"The Wire" on HBO

In the SF Bay Area, there's a station called "Alice" - that smacks of being a national format - that consists of (based on overhearing it occasionally, advertised artists on station ads and on the masthead of their website) alt-folk-rock, new wave, lighter rock - like Sarah McLachlan, Sting, Sheryl Crow, Dave Matthews Band, U2, Coldplay. I think their target demographic is college educated white women between 25 - 45.

KFOG, basically.

KFOG is a bit more dudely than Alice - I think KFOG also targets older - like up to age 54. KFOG is radio for baby boomer dad who likes Clapton and sometimes kicks back and smokes weed.

Interesting article on dubbing The Wire into German:
http://blog.babbel.com/the-words-should-roll-out-of-the-mouths-on-the-dubbing-of-the-wire-in-german/

Interview, rather.

David Simon Blasts The New Baltimore Police Department Policy of Withholding The Names of Officers Who Use Deadly Force

another good DS article on the same topic in today's Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/27/AR2009022703591.html?hpid%253Dopinionsbox1

THE WIRE COMES TO BBC2 THIS SPRING

good luck uk

http://smokingsection.uproxx.com/TSS/2009/02/if-rappers-were-characters-from-the-wire

Has this been posted? It's surprisingly decent, tho McNulty was really really robbed.

real pleasure noticing that mcnulty and i were swigging from matching bottles of jameson tonight

There's a Clay Davis in nearly every little, backwoods town.

Boss Hog, pretty much.

Some casting news on David Simon's new project.
http://www.hitfix.com/articles/2009-3-10-new-oscar-nominee-joins-hbo-s-treme
Finding it kind of hard to visualize how this show will work at the moment, the concept seems quite nebulous

So this starts on BBC2 tonight. You all been good boys and girls telling everyone you've ever met to tune in now it's not on FX at 3 in the morning or whatever?

i bought series 1 on dvd and then lent it to someone after only watching the first 5. that was before christmas...

(am tempted to buy the others as well rather than be a slave to nightly bbc2 showings. is only £15 a season after all)

Best way to watch wire is three-four eps at a time tho. I stand by dvd

OTM. I don't know how I would have handled having to wait a WHOLE WEEK for a new episode.

It's mon-fri, 11:20pm, a bit too late really (projecting my life onto entire BBC2 viewers now), but I can't be bothered starting to concentrate on something at that time.

Was it on weekly when it was first shown (either HBO or FX)? - this seems like such a stupid question, I'm sorry. lol dvd boxsets.

Yeah, it was a weekly show during the HBO original run.

> It's mon-fri, 11:20pm

that would be too easy:

Mon 23:20 The Target
Tue 23:20 The Detail
Wed 23:20 The Buys
Thu 23:20 Old Cases
Fri 23:35 The Pager

With the iPlayer, isn't it now basically on whenever you want though? Just start a day late.

I'm like 80% certain I played craps with Marlo in Shreveport this weekend. Is he in the new David Simon project?

did u get shot? if no, prolly not marlo.

did it have hands? did it have a head?

this seems better, so far, I think:

WH ----??!!

Cagney and Lacey being a better show than The Wire is a special kind of challops.
Thanks for giving me a reason to hear the themesong again, tho'.

that kind of challops will get you a SB, son

I'm not saying it's a GOOD challop, just a special one.

just started re-watching this. <3

Am going to start watching this again this week - excited!

friend of mine the other day telling me how shes watching it for the 1st time - so jealous - already done 1-4 x2

I've only seen like 4 episodes so it kind of is like the first time for me.

yeah i might need to start over

still think the opening scene is G.O.A.T American Drama

like maybe it'll be boring and played at some point, but i bet countless theses/dissertations will use "you got to, man, this is america" as an epigraph or whatever for decades to come

snot boogie

btw 2/3rd seasons of big love are pretty great

Pinefox is autistic, right?

-- Dom Passantino, Wednesday, May 7, 2008 9:38 PM

Half my weekly phone conversation with my mom now revolves around her talking about the Wire. Yesterday she was bitching about Ziggy and telling me what the Greeks are up to now.

I'm like 80% certain I played craps with Marlo in Shreveport this weekend. Is he in the new David Simon project?

Nope.

http://media.sheknows.com/articles/Cagney-And-Lacey.jpg
cagney: You are feeding off the violence and the despair of the drug trade. You are stealing from those who themselves are stealing the lifeblood from our city. You are a parasite who leeches off the culture of drugs…
lacey: Just like you, man.
cagney: Excuse me? What?
lacey: I got the shotgun. You got the briefcase. It’s all in the game though, right?

i got to the bit where the female witness changed her testimony before i fell asleep...

The backlash has started in earnest, guy in the pub at the weekend was giving it, "The Shield is much better anyway"

11pm loooool; seinfeld and larry sanders all over again

wd never recommend someone watch the wire anyway

the shield being better than the wire isn't such an inscrutable challops. the wire really soured its reputation with season 5

also its fans in the media are the most disgusting savages etc obv

I don't think the shield is better than the wire but I can totally understand why some ppl wd

some of the scenes in the shield are as intense as any in the wire

character is just as strong, language is obv weaker in the shield but when was that ever gunna be an issue... plot iono, it's a tossup I think... shield has that horrible complexity going on too

I suspect that an awful lot of people just don't like being told something's good - esp. by the BBC or Channel 4 etc.

oh, and as expected, it's not iplayable

> the wire really soured its reputation with season 5

and i'm having real trouble with the last series of the shield. is just washing over me. has for a while.

I'm just about to start season 7; I heard (nrq) it was great?

I had that problem with the last several seasons of the sheild until an event that I posted about months after it happened and still got spoilhammered for once I did. Suffice it to say - stick with it, ye shall have thine reward.

I suspect that an awful lot of people just don't like being told something's good - esp. by the BBC or Channel 4 etc.

― Sacco, Vanzetti, Passantino... (Tom D.), Tuesday, March 31, 2009 5:50 AM

brings up a good point. the hype for it didn't really start here until somewhere between the 4th and 5th season airings