Okay, it's time. I'm going to start/watch The Wire.

Cafe Society
1

I’ve heard a lot of good things about this show, namely that it’s considered one of the best, if not THE best (either that or Breaking Bad are the two I often hear are considered the greatest). So I’m going to attempt to watch it.

No promises on if I’ll continue with it or finish it. I don’t have a very good track record of finishing things I say I’m going to start. :stuck_out_tongue: I have a much, much better record of just starting shows without announcement and sticking with them…

…but this one is big from what I’ve been able to tell, so I’ll try my best to watch at least one a day.

2

I’ve never seen it, but I hear my man Steve Earle plays a recovering addict named Waylon.

3

I loved it from the very first scene.

4

The real question is: original 4x3 or enhanced 16x9?

5

I enjoyed it a lot. Well, maybe “enjoy” isn’t the right word. It’s a brilliant show, just a skosh gloomy. I think I read an interview with one of the creators, who said something like “this is a show about the failure of institutions”. And, boy, do they fail.

My favorite season was the second. I thought Frank Sobotka was one of the most compelling characters, a schlub who was really trying to help his guys but ended up just getting in farther and farther over his head.

6

I would disagree with Loach —certainly it’s a good show from the get-go, but its greatness takes a few episodes to really unfold. So if you watch the first one and think, “THIS is the greatest show of all time?”, stick with it. It’s well worth it.

7

Steve Earle basically plays himself and he does it terrifically. :slight_smile:

8

Lot of great bad guys, and some sketchy good guys. Great show, but yeah, it might take a bit to get warmed up to.

9

I’ve been meaning to watch the show myself. I think I’ll start soon, barring some very possible computer trouble.

10

I think it is the best TV I’ve ever seen. One of the reasons for that is because it plays by different rules. It takes 4-5 episodes to get the pacing for instance. And the way details unfold - it often appears that nothing is happening whereas in fact a great many things are happening all at once. There’s an early scene where a few guys are sitting in a van. It looks like nothing. A LOT is happening there.
I envy anyone watching it for the first time.

MiM

11

I’m just watching it for the first time. HBO ran the entire first season back-to-back on Saturday, September 2nd. I DVR’d them all and have watched a couple at a time.

I had tried to watch the series a few years ago and didn’t dedicate the attention it merited. Everyone I talked to said you had to give it some time. I didn’t do that on my first attempt and that was a mistake.

This time I gave it my full attention, and I was hooked almost immediately.

Unfortunately, HBO does not appear to be running any other of the seasons on its regular programming. That’s a problem for me, because I’m on a metered satellite connection and even if I was agreeable to paying HBO $2.00/episode for Season 2, $3.00/episode for Season 3 and so on, I’d get dinged by my ISP for going over my data limit. Insult to injury!

Especially in light of the comments made in this thread, I’m very sorry I can’t yet see the rest of the show! Loved the first season, especially chess and fuck. :slight_smile:

12

Well, it’s got one of the very best series opening scenes ever filmed. In just a few minutes, it brackets most of the themes the entire run of the show will explore, but you might not realize that until coming back to watch it after seeing most if not all of the series.

I’ve opined before that I think the confusion most viewers feel during the first several episodes is deliberate - it mirrors the information vacuum the cops are living in. The show expects you to pay as much attention to the plot as the cops have to, to figure things out. That puts some people off, but it also pays off if you stick with it.

13

I’m jealous of anyone that is watching this for the first time. As others have said, it seems like a slow build since you don’t know the characters yet.

Omar Comin’ (whistles A Hunting We Will Go)

14

The first time I tried to watch it, I made it through may be three episodes before I gave up. It just didn’t “grab me”. But everyone kept saying how fantastic a show it was, so I gave it another shot. It took maybe 6 episodes before I was hooked. It’s without a doubt in my top 3 all time.

15

The opening scene which was posted above grabbed me. It does take a while to understand that it’s both a plot driven drama and a character study at the same time. It’s also a lot closer to the reality of police work and personalities than any other show ever.

16

I’m iffy on it. It was ok but for me certainly not great. I read all the great reviews about it and tried a couple of episodes and gave up. I posted about it here. I was encouraged to try again but stick with it. So I did.

I never really fell in love with it. The main character wasn’t an asshole fighting for justice (like Vic Mackey, for example), he was just an asshole. A self centered asshole at that. And during the season’s arc he went out of character too much. Maybe too many writers, I don’t know.

Some great bad guys though.

Omar comin’, yo.
:wink:

17

Personally, I just thought that it was downhill from Homicide. The one was based on David Simon’s writings from when he was fresh off the force. The latter was written decades later after his memories had become a bit more murky and influenced by his personal politics.

Granted, the writing in Homicide got worse each season, but I’d put seasons 1-3 way above The Wire. Maybe if that series doesn’t do anything for you, try and find the episode of Homicide called “Black and Blue” to trial.

18

Okay, watched the first episode.

Crossposted from my FB (where I tend to do reviews of shows episodes as I watch them for the first time)…

And right off the bat, I’m going to say that this episode was fairly unimpressive.
I mean, it wasn’t bad…it just wasn’t overly good either, though.

But it’s all good, because I get that it’s the first episode…so obviously things are gonna be slower and a bit more boring in the first few episodes, because a new show has to introduce characters and set up storylines. They have to take the time to let the viewer know who everyone is, what their jobs are, that kind of thing…so it makes sense that it wouldn’t be gripping right away.

I can’t really fault it too much for what it was. It wasn’t boring. It wasn’t horrible. It just…it wasn’t overly interesting yet either. Of course, I’m not really huge on shows like this anyway. I’m not a big fan of shows that are heavy on law or cop or detective things. Crime is fine…but this seems more like “NYPD Blue” or “The Shield” or “Homicide: Life on the Street” is…and I HATED all of those shows. Too cop-heavy. Most episodes were all about the current investigation,…and it changed every few episodes.

This show, though, this one seems like it’s intent to actually STAY with the same main case…so that’s a little bit better and easier to follow, so I’m not going to immediately write it off.

The episode itself wasn’t bad, like I said, it just…it wasn’t overly exciting. I don’t really care for any of the characters yet,…but again, that makes sense since I don’t even know most of them yet. They were all just introduced to me in this episode…so it stands to reason it would take a few episodes to start to see the depth and layers these characters have.
That being said, I did like some characters almost automatically…or, for sure, by the end of the episode. Three in particular.

I like Bunk, first of all. He seems really down to earth and like a nice guy overall. He already strikes me as a good heart and kind soul and a man who would always try to do the right thing.

I like Bubbles…but I’m guessing that everyone likes Bubbles. Bubbles struck me almost IMMEDIATELY as the type of character that is EVERYONE’S favorite. This is just a guess, mind you. I haven’t ever seen much people ever discussing the show, so I don’t know…but people seem to like for the “downtrodden, beaten down, down on his luck, underdog who secretly is a good person and cares for his friends” type,…and Bubbles seems like that all over.

And lastly, …I didn’t so much LIKE but was a little fascinated with the D’Angelo character. He seems to be the most complex out of all of them so far. Not bad. I don’t like him as a character…but he’s interesting to me…because on one hand, he’s a bad guy, obviously (deals drugs, killed a guy, etc)…, but on the other, he’s clearly troubled by a lot of things that happen in the first episode (Bubble’s friend getting beat up, the earlier witness against him being killed). He’s bothered by that stuff and it shows, so he’s obviously not a 100 percent bad, evil, cruel guy. I like when a character has depth like that. It makes them more interesting.

I don’t really feel that strongly for any other character just yet. I don’t overly like anyone and I don’t overly hate anyone. I think good characters, however, can be hated just as well as they can be liked. If you really hate a character, then the show is still doing something right, because it’s caused you to feel such strong emotion for someone you don’t even know…this fictional, made up person…so I’m always aware of characters I despise just as much as those I really like…

…but none have really singled themselves out yet other than the three I mentioned above.
Anyway, i’ll stick with it and watch another episode.

I usually end these reviews with ranking all of the episodes I’ve seen so far, but since that’s just one…then by DEFAULT, the list looks like this:

The Wire Episodes (from best to worst IMO):
The Target (pilot)

Yeah…pretty uneventful with only one entry on the list, eh? But as the list gets longer, with more episodes, it will become more interesting as you see what episodes I consider to be the greater and greatest ones, over time.

19

I had heard the same thing and so I watched both series. The Wire cannot hold a candle to BB and should not even be mentioned in the same breath. I was completely disappointed with TW after binge watching the entire series over the course of a couple of weeks on amazon prime and honestly expected an apology from the guy whose recommendation I followed to watch it in the first place.

Hated it myself, but I appear to be in the minority. I hope you truly enjoy it more than I did.

20

You can get it on DVD from Netflix, if that’s an option for you. That’s how my wife and I watched it, usually one disc a weekend.