"The Wire" on HBO

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It seems that there are no threads on here for this show, which mortifies me since it also seems to be the best thing on American TV in years. The season finale is tomorrow night, let's get the ball rolling here! Spoilers to ensue, I presume. Unless none of you fuckas watch it. >:O!!

― Adrian (Adrian Langston), Sunday, 24 August 2003 07:21 (9 years ago) Permalink

I love the Wire. Haven't seen it in a year since I could no longer afford HBO. :(

― Texas Sam (thatgirl), Sunday, 24 August 2003 07:42 (9 years ago) Permalink

I love this show too, but I missed the first 3/4 of the first season and there are still things happening on it that I find really hard to follow (mainly the machinations of the drug dealing characters; I have no idea who Omar is or what his deal is). I'm waiting for the first season to come out on DVD so I can figure out big chunks of the story. But yes, it is excellent, fills up the hole Homicide's cancellation left very well, although I kind of wish he could have working in Bayliss or something.

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Sunday, 24 August 2003 15:14 (9 years ago) Permalink

Best show on TV. I loved the season finale. I've loved everything about this show; I even prefer it to Homicide.

I love how high a level they're working on: this is a TV show where they don't have to condescend to the audience and where every single facet - the cast, the story, the locations, the care they put into every detail from the smallest local custom to the largest political issues - is uncompromising.

The DVD may come out next summer - HBO is notoriously slow about releasing those. They're usually two seasons behind, compared to Fox, who put out the 24 DVDs for one season right before the next one starts.

― Chris Dahlen (Chris Dahlen), Monday, 25 August 2003 02:31 (9 years ago) Permalink

I think the point where I knew this was the greatest TV show ever was last season when two of the detectives were restoring that crime scene in that apartment, and the only dialogue in the entire scene was the word "fuck." It was the ultimate "show don't tell": most shows whack you around with droning exposition upon exposition, but here they told the entire story through evidence photos and gestures - playing with the fridge door, comparing angles of the bullet going through the window - with no meaningful dialogue at all. Brilliant.

How'd people feel about the finale? Not as tight as last year's (since it was setting up Season 3), but I loved it.

― Chris Dahlen (Chris Dahlen), Monday, 25 August 2003 02:37 (9 years ago) Permalink

Yeah, it's one of those shows that you can't really jump into, which probably stunts its chances at getting a broad base of viewers. But it's sooooo worth it for anyone who chooses to follow it.

Anyway, the first season - yeah, that all centered on the Barksdale case, which didn't exactly take a backseat this season but was... less pronounced. Omar has always stood out on the show, which is usually a little more reserved about its characters - he's the superbadass gay stick-up kid whose boyfriend Brandon was brutally cut to pieces by Barksdale's crew in retaliation to Omar's unrelenting attacks on their stashes. Haha i was gonna continue but to try and recap all the ties and Byzantine dealings between the characters would take a few hours so uh yeah... wait for the DVD. :/ I was lucky enough to start catching the show earlier this year when they reran the first season in prep for the second.

Oh man, there's so much about this show that just gets me giddy though. The final sequence of shots, set to that song, were very fitting; building up and building up, the tension and dynamics of two huge cases built upon each other that still aren't really finished and all the people crammed into the power dynamic of it, and it all collides right on top of that last shot of Nicky Sobotka, completely trapped under the weight of human wreckage. Most of the show is about, and is most sympathetic to, some very deeply damaged human beings, but there's always compassion for them. This show loves its characters and loves its actors (the guy who played Frank Sobotka was brilliant), and I think that's probably one of the things that comes through best in all the episodes (along with the writing, which never misses a single damn beat...)

apparently Richard Price is gonna be writing for them next season too. oh mama.

also, lord, the usage of music is great on here. McNulty driving drunk to "Transmetropolitan" was a highlight; don't really buy Nicky being a Palace Music (!) fan, though..

aaaah someone shut me up already

― Adrian (Adrian Langston), Monday, 25 August 2003 02:48 (9 years ago) Permalink

yeah, that "fuck" sequence made me say "fuck" quite a bit myself. I knew I was onto something amazing then too.

― Adrian (Adrian Langston), Monday, 25 August 2003 02:50 (9 years ago) Permalink

The finale was sharp, but you're right that it wasn't as tight - I think I would lend this to the fact that it has to touch on elements hanging from both the first and second seasons. And as you said, the level of detail is high, but they do an amazing job of relating a huge amount of information and subtlety to the audience in a pretty comprehensible fashion. Each episode seems to be worth seeing at least twice, just to catch all the little things...

― Adrian (Adrian Langston), Monday, 25 August 2003 02:52 (9 years ago) Permalink

Spend some time in Baltimore going to shows, and you'll believe Nicky could have dug Palace.

I loved this show the instant I tuned in and saw somebody from the Annapolis HC scene in a small credited role -- since he's gained more weight than I have since that time, I declare the Wire a classic.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Monday, 25 August 2003 09:34 (9 years ago) Permalink

Yeah, I was actually planning on going to a few Baltimore shows when I was in DC a couple weeks ago, but it didn't pan out. Still, point taken. And any show that so casually uses Johnny Cash and the Stooges is always OK in my book.

― Adrian (Adrian Langston), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 04:25 (9 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

this is still the greatest show ever ya know

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Monday, 18 October 2004 16:15 (8 years ago) Permalink

yer right. i'm in an airport using my phone, so I'm not putting a detailed 'why I love...' together .. but I'm looking forward to catching up on the last 2 episodes tomorrow. I wish I could catch all of the dialog in this show .. If only I were hip enough to understand what crack dealers were saying .. but that genuousness is one of the reasons it's a great show. Also, that the dealers are humanized and you actually root for them sometimes...

― dave225 (Dave225), Monday, 18 October 2004 16:39 (8 years ago) Permalink

damnit I need last week's and the previous week's (the wake episode, right?) from bitorrent or something, I missed them!

― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 18 October 2004 16:40 (8 years ago) Permalink

i've been writing a fair amount about this season on my blog, and right now i'm totally obsessed with the show, having bought season one on dvd and reading the wire book, which is really tremendous so far. i think i'm interviewing creator david simon soon! i'm psyched.

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Monday, 18 October 2004 16:47 (8 years ago) Permalink

there's a book? a non-fictional one ala Homicide and the Corner, or something else?

― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 18 October 2004 16:48 (8 years ago) Permalink

It's still very good. Some of the plot machinations are starting to seem rotine (how many more times can we go through the "Dammit McNulty, bring me something by Friday or we're shutting down the wire!" bit?), but the characters, dialogue and layered storylines are all pretty great. I can't think of another show that takes politics -- local politics, no less -- so seriously, and that digs into how it works and its ramifications. Along with Deadwood, it's my current favorite show.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Monday, 18 October 2004 16:49 (8 years ago) Permalink

a book accompanying the series, with essays on the show and episodes written by the show's writers and creator

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Monday, 18 October 2004 16:51 (8 years ago) Permalink

It's damn good TV, for sure. Baltimore represent.

I was a little disappointed by the book, I have to say. Most of the episode guides (which is to say most of the book) is just plot summary; now that whole seasons of TV series are coming out on DVD, I don't see a lot of use for such info.

― Formerly Lee G (Formerly Lee G), Monday, 18 October 2004 17:17 (8 years ago) Permalink

2 months pass...

So is it completely over now? It didn't end feeling as if there would be a season four.

― dave225 (Dave225), Tuesday, 21 December 2004 13:04 (8 years ago) Permalink

It's arriving in the UK in January, finally, on FX, which I don't think I have ever watched.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 21 December 2004 13:32 (8 years ago) Permalink

dave225, I've heard they're working on a new angle for a new season, still in Baltimore but possibly involving the Baltimore public school system. I have a feeling we haven't seen the last of that smarmy councilman or Major Daniels and his wife.

God I love this show.

― Baked Bean Teeth (Baked Bean Teeth), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 05:19 (8 years ago) Permalink

I thought the season wrapped up pretty well. [SPOILERS!!, you u.k. people] Sorry to see the end of Stringer, but it had a nice tragic arc, the past catching up to him, etc. Even the corniest bits (McNulty going back on the beat, the boxing gym) are grounded enough to escape cliche.

So how long 'til the next season?

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 12:24 (8 years ago) Permalink

Oh, and I was glad Omar made it through another season intact. My favorite character on TV.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 12:25 (8 years ago) Permalink

I wanted to see a showdown between McNulty and Stringer .. I guess that's what makes the show great - they never give you what you want.

― dave225 (Dave225), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 13:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

Argh I had to skim really carefully through this thread because I've only seen season one, but it was amazing, Sarah and I watched the whole thing in a couple of weeks and became totally overinvolved. What a great show.

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 15:36 (8 years ago) Permalink

well, david simon says hbo might not bring it back, which would be a fucking tragedy. this is my favorite show ever. i just rererererewatched seasons one and two on dvd (two comes out 1/25) yet again, and it's perfection. i might be interviewing simon and burns soon, and i can't think of a chat i've looked forward to more.

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 15:42 (8 years ago) Permalink

Stanley Crouch:

One can never underestimate the human importance of the aesthetic contributions to television narrative that HBO continues to make. One easily recognizes the impetus for the late-night trash that it presents as a neon sop of barely soft-core pornography for the masses, but that would not explain all of the other things that this adventurous station offers. In aesthetic terms, I think this is especially true of The Wire, a dramatic series with much wider scope than The Sopranos, an unprecedented classic.

The human importance of The Wire is that it avoids the caricatures that we are too often given of black people in rap's pervasive minstrelsy and the other fast-food ethnic images of mass media. The Wire is the best crime show since Hill Street Blues, Law & Order, and NYPD Blue. Like its predecessors, the show has a breadth of human vision that moves us far beyond the stereotype and does the best that it can with the mysteries of human personality.

The Wire is set in Baltimore and does not back away from the monstrous elements of the black drug trade in American cities, but it also gives great variety to the criminal characters, from extremely stupid to extremely clever. Even more impressive than that already impressive achievement is the range of black people in law enforcement and the complex rendering of urban politics as played out along racial, sexual, and class lines. For one long stretch its focus was white ethnic crime on the Baltimore docks, and the series was as successful in creating complex scenarios, providing the viewer with maddening, flawed, corrupt, heroic, and tragic characters. Within the limits of its form (which seem to be no more than the width of the screen, since cable television is not, for good and for bad, held in check by censorship), The Wire is a masterpiece and will continue to be as long as it can maintain the depth of the standards it has set for itself.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 31 December 2004 16:44 (8 years ago) Permalink

I've not seen this show yet (it hits the UK next week on channel FX), but that is an extraordinary piece of writing, in that it doesn't mention Homicide!

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 31 December 2004 17:04 (8 years ago) Permalink

Haha.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 31 December 2004 17:05 (8 years ago) Permalink

Crouch hits on one thing there, the range of black characters, that really sets it apart. Has there ever been a show with so many black lead and supporting characters -- good guys, bad guys, men, women, children, etc. etc.? And it deals with race head-on -- in politics, in the relationships between the characters -- but without pedantry or determinism or whatever. It has the most complex racial dynamics of any TV show ever, and I can't think of many movies that come close.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Friday, 31 December 2004 17:37 (8 years ago) Permalink

That was why I cited Homicide - pending actually seeing The Wire, that is the drama show with the strongest and most prominent black characters that I've ever seen.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 31 December 2004 17:47 (8 years ago) Permalink

Also, David Simon (who created The Wire) wrote the book that "Homicide" was based on, and also wrote and produced for the show. "The Wire" is basically a much more fully realized rendering of "Homicide," without all the constraints of network TV. (That's not to slight Homicide, which -- early on, anyway -- was a good show within those constraints.)

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Friday, 31 December 2004 18:51 (8 years ago) Permalink

has this been picked up for another season by HBO? I heard that they were thinking of passing, so if this season ended like there wouldn't be another one, that may be why.

― kyle (akmonday), Friday, 31 December 2004 21:16 (8 years ago) Permalink

little known fact: I-dris who plays one of the main dons was the premier UK garage MC in New York c.2000-2001 (with Wikkid Crew)

― Paul (scifisoul), Friday, 31 December 2004 21:22 (8 years ago) Permalink

This starts tomorrow night at 10 on FX in the UK - channel 289 if you have Sky. I'm kind of excited.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 19:58 (8 years ago) Permalink

spread the word, martin!

― Jams Murphy (ystrickler), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 20:01 (8 years ago) Permalink

did you watch it martin?

― Jams Murphy (ystrickler), Friday, 14 January 2005 17:28 (8 years ago) Permalink

Yes, and I'm impressed. It obviously isn't going to overtake Homicide in my affections after one episode, but I certainly see why it's so loved.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 14 January 2005 17:52 (8 years ago) Permalink

was it season one?

― Jams Murphy (ystrickler), Friday, 14 January 2005 18:06 (8 years ago) Permalink

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/nyc-drugs0115,0,2492760.story?coll=ny-nynews-headlines

― j blount (papa la bas), Saturday, 15 January 2005 19:25 (8 years ago) Permalink

"A key break in the investigation occurred in August when police followed Ferguson to Las Vegas, where he was trying to drum up business for his line of urban wear."

― Whoever Posts Below This is Gay (Adrian Langston), Saturday, 15 January 2005 21:58 (8 years ago) Permalink

"this is still the greatest show ever ya know"

yes. yes i do know. even though I missed most of this last season :[[[[ After not catching a bunch of eps in a row I basically gave up and decided to wait for the reruns, but the beginning of the third run wasn't quite as arresting as what came before, one had the sense that the show had found a groove and was settling into it (i think by tackling so many Big Ideas™ in the second season they ended up neutering themselves in terms of how far they could expand the scope of the story) (not necessarily a bad thing) but there was still quite a bit of interesting stuff going on. and I had no idea that Stringer bell was one of those rappin' limeys!! They should get Dizzee on there.

― Whoever Posts Below This is Gay (Adrian Langston), Saturday, 15 January 2005 22:16 (8 years ago) Permalink

Yeah, as far as I could tell they were starting from the very beginning, so I know there is lots to come.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 18 January 2005 13:23 (8 years ago) Permalink

"The one woman charged in the case, Melissa Wakefield, 26, has an apparent infinity for high-end shoes, such as Prada and Gucci."

― dave225 (Dave225), Tuesday, 18 January 2005 13:31 (8 years ago) Permalink

2 weeks pass...

I'm obsessed with this show. I only discovered it late last year, on DVD, and am finishing the second season now. Blockbuster doesn't carry it in Baltimore. (Gee, I wonder why?) I'm also checking out George Pelecanos's books (he's one of the show's best writers).
http://www.georgepelecanos.com

Here's my review of Season One in City Pages:

THE WIRE: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON
HBO Home Video

Only some of The Wire's greatness can be measured by how thoroughly it demolishes the "realism" of other TV public dick shows and gangsta soaps. Every trick of television verisimilitude has a freshness date, and makes way for a new set of clichés (think of the shaky camerawork in the now rote Law & Order franchise). Even FX's The Shield, once the cutting edge of morally ambiguous cop heroes, demonstrates the diminishing returns of constantly defying viewer expectations. In the end, its extremism is about nothing but other cop shows.

HBO's The Wire, however, is about work. And the genre it subverts isn't just the crime one, but the nameless category of TV and film that might be labeled "people who are great at their jobs and work like maniacs." Most characters in this emergent genre of the overworked '90s and '00s are judged by how well they serve their institutions. Yet in The Wire, it's the institutions that are the problem--including the illegal ones. Running a housing project in West Baltimore like a death squad might run a food court, local gang members adhere to a demeaning organizational hierarchy. There's no Bonnie and Clyde fantasy of freedom to this murderous pecking order, which exists only to perpetuate itself. (In one poetic touch, the kingpin's right-hand man takes macroeconomics at the community college. At the core, he's a company man.)

The narcotics detectives have their own parts to play, and it doesn't seem remotely heroic when they buck authority. McNulty, the romantic lead among cops (he carries a liquor bottle and spits when he talks), admits at one point that he's pursuing the gang as an ego trip. If characters find dignity anywhere in the Sisyphean drug war, it's in their duties to each other, and in their craft.

Created by a former Baltimore Sun reporter (David Simon, who also gave us Homicide: Life on the Streets) and a former Baltimore Police detective (Ed Burns), The Wire is clearly a work of journalism. But it never pretends that the truth can set you free. --Peter S. Scholtes

http://www.citypages.com/databank/25/1253/article12754.asp

― Pete Scholtes, Sunday, 6 February 2005 23:24 (8 years ago) Permalink

i can't wait to see this show

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Sunday, 6 February 2005 23:44 (8 years ago) Permalink

I started from the beginning last week and I'm halfway through the first season right now, and I'm totally astonished by how good this show is. It's exactly the kind of show I want to see right now, at least in terms of realistic fiction.

― Matthew "Flux" Perpetua, Monday, 7 February 2005 01:44 (8 years ago) Permalink

does it have all the "documentary" stylistic aspects of law and order? i.e. shaky camera and abrupt camera movements, ostentatiously overlapping dialogue etc.? or is it more reserved?

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Monday, 7 February 2005 01:46 (8 years ago) Permalink

I can't agree with the people who go for the "best tv show ever" thing though - I still think that Arrested Development and The Sopranos are better shows, though this is all very apples-and-oranges. It's definitely one of the best shows ever, though, and most certainly the finest show about cops and crime ever. (The Sopranos is more of a grand tragedy than a straight crime show.)

Amateurist, The Wire is the most naturalistic show I've ever seen on television. Yeah, some shaky camera etc but only when it suits the scene. It's not very stylized, most of the technical filmmaking stuff is pretty subtle.

― Matthew "Flux" Perpetua, Monday, 7 February 2005 01:50 (8 years ago) Permalink

The style is more cinematic than documentary, which I think is all to the good. It's very well paced and edited, but not in a way that makes you notice -- it's all at the service of the story (or stories, actually), so that what seems good after two episodes seems great after four or six or eight as the various threads wind around each other and the characters get deeper and richer.

It allows itself occasional flashy touches (like Bunk and McNulty's great "Fuck" scene, where the dialogue consists entirely of "Fuck" said with a dozen or more different inflections), but those come as sort of welcome bonuses -- easter eggs for dedicated viewers or something.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Monday, 7 February 2005 01:55 (8 years ago) Permalink

Skipping 4280 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Yeah, I've kinda heard that before... But still, from the beginning to Home pt 2 is a 20 episode stretch that is as good as pretty much everything else on tv. That is not too bad. Perhaps viewers should just stop there.

― Frederik B, Wednesday, 12 December 2012 23:05 (6 months ago) Permalink

(the photocopier as a lie detector thing in the wire was first done in homicide: LOTS)

― koogs, Wednesday, 12 December 2012 23:11 (6 months ago) Permalink

I have always avoided the Battlestar Galactica reboot, but I do recall reading someone in The Guardian saying it was as good as The Wire about 4 years ago. What the hell was that about? Recently I watched some mini-episodes of the new Blood and Chrome series that starts in February. It's trash and I watched these mini episodes, but what the hell inspired a Grauniad writer to compare earlier series with The Wire?

― Damo Suzuki's Parrot, Wednesday, 12 December 2012 23:12 (6 months ago) Permalink

the 3 hr pilot miniseries and the first season and a half of BSG are actually pretty remarkable.

― LIKE If you are against racism (omar little), Wednesday, 12 December 2012 23:14 (6 months ago) Permalink

I heard Star Wars was good so I watched the Holiday Special

― pun lovin criminal (polyphonic), Wednesday, 12 December 2012 23:16 (6 months ago) Permalink

Sorry I forgot to mention someone lent me a series 3 or 4 of BSG and I really couldn't get into it. I was struggling to keep my eyes open and my missus was shouting abuse at me for even watching it. I watch a lot of shit, maybe try series 1?

― Damo Suzuki's Parrot, Wednesday, 12 December 2012 23:23 (6 months ago) Permalink

Cracker is great, bought the complete box this year and have been rewatching at about a serial a month. (About to run out of Jimmy McGovern episodes iirc though)

― ( ͡° ͜ʖ͡°) (sic), Wednesday, 12 December 2012 23:30 (6 months ago) Permalink

(the photocopier as a lie detector thing in the wire was first done in homicide: LOTS)

it was first done in real life, then reported in the book Homicide that the TV series Homicide was based on, which was written by David Simon, creator and head writer of The Wire, so

― ( ͡° ͜ʖ͡°) (sic), Wednesday, 12 December 2012 23:31 (6 months ago) Permalink

lots of IRL Jay Landsman lols in the Homicide book, which came before the fictional Jay Landsman in The Wire, which came before the actual Jay Landsman got a smaller, other role in The Wire

― ( ͡° ͜ʖ͡°) (sic), Wednesday, 12 December 2012 23:34 (6 months ago) Permalink

flowchart plz

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 12 December 2012 23:35 (6 months ago) Permalink

(don't front, i know you have one prepared)

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 12 December 2012 23:35 (6 months ago) Permalink

I watched the first two series of Prime Suspect and it struck me as much more procedural than the Wire - like an intelligent version of Law and Order (or now, The Killing, I guess). I'm more anglophobic than philic, so maybe I just didn't connect on that.

If not Band of Brothers for next-to-watch, then Deadwood, Rome or Generation Kill.
I miss the days when 80% of my TV-watching was HBO.

― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Wednesday, 12 December 2012 23:42 (6 months ago) Permalink

I keep having Al Swearengen quotes pop into my head at random. It's great. "In life you have to do a lot of things you don’t fucking want to do. Many times, that’s what the fuck life is… one vile fucking task after another."

― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Wednesday, 12 December 2012 23:43 (6 months ago) Permalink

Deadwood is a quote machine. Brilliant stuff.

― Gukbe, Wednesday, 12 December 2012 23:48 (6 months ago) Permalink

Rome! yes, v v good.

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 12 December 2012 23:49 (6 months ago) Permalink

flowchart plz

― ( ͡° ͜ʖ͡°) (sic), Thursday, 13 December 2012 00:03 (6 months ago) Permalink

milo, it is much more procedural. i wasn't that impressed with it (i mean it was good but) until the career-arc / alcoholic-arc had really gotten up to steam.

― j., Thursday, 13 December 2012 01:31 (6 months ago) Permalink

For SIS/SAS show, The Sandbaggers pwnz MI5 so hard.

Anyway, I actually would rec The Good Wife -- completely different subject matter of course, but it's the closest thing that comes to The Wire in terms of real world moralambiguity that isn't boring.

― I was in this prematureleee air-conditioned supermarket (Leee), Thursday, 13 December 2012 02:04 (6 months ago) Permalink

it has logan from the gilmore girls though
i was really bummed out when i watched an episode of the good wife & didn't like it, i thought it was gonna be just the legal drama for me, like rotating issue-themed story lines & all. probably instead of this z s you should watch ally mcbeal.

― kristof-profiting-from-a-childs-illiteracy.html (schlump), Thursday, 13 December 2012 02:21 (6 months ago) Permalink

/gilmore girls

― kristof-profiting-from-a-childs-illiteracy.html (schlump), Thursday, 13 December 2012 02:21 (6 months ago) Permalink

Just got a HBO GO hookup. Time to live in Romewood for a month.

― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Thursday, 13 December 2012 03:04 (6 months ago) Permalink

i figured out HBOGO cause i wanted to watch Roc, and then i found out it aired on FOX even though everyone always calls it an HBO show

so now i'm desperately trying to get invites to fancy tv torrent sites cause that shit is hard to locate

― THE NATIONS YOUTH DANCED TO THE MACARANA (innocent) (zachlyon), Thursday, 13 December 2012 03:27 (6 months ago) Permalink

If you need a break from cop shows and just wanna watch cartoons there's always Neon Genesis Evangelion.

― Fetchboy, Thursday, 13 December 2012 03:42 (6 months ago) Permalink

^^^

― 乒乓, Thursday, 13 December 2012 03:43 (6 months ago) Permalink

pack a bowl for the final 10 eps

― 乒乓, Thursday, 13 December 2012 03:43 (6 months ago) Permalink

For Machiavellian/realpolitik nonsense I can't implore you enough to watch the House of Cards trilogy. It's Yes Minister with the jokes taken out, or a UK West Wing where everybody's a cunt. And it's as good a central performance as I've ever seen on a TV show.

― give me back my 200 dollars (NotEnough), Thursday, 13 December 2012 10:50 (6 months ago) Permalink

there's a US remake of House of Cards airing early next year

― Number None, Thursday, 13 December 2012 11:30 (6 months ago) Permalink

well if we're going for that kind of drama, also try Shooting The Past (Stephen Poliakoff)

― ljubljana, Thursday, 13 December 2012 11:32 (6 months ago) Permalink

As much as I have no idea where it would have went had it gotten renewed, John From Cincinnati was kind of a perfect little season of TV.

― schwantz, Thursday, 13 December 2012 13:10 (6 months ago) Permalink

I think I like and hate Poliakoff in equal measure.

― Chewshabadoo, Thursday, 13 December 2012 13:30 (6 months ago) Permalink

pack a bowl for the final 10 eps

what kind of pipe are you smoking, literally

― dexpresso (Z S), Thursday, 13 December 2012 13:54 (6 months ago) Permalink

If you haven't seen Party Down yet...

― THE NATIONS YOUTH DANCED TO THE MACARANA (innocent) (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 13 December 2012 15:27 (6 months ago) Permalink

Among the reasons I would love Prime Suspect, max suspiciously forgot to mention that everyone smokes constantly all the way through it like it's their collective full-time job.

― grossly incorrect register (in orbit), Thursday, 13 December 2012 16:27 (6 months ago) Permalink

3 weeks pass...

not enough love for veronica mars itt

― rap steve gadd (D-40), Saturday, 5 January 2013 04:36 (5 months ago) Permalink

First 2 seasons are great.

― Ya Bish Bosch (Spottie_Ottie_Dope), Saturday, 5 January 2013 04:38 (5 months ago) Permalink

when i made my list above i forgot that i had just recently watched NYC 22, a cancelled show (only made it through 13 episodes, all on netflix instant now) that is probably as close in spirit to 'the wire' as you could get if you made a network procedural that was focused on cops only. created by richard price, focused on one harlem precinct and the surrounding neighborhood, basically it tracks rookies as they get trained in 'community policing'. one of the rookies is an ex-journalist / auteur stand-in who switches careers in middle age, so he kind of acts as an in-show point of audience contact, and kind of as an attractor for the kind of david simony stuff you might expect to be in the show's dna somewhere. it has to be, world-building-wise and just visually, one of the most place-grounded shows i've seen in forever.

― j., Saturday, 5 January 2013 04:51 (5 months ago) Permalink

RIP big man

http://www.uproxx.com/tv/2013/01/r-i-p-the-wire-star-robert-prop-joe-chew/

― Number None, Friday, 18 January 2013 20:22 (5 months ago) Permalink

heaven needed a hustla

― an old penis drawing is now "new and notable" (forksclovetofu), Friday, 18 January 2013 22:30 (5 months ago) Permalink

http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=ey0FDh444VU

― an old penis drawing is now "new and notable" (forksclovetofu), Friday, 18 January 2013 22:36 (5 months ago) Permalink

hey j., did you ever catch up w/the newsroom? i was really enjoying yr take on it in the thread & didn't hear anymore after you said you couldn't get hold of it anymore

― kristof-profiting-from-a-childs-illiteracy.html (schlump), Friday, 18 January 2013 22:39 (5 months ago) Permalink

aw man RIP, he couldn't have been that old

― fiscal cliff paul (k3vin k.), Friday, 18 January 2013 23:06 (5 months ago) Permalink

(nope, sorry schlump, no access.)

― j., Friday, 18 January 2013 23:26 (5 months ago) Permalink

― let's go do some crimes (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Saturday, 19 January 2013 01:18 (5 months ago) Permalink

oh those numbers from the ripped screeners that leaked really took me back

― Gukbe, Saturday, 19 January 2013 01:19 (5 months ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

http://www.hulu.com/braquo

'the french wire'

(haven't seen, can't vouch)

― j., Wednesday, 13 March 2013 06:12 (3 months ago) Permalink

that seems like extremely high praise. it's good tv but from what little i've seen here and there it felt more like the shield maybe. it was created by olivier marchal, who's directed a few movies in the same vein, think cops and the bleak lives they live or something to that effect (if you've seen mr-73 or 36, quai des orfèvres for example).

― Jibe, Wednesday, 13 March 2013 09:58 (3 months ago) Permalink

<3 The Shield <3

― Jeff, Wednesday, 13 March 2013 11:28 (3 months ago) Permalink

Yeah the shield is great. Braquo is similar in that its cops crossing a line and going too far and of course it doesn't end too well for them.

― Jibe, Wednesday, 13 March 2013 13:46 (3 months ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

http://davidsimon.com/gus-triandos-1930-2013/

― j., Thursday, 18 April 2013 03:48 (2 months ago) Permalink

Lol, first comment

― H-E-double-s1ockisticks (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 18 April 2013 14:45 (2 months ago) Permalink

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