The Wire Being Remastered in HD

kingtiger · 01-09-2014 10:40PM #1

Strong rumor that The Wire is being Remastered, Rebroadcast in HD

lets hope its true

http://hbowatch.com/the-wire-being-remastered-rebroadcast-in-hd-by-hbo/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpC3JtED-Po

Thargor · 02-09-2014 03:09PM

Ah thanks, glad I saw this thread, will be holding off on a rewatch until then, think Ill go with the Shield instead...

02-09-2014 05:08PM

Far as I know the show was shot wide but framed for 4:3 meaning that if they so wished they could offer up a widescreen version as was seen a few years ago on Direct TV and more recently on Amazon. It was only ever intended to be watched in 4:3 so as to retain that real feeling that they wnated.

Here's how it was intended to look

And this is how the wide version looks.

IvaBigWun · 02-09-2014 05:46PM

They could remaster and recreate it using 3D holographics that beamed into my house and reinacted all the scenes and I'll probably still fail to get past the first season.

The most over-rated TV show of all time.

markhogan · 02-09-2014 05:51PM

IvaBigWun wrote: »

They could remaster and recreate it using 3D holographics that beamed into my house and reinacted all the scenes and I'll probably still fail to get past the first season.

The most over-rated TV show of all time.

I have to agree with you i think it is a really bad show just cant get into it at all

Custardpi · 02-09-2014 05:52PM

Go back again & stick with it. I struggled to get past the first few episodes, there's a huge amount to take in. Persevered though & after about episode 6 of the first season was hooked. It will be interesting to see what the remaster is like, a lot of the time it's just a gimmick to sell the same thing again while adding very little extra to the experience.

o1s1n · 02-09-2014 05:58PM

IvaBigWun wrote: »

They could remaster and recreate it using 3D holographics that beamed into my house and reinacted all the scenes and I'll probably still fail to get past the first season.

The most over-rated TV show of all time.

Yeah I watched the first season and thought it was only okay. Started the second but lost interest.

IvaBigWun · 02-09-2014 06:18PM

markhogan wrote: »

I have to agree with you i think it is a really bad show just cant get into it at all

Its not really bad. Just ridiculously over-rated.

Custardpi wrote: »

Go back again & stick with it. I struggled to get past the first few episodes, there's a huge amount to take in. Persevered though & after about episode 6 of the first season was hooked.

I struggled to get through the entire first season! I really wanted to give it a good shot as many call it the best of all time.

Not me.

kingtiger · 02-09-2014 06:33PM

Fair enough ye are all entilited to your opinion, but for me its one of the top of three of all time, the complexity of the story just adds a richness that has never been equaled imo

Not saying it was without it faults but for me you are seriously missing out if you don't at least give it a chance and forget about the hype and preconceptions

But overrated I don't think so

MonkstownHoop · 02-09-2014 06:56PM

Why do people insist on coming onto a thread about a show they don't like just to slate it?

tvnutz · 02-09-2014 10:07PM

It is the best tv show ever made. And I say that as someone who found the first season very slow and gave up after a few eps of the 2nd season, only to go back and watch it again. Then when you view the whole things again a seoncd time you really see why it is genius. Best show period.

Diabhal Beag · 02-09-2014 10:31PM

You're missing out on brilliant TV if you skip it after the first few episodes and you get no sympathy from me. Not every show can be The Shield in terms of instant great episodes from start to finish.

ziedth · 02-09-2014 10:45PM

I think the wire is one of those shows that is easier to watch week to week then downloaded.

I have to agree though, it's definitely in my top 3. Like what has been said it's not without it's faults but apart from an iffy season two it really is must see TV imho.

Euphoria Intensifies · 02-09-2014 11:34PM

I started watching The Wire again this summer (after previously watching about half of first season and getting bored). Seriously, do try and give it another go. It is a fantastic show with great characters and stories. I agree with the idea of watching in small doses rather than marathoning it - think it's a show that you need to digest and think over. I haven't finished season 5 yet, but I can already say that it is the best TV show I have watched. And I was more than willing to not believe the hype about it.

On the actual topic of this thread, it'd be interesting to watch a remastered version, but I don't know how much it'd really add, especially to the later seasons.

Kerplunk124 · 03-09-2014 12:52PM

Natural Pooooo-leeece

Last_Minute · 03-09-2014 12:57PM

Best show ever created and it also has great reply value.

03-09-2014 12:58PM

I think that series 2 is the strongest of them and the one that just gets better and better each time you watch it. For me The Wire is the greatest show ever made, an adult drama that's layered, difficult to get into and one that understands that gratuitous sex and violence is not what makes drama adult. That a show can turn something as bland as a group of people listening in on conversations into nail biting, tension laden drama is something to behold.

trashcan · 03-09-2014 08:06PM

I'll add my voice to the "best ever brigade." I've never seen anything that came close, and I don't expect to. Really don't understand how people think it's over rated. You just have to watch dross like CSI, NCIS, Law and Order etc to see how it's miles ahead. I watched Season 1 of the Shield and did't think it came close. It felt way over the top in comparison. Yes, the Wire is slow and methodocal, but it's a magnificent feat of storytelling with an amazing, varied bunch of characters, all of who felt real.

Thargor · 03-09-2014 08:54PM

The Shield starts out moronic and loud but gets more subtle and deep as it goes along, tbh the way it all turned out after things go down at the end affected me more than The Wire or The Sopranos or any of the others I think.

pickarooney · 04-09-2014 11:17AM

I really only liked seasons 3 and 4, which were superb. I found the first two a real drag to get through and the 5th a bit hokey.

desertcircus · 04-09-2014 12:19PM

Almost every five-season show I've watched has had an underwhelming final season - BSG, Breaking Bad, The Wire...Galactica went a bit nonsensical towards the end, but produced some phenomenal episodes even then.

krudler · 04-09-2014 03:35PM

Deleted User wrote: »

I think that series 2 is the strongest of them and the one that just gets better and better each time you watch it. For me The Wire is the greatest show ever made, an adult drama that's layered, difficult to get into and one that understands that gratuitous sex and violence is not what makes drama adult. That a show can turn something as bland as a group of people listening in on conversations into nail biting, tension laden drama is something to behold.

Season 2 is the "difficult" one, but I agree it gets better on rewatches. Frank Sabotka is a fantastic character. Ziggy still annoys the crap out of me though, which is the point I know but still.
I would have said it was the weakest season the first time I saw it but now I like it a lot more having seen it again. It's more complex than the first and moving the case out of the towers and to the docks was inspired. It also has two of the funniest scenes in the entire show, Bunk and Lester interviewing the ship's crew "negro! you do not sail halfway round the world and not learn any motherfcukin' English!" and McNulty's trip to the brothel.

It's actually easy to forget how damn funny The Wire is throughout, there's at least one laugh out loud moment in each episode.

04-09-2014 03:44PM

krudler wrote: »

Season 2 is the "difficult" one, but I agree it gets better on rewatches. Frank Sabotka is a fantastic character. Ziggy still annoys the crap out of me though, which is the point I know but still.
I would have said it was the weakest season the first time I saw it but now I like it a lot more having seen it again. It's more complex than the first and moving the case out of the towers and to the docks was inspired. It also has two of the funniest scenes in the entire show, Bunk and Lester interviewing the ship's crew "negro! you do not sail halfway round the world and not learn any motherfcukin' English!" and McNulty's trip to the brothel.

It's actually easy to forget how damn funny The Wire is throughout, there's at least one laugh out loud moment in each episode.

Even after watching each episode a dozen times I still find myself laughing my ass off at least once an episode. It really is just brilliantly written and acted TV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DS6pE88Xg3s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rN7pkFNEg5c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBL2Wq5YjSw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B26xw77tQEI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRRHb2WphWs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiwDMK0H09o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiwDMK0H09o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZnw6wuGBgk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iCH_Jw32YE

Huge spoilers ahead as this is the series 2 end montage which is just a wonderful 4 and a half minutes and amongst my all time favorite scenes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SO40ansNU8

TwoShedsJackson · 04-09-2014 05:28PM

desertcircus wrote: »

Almost every five-season show I've watched has had an underwhelming final season - BSG, Breaking Bad, The Wire...Galactica went a bit nonsensical towards the end, but produced some phenomenal episodes even then.

I'll agree on The Wire, but BSG only had four seasons and as for the last season of Breaking Bad being underwhelming...

Also, how is 'Omar testifies against Bird in court' not in the scenes listed in the post above this?

desertcircus · 04-09-2014 06:12PM

BSG season four was split in two - I think of the second half as season five, should have made that clearer.

I thought the last few episodes of Breaking Bad were wildly off in pacing and in realism - it bugged the crap out of me that no effort was made to explain how the most wanted man in north America was able to travel halfway across the country without any problems, barely two or three episodes after they'd established that getting him into the mountains was unbelievably difficult. And the pacing was really off - it oscillated from careful, minute-by-minute patience to skipping weeks and months at a time, which jarred wildly with the previous four seasons.

Rucking_Fetard · 04-09-2014 08:46PM

Watched it all, def wouldn't watch it again.

moc moc a moc · 08-09-2014 11:20PM

Feckin' brilliant news if it's true. About the only thing I can fault this show for in recent years is that when I want to rewatch it, I have to do so in 4:3 SD on a widescreen HDTV.

IvaBigWun wrote: »

I'll probably still fail to get past the first season.

The most over-rated TV show of all time.

Sheeeeeiiiiiit, if you didn't even make it through the first season then you're not in a position to comment on whether the show is over-rated. The beauty of The Wire is in the progression of its characters' stories, and this can only be truly appreciated over the entire length of the series.

I'm not prone to hyperbole, so I really mean it when I say that The Wire is literally the best television show ever made.

08-09-2014 11:34PM

moc moc a moc wrote: »

Feckin' brilliant news if it's true. About the only thing I can fault this show for in recent years is that when I want to rewatch it, I have to do so in 4:3 SD on a widescreen HDTV.

How can you fault the show for the manner in which it was shot and intended to be watched? If they do a HD remaster and it's not in 4:9 then I won't be bothering with it.

kryogen · 08-09-2014 11:47PM

ziedth wrote: »

I think the wire is one of those shows that is easier to watch week to week then downloaded.

I have to agree though, it's definitely in my top 3. Like what has been said it's not without it's faults but apart from an iffy season two it really is must see TV imho.

I feel the opposite, didnt watch it during its original run and feel that personally I would never have made it if I had to wait a week between shows and a year between seasons!

The classic just one more episode show

moc moc a moc · 08-09-2014 11:57PM

Deleted User wrote: »

How can you fault the show for the manner in which it was shot and intended to be watched?

Actually, it was originally shot in 16:9 (just broadcast at 4:3, presumably because this was the most common TV aspect ratio at the time). The decision to keep it at 4:3 was made later on; partly as a style choice, partly because it was cheaper.

I don't need to agree with the director's choice of aspect ratio 10 years ago to be able to appreciate a classic show being updated to suit modern video equipment.

09-09-2014 12:15AM

moc moc a moc wrote: »

Actually, it was originally shot in 16:9 (just broadcast at 4:3, presumably because this was the most common TV aspect ratio at the time). The decision to keep it at 4:3 was made later on; partly as a style choice, partly because it was cheaper.

I don't need to agree with the director's choice of aspect ratio 10 years ago to be able to appreciate a classic show being updated to suit modern video equipment.

I'm aware that it was shot in 16:9 but it was framed for 4:3 so as to have that documentary feel. There is no need to broadcast the show in 16:9, especially if the creator had an aesthetic look and feel in mind. The Shield was released in 16:9 on DVD and it looked terrible and was completely against the creators wishes.

I'm currently rewatching Callan and the Fugitive and I would hate to see them tampered with so as to make use of modern TVs. There's no need for it and aspect ratio tampering is irritating and unnecessary. It's akin to wanting to recolour black and white film.

The Wire Being Remastered in HD

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