"The Wire" on HBO

and prez. poor poor prez.

I'd like to see a City Hall show written by someone who knows City Hall as well as Simon knows cops and robbers. But maybe I'd be the only one who watched it.

xpost to jamz -- yeah! The black councilman is running for mayor on an education platform, and the white councilman is running on crime, right? The white councilman is a great character, you never quite know where he's coming from. He seems like he's got real decency under there, but there are ominous signs... the moral triage of politics comes a little too naturally to him, and his vanity is well-documented. The revelation of Hamsterdam was a moment of moral choice for him and he wrestles with it -- use it to his campaign's advantage, or follow his conscience? He's told: "You've been dealt a winning hand and it's like you forgot how to play!" but he remembers how to play at the end, and I wonder if it's the first step down a long, venal road.

The other big indicator that 4 will be all about the money, or at least the politics, as that Clay Davis remains unconscionably un-comeuppanced.

Lance Reddick rules. He ruled on Oz too.

I saw him running at the dog park a few weeks back. Intimidating! But sporting the tall man's tell-tale knee braces.

And, in the hidden indicators department, he's done time in Rochester. Eastman School on his resume.

Secondly, last week thanks to the transit strike and me spending Christmas in New York, I rewatched the first season and am mid-way through the second. Just so so good. So many things I had forgotten, and some little tidbits in the early going that showed the uncertainty that it began with. Things like:

1) Omar curses in the first episode
2) Stringer SMOKING in the first episode (no way would he ever smoke)
3) McNulty's British accent is sooooo apparent in the earlygoing

Anyway, I'm just convinced more and more everyday how genius this show is/was.

Also, has anyone else seen Cutty in those Cheerios commercials? And last night I saw D'Angelo's mom in an episode of West Wing!

This sentence is true of me as well. Yancey, are you me?

On the second viewing, I found myself more impressed by the skillful long-arc structuring, but slightly more annoyed by the couple of actors for whom I can't quite suspend disbelief. Frank Sobotka in particular makes me picture the script, and the camera, and the audition, and generally the actor trotting around the Upper West Side with a latte and a copy of Backstage.

"YOU MOTHERFUCKERS GAVE ME BAD ADVICE!"

Hey you guys are me wtf cut it out I'm me

Yeah, season 4 is debuting in the fall of 06.

HBO for 06:

March - May: The Sopranos / Big Love

July - September: Deadwood / Entourage

September - November: The Wire

My favorite is Bunk.

1. it woulda been cool if d'angelo's mom was introduced a little bit earlier, but oh well.
2. beginning of last episode - scene with lt. daniels and mcnulty in the hospital is, aside from daniels' closing lines, pretty terrible.

starting season 2 next week!

For all the seriousness, this show gets hilarious in a "jokes between friends" sort of a way. See Omar and McNutty clothes shopping. "Well...It's a look." "No it ain't."

I don't really have anything to add to what everyone else has said except OOOH. I had no idea Dominic West was English, but I knew Idris was. I've seen him on the telly. He was great in that show with Miles (Jack Davenport, I mean) that was about vampires except it wasn't.

Oh, inDEED. I am desperate to get season 3, having only watched the first two. I'm downloading it, but only at speeds I haven't witnessed since the 90s.

This show makes me want to drink. Always.

pretty much the same for me, i caught the first few eps and then missed one or two, which was enough for me to write it off until i could see the whole thing at once. which still hasn't happened.

also it really embarasses me whenever this thread is bumped :'(

I started watching this show about a month ago on DVD and picked up season 3 on bittorrent. Now I've watched all three seasons over the course of the month.

I really didn't like the first six episodes or so of season 1. The dialogue seemed like forced, hardboiled verite bullshit. But the last half of season 1 and then season 2 and 3 were so goddamned brilliant. I'm really glad I stuck through it because I personally believe this is one of the best shows in the history of television.

I mean, all you can really ask of art is that it change the way you think a bit and make you reconsider your perspective on the shape of the world, and it might sound corny but this show has been a big deal for me.

Nyagh.

I think this series has a lot to say about what's going on in Iraq, especially Season 3.

I'm going to leave my computer on for a month if I have to.

"I wiped them shits down" "I need to hear them shits" "nah, fuck those shits"

It's just so much funnier in plural.