The Wire-Is it any good?

Five Eighth

1. The Sopranos

2. The Wire

3. The Shield

Five Eighth

Five Eighth wrote: »

1. The Sopranos

2. The Wire

3. The Shield

4. Oz

Mad_maxx

StevenToast wrote: »

The Wire is the greatest show of all time.


Close thread.

Sopranos for me ,I do love the wire though

hold my beer

Five Eighth wrote: »

1. The Sopranos

2. The Wire

3. The Shield

I really should watch The Shield if it's up there with The Wire and Sopranos

ArnoldJRimmer

I started watching the Wire about ten years ago after picking up a cheap boxset, and just couldn't really get get into it, stopping fairly early on. Decided to give it another go during lockdown and realised what an idiot I was ten years ago. Its phenomenal TV, and absolutely timeless.

And maybe I braced myself a bit too much for season 5 being a let down as I thoroughly enjoyed it. Obviously its weaker than the other 4, but still great.

dublin49

does take awhile to get into the wire,but well worth it,We used the subtitles and that helped with understanding what was going on.

The greatest show of all time for me though"the thick of it"

Joe_ Public

dublin49 wrote: »

does take awhile to get into the wire,but well worth it,We used the subtitles and that helped with understanding what was going on.

The greatest show of all time for me though"the thick of it"

I absolutely love The Thick of It. Veep too. Iannuci is a genius at what he does and not sure i have seen too many better performances than Julia Louis-Dreyfuss as Selina Meyer. Too different to the Wire to really compare though, it's just all brilliant tv.

hold my beer

hold my beer wrote: »

I really should watch The Shield if it's up there with The Wire and Sopranos

It's not imo

Homicide: life on the street isnt quite up there but is like a slightly more stagey forerunner to the wire and should interest anyone who loved the latter

trashcan

SimonTemplar wrote: »

The West Wing and The Wire are two shows I never saw so I started watching The Wire during lockdown. Loved the first three seasons. I got a few episodes into season four but for some reason it didn't keep my interest. I stopped and switched over to The West Wing instead.

I've been meaning to return to season four of The Wire. Maybe it will pick up for me and the season gets better.

Season 4 is my favourite season of the Wire. Stunning. It’s the best show ever by a country mile as far as I’m concerned. I’ve never seen anything else come close to the level of storytelling in it. I liked The Sopranos, The West Wing, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul and Narcos, but the Wire is a level above. Recently I’ve enjoyed Sneaky Pete and Deutschland 83, 86 and currently watching 89. All fine shows, but none grabbed me like The Wire.

mloc123

StevenToast wrote: »

The Wire is the greatest show of all time.


Close thread.

IMO season 5 kills that.... season 5 is so laughably bad it left a sour taste for me.

Limerick_dude

I rewatched all of the Sopranos before Christmas - just finished rewatching all of the shield and now onto the wire currently in season 2 liking it so far.

Acosta

It's very good but far from perfect. Season 2 and 5 aren't great.

Manuel

I don't agree with the general consensus that Season 5 was so bad.

Marlo is one of the greatest TV villains of all time.

Penn

Manuel wrote: »

I don't agree with the general consensus that Season 5 was so bad.

Marlo is one of the greatest TV villains of all time.

I think it was mostly the McNulty story, and while a lot of the newspaper story was good it didn't have the same impact as most of the other seasons which introduced new characters/parts of the city. Gus was great, but the rest just felt weak.

golfball37

Manuel wrote: »

I don't agree with the general consensus that Season 5 was so bad.

Marlo is one of the greatest TV villains of all time.

The Marlo/Greek/Co-op/Omar story in season five was as good as anything on the shows run. It was let down by the serial killer thread and the newspaper angle wasn’t as interesting as other seasons like school, politics, dock workers etc

mloc123

Penn wrote: »

I think it was mostly the McNulty story, and while a lot of the newspaper story was good it didn't have the same impact as most of the other seasons which introduced new characters/parts of the city. Gus was great, but the rest just felt weak.

The McNulty story was just... terrible. I know people will say it was based on a trie story etc... but I don't care. We are also supposed to believe that McNulty flipped from not caring at all about Marlo, to suddenly going down this route to get him.

There is probably a 3-4 episode cut of season 5 using all the footage that would be a decent wrap up on the whole show.

Penn

mloc123 wrote: »

The McNulty story was just... terrible. I know people will say it was based on a trie story etc... but I don't care. We are also supposed to believe that McNulty flipped from not caring at all about Marlo, to suddenly going down this route to get him.

There is probably a 3-4 episode cut of season 5 using all the footage that would be a decent wrap up on the whole show.

Vic_08

Deleted User wrote: »

Homicide: life on the street isnt quite up there but is like a slightly more stagey forerunner to the wire and should interest anyone who loved the latter

Hugely underrated series, especially the early seasons and far better than many supposedly great shows such as The Shield which I never thought was anything special.

Acosta

Acosta wrote: »

It's very good but far from perfect. Season 2 and 5 aren't great.

Season 2 of the wire is as good as tv gets

2 and 5 changed up the setting so much that initially they're both off putting. Once you accept the change, they're both as brilliant as any other season imo.

Cazale

Season five was let down by the reduced number of episodes. I think the newspaper focus was a good idea but the homeless serial killer angle was the wrong approach with it.

Seve OB

I thought the whole plot to season 5 was genius.
No money for the cops to do their job.
Think like a good detective and make it look like we have a mad man out there.
Get funding
Solve crime!

lemush

Deleted User wrote: »

Season 2 of the wire is as good as tv gets

Season 2 must be the most underrated season in history. Absolute masterpiece that ties so much of the rest of the show together.

scrubs33

Deleted User wrote: »

Season 2 of the wire is as good as tv gets

Sheeeeeeeeet...I couldn't agree more. I've watched it 3 or 4 times at this stage and its just timeless. Frank Subotka ah man what a character

dirkmeister

“You’re a Sobotka”

“F*cked is what I am”

I’ve lost count how many times I’ve watched The Wire at this stage.

Season 2 is probably my favourite.

dublin49

scrubs33 wrote: »

Sheeeeeeeeet...I couldn't agree more. I've watched it 3 or 4 times at this stage and its just timeless. Frank Subotka ah man what a character

Bubbles was the best character for me.

mloc123

lemush wrote: »

Season 2 must be the most underrated season in history. Absolute masterpiece that ties so much of the rest of the show together.

The issue with season two was they spent a lot of the first half getting themselves out of a corner they had painted the series in to... "getting the crew back together"

I dunno, the moment i realised that they had switched contexts completely i was just blown away by the ballsiness and ambition

For me, they pulled it off completely tbh. No show gets through several seasons without having a few convenient/unlikely plots but to pick on wire 1-4 on that basis would mean for me that you are throwing out sopranos and breaking bad entirely because they are like comic books in comparison imo

The Black Oil

Vic_08 wrote: »

Hugely underrated series, especially the early seasons and far better than many supposedly great shows such as The Shield which I never thought was anything special.

Homicide: LOTS is a very good series. It does seem to suffer from network/studio interference in the later years alright. There are few parallels to Andre Braugher's portrayal of Frank Pembleton that I can think of.