The Wire

I heard good things about this show (I think from the board), and started watching it Season 1 On Demand. It's a great show and I especially like how they show the criminal side of things. I'd echo the advice of others though and say rent it at Blockbuster or get it from Netflix. No TV show is worth the $80 DVD. Especially if you're a sportswriter on a shoestring budget.

 

I think the true beauty is that the examination of "The Game" is true.

The cops are just as much players as the gangsters. And they're all stuck in it.

 

the only thing i would disagree with is that the wire is worth the $80 per season. i consider this show an investment, a collector's item. i own seasons I and II and bought my dad all three seasons just so we can talk about the show. his season three should get delivered today or tomorrow.

double down, i love your take on season II. a lot of my black friends didn't enjoy season II as much because they couldn't feel the docks. like you, i thought it was powerful storytelling and just as compelling as the streets.

i've never anticipated anything (on tv) as much as i'm anticipating season 4. i still get teary-eyed thinking about stringer bell. guarantee you omar catches a bullet early in season 4, and i'm gonna be quite happy when he does.

 

Fuck that.

They kill Omar, I might just boycott.

Must have Omar.

 

My only problem with season 2 was the supporting cast. The storyline was excellent, the telling of the story was great and the usual cast did well. But the supporting cast -- the dock workers -- were, for the most part, rather over-the-top and, in some cases, unbelievable. Like I said, Frank was very good. He was by far the most accurate representation of the average worker. His nephew wasn't bad, either. But once you got past those two and into characters like Horse Face and the son (his name escapes me), they seemed a touch phony.

I never got that feeling in season 1. The guys who were running the drugs at the lowrises seemed as if Simon had actually taken them from a lowrise complex somewhere and told them to do exactly what they had been doing, only do it on the set and work in these lines. And I hate to keep bringing him up, but go back and watch seasons 1 and 3 and focus on the scenes that involve Bodie. That guy is really, really good. He takes the lines he's supposed to say and turns them into a street conversation. There's a season at the open of season 3 in which he and two other guys are walking and talking and he's carrying the conversation. It's real life, right off the street.

And you know, talking about this show, it's not fair to leave season 3 out of it. The idea of Hamsterdam, the positives and negatives that come from it and the entire chase of the Barksdale crew again were all very well done.

What makes this show great is exactly what you mentioned in your post -- there's no buildup. Just like life, shit happens and the people have to deal with it. There's no you-won't-believe-what-we're-gonna-do-next-week buildup. The shit happens, they deal with it. Like Prez shooting the cop. Went out for Chinese, shot another cop.

EDIT: Just wanted to add one thing about season 2. The guys at the top -- the Greek and his go-between (damn, I must be getting old, I can't remember names for shit) -- weren't very setup. You never got a real good feel for what it was they were doing. You didn't get to see into their operation like you did the Barksdale operation. You knew they were running girls and various other shit through the docks and that Prop Joe was getting his drugs from them, but you had no real clue about how it all worked, who they were working with, if they were the top guys. I think season 2 would've been much better had they added about five episodes or so.

 

Plus, they've always stayed true to that first scene in the series, when McNulty is interviewing the guy while Snot Boogie is laying out in the street.

This America, man. You pay, you play.

Part of the reason I love the scenes with Bubbles, especially when he's trying to double dip. Cops shrug. Dealers shrug. It's the game. Why shouldn't Bubs try to get his?

 

I'm with you on Omar, Zeke. He's my favorite character on the show.

And dog, the son's name was Ziggy.

 

Omar is quite simply one of the greatest fictional characters of all time, in any art form.

The musical montage at the end of Season 2...

The scene with Stringer and Barksdale on the roof-top, before the final betrayal...

I know its just opinion, but this show is just painfully good. You get done watching and it HURTS to have brushed up against art that powerful.

 

Three years ago I moved to California from Indiana on the night the last episode of Season 2 aired for the first time. I didn't have HBO after that (see: journalist living in Cali) and didn'tsee the episode until a couple months ago when I found the season on sale at best buy. Haven't seen season 3 yet. Some loose lipped folks have leaked some info to me, but I can't wait to see it and get ready for 4.

There is nothing better than the wire. period. Whether it's characters or dialogue or plot lines or every single cliffhanger ending, the show is on point.

 

the greatness of the wire is the writing. the dialogue mentioned by others is right on. you gotta understand that not all these writers live in california and their career is not "television script writer." they have some heavyweights in the urban crime genre. dennis lehane (mystic river and other great ones) and his books in tough dorchester; richard price (clockers, freedomland [great book, movie sucked]) and the streets of northern new jersey; george pelecanos and the dc ghettoes; and the co-creator david simon of "homicide" book and television show fame.

these guys just don't go and make this stuff. well, technically they do, but these guys do their research. they go to the street and talk to people about how the life is. that's what the wire is -- real life. and it's true to the city of baltimore. the scene when stringer brings some boys from dc to kill someone and stringer says something about the dc boys and their go-go music (similar to the da butt song from the spike lee movie) and how stringer can't understand how they can listen to it is true to life. they have (or used to have) go-go jams at the armory near rfk stadium almost every other weekend, but damned if you'd hear that up i95 in baltimore. the scene when d asked shardene where she's from and she says essex. his response is that she's from the the country. she says no, the county, and he says, same thing. the people living in baltimore think of the surrounded county as the country.

like a poster said earlier, real life doesn't tie up nicely at the end. in real life you're alive one day and dead the next. and in the wire, a central character -- one that you've grown attached to or one that you hate -- will die unexpectantly. you can have your heroes and villains and in most shows it's clear cut who's who. but in the wire, the police commander (should be a hero) acts like a villain, hanging out his own police force. you have wallace, who is a drug runner (villain) who makes sure all the youngins get their lunch and off to school on time. you have omar (come at the king, you best not miss -- one of the greatest line of all time) who kills and steals from drug dealers (heroic?). you have bunny colvin (hero) who creates hamsterdam (!!), to control crime in his district. you have sobotka stealing from the docks to keep the stevedore union alive.

the wire is exactly like a novel, a story that rises and ebbs throughout. characters and storylines are developed. better than the sopranos, better than anyhing on tv because is not exactly a textbook tv show. you love characters, you hate some. it's not about happy endings. everytime somebody asks me my favorite show, i tell them. at first they are unbelievers and they scoff at the claim, but soon enough if start watching it and they come around quick.

 

Season 2 was probably my favorite.

Poor Frank Sobotka. Not a saint, but no way did he deserve what he got.
And to think, it all started because that shithead Valchek was jealous.

The montage scene in the season finale, set to Steve Earle's "I Feel Alright," (great cameo by Earle, btw) was especially brilliant.

Any word on who will be performing the theme song for season 4?

 

I just bought me seasons 1 and 2 on the basis of this thread alone.