are specific to that 1 season

Sorry for going on for so long, the wire is one of the only tv shows where it's quite possible to write a dissertation on its subject matter and themes!

Guys, Please use spoiler tags when discussing how seasons end etc.
Thanks.

Off topic - would it be best to leave watching season 4 until after season 3?
I've seen the first couple of seasons and it seems that some storylines keep going from season to season so presumably watching S4 in advance of S3 would spoil S3 considerably?

sozbox

DeepBlue wrote:

Guys, Please use spoiler tags when discussing how seasons end etc.
Thanks.

Off topic - would it be best to leave watching season 4 until after season 3?
I've seen the first couple of seasons and it seems that some storylines keep going from season to season so presumably watching S4 in advance of S3 would spoil S3 considerably?

Absolutely. If you watch S4 without watching S3 you will be completely lost. While S4 does introduce fresh story lines, there are still plenty that arise directly from the events of S3.

As for where to buy, I'd suggest play.com. Free delivery and I think the prices are low too.
HMV had the first three season going for €35 each recently. Fair price for such a show.

tw0nk

cool thanks, Wertz, i think il order those now, i love being able to watch the shows back to back.

Miguel_Sanchez

Skipping this thread because I don't want any spoilers what so ever.

But a bunch of my friends have been raving about the Wire for the past few months. There's a TV arriving into the house tonight so I think I'll finally get to watch it from the start.

Really looking forward to it.

godtabh

the1andonly1 wrote:

In all 4 seasons the individual characters are subserviant to the organisations they belong to, and when the individual and the organisation come into conflict, it's the organisation that wins out.

McNulty I would've thoughtis anything but subserviant!

Only the dealers are subserviant.

In season 2 while the port workers are working for a the Greeks I dont think they are subserviant to them.

The solider in season 3 breaks away.

I dont think i've spoilt anything but if I have I'll edit it

the1andonly1

kearnsr wrote:

McNulty I would've thoughtis anything but subserviant!

Only the dealers are subserviant.

In season 2 while the port workers are working for a the Greeks I dont think they are subserviant to them.

The solider in season 3 breaks away.

Subserviant was probably the wrong word, what I was aiming for was that those characters were ultimatly betrayed by whichever institution they served.
For example

McNulty at the start of season 2, when he ends up on the boat for betraying his masters.

Wallace was betrayed by the institution he needed the most, the barksdales.

The dockers were betrayed by not just the greeks, but by the political system which made their jobs worth less and less each day.

I think cutty in season 3 is a great example, once he leaves the barksdale organisation he is able to get his life together in a way which is impossible from within that system.

Colvin is betrayed by the police force for trying something new and different which challenged the status quo.

Stringer Bell is himself betrayed by his own man for doing the exact same thing.

So I think that while the drugs theme is the most obvious (especially season 1 and 3) its not just about the drugs story, I do really think that Simon is trying to portray more than just that in the show

godtabh

the1andonly1 wrote:

For example

McNulty at the start of season 2, when he ends up on the boat for betraying his masters.

He just pissed his boss off to much and went behind their backs the whole time

the1andonly1 wrote:

For example

Wallace was betrayed by the institution he needed the most, the barksdales.

Again he crossed his bosses

the1andonly1 wrote:

The dockers were betrayed by not just the greeks, but by the political system which made their jobs worth less and less each day.

Would agree with the greeks but the other point not so. Money passed hands here

the1andonly1 wrote:

I think cutty in season 3 is a great example, once he leaves the barksdale organisation he is able to get his life together in a way which is impossible from within that system.

He went against the norm. Great character

the1andonly1 wrote:

Colvin is betrayed by the police force for trying something new and different which challenged the status quo.

Again he wasnt betrayed. He went behind their backs doing something well dodgey

the1andonly1 wrote:

Stringer Bell is himself betrayed by his own man for doing the exact same thing.

He got done in a double cross. He was trying to be head of the pack.

the1andonly1

Not seeing a pattern?!

As I see it, its that each organisation in the end betrays the people who serve it. In each of the instances above, the institution, be they the police force or the drug gangs are faced with a dilemma, which is whether to act in the best interests of the individual, or that of the organisation. And without fail, they all choose to protect the organisation itself at the expense of the individuals. You could argue that the individuals double crossed their superiors, or went behind their backs, but in each case it was the institution that had to be protected. Take colvin for example:

He was booted out of the police force for actually trying to do something which would, and did, help the community. The people who are meant to help the community are the police in the 1st place. But to protect the institution from criticism colvin was kicked out.