"The Wire" on HBO

Wondering if, in 3 years time,, The Wire will get the same 20-year fanfare currently being enjoyed by The Sopranos. Hope so!

― henry s, Wednesday, February 6, 2019 1:00 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it will not

wondering if there would be so much fanfare without the passing of Gandolfini

There would not - but that is not why it will not.

It didn't have the same fanfare of the Sopranos 18 years ago!

I think it most definitely will? Sopranos, Wire, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, those are kinda the big four.

it absolutely will

yeah, the wire was nowhere as feted as the sopranos at the time.

I mean it's the most thinkpiece-friendly show ever made

there will be multiple articles about the cultural impact of weebey.gif alone

I feel like, if anything, the fact that it was less feted than The Sopranos initially was a contributing factor to its subsequent canonisation. For much of its run, it was the "best show you're not watching". By the last season it was "the greatest show ever made, and you never watched it, idiot"

It then really blew up in the box-set era, while still retaining a sort of cultish appeal. Kind of a shorthand for the in-the-know TV viewer: "Oh, you still haven't seen The Wire?"

Now it's firmly established as one of the cornerstones of the golden age of TV, and it's also just an extremely popular TV show that millions of people have watched, loved, and memed

It will be feted

otm

also Sopranos is better :)

yeah and i think will be boosted by having that little bit more cachet for the ppl who tend to write these pieces wanting to be seen to have been itk at the time

It was pretty much rolling daily coverage in The Guardian when it aired on the BBC for the first time

and that was a year after the final season

The fact that it's appeal had a slower burn would seem to make a big-deal anniversary less, and not more, likely

Anyway there is really no comparison btw the cultural impacts of these shows

its!

Just finished S4 last night (last 9 episodes over 2 evenings) and damn, this is where it finally kicked into gear for me. Dukie, Randy, Namond and Michael are the heart of everything the show's trying to get at.

so good & so ;_;

All 60 episodes of #TheWire, ranked from worst to best https://t.co/nZVxtO7xFa

— New York Magazine (@NYMag) February 23, 2019

This is ... not ... how you're supposed to watch this show?

All the pieces matter (but some matter more than others)

This just...yeah. I can understand better when people do this with songs.

I finished S5 Thursday night btw. Good-to-great show despite some big surface-level flaws.

rankers gonna rank

I will say this about the article - the author chose the right #1.

"US."

WmC, what did you think of S5 in comparison to the rest?

besides being a very dumb premise, the rankings themselves are insane

all the chapters of 'great expectations', ranked from worst to best

xp to Raymond
SPOILERS, assuming Dmac hasn't finished it yet --
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I think it was roughly on par with S1 & 2 in quality. I liked the series-long notion of seeing the core story through a different lens, and I liked the S5 lens of the Sun newsroom since I have a rough familiarity with daily newspapers via my wife's old career. Sydnor figuring out the picture code was just too big a deus ex machina for me and I think Simon et al knew it because they spent as little time on it as possible, but ok whatever. Omar's death shocked the hell out of me -- I thought he'd make it through. McNulty's and Templeton's parallel deceptions were a clever construction. Michael's fate as the new Omar bringing harsh moral judgment to The Game is the most satisfying story arc in the series, imo. The least satisfying was McNulty, who too-conveniently careened from hero to heel as needed over the seasons. Namond's rise and Duquan's fall were clever story constructions -- every time I try to talk myself into thinking they ring false, I think a little harder and feel the pathos.

tyvm for the thought!

I won't disagree that S5 was the weakest by far, but at that point I was so wed to the show that I didn't really care/notice

I can’t hear season five over all the axe grinding

does Seattle have a Hampsterdam now? Like, anything goes?

I feel a bit guilty for liking this show now w/all the Abolish the Police stuff

this show is frustrating because it’s almost excellent. it’s telling there seems to be almost no serious working class resistance, while maverick cops and professional types are shown bravely struggling against the constraints of the system. performances are so good they almost make up for the moments it becomes painfully obvious the show was written by middle class white dudes

mcnulty is the worst part of the show, such a tedious character/archetype (deconstruction or not), who the writers are clearly in love with

mfer went to eton https://t.co/FYMmWUiSfF

— Professor Sir Bane QC KCB MP (@BaneNook) June 12, 2020

speaking of which, he's a lousy actor as well who lives in a castle somewhere!

does the castle affect his acting ability?

yes it does, being such a privileged spoilt rich brat definitely impacts on his already negligible acting skills

it just got hot in here!

did he go to school w dave or did I imagine that

I remember reading he was friends with the pigs-head fucker

oh that dave -- was confused that you meant Dave simon

yep, he was at Eton with him. And he complains that being an Eton alumni is worse than being branded a paedophile.. boo hoo hoo!

pretty sure being branded a pedophile is worse ... even Epstein couldn't survive that

we have a history of being much more tolerant towards rich paedophiles in the UK - so I don't know what he's complaining about!

The Wire to me was always the epitome of intelligent liberals having the tools to accurately diagnose social ills but having nothing of note to say about potential solutions or alternate arrangements

I sometimes think The Shield will age better, warts and all, because it at least portrays bone deep police corruption a la Rampart and has so little love for most of its characters; even the "better" cops and detectives are deeply flawed at best

The Wire to me was always the epitome of intelligent liberals having the tools to accurately diagnose social ills but having nothing of note to say about potential solutions or alternate arrangements

bbbut hampsterdam

what can we learn from this fictional experiment in abolition of police

the usual: better things aren't possible

How can anyone watch “The Wire” and the dysfunction of the police & the war on drugs and say that we were depicted as heroic. We demonstrated moral ambiguities and the pathology that leads to the abuses. Maybe you were reacting to how good people can be corrupted to do bad things https://t.co/a69iSa66W4

— Wendell Pierce (@WendellPierce) June 7, 2020

There seems to be two types of cops in the Wire - the type who regularly dish out beatings (prez, herc etc), or the type that cover for them (everyone from Daniels upwards). Which sure, makes all of them villains, but all the characters are so lovable and quotable that police brutality just becomes background noise that the show, and therefor me as viewer, kinda ignores. It seems like the show's POV is that sure, it happens, it's a shame, but what you gonna do? It's America.