"The Wire"

[Acsenray]

Trunk, if you read Post No. 13 in full, you might find less to disagree with.

[AuntiePam]

@Lizard

I’ve watched most of season 5. I really don’t get what all the fuss is about.

I probably wouldn’t either, if I hadn’t seen previous seasons. The payoff is for the faithful. David Simon and Ed Burns don’t do exposition or flashbacks. They assume we’ve been paying close attention. Stuff that happens won’t have the same impact for a new viewer. Starting at the middle or the end would be like reading random pages from a novel. “Why did he do that? Why is this important? Why should I care about this?”

I think David Simon and Ed Burns took a huge chance telling their story this way. It was a truly special experience when it could have been just another cop show.

[Trunk]

I still disagree.

It was season 4 – before they ever got involved in the media – when I started seeing the critics (and by that I mean newspaper writers) really start going bonkers. It was critically acclaimed before, but that was when I started seeing the “best show ever” stuff.

This stuff is from the NYTimes in 2006

This shift of emphasis by the show’s creator, David Simon, is a risky, even arrogant move that pays off in literary television that broadens the mind and blows the heart open.

This season of ‘‘The Wire’’ will knock the breath out of you.

[Acsenray]

@Trunk

I still disagree.

It was season 4 – before they ever got involved in the media – when I started seeing the critics (and by that I mean newspaper writers) really start going bonkers. It was critically acclaimed before, but that was when I started seeing the “best show ever” stuff.

This stuff is from the NYTimes in 2006

Again, you’re not disagreeing with what I said. Critics and commentators have hailed the series since the beginning. Newspaper people and media types who aren’t necessarily television critics have become *particularly *interested in the show in the last season.

[mhendo]

@acsenray

Again, you’re not disagreeing with what I said. Critics and commentators have hailed the series since the beginning. Newspaper people and media types who aren’t necessarily television critics have become *particularly *interested in the show in the last season.

I think that’s right. And David Simon tends to agree with you. Simon is the subject of an “exit interview” in this week’s Baltimore CityPaper. Link (Caution: I haven’t read the whole article yet, because i suspect that there are quite a few Season 5 spoilers, and i’m only up to the end of Season 4. Read at your own risk.)

I did notice one bolded paragraph in the print edition, which has Simon saying:

It’s hard to make people interested in such mundane drivel as public education and drug policy and the fate of working America. You can’t sell that shit. But suggest to journalists that they’re not doing their job–now you got an audience.