"The Wire" on HBO

i think the whole 'phenomenon' is an index of the blogification of the papers more than anything

Sub-Marcello at best.

Everyday it seems I am more and more glad I don't read the Guardian

ok matt, why do you think the wire is more saturation-covered than was 'the sopranos'?

there is a phenomenon out there, for sure, of people feeling they simply MUST see 'the wire', and also one of people complaining about the pressure.

and maybe that existed a little bit with older series, but imo to nothing like the same extent.

i reckon it's because of THE BLOGS.

people just prefer good honest cops to the no-goog nick mafioso

xposts. I no longer read any newspaper apart from the sports sections of tabloids. On the one hand I feel like a disgusting savage, on the other hand it's liberating. I occasionally look at the BBC site, el pais, various Latin American papers, but this is also mainly to look at the football.

so how do you think Gerrard will do in the G20?

If he can replicate his Liverpool form it's in the bag.

He's never been able to play in the same midfield as Tony Soprano, there's your problem

lol the shield is some srsly corny consternated yelly shit silly britishes

The Shield had a higher profile here thanks to Five - I know people who've loved it for years but never gave it a go (no surprise - tend to ignore police shows myself). Gonna start Wire s2 any day now tho...

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

― ¸„ø¤º°¨º¤ø „¸¨°º¤ø„¸¸„ø ¸„ø¤º°¨¸„ø¤º „¸¨°º¤ (eman), Tuesday, March 31, 2009 3:28 PM (53 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

always so annoying when shit gets hyped just as its getting bad... also see battlestar

You can talk about media coverage and saturation, but the vast, vast majority of people I know have not seen The Wire, The Shield nor Battlestar Galactica... the internet distorts a lot of things.

Me, for instance

ya i just hate those "this is the BEST SHOW ON TV" articles that come out all swaggering and confident about their bold discovery after the show has gotten shitty

the way i see it, that kind of hype for a show that has a couple solid seasons under their belt that you can always go back and rent on DVD is still better than the same type of press for a show halfway through its first season that may (and usually does) fall way off a year later

sure, the "two and a half men" phenomenon

How long's The Shield been around? It's been on in the UK for years, possibly not on continuously and possibly not on the same channel, I don't know, but no-one ever went on about it like it was anything special until the BBC bought The Wire, thus allowing smartarses in pub to say "The Shield's better anyway"

lol? (xpost)

lol indeed

i didn't learn that Dominic West was British til yesterday

the shield is great but really pretty stupid as well, not in the same league as the wire imo. the supporting cast on the former is pretty weak compared to the latter, too.

You can talk about media coverage and saturation, but the vast, vast majority of people I know have not seen The Wire, The Shield nor Battlestar Galactica... the internet distorts a lot of things.

― Nhex, Tuesday, March 31, 2009 6:27 PM (24 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

we do this convo on the regular (most recently: "everybody has heard of kevin smith" -- e. padgett, r.i.p.) and yeah, ok, i get it. but a lot of people *have* seen them or feel like they "should". and the coverage im talking about is in the msm... though if we're talking numbers loads of people read newspapers online now! the internets is not some kooky edge thing only nerds look at.

600,000 brits tuned into the first ep of the wire last night at 1120pm, 1% of the population. not too shabby.

no-one ever went on about it like it was anything special until the BBC bought The Wire

it's been on channel 5 since about 2003. it debuted in the us same year as 'the wire' (2002). i've been saying it's better than 'the wire' as a challop for at least a year. i guess it isn't really, but sometimes challops become what you actually think, and the last series of 'the shield' *was* better than that of 'the wire'. they both have different strengths and weaknesses overall.

Has it been on continuously? Or do *people just ignore it because it's on Five?

(*and Guardian readers)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/tvandradioblog/2007/jun/19/badgeofhonourwhyilovethe

recently i had a friend of mine convinced that the actor who plays omar is actually swedish (after he found out about idris elba)

I have never seen the word 'challop' defined, and never seen it outside ilx, and don't know what you people mean by it.

Otherwise I agree with a lot of the above.

I didn't like the Sopranos - it was long and dull and I don't really like things centring around vile and wicked people like gangsters. I think this last might be a problem with the Wire for me also. it seems to have lots of horrible people in it. in the first episode I didn't hear anyone say anything interesting, but that could change, in theory.

Ømår Littel

Every time I've tried to watch The Shield I've turned it off after no more than 10 minutes. Something about it just doesn't work for me.

in the first episode I didn't hear anyone say anything interesting, but that could change, in theory.

― the pinefox, Tuesday, March 31, 2009 1:34 PM

you mean to say that further episodes might prove to be different from, or even better than, the debut? interesting theory!

to be fair there's not a lot of time left for the show to prove its bonafides, only another 60 or so episodes iirc

yeah and with the first 3 seasons of hunter on dvd it'd be easy to let it fall by the wayside altogether

works for me!

http://www.tv-intros.com/s/scarecrow%20mrs%20king.jpg

real shit

http://www.tv-intros.com/s/scarecrow%20mrs%20king.jpg

cagney and lacey was a great show tho, no need to have pinefox's stellar not-knowing-things act get in the way of that. tyne daly 4eva.

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

― i like to fart and i am crazy (gbx), Monday, March 30, 2009 10:27 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

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

― i like to fart and i am crazy (gbx), Monday, March 30, 2009 10:28 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

wife and I just started watching the wire. she tuned out after an episode and a half. I can see why people would prefer sopranos. notwithstanding the pinefox's revulsion, the sopranos characters are more charming, the family situations have general appeal. whereas the wire by comparison seems to be a pretty dry policier. I'm only on eps 4 tho.

I wasn't particularly fond of the opening scene. seemed contrived and writerly, and if you're striving for street realism, do you really think a gangbanger is going to be seen chilling out in public with a police detective at a murder scene?

but I am digging it on the whole.

my old posts in this thread sukk, but i'm glad it's still around so everyone knows i was the first one ridin Wire-dick around here

i just remembered even though i was shaking my head at the pinefox the first time i tried to watch the wire (s1 e1) i got bored 20 min in and didn't watch it again for months

i don't think he was a gangbanger, just a guy from the neighborhood xxp

whereas the wire by comparison seems to be a pretty dry policier.

i think u have to be well marinated in, and somewhat sick of, the shorthand grammar of cop shows to enjoy the boredom of the first half of S1. on like Law & Order, they'll say they need a wiretap and then, next scene, they have all the goods laid out. but cop work is really boring and tedious! all those hours on the rooftop, all that time sitting with the headphones on, working around the legal constraints, the itchy tedium, esp. for amped up dudes that just want to kick ass. there's no supercop high tech bs, they're always way behind in putting the pieces together and each step is really hard work. that's not ~fascinating~ to everyone apparently but it's not normal for cop shows!

i've always gathered from cop shows that talking to detectives was sorta part of the deal. bodie had conversations all the time, iirc

xp see i liked the dryness and boredom of the wire! it's like a how things work of the police

I wasn't particularly fond of the opening scene. seemed contrived and writerly, and if you're striving for street realism, do you really think a gangbanger is going to be seen chilling out in public with a police detective at a murder scene?

It's a true story!

after watching the whole series, i went back and watched the first episode with my dad & stepmom. it was really surprising how forced and awkward some of it seems, esp. the swearing & hard-assery (could be due to the awkwardness of watching it w/my folx, though). it gets better fast, though.

i felt the same thing rewatching a few episodes of season 5 over the break....in retrospect, most of the cops' dialogue is stilted.

every show needs time for the actors, writers, directors and the rest to work out what the show is and how to do it. but yeah, some of it was a bit forced. also that awful Gant-testimony recall, which was the network's thing.

season 5 just feels really rushed.

season 5 is srsly marred by simon's nostalgic jerkoff to saintly, tireless journalists, but i think we've been over that already

I think there is more chance of most of us enjoying being punched repeatedly in the face then there is of the Pinefox enjoying The Wire. Pinefox if I were you you I probably wouldn't even bother.

I really liked the OTT serial killer/cop stuff in Series 5 but I just didn't care about the journalists at all. It felt a bit late in the day to be including a whole raft of new characters especially when they'd outdone themselves with the kids in S4.

However NRQ has convinced me to start watching the Shield, and I have never really bothered with the Sopranos, mostly because watching the whole thing seems like too big an investment of time. Even if it is brilliant.

there needs to be a disclaimer on the cover of all season 1 DVD sets that everyone simply MUST watch the first 3 episodes before making up their mind. i know i watched the first two episodes and forgot about the show for a year or so. then i watched episode 3 one day and went "ah, this is good". i ended up finishing the first season the next day.