The Wire-Is it any good?

Seve OB

Bowlardo wrote: »

It’s 17th on the IMDB!!!!’
There is no question it is in the top five series off all time.
If anything it is underrated.
Breaking bad, sopranos, the wire and games of thrones are all In the top 5 .
The only question after that is people’s own preference of it

This really was a golden age for tv .
Some great series out these days but nothing has reached the height of these
Big little lies and true detective first seasons were great the follow ups not so much

I started with game of thrones. I’m sure it’s good, but I just couldn’t get past the stupid fantasy sh1t. It nearly seemed like scyfy type stuff and for that reason I don’t think it could be even considered a top 5 show.

trashcan

Slippin Jimmy wrote: »

The only character that I truly disliked.

Cheese. Almost cheered out loud at his fate.

jack presley

trashcan wrote: »

Cheese. Almost cheered out loud at his fate.

His.......?????

Joe_ Public

Chris was the one character i actively dreamed of inflicting a horribly unspeakable death. Fck, i hated that guy. Snoop at least took her end like a 'man'.

Just could never warm to either Daniels or Pearlman either. Bit too careerist or something.

El_Duderino 09

jack presley wrote: »

His.......?????

Cheese. Prop Joe's nephew. Good character, a complete sh1t.

kksaints

Watched all of the season a few years ago and Seasons 1,3,4 and some of the best TV I've watched. Season 2 is a good bit slower and is considerably different from the others. I used to not like it but I rewatched episodes of it last year and enjoyed it a good bit more 2nd time round. It really gives a good feel for the dockyards and the industrial decline that set in parts of the states since the 70s. Its expertly shot aswell.

The 5th season though I didn't like when I watched it first and didn't like it even after a rewatch. Newspaper storyline doesn't go anywhere and I didn't like the characters. The homeless serial killer storyline is ludicrous and way over the top. The ending is good and gives good closure but the rest of the season I didn't like.

Slim Charles

Slippin Jimmy wrote: »

The only character that I truly disliked.

Same as. Would have preferred her to have got done in by a member of the Barksdale clan.

Slim Charles

jack presley wrote: »

His.......?????

I think he read your post as Cheers, rather than cheese!

trashcan

jack presley wrote: »

His.......?????

His fate, i.e, what happened to him in the end. I could give more detail, but I don't want to spoil it if anyone hasn't seen it.

jack presley

trashcan wrote: »

His fate, i.e, what happened to him in the end. I could give more detail, but I don't want to spoil it if anyone hasn't seen it.

We're talking about Snoop here aren't we? Snoop's female.

trashcan

jack presley wrote: »

We're talking about Snoop here aren't we? Snoop's female.

No, I was talking about Cheese, not Snoop. In response to the remark about hated characters. I misunderstood your question marks. Yeah, Snoop is female, though I think a lot of people weren't sure.

jack presley

Sorry about the confusion there,

cdgalwegian

trashcan wrote: »

No, I was talking about Cheese, not Snoop. In response to the remark about hated characters. I misunderstood your question marks. Yeah, Snoop is female, though I think a lot of people weren't sure.

Spoiler. :pac:

Someone posted about the Homicide: Life on the Streets book earlier- my wife got it for me as a Xmas present after the first time I watched The Wire, knowing how much I had loved the show. I actually stopped reading it about 1/3 way through, as it was reflecting the contents of the show too much, without the drama. Huge book!
The Corner was on before 'series link' existed (or at least i didn't have it), and I never got to see it. I must track that down.

Slippin Jimmy

trashcan wrote: »

Cheese. Almost cheered out loud at his fate.

Oh yeah forgot about him. He got what was coming to him. Poor Joe.

trashcan

Joe_ Public wrote: »

Chris was the one character i actively dreamed of inflicting a horribly unspeakable death. Fck, i hated that guy. Snoop at least took her end like a 'man'.

Just could never warm to either Daniels or Pearlman either. Bit too careerist or something.

Didn't mind Chris ( for a murderous cold blooded killer that is !!). Maury Levy the slimy lawyer was another dislikeable git. Even the despicable characters are great though.

i57dwun4yb1pt8

its ok, gets boring around series 3 and comes back at the end id rate it 6 out of 10 .
sopranos was far better .

meeeeh

Stringer's product meeting is great moment too. There really were some great stories there. The irony of Marlo and Stringer storylines is brilliant.

https://youtu.be/BPS9YKGaKQE

Edit: I never liked Snoop but the scene when she is buying nail gun is a classic.

Penn

What I love most about The Wire is that whether characters were cops, drug dealers, drug addicts, politicians... I liked almost all of them. In some way, to some degree, they were all great. As reprehensible as some of their actions may be, you always understood their motives, even if you didn't agree with it.

Such an amazingly well-written show, with incredible characters and stories. One of the greatest shows of all time.

El_Duderino 09

Slippin Jimmy wrote: »

Oh yeah forgot about him. He got what was coming to him. Poor Joe.

He was a great character. Not a saint but not on for any violence above what was necessary. Wasn't about the ego of owning corners like Avon - who was a plank.

As Joe said "Buy for a dollar, sell for two".

Also one of Joe's lines that always made me laugh was when the barksdale crew had weak heroine "everyone knows Avon's putting out piss and calling it the sh1t".

Mad_maxx

.red. wrote: »

The only character I ever struggled to understand was Snoop.

+1

el diablo

Best not misgender someone for fear of being attacked by the SJWs. :cool:

Shemale

The Wire is brilliant, I hated Bubs, was hoping he would OD in his first appearance.

el diablo

All this is making me want to watch The Wire all over again.

dirkmeister

Fun Fact: Felicia Pearson played the role of Felicia “Snoop”Pearson.

The real Pearson also had a fairly crap upbringing, it’s well worth reading up on.


First time I discussed The Wire with my sister in law, she just said “hey yo whaddup Bird?!”

Great show.

jesus_thats_gre

Joe_ Public wrote: »

Trouble with the last series was whole newspaper angle slightly bored me. Characters a bit wooden - chinstroking editor, corrupt reporter, ruthless proprietors etc. Lacked the shade of the best characters. McNultys and Lesters stunt was ok to a point but felt a bit too far fetched to be credible though someone probably tell me its based on true event!!

Thought that the first time that I watched it through.

Soon became my favourite season on subsequent watches. Think I have watched it through 5/6 times now (night shifts for years).

Incredibly good show.

Seve OB

el diablo wrote: »

All this is making me want to watch The Wire all over again.

Just started with the wife. 30 mins in and she is asleep.
Gonna put it down to the wine and will give it a go again tmw night

jesus_thats_gre

Seve OB wrote: »

Just started with the wife. 30 mins in and she is asleep.
Gonna put it down to the wine and will give it a go again tmw night

Might do you no harm watching the first few episodes first yourself anyway

El_Duderino 09

el diablo wrote: »

Best not misgender someone for fear of being attacked by the SJWs. :cool:

Fcuk off with that guff. No need to bring that kind of shyte into every thread.

el diablo

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

Fcuk off with that guff. No need to bring that kind of shyte into every thread.

Every thread? You're confusing me with someone else kiddo.

El_Duderino 09

el diablo wrote: »

Every thread? You're confusing me with someone else kiddo.

Some clown thinks it's original to bring it up in every thread. I'm lumping you have in with all the other clowns

el diablo

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

Some clown thinks it's original to bring it up in every thread. I'm lumping you have in with all the other clowns

No idea what you're trying to say here buttercup. Bring what up in every thread? Seems you're easily triggered by whatever it is.

El_Duderino 09

el diablo wrote: »

No idea what you're trying to say here buttercup. Bring what up in every thread? Seems you're easily triggered by whatever it is.

The clowns who say “better not say x or the SJWs/snowflakes/PC brigade will be after you”. The irony of them being the only ones to bring it up, always seems to fly straight over those clowns’ heads.

Maybe you thought you were being original and ... you weren’t.

On topic, the nail gun scene was one of the great examples of why the show was so good. It had nothing to do with the overarching story, it was just a great interaction between characters.

Montage of Feck

blondeonblonde wrote: »

I thought the thread title was trying to be funny! It is a fantastic show. Great characters, full of humour in the right places. Definitely one of my all time favourites. Watch the first couple of episodes and you'll be hooked. Season 2 is probably the weakest.

Season two was my favourite!

El_Duderino 09

Montage of Feck wrote: »

Season two was my favourite!

I didn't like it when I saw it first. It's almost like a different show as there are so many new characters. But after watching it again it's one of my favourites. Ziggy is such a loathsome character but you end up feeling so sorry for him.

Joe_ Public

I think ziggy is tragic rather than loathesome. When he turns to Frank and says he was too busy dredging his canal to pay proper attention to him, it's one of saddest moments of series for me. Everything about him screams lack of father figure in his life.

El_Duderino 09

Joe_ Public wrote: »

I think ziggy is tragic rather than loathesome. When he turns to Frank and says he was too busy dredging his canal to pay proper attention to him, it's one of saddest moments of series for me. Everything about him screams lack of father figure in his life.

Yeah, tragic is a better description.

Some great touches throughout the show that they never actually explored, they just happened and that’s it. There was the one with Rawls in the bar (I don't want to spoil it by mentioning the context). There was also the scene in one of the later seasons with Jonny 50 buying drugs (or was he in rehab?)

Hartattaq

Top notch performance by Aiden Gillen also

Mr.Nice Guy

Thought Freamon was a great character too, particularly in the early seasons. Love how he goes from a seemingly insignificant character at the start to being the eventual star performer of the unit.

Also forgot to say I love the scene at the hospital between Rawls and McNulty where the former shows him some mercy rather than sticking the knife in.

Carawaystick

Montage of Feck wrote: »

Season two was my favourite!

The Duck in the bar... :eek:

Aravo

A great series, brilliant characters/actors/storyline.
I'm very tempted now to get the book that was written on this.

Mr.Nice Guy

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

Also forgot to say I love the scene at the hospital between Rawls and McNulty where the former shows him some mercy rather than sticking the knife in.

Great shout. I thought this was one of the absolutely key scenes in the entire show.

Rawls pulled every ****ty move in the book without scruple or mercy before and after this scene because the whole point of the show is that for almost every cop, the game is just about getting ahead.

But as soon as anything with consequences beyond career opportunity- like the above scene, or say for any of the maudlin wakes every dead cop gets- the context changes and some element of shared code/empathy comes through across the entire force.

I think only Marlo's gang and the politicians are the only group examined that lack some similar element of an honour code. Quite the comment on the politicians, really!

Touches like this, character moments like this, are what make it the finest tv series ever made and for me second only to the BBC "Tinker, Tailor, Soldie, Spy" serialisation as the best thing ever made for television full stop.

Oh, and Season 2 is the best season of a TV show ever made, while I'm throwing out big opinions.

2smiggy

https://twitter.com/BillSimmons/status/1249709899686137856

2smiggy

they are going watching the wire from the start again, and do a podcast on the episodes as they go along. Good reason to start it again, seeming as some of us have plenty of time on our hands !!

trashcan

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

He was a great character. Not a saint but not on for any violence above what was necessary. Wasn't about the ego of owning corners like Avon - who was a plank.

As Joe said "Buy for a dollar, sell for two".

Also one of Joe's lines that always made me laugh was when the barksdale crew had weak heroine "everyone knows Avon's putting out piss and calling it the sh1t".

Dress the part be the part motherfuker"

SureYWouldntYa

Just after finishing it there myself, very good but as with anything you know is highly rated it's hard to live up to the expectations

I never once got how Marlo was a leader of his gang in the slightest, never bought into him as a threatening guy like Avon or a smart guy running it like Stringer. Took me out of it at times because to me anyway there was no believability to him, jarring compared to all the other unreal performances across the rest of the show.

It seemed at times they were portraying him as a bit of sociopath or similar, like when he got with that woman that time, but it didn't stick for me

.red.

SureYWouldntYa wrote: »

I never once got how Marlo was a leader of his gang in the slightest,

Marlo got to the top through fear, you either went with him or got shot. No two ways about it.
The other crews had a code, there was a mutual respect that went along with the hatred.
Marlo was different, it was all about him. He had the highest body count of all of them and nobody in the po-lice even knew who he was.

wadacrack

SureYWouldntYa wrote: »

Just after finishing it there myself, very good but as with anything you know is highly rated it's hard to live up to the expectations

I never once got how Marlo was a leader of his gang in the slightest, never bought into him as a threatening guy like Avon or a smart guy running it like Stringer. Took me out of it at times because to me anyway there was no believability to him, jarring compared to all the other unreal performances across the rest of the show.

It seemed at times they were portraying him as a bit of sociopath or similar, like when he got with that woman that time, but it didn't stick for me

Marlo was a great character. Probably the best in the show. Their was no talk with him just action and he never hesitated , very decisive decisions unlike Stringer Bell who lost his way

Joe_ Public

Marlo a wonderful character brilliantly portrayed, but i suppose there could be a question that he's just dropped in without much of a backstory. Where did he come from and how did he get his power? Dont remember we got that many clues. Think that may be deliberate on the part of the writers though. He's a bit of an everyman character in some ways i think, a composite. The ultimate product of the game he has no hope of ever escaping.

SureYWouldntYa

Joe_ Public wrote: »

Where did he come from and how did he get his power?

That's the crux of it for me, we're not shown how Avon becomes the man but I could understand why he was the man rather than him just being the man

I found Marlo to be a guy who makes threats, rather than a guy who's threatening

He might have been more decisive than Stringer, and at the end when the wheel seemed to be respinning, with

Michael becoming Omar, Sydnor becoming Jimmy etc, Marlo doesn't become Stringer and maybe won't have the same fate as him

Penn

Joe_ Public wrote: »

Marlo a wonderful character brilliantly portrayed, but i suppose there could be a question that he's just dropped in without much of a backstory. Where did he come from and how did he get his power? Dont remember we got that many clues. Think that may be deliberate on the part of the writers though. He's a bit of an everyman character in some ways i think, a composite. The ultimate product of the game he has no hope of ever escaping.

I think it just stemmed from the idea that Avon, Joe etc... they weren't the only dealers in the city. As we saw with the New Day Co-op, there are about a dozen high-level dealers operating in the city with their own territory.

Thing is though, they mostly respect each other's territory. Don't sell on other people's corners etc.

That's why Marlo started to stand out. He started taking corners, with people like Chris behind him. He started going to war with other dealers like Avon, because while the others were happy to keep the peace, Marlo wanted the crown. So he gained his power through fear, because he was willing to do what the other dealers weren't.