"The Wire" on HBO

That is the origin of the nomenclature yes

so weird ... I think Season 3 is the best, with 2 and 4 being close, and 1 and 5 being the weakest

― sarahell, Thursday, June 1, 2017 5:54 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yes. give me the corner over the classroom or the caucus, but not by much

all the seasons are great in different ways, i think - season two is definitely the most audacious in the sudden shift in focus and scope, season three maybe the most satisfying overall in wrapping up the story so far, season four is kinda the beating raw heart of the whole thing, and season five suffers a bit from bringing mcnulty back to the forefront alongside the hectoring newsroom scenes but ties a bow on the whole thing really well at the end

― heck i've even been an 'oyster pirate' (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 1 June 2017 10:01 (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is an excellent summary! My opinion did shift quite a bit on the second watch through though - s2 really went up in my estimation, s1 went down (I think mainly because it obviously has to spend a lot of time setting everything up).

season two is such a bracing slap in the face that i think it took a rewatch for me to fully appreciate it

i really love the braveness of basically doubling the size of the cast and throwing viewers back in at the deep end, right after they'd only just worked out how everyone related to everyone else in season one. 'here's a bunch of stevedores and greeks and shit, catch up!'

Season two is the most audacious, but also the one with the hardest task. Season 1 has such a perfect ending, so season two had to reopen it and build a foundation for the show to become a running concern. It's really really slow, the detail is formed even later in season 2 than it is in season 3. But the care pays off in the later season, which really builds on the sturdy foundation season 2 has created.

I always compare it to Homeland season 1, which also told a really self contained story in season one, one that had severe consequences for the people involved. But then, at the end of first episode of season 2, Carrie is back working for the CIA. And the show never really managed to make anything mean anything ever again.

Later in season 2 than it is in season 1, is what I meant to write.

I would never do anything as cruel as to compare The Wire to Homeland.

pull up a chair while i offer a detailed comparison of the wire and the five seasons of mid-90s jerry o'connell vehicle sliders

You can never be too cruel to Homeland, imo.

Mos def.

I like both shows.

lol bg hit us with that comparison!

Longforms on single episodes now? But hey, this one's about Game Day.

https://theundefeated.com/features/the-wire-oral-history-game-day/

That was a great read, ty pp

On the one hand, eye-roll at longforms on single episodes - on the other hand, got any more of those?

yeah that was awesome, thx PP!!

I remember watching The Wire the first time, I had no idea Idris Elba was english and it fully blew my mind when I saw him in stuff afterwards. Like, that dude 100% tricked me! I still am not 100% sure he's not pulling my leg with the whole Englishman thing. *narrows eyes*. I see you Idris. I see you.

sidebar- that oral history made me ish there was a West Wing Weekly-type podcast about The Wire, not just a dopey chatfest with fans who want to aimlessly dissect the whole show, but like a legit thing with a former cast member/s as a host/s, and that talked about each episode & had cast members on as regular guests.

would listen

right? it's such a rich show and deserves the same kind of love imo

Wow, I had no idea Game Day was directed by Milcho Manchevski. Guy directed Before the Rain, won the Golden Lion at Venice and was nominated for an Academy Award. Kinda lol at them going 'he turned out to be a good director'. Agniezka Holland also directed one, iirc. All in all, the visual side of the show is quite underrated, imo.

visually this show was clumsy as fuck

"workmanlike" if I'm being charitable

XP to Fred I think their assurance that this guy was a good director is softening the later reveal that he left at lunchtime and didn't come back cos he couldn't handle tv direction with heavy writer interference

idk i feel that visually the show is workmanlike in the best possible way. I'm struggling to think of moments that seemed clumsy, though it's been a while.

Workmanlike is only a criticism if workmanlike isn't right

the central appeal of the show was in the complex plot mechanics and the character nuances, so a workmanlike visual style that gets out of the way and just shows what happens in a straightforward way was fine.

Shows like Mad Men or Sopranos or Better Call Saul all have a bunch of visually stunning sequences/shots/scenes that stand out, but I can't say the same for the Wire.

Can't remember too many visually stunning shots in the sopranos, mad men otoh is the actual epitome is style over substance so yknow maybe it's just differing priorities here

you want me to list some?

this whole bit is incredible
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slszWIdjN40

esp the final shot that tracks forward, past the characters and up into the trees

I remember she died

Maybe this is me, the visuals in a story-driven vehicle need to stay out of the way, so better in fact if functional is attained and nothing more.

and this (altho this is a shitty rip)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8AgLOcgXNo

xp

Yeah the dreams were good.

Otoh I would say that the workaday sequences and scenes in the sopranos share a lot visually with the wire. Exteriors around the docks aesthetically a lot like any shots of the construction sites, waste yards, what have you in the sopranos

It's really in the interiors that there's any difference, wire interiors smell like real life sopranos all look like sets to me

@outic, i agree with your second assessment, the wire obviously prizes a specific type of procedural-style "realism" over and above visual authorial flourishes. That's way different to me than clumsiness, though.

The Sopranos is often ugly and clumsy. The Wire is the cinema verité style from Homicide but on a much broader scale. The Wire is by far the better show visually.

Homicide even more underrated as a piece of visual art, though. Lars von Trier mentioned it as a key inspiration for a film like Breaking the Waves. Still looks weird and incredible.

are you ever right about anything

FREDERIK B IS RIGHT FOR ONCE

about homicide, not about anything else

Hey, taste is subjective, but I can think of a bunch of clumsy Sopranos shots off the top of my head - the freeze frame, cgi nancy marchand, the editing when chris shoots the hungarian in episode one - and nil in The Wire. Just because it was most often handheld does not mean it was 'clumsy'. And there were some stunning camera movements here and there.

I got yr back Fred

Might start a ban outic thread actually

I'm impressed Fred can remember those Sopranos moments. Normally I remember little about TV camerawork b/c so little of it stands out.

well, he did pick maybe the two most notorious visuals of the series?

It's exactly because so little stands out that it's easy to remember what does :) But I mean, take a look at the dream sequence Outic posted upthread, there's a bunch of shots in there that seems undercooked and rushed to me. It's not exactly David Lynch quality.

On the other hand, check out the awesome pan that begins this one, it goes 8 seconds before it finds D'Angelo, then follows him. All in all fifteen seconds. That's better than almost anything in Sopranos, and The Wire was filled with cool little touches like that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8lyda_ZkLQ

The editing in the first forty seconds of this season 5 clip (so SPOILERS)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdpG92dsx1A

Wire had exactly one flashback sequence in its entire run – used in the first episode of season 1.

Amazing because all of those characters, all those fully developed characters - some of them just bit parts - never had any "fleshing out" or exposition about how and what made them tick. What you saw is what you saw. Is what it is.

Exposition through flashback, obv.

God are we talking about the visual style of The Wire again? That's missing the forest for the trees in a big way / looking for ways to nitpick at the Greatest Show Ever.

you wanna talk about why hillary lost instead