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Old 03-07-2018, 08:51 AM   #1
KTrain
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Default The Wire: 10 Years Later

One of my favourite shows of all time. It's definitely a slow burn to get into but has some of the most well developed characters and intense and heartbreaking storylines. I try to rewatch it every couple years.

The Wire, 10 years on: ‘We tore the cover off a city and showed the American dream was dead’

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When, in 2001, the actor Frankie Faison accepted the role of deputy commissioner Ervin Burrell in a new HBO drama called The Wire, he thought he was signing up for a cop show. “I was expecting it to be more about wiretapping,” he remembers with amusement. “It evolved into something much more fascinating.”

HBO laboured under a similar misapprehension because The Wire’s creator, David Simon, had pitched the show to them as an unusually thoughtful police procedural, not an anatomy lesson in US dysfunction that he really had in mind. “I sold it as a cop show, but they don’t know it’s not really a cop show,” he told the novelist George Pelecanos when he invited him to join the writing team. In fact, he said, it was something audaciously new: “A novel for television.”
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-r...dream-was-dead
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Old 03-07-2018, 09:50 AM   #2
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I watched it on DVD about 8 years ago. I figure I'm ready for a rewatch. Anyone know if the version they have on Crave is the original, or the one they remastered a couple years ago in widescreen format? I don't want to buy it again, but I'm a bit OCD about watching the best version of something I enjoy.
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Old 03-07-2018, 09:55 AM   #3
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I tried watching it last year, but gave up after two or three episodes. Just couldn't get into it and it seemed really dated.
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Old 03-07-2018, 09:56 AM   #4
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i tried to get into it but gave up after 3 episodes. im gonna try again because all i hear is how amazing it is and i dont want to be "that guy" that cant get past a few shows
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Old 03-07-2018, 09:57 AM   #5
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Originally Posted by KTrain View Post
One of my favourite shows of all time. It's definitely a slow burn to get into but has some of the most well developed characters and intense and heartbreaking storylines. I try to rewatch it every couple years.

The Wire, 10 years on: ‘We tore the cover off a city and showed the American dream was dead’



https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-r...dream-was-dead
My favorite show of all time as well. When it dawned on me that the show had no traditional "good/bad" guys, but that I could support and hate people at each level (drug runners/dealers, police, law, government), and often within the same person, it changed my idea of what entertainment could accomplish.

I had the same feeling of awe when Wil Wright first demo'd Spore, and he just kept "zooming out", from microscopic organisms to planet building. How David Simon was able to capture Baltimore in such an expansive way and still keep the show engaging, entertaining, thoughtful, and emotional is what makes this show a masterpiece.
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Old 03-07-2018, 09:58 AM   #6
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I think you need to watch it as a "period piece" now. While I'm sure some of the situations are similar, the technology and laws are outdated.

If you can get past the first couple episodes it really picks up and is one of the best shows produced by HBO.
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Old 03-07-2018, 10:28 AM   #7
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Easily one of the best shows of all time. Anyone giving up after only a couple of episodes is doing themselves a disservice.

I don't get the "dated" excuse either. Does that mean you won't watch any other films or TV series that were made prior to this decade? That's just silly. As KTrain said above, try watching it as a period piece if that helps. Stick with it. You'll thank me later.

I still love this scene (language/nudity warning):


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Old 03-07-2018, 10:37 AM   #8
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Is it dated? I feel season two's depiction of the death of the working class is more relevant now than it was then.

Plus, institutional malaise never goes out of style.
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Old 03-07-2018, 10:46 AM   #9
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I tried watching it last year, but gave up after two or three episodes. Just couldn't get into it and it seemed really dated.
I felt the same way. I forced myself to finish it all a couple years ago, but didn't find it as engaging as others did. There are other 'cop' shows I liked more (The Shield for instance). Honestly I find The Wire to be overrated, given the high rankings it has. My other friend who watched it felt the same. And we're both huge HBO fans.

However it was only the 2nd TV series I had ever watched in it's entirety, so I think if I can sit down and watch it a second time, I'll have a better grasp on it. Especially now that it's on Blueray.
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Old 03-07-2018, 11:10 AM   #10
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HBO during the mid-aughts were amazing. Not only was The Wire running at the time, The Sopranos was still going strong, and Deadwood started to air. Those three shows are still among my favourite TV shows of all-time. They call this current era of television the "golden age" -- I think the mid-aughts on HBO signaled the start of this golden age.
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Old 03-07-2018, 11:55 AM   #11
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OZ was also on at the same time. It's under-appreciated.
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Old 03-07-2018, 01:13 PM   #12
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The Wire is well known for having a slow burn. If you can make it to 5 or 6 episodes, you get well rewarded.
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Old 03-07-2018, 03:02 PM   #13
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I have not met anyone who invested the time to get into the series who didn't feel it was worthwhile.

Season 2, which takes a bit of a swerve and is considered by some to be not as good as other seasons, is phenomenal IMO and timeless as Death of a Salesman.
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Old 03-07-2018, 08:20 PM   #14
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I have not met anyone who invested the time to get into the series who didn't feel it was worthwhile.

Season 2, which takes a bit of a swerve and is considered by some to be not as good as other seasons, is phenomenal IMO and timeless as Death of a Salesman.
That is surprising to read that it is not as highly revered.
Sobotka and that whole storyline had me hooked instantly. I think seasons 3 and 4 were masterpieces, but season 2 is an "A" in my estimation.
Season 1 is ' kind of fine/slow boil' and 5 was, well, not so fine.
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Old 03-08-2018, 07:14 AM   #15
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Loved the Wire. Would love if they did a re-boot. They have teased it several times.
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Old 03-08-2018, 09:47 AM   #16
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I have never watched it.

Reckon it is worth it?
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Old 03-08-2018, 09:53 AM   #17
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Loved the Wire. Would love if they did a re-boot. They have teased it several times.
what? Who?
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Old 03-08-2018, 10:04 AM   #18
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i tried to get into it but gave up after 3 episodes. im gonna try again because all i hear is how amazing it is and i dont want to be "that guy" that cant get past a few shows
I ground my way into early season 2 before I couldn't do it any more.
I get the acclaim, I just don't share it.
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Old 03-08-2018, 10:04 AM   #19
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I have never watched it.

Reckon it is worth it?
...it's The Wire.

YMMV but IMO it's the best TV drama ever created. Granted I haven't seen it in a long time (It's the opposite of kid friendly and my kid free hours are highly limited) but for my money it's the TV show that's so good it makes other TV shows cry out of jealousy.
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Old 03-08-2018, 10:06 AM   #20
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Easily the most ambitious television show ever made, and best, in my view.

I still find myself drawing parallels between its themes and current news stories in the US on a regular basis.

Baltimore in 2018: https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/01/1...ner-fired.html

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Besieged by the nation’s highest big-city murder rate, Baltimore named a new police commissioner for the third time in five years on Friday, with the mayor saying she was “impatient” for change. The surprise move came as the city struggles to control the violence that took the lives of almost 900 residents during the two-and-a-half-year tenure of the last chief, Kevin Davis, who was fired on Friday.
Not often that the news, or writers, or political scientists, or historians ever nail reality so perfectly.
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