have you watched the wire?

[danny la rouge]

I don't know what La Haine is.

I did watch the Sopranos for a while, though. (Which I see El Jefe has mentioned). It was very good at first. I lost interest towards the end, though. Well, a while before the end I think.

 

[DotCommunist]

Because it has a cool stamp to it, much like La Haine has, the subtext is lost because it tries to be slick. Good looking cops, niggers doing deals, and Omar is unbelievable as a character. That aside it is good - maybe am looking for faults.

If you let yorself be won over by the characters slickness rather than stage they play on, then yeah. Wire might seem slick. It's actually a very intricate and observed piece of television drama. One I have not seen the like of.

 

[Orang Utan]

I have to keep upping the ante for US TV.. roughly speaking.

Northern Exposure < Twin Peaks < The Sopranos < Six Feet Under < Deadwood < The Wire

each better than the last..

Corrected

 

[danny la rouge]

I liked Northern Exposure. Or maybe I was just in love with Maggie. No, I did like it.

Although, again, I didn't see the last series; I lost interest.

 

[El Jefe]

I liked Northern Exposure. Or maybe I was just in love with Maggie. No, I did like it.

Although, again, I didn't see the last series; I lost interest.

Yeh, same here, but I didn't lose interest because Maggie left and thus
wasn't there to adore, but because her and Joel leaving saw the whole series just fall apart really. Just went on one season too long.

Otherwise, exemplary TV

 

[danny la rouge]

Just went on one season too long.

Often the way. Life On Mars did, too.

 

[8den]

Corrected

WRONG WRONG WRONG.

Northern exposure and twin peaks lost their way (and you're speaking to someone who's drunk a beer in the brick and coffee in the Double R.) Six feet under lost it's way so badly for so long (although the David carjack episode is outstanding)

Deadwood is excellent. As is the sopranos. But neither stands shoulder to shoulder to the wire. The wire doesn't do stand alone. It doesn't do dream sequences, it avoids stand alone episodes. Flash backs, any kind of narrative trick to keep it "interesting" fuck it. Five years and five montages ever other piece of music is incidental.

The wire does five years of straight up narrative, no clever tricks, no short cuts, no ease tv cliches. If you honestly want to compare the wire to sopranos check out the episode the FBI try to plant a bug in Tony's basement v the series long struggle the crew in the wire have over bugging cell phones and pay phones, and how amazingly satisfying these arguments and debates are.

For ever juror with delusions of forensic ability after getting a CSI boxed set. After watching the wire, well, just give it up.

 

[Orang Utan]

WRONG WRONG WRONG.

Northern exposure and twin peaks lost their way (and you're speaking to someone who's drunk a beer in the brick and coffee in the Double R.) Six feet under lost it's way so badly for so long (although the David carjack episode is outstanding)

Deadwood is excellent. As is the sopranos. But neither stands shoulder to shoulder to the wire. The wire doesn't do stand alone. It doesn't do dream sequences, it avoids stand alone episodes. Flash backs, any kind of narrative trick to keep it "interesting" fuck it. Five years and five montages ever other piece of music is incidental.

The wire does five years of straight up narrative, no clever tricks, no short cuts, no ease tv cliches. If you honestly want to compare the wire to sopranos check out the episode the FBI try to plant a bug in Tony's basement v the series long struggle the crew in the wire have over bugging cell phones and pay phones, and how amazingly satisfying these arguments and debates are.

For ever juror with delusions of forensic ability after getting a CSI boxed set. After watching the wire, well, just give it up.

I agree, so why is my correction of El Jefe wrong?

 

[London_Calling]

I have to keep upping the ante for US TV.. roughly speaking.

Twin Peaks > Northern Exposure > The Sopranos > Six Feet Under > Deadwood > The Wire

each better than the last..

I'd tend to agree with the exception of . . . The Wire. Everything else is 'made for tv' (as you say) in the sense they're all episodic in shape and therefore crafted to that inevitable bite-sized end.

The Wire, while funded by a tv company and shown initially on that company's channel, isn't written (and therefore shaped) for tv, imo.

It's a DVD product, intended to be viewed as a continuous narrative i.e. a visual book.

 

[ska invita]

I think Charlie Brooker had a big part in 'breaking' this show in the UK - he hyped it to the nth degree

I have to keep upping the ante for US TV.. roughly speaking.
Twin Peaks > Northern Exposure > The Sopranos > Six Feet Under > Deadwood > The Wire
each better than the last..

-The thing is I dont like any of the above (apart from Twin Peaks) - I just dont like TV drama. Enough drama in the real world to have to watch more in my free time is my experience.

Incidentaly, does watching it on TV require lining Murdochs pockets? If you think the Sun is Scum you really should cancel your subscription to Sky - £400 a year or whatever it is is a shit load of money, Wire or not.

 

[sheothebudworths]

Stupid poll marty - I have watched all of them, but none on the telly and none on dvd (so no, I'm not waiting for series 5).

Where is my option you useless oaf?

 

[marty21]

Stupid poll marty - I have watched all of them, but none on the telly and none on dvd (so no, I'm not waiting for series 5).

Where is my option you useless oaf?

start your own poll then

 

[sheothebudworths]

No.

 

[Santino]

Haven't watched it. It sounds shite though and the urban hype just puts me off. No desire to watch it

Well you showed us.

 

[danny la rouge]

I think Charlie Brooker had a big part in 'breaking' this show in the UK - he hyped it to the nth degree

Oh. I hate him. Maybe I shouldn't watch the show.

 

[El Jefe]

I

Incidentaly, does watching it on TV require lining Murdochs pockets? If you think the Sun is Scum you really should cancel your subscription to Sky - £400 a year or whatever it is is a shit load of money, Wire or not.

As I said elsewhere, no - I download them.

But I presume you live in a cave and only eat food from skips?

 

[Firky]

If you let yorself be won over by the characters slickness rather than stage they play on, then yeah. Wire might seem slick. It's actually a very intricate and observed piece of television drama. One I have not seen the like of.

I wouldn't know, I have never had anything to do with drugs in Baltimore

 

[DotCommunist]

I wouldn't know, I have never had anything to do with drugs in Baltimore

I assume you've mt people and had interactions with institutions though

 

[Firky]

Dude it is riddled with cliches, yeah it is well written and some of the dialogue is amongst the best you'll find outside of cinema but you can't sit there and tell me there's a gloss to it. Get rid of the cool and you'd have a masterpiece.

 

[London_Calling]

Letitia "Snoop" Pearson the Basingstoke hammer murderess. She can't do American to save her life.

You caught up quickly, yo.

I recall you buying the first season on spec what seems like a few months ago - up to the end of season 4 now?

 

[London_Calling]

I think Charlie Brooker had a big part in 'breaking' this show in the UK - he hyped it to the nth degree

I also get the impression The Wire has become fashionable, but its original popularity on here pre-dates Brooker's comments by a very long way.

-The thing is I dont like any of the above (apart from Twin Peaks) - I just dont like TV drama. Enough drama in the real world to have to watch more in my free time is my experience.

Incidentaly, does watching it on TV require lining Murdochs pockets? If you think the Sun is Scum you really should cancel your subscription to Sky - £400 a year or whatever it is is a shit load of money, Wire or not.

It's funded by a tv compay but it's not 'made for tv drama', it's structure is quite different.

It's also not a Murdoch funded product, though I believe it is curently shown in the UK on a Murdoch channel because no one else pucked it up - most people on here have downloaded it.

Fwiw, I sympathise with your concerns but, this time, they're misplaced and you've got the wrong end of a very important stick. Watch it.

 

[Orang Utan]

It is made for TV - it's a TV show

 

[London_Calling]

Sure, it's also a cop show, right?

 

[Orang Utan]

Yes, well, a cops and criminals show

 

[Maurice Picarda]

You caught up quickly, yo.

I recall you buying the first season on spec what seems like a few months ago - up to the end of season 4 now?

Not quite. Lester has just worked out the body-stashing trick. Episode 8 or 9.

The wait for series 5 on DVD will be moderately agonising.

 

[wtfftw]

I'm somewhere in season 2.

 

[London_Calling]

Not quite. Lester has just worked out the body-stashing trick. Episode 8 or 9.

The wait for series 5 on DVD will be moderately agonising.

Sheeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiiiit


Fwiw, I agree Snoop is somewhat impenetrable, her accents a little difficult as well.

 

[Sean]

Firky is correct.

I didn't mean it literally, and wtf is the DWP? I thought my time on the left had taught me lots of useless initialisms and acronyms.

Anyway, this is quite interesting and so is this. But both might contain S5 spoilers for those who haven't reached the end yet.

 

[Nanker Phelge]

I started to watch the Wire some time ago, but was also watching the Sopranos, Deadwood and the Shield, so didn't want to commit to starting a new show, instead I got all of the DVDs over time to watch later. I'm just wading through the depressing, but great, OZ, and then I'm gonna get started on the Wire from start to finish. I'm looking forward to it because it the buzz remains great.

I hope that HBO will step up again and produce something very new and intelligent, because their current output lacks the weight of Deadwood/Sopranos et al.

They were planning to do American Tabloid/Cold Six Thousand and I think as a TV series those would have been fantastic, especially done by a channel that could depict the characters as damaged and ferocious as they are in the books.

 

[The Boy]

Five years and five montages ever other piece of music is incidental.

At the risk of sounding like a pedant, there are actually six montages - season two has two of them.