I’ve heard the praises of this show being sung all around the Dope in general terms but haven’t seen it or indeed pretty much heard anything about it from anyone I know. I know it has Aiden Gillen in it which is no bad thing in my mind, but other than that it’s a cop show that’s it.
Could someone enlighten me and tell me whether I need this in my lovefilm.com queue?
You want it because it’s the most honest and intelligent look at modern urban life ever made. You want it because there are no true heroes or villains, just people dealing with the world as they find it. You want it because every season changes focus, and shows you a new aspect of the city- the unions, the politicians, the schools, the paper. Sure, the cops and criminals are always there, but it’s not just about them, not really, it’s about everything. All the pieces matter. It’s great. Possibly the best show ever.
Only it’s not a cop show. It’s a show about a fictional Baltimore which roughly devotes itself to portraying acouple of themes:
Others will not agree with me on the exact demarkations between these themes. Season One is probably most like an ordinary Cop Show, with the police fighting a hopeless battle against drug dealers who many times are smarter and better equiped. Season two deals with life in the baltimore harbor, in season 3 it’s back to the drug dealers and season four (the best IMO) is about kids in their early teens and their lives and how some go to school and try to be good kids and others start dealing drugs. Only they’re all good kids or at least not evil*.
That can be generally said about most characters. The cops aren’t good guys, in fact, the protagonist, or one the guy that’s top billed, McNulty, is an asshole. On the other hand, murdering bastard Omar is probably one of the most sympathetic and cool characters ever on tv. This is one of the most rewarding things about the show. There are a lot of good people who happen to do bad things and some really rotten people who do good things. It makes it hard to root for a hero, since there are no heroes in the show (maybe Omar comes closest). Maybe this is also why the show had a hard time finding a big audience.
Another reason is that it’s Dickenesque in its scope. A throwaway comment or someone doing something in the background will come back five episodes or two seasons later and the payoff is thus great for a viewer with good attention.
Jumping in at the middle of the season will be pointless for this reason. It will be nearly impossible to follow all the plot arcs going on. As you probably have assumed, this is more like a great novel where each episode is a chapter. Nothing is standalone.
It’s bumbling cops, corrupt politicians, smart and stupid criminals and cops, an insight how a big city works or rather not works, though of course exagerated for dramatic effect. It’s the most literary tv show ever, but it will try your patience many times, 'cause this cannot be watched the way you ordinarily watch tv.
An aside - as English is my second language, I had to strain myself to understand the street talk of the black drug dealers. I don’t know if a native English speaker will have an easier time with it, I suspect as much, but the first four or five episodes I hade to constantly rewind to try to figure out what was being said.
Also, if you have a hard time with expletives, beware. The writers love the word fuck almost as much as Tarrantino.
If you do try it, bump this thread in a couple of months and tell us what you think.
Enjoy.
*Kept writing and didn’t realize I’d missed S5 and I’m too lazy to re-write. Anyways, the fifth season is about the News Industry.
It’s also really, really funny at times.
Once you watch it, you will realize that all the characters on the Sopranos are cartoonish by comparison. I agree with the others, it is not a cop show.
Compared to other shows on TV, The Wire gets the law of criminal procedure relatively correct.
Never seen it, only heard of it. (Been shut off from the TV for nearly a year)
Would it work for me, as an European?
I loved The Sopranos and thought nothing would ever top it but then I picked up the first 3 seasons of The Wire on DVD and it blows it away.
I don’t like the whole ‘+1’ thing but +1 to everything that Johnny Ecks said. This is life…no one is perfect and everyone is incredibly flawed.
I think so. Do you have sluggish bureaucracies, political chicanery, and complicated systemic problems?
Until The Wire, I thought nothing could top Deadwood. Now Deadwood seems overblown, florid, unnecessarily contrived. I’ll probably love it again someday, but I keep comparing it to the subtlety of The Wire, and it comes up short.
I’m Swedish. See post #3
One thing to keep in mind watching the Wire is that it’s a slow burn. You probably won’t love it after one episode. You may not love it after three or four. It’s a sprawling story with dozens of characters, and it’s loaded with technical details about the day to day work of police officers, drug dealers, politicians, lawyers, teachers, dock workers, and newspaper reporters. It’s complicated and realistic and, as others have said, possibly the best television show I’ve ever seen.
This is good to know, because I just finished episode 3 of the first season and I’m definitely not loving it yet. The technical jargon is a lot to take. But I’ll hang in there.
Everyone is right about it being slow. I started a thread a few months ago, asking whether it was worth sticking with, and it definitely was. For me, it didn’t really “click” until the 8th or 9th episode of the first season. Once it gets rolling, though, it stays there, and at least in my case, it has never been as slow as those first episodes.
The first season has the best fuckin’ crime scene investigation ever. You’ll know which one when you see it.
I just started watching it this summer, and have finished season 3. It’s very good, as others have said. Even on a police procedural level, the police and criminals both come up with ingenious schemes to outwit one another, and sometimes it’s breathtaking to see them come up with a new stratagem. Some of the best cops are horrible people, but excellent cops; some of the drug dealers are exactly the same (except they’re excellent drug dealers, not excellent cops).
It’s definitely worth watching. I don’t know that it replaces Deadwood or Rome as my favorites, but it’s definitely up there in the top tier of shows.
Daniel
I just watched the first season a couple of months ago. Coming from the creator of Homicide: Life on the Streets I knew it was going to be special. I just didn’t realize how special.
It deserves all the superlatives and praise it has garnered, the script, the characters, the actors are just amazing. I can’t wait to see the second season when they rerun it. They started the sixth and final season in the UK the other day, I was sorely tempted to watch but I don’t want to see things out of sequence. The series is so well-crafted it would be senseless to dip into it anywhere, as if it were Law and Order.
Incredible show!
To most people, even Americans, the whole inner-city drug scene is very foreign. Even the accents and some of the Baltimore slang is extremely unique. Americans might know some drug users/dockworkers/school teachers/journalists/cops but very few of us know Drug Dealers, Crooked Dock Union Workers, Struggling Inner-City School Teachers, Shady Journalists and Special Plainclothes Detectives. Every character in the show is a Character and fits deep within this setting where very few of us have ever been or ever will go.
It definitely transcends country boundaries.
I love it, irishfella loves it and we’ve managed to hook four of our friends too.
It has some of the best dialogue on TV- simultaneously realisitc, intelligent, subtle, often chilling and hilarious in turn.
If you like it, rewatch your episodes if you take a break between series, or watch as many as you can, as close together in time as you can. If you leave too long between series or too long between eps you’ll forget some of the minor ddetails which add huge amounts to your enjoyment.
You don’t have to be American to get it, you don’t have to be American to understand the language, it’s an amazing show that everyone can enjoy on some level.
I don’t get all of it, but I can generally understand the meaning.
The dialog is breathtaking in its brilliance. The cadence of the dialect; the word choices; the humor.
(I saw a woman the other day walking down the street who looked like Snoop. I actually did a double-take when I saw her.)
The Wire is the first set of DVDs I’ve ever invested in.
I’ve seen every season (5 not 6) on TV in one form or other, but I knew I would be buying the DVDs. I’m in the middle of season 4 now and already know I will be starting over at S1 as soon as I finish. I love the chance to rewind and get lines I miss or just rewind to watch an amazingly written and acted scene over again. Sometimes I watch only a half-episode at a sitting because it’s enough and I know I have the DVDs to enjoy when I feel like it.
What might be helpful to get you into the show and understand some of the slang, jargon and techinal language (starting with S1 of course) is to read the episode guides on HBO after you’ve seen the episode. It will make clear what you’ve just seen if you’re not clear and will strengthen your understanding of what you will see next.
It’s true, as other posters have said – the are also some very funny lines and scenes, some that aren’t even meant to be funny but are, in a good way. There are also so many characters to fall in love with, pity, hate, hate then love then hate again that you’ll be sucked right in if you take the time.
I didn’t like S5 as much as I did all of the others but it’s still head and shoulders above anything else on TV.
First of all, there are only 5 seasons of The Wire. I’m not sure where all this talk of Season 6 is coming from.
Second of all, calling **The Wire ** a cop show is like calling Casablanca a war movie. While the description is technically accurate, it in no way fully describes what you are actually going to see.