"The Wire" on HBO

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.

Is Darren Bent in it?

i didn't get into The Wire s1 until halfway thru

matt dc: see the shield threads. for some qualifiers. or ask cozen, who is watching now! basically the first two seasons u may be a bit ehhhhh... but then it ramps up like a motherfucker and becomes the most intense palpitation-inducing show on television, and gets better as it goes on.

i think it does "say something about america", but without recourse to corny "this america, man" type lines. but it is a cop show with car chases and people getting beat on and shit, and the best things in 'the wire' -- series 2 and series 4, i think, these days, eg the school and the docks -- are not cop show-y.

i think abt the sopranos more and more and how great it was. the amount of time for this kind of ish depends on what else you got cookin'. i don't watch sport or listen to music or have a girlfriend, so really why would i not be watching it over?

o shi, heads-up for uk ilxors, dunno where to put this but:

'law and order' on bbc4 tonight.

it's fkn amazing.

even pinefox may like it.

1978 uber-british proto-wire shit. one case, four eps, one about a robber, one about a cop, one about a lawyer, one about a con.

that sounds rad

gukbe, are you acquainted w/the shield? (I have dvds going spare if not)

(is dope btw)

someone posted a massive spoiler on the shield thread (not surprising since the show's dead now and the spoiler is about 2/3 seasons back) so beware

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
― goaty (harbl)

Ditto, first episode struck me as uninteresting. It was only because I _could_ watch a full season in one sitting that I ended up getting hooked later on.

only saw the first few eps cozwn, but was too engrossed at the wire at the time to care. will give it another shot tho.

xposts

I'd wish five freeview repeated one Shield ep a day. Love to watch, but my library won't buy the DVDs :-(

Or maybe both BBC3 and five could do Wire/Shield weekend marathons, except there is sex and violence and the crazy people who make the regulations don't allow that kind of stuff during daytime.

still really liking these 'wire' repeats. Its great to watch it all again.

"the wire really soured its reputation with season 5"

^ its crazy to say series 5 was THAT bad, btw...maybe it didn't help it was 10 instead of 12/13 eps that were originally planned

I really don't think having 2/3 eps more wd've helped, it really was that rushed... iono but I thought sn5 was PRETTY bad : /

I don't think season 5 was bad, it just wasn't as good as the previous 4.