Well, the writer’s strike has pretty much eliminated most television shows my wife and I watch, so we are looking for new shows to watch.
We like:
Lost
Battlestar Galactica
Firefly
Buffy
Angel
Pushing Daisies(new this year)
Veronica Mars
Anyway, we like intelligent shows. We don’t care too much for CSI or Law and Order. They feel too contrived for us. We have never like police shows that have ridiculous crimes or poor dialogue. We’re not closed to a police genre, just aren’t interested in dumbed down cop shows.
What’s good about The Wire? What are the features of it that make it a good show?
I’m sure you’ll get lots of other opinions, but my wife and I tried to watch the Wire and just didn’t like it. We don’t much like cop shows either, but everyone kept saying how good it was. I think we watched 3-4 shows and just gave up after that. You could at least rent it first to see if you like it or not.
Okay, it may sound like I’m over stating this, but The Wire in not only the best show on television, it’s probably the best show ever to be on TV.
The writing is amazing, but what’s really great about it is that it’s completely devoid of contrivance. The entire script rings true. There are no good guys or bad buys in The Wire. There are people that do good and bad things, but those actions don’t define the character.
Be warned, The Wire is a slow burn. It demands you pay attention and stick with it. The writers respect the intelligence of their audience. Things that seem insignificant in Season 1, Episode 3, may not come up again for 7 or 8 more episodes.
What other series would take it’s lead character, Domenic West’s Jimmy McNulty and not have him appear in 7 episodes?
Watching The Wire is like reading a great novel. Don’t start in in middle, start with season one. There characters have grown so much. To appreciate where the characters are now, you should see where they started.
I really like The Wire, and I think while it may not be my favorite show, it is certainly the best TV show I have ever seen. It is a bit of a slow burn, though.
If you are looking for ripping entertainment with a large bank of episodes to last you through the strike, I would recommend The Shield, if you have never seen it. Another cop show, but really much more of an experiment in television, it shares with The Wire that there are no real good guys and bad guys, and you are asked to identify with a character who is, at best, morally ambiguous from the first episode on. It is fantastic storytelling and pulls no punches.
The Wire can be hard to connect with, but if/when you do, it’s a fantastic show.
I think that I gave up on season one when it first aired on HBO. I started catching bits & pieces in re-runs, and started making connections, and recognizing how good th writing was, and how unlike other cop shows it was, and then was irrevocably hooked.
I think you need to get through the first 5 episodes to be really “in” to it.
My friend begged me to watch it, and I blew him off. But then I started noticing it popping up in CS threads here on the Dope and finally gave it a chance.
At first it seemed slow, like I’d never get into it. After 5 episodes I’d say I was “in” to it. By the end of Season 1 I was “hooked” and now that I’m done with the series I am “floored”
I personally love Law & Order and CSI - BUT…the reason I was NOT into this show right away was because it wasn’t like those shows. So if you DON’T like those shows, you will be good with The Wire. You definitely have to give it more than a couple episodes, though.
For the record, my absolute favorite thing about this show is that major characters DIE. And not in some big end-of-the-season fashion, either. People just get killed and you don’t see it coming. Other shows, you read about dying-via-contract weeks before the character is gone. This one, literally, bam they’re gone. That’s ballsy.
What they said – you might have to give it some time. It’s not like other shows, and if you’re accustomed to “big” scenes and melodrama, you’ll have to adjust to a different kind of storytelling.
I didn’t get into it until this past summer. I had seen bits and pieces of the show and I didn’t care for it. From the snippets I saw, I thought yawn, another cop show, foul language, oh, and a lesbian, yawn. HBO didn’t promote it, it never showed up at the Emmys, and I hadn’t heard of any of the actors.
Then a couple years ago I came across some critical reviews and I put the season one DVD on my Amazon wish list. No money out of MY pocket if I don’t like it! One of my kids got it for me and I let it sit for another year, because I was busy watching and rewatching Deadwood.
The opening scene hooked me, McNulty talking to the kid about poor dead Snot Boogie. I got the rest of the DVDs and have been watching and rewatching almost non-stop for the past few months.
Season five will be my first viewing in real time. It’ll be interesting to see how it works, having to wait a week between chapters.
If we can’t convince you, Google around and read some reviews. Many critics agree that it’s the best thing on TV, ever.
A warning about The Wire. It will make you hate all other cop shows on television. Law & Order, The Shield (as good as it is), CSI all seem contrived after you get into The Wire.
Just a little bit about the background of David Simon, The Wire’s creator. He’s a former reporter for the Baltimore Sun. His excellent non-fiction book, Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets was the basis for the NBC series: Homicide. While writing the book, he spent a year with BPD’s Homicide unit. He also wrote The Corner, where he spent on year on one of the worst drug corners in Baltimore.
Then, he taught in some of the worst public schools in Baltimore, which became the basis for Season 4. He knows his turf and it shows in The Wire’s writing.
I agree with The Wire being one of the best shows ever on television. And it does take several episodes to get hooked. I just finished a month-long marathon of the first four seasons to get ready for the premier of season five.
One correction, David Simon wasn’t a school teacher. That’s his collaborator Ed Burns, who was a Baltimore detective before becoming a teacher.
I was watching a trailer for “American Gangster”. . .by all accounts a gritty, realistic piece of gangster movie making, and all I could think was, “they don’t sound like that on The Wire”.
There are screenplays put together by movie writers.
Then, there are screenplays put together by reporters who spent years actually observing American gangsters.
Not that there isn’t a place for
“I’d like to blow your head off.”
“Yeah, well, get in line. It’s stretches around the block.”
But, it’s the kind of thing written by a guy who has been writing lines for Harrison Ford and Tom Cruise for too long.
The Wire can’t be compared to other crime dramas. It has to be compared to a series that tells the story of a big city and its institutions. Since there’s never been a series like that, there’s nothing to compare it to. Thinking of it like this is the only way I’ll be able to enjoy the contrived melodrama of shows like The Shield.
We can’t hold other shows to the same standard. We’d never watch TV again. Until Simon’s next show, anyway. I can’t wait to see what he does with Iraq.
Despite both being cop shows, The Wire and The Shield are two very, very different shows. I love them both. On The Shield, your heart is pumping throughout almost the entire episode. The show generally follows the formula of an A plot, with Vic Mackey and his crew tracking down some vicious guys using often violent tactics, parallel with a B plot, usually two detectives solving a case in a more traditional sense. Sometimes there’s a C plot, down at the patrolman level, and there are a surprising number of really compelling multi-episode – even multi-season – arcs. The Shield is relentless, bang bang, and a LOT happens in an hour long episode.
In The Wire, there’s a lot happening in each episode, too, but whereas in The Shield there’s a lot happening because they cram a lot in, there’s a lot of content in The Wire because they show you just about everything. The Shield often feels like a synopsis of an investigation, showing you all the good parts in an hour. In The Wire, they show you everything, and so it takes 10-13 hours (episodes). The writing is complex, the performances are very authentic, and you’ll find yourself rooting for generally unlikeable characters who nonetheless have some redeeming qualities (Omar, Bodie, and Stringer Bell come to mind).
In short, don’t compare the two shows. Watch 'em both. The very first episode of The Shield is designed to suck you in immediately, and it did that very well in my case. With the Wire, it’ll take at least half of the first season until you’re in, but it’s well worth it.
This editor from Variety thinks it is. Link. Short article, no spoilers.
It’d be interesting to see what someone thinks of season five, if it’s their first viewing. I imagine it’ll be good, just not as good as it might have been. Like seeing Prez as a teacher without first seeing him as a failed police. He was great, but knowing his background made him better.
The Wire is the fabled Great American Novel, but appropriately enough it’s in TV show form. “Worthwhile” would be an extremly mild term for it; “essential” is closest to the truth.
I’ve watched all four seasons on DVD. For me the show is best when it sticks with the street boys and the homicide and special crime unit cops. The episodes that focus on the upper level police and the politicians are much less interesting to me. I understand that the point is to show how it all intertwines and how top level decisions are made without taking into account whether problems are actually being solved, but that’s how I feel. I think season one and four have been the best.
This is so true. I just saw American Gangster on 12/31, and my husband and I are in the middle of S3 of The Wire. I could barely stand American Gangster because it all seemed like bullshit to me-- the way the gangster talked, the way the cops investigated, the completeness and righteousness of the outcome, it all seemed so thin to me. Of course, The Wire is 13 hours per season, and AG was only 2.5 hours total, so not a fair comparison, but I think I am ruined for all other cop shows, maybe also cop movies, I don’t know. They just don’t seem as real as The Wire. Maybe this will pass after a few years, once The Wire has faded from my immediate consciousness, but for now, it feels true.
**The Wire ** is not the best show on television. There, I said it, and I’ll stand by it. I didn’t feel the need to dump on the other thread, because it would be rude of me to be contradictory in a thread praising the show, but I found watching it a miserable experience that wasn’t worth the time I put into it. I gave it two chances to hook me, then after reading on here all the praise, gave it another one. Maybe it does take five episodes to start enjoying it, or appreciating it, or whatever, but I’ll never know becayse I can’t get past the third episode. I don’t feel like I need to be miserable for five hours before I start pulling some enjoyment out of it, especially if I despise it already. It’s not a matter of not feeling one way or the other - I watching three episodes of the show was utter torture.
I found if bleak, poorly acted, and dull, dull, dull. And dull. Did I mention dull?
Lot of people like it, that’s fine. But sorry, and your taste is your taste, but it’s laughable to say that it would be impossible to enjoy “regular” television again after viewing The Wire.
For the record, I enjoy and even own all of the shows you mention except for Pushing Daisies, which I found way too coy and annoying for my tastes. But, like I said, a lot of people love the show, so whatever. Maybe you will too, but I’m not sure, judging by that list you put there, you’re in the market for something so damned depressing, cynical, gritty, and street as The Wire.
[QUOTE=ArizonaTeachLot of people like it, that’s fine. But sorry, and your taste is your taste, but it’s laughable to say that it would be impossible to enjoy “regular” television again after viewing The Wire. [/QUOTE]
How do you know? You didn’t watch The Wire if you barely saw 3 eps out of 50 or so. Not your cup of tea, that’s cool, but you’re not in a position to say how the OP would fare if he did give the show 5 eps, because you didn’t.
Yeah, The Wire ruined American Gangster for me. It has harmed my enjoyment of other cop shows too. I don’t think it’s going to be impossible for me to enjoy them, but it sets the bar a lot higher, possibly permanently.
I agree with the premise that it takes about 5 eps to get into it. The story doesn’t hold your hand, so it’s not a lot of flash and dazzle right out of the gate to get you hooked. It sets up the scenario and the characters very deliberately and carefully, so when it finally does take off, boy does it ever. It’s like Fellowship of the Rings-- that first 50 pages isn’t the most thrilling, but it’s a worthwhile investment of time.
Do you mean, other shows are burned by the strike, this is about to come on - should I watch it?
I’d say you have a few days to get the first 4 series down you or you wont enjoy it anywhere near as much as you might. Not as a start point anyway.
I am excited from several thousand miles away that the 5th series is starting, and I shant see it for a year(?) I wont be reading any episode threads here either as I long to sit with the whole series and glut on its majesty.
Hope you watch it and hope you enjoy it too. I guess there wont be any Vic Mackie shootings to hook you though. It’s left a few of my friends going ‘huh?’ after the 1st ep, but those who’ve gone on are devoted.
Cheers
MiM