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Late to the Party: The Wire (spoilers unmarked)

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A

Amir0x

Banned
The greatest television show ever made.

It's the most complete portrait of an American city in cinema, books or television too. The show was about the city, of course.

So impressive is the complete work that I'm not sure it'll ever be surpassed.
 
L

Lafiel

と呼ぶがよい
The most amazing part about the show is despite having such a large cast - not one character was forgettable. Heck i can still remember all the names of the characters.:lol
Reminds me - i need to get started on my re-watch soon. But yeah it's one of the few television shows that lives up to all it's hyperbole and hype. Best television show indeed.
 
T

theignoramus

Member
Himuro said:
Considering the Seinfeld fan I am, I've been meaning to start Curb.
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Look, there are certain HBO shows one HAS to watch.
It's good that you watched the Wire, because it's arguably the best of what HBo (and television in general) has to offer.
But Six Feet Under and Deadwood are MUST WATCH HBO series. Not as good as the Wire, but in terms of quality, I would put both of those shows above anything else from HBO, including the Sopranos.
 
B

Buckethead

Banned
I watched this recently too.

I loved it, however I felt like there was a lull after Season 2.
I really liked that season for whatever reason. Picked up at the end though.

But it was brilliantly paced, sharp, and one of the best series' of all time.
 
Jin

Jin

Member
Favorite quote:

Omar: Shoot, the way y'all looking at things, ain't no victim to even speak on.

Bunk: Bullshit, boy. No victim? I just came from Tosha's people, remember? All this death, you don't think it ripples out? You don't even know what the fuck I'm talking about. I was a few years ahead of you at Edmondson, but I know you remember the neighborhood, how it was. We had some bad boys, for real. Wasn't about guns so much as knowing what to do with your hands. Those boys could really rack. My father had me on the straight, but like any young man, I wanted to be hard too, so I'd turn up at all the house parties where the tough boys hung. Shit, they knew I wasn't one of them. Them hard cases would come up to me and say, "Go home, schoolboy, you don't belong here." Didn't realize at the time what they were doing for me. As rough as that neighborhood could be, we had us a community. Nobody, no victim, who didn't matter. And now all we got is bodies, and predatory motherfuckers like you. And out where that girl fell, I saw kids acting like Omar, calling you by name, glorifying your ass. Makes me sick, motherfucker, how far we done fell.
 
B

brianjones

Member
Himuro said:
By the way, Omar's death was the biggest what the fuck in the entire series. I was screaming at the screen when it happened.
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it was so fitting though

i know people were expecting him to go out with dual handguns blazing like a john woo film but it really humanized a character that was borderline cartoonish
 
R

rodvik

Member
Yeah great show, certainly the best US drama show I have ever seen. I remember googling up Baltimore crime because I just figured the show was way overboard, oh boy was I in for a surprise...

Not perfect though, for me the seasons go in order of quality with the last season being the biggest drop off. But given the incredibly high bar the first season hit thats still high praise.
 
L

Lafiel

と呼ぶがよい
Himuro said:
By the way, Omar's death was the biggest what the fuck in the entire series. I was screaming at the screen when it happened.
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D'angelos death was more shocking to me. Sadly, i got spoiled about Omar's death.;_; although the way he died, was shocking to me.
 
A

Amir0x

Banned
Himuro said:
You know, if there's one disappointment I have with The Wire, it's the treatment of season 2's cast. It is as if season 2 never fucking happened outside of the Greeks appearing now and again. They don't follow up on Ziggy (I was hoping we'd see if he got his shit worked out in prison, kinda like how Bubbles got better as the series continued), Nick, or anything. Nick makes an appearance in season 5 but is ultimately arrested. I enjoyed how season 5 shows the various paths the kids in season 4 have taken and that the problems with the American city is a cyclical menace (Chris is now the new Omar, Dukie is now shooting up like Bubbles, Roland is now straight gangster and owns that home he lives in, and I can see Namond as a politician in the future.) But the guys in season 2? lol
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if you think about the show as segmented portraits of Baltimore, then Season 2's characters did exactly what they were supposed to - create a yet deeper complete image of this city.
 
G

Griffith

Banned
Hadoken said:
Favorite quote:

Omar: Shoot, the way y'all looking at things, ain't no victim to even speak on.

Bunk: Bullshit, boy. No victim? I just came from Tosha's people, remember? All this death, you don't think it ripples out? You don't even know what the fuck I'm talking about. I was a few years ahead of you at Edmondson, but I know you remember the neighborhood, how it was. We had some bad boys, for real. Wasn't about guns so much as knowing what to do with your hands. Those boys could really rack. My father had me on the straight, but like any young man, I wanted to be hard too, so I'd turn up at all the house parties where the tough boys hung. Shit, they knew I wasn't one of them. Them hard cases would come up to me and say, "Go home, schoolboy, you don't belong here." Didn't realize at the time what they were doing for me. As rough as that neighborhood could be, we had us a community. Nobody, no victim, who didn't matter. And now all we got is bodies, and predatory motherfuckers like you. And out where that girl fell, I saw kids acting like Omar, calling you by name, glorifying your ass. Makes me sick, motherfucker, how far we done fell.
Click to expand...
Absolutely love that scene. Omar and Bunk are my favourite characters.
 
C

Cohsae

Member
Omar had one o' them commando squads with him man. He had this one ho, pullin' guns out her pussy and shit. The shit is unseemly man.
 
F

Frawdder

Member
Lafiel said:
D'angelos death was more shocking to me. Sadly, i got spoiled about Omar's death.;_; although the way he died, was shocking to me.
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I too was spoiled about Omar's death which annoyed me to no end, right up until it happened.

Holy shit! That was not what I was expecting AT ALL.
 
S

SolarPowered

Member
Himuro said:
Dee's death didn't shock me because I was anticipating it from season 1.

Omar, however, that was out of fucking nowhere.

"Gimme some Newports. Soft pack."

BLAM.

Best death in the series? Cheese. Fuck that dude.
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I wasn't expecting Prop Joe to go that way either, but he was trying to mediate for Marlo which isn't all that different from shark diving.

I was seriously pissed when Omar got blasted. He deserved a break more than anyone else in the series when you come to see his past. A really conflicted dude for sure.
 
E

Eggo

GameFan Alumnus
Himuro said:
You know, if there's one disappointment I have with The Wire, it's the treatment of season 2's cast. It is as if season 2 never fucking happened outside of the Greeks appearing now and again. They don't follow up on Ziggy (I was hoping we'd see if he got his shit worked out in prison, kinda like how Bubbles got better as the series continued), Nick, or anything. Nick makes an appearance in season 5 but is ultimately arrested. I enjoyed how season 5 shows the various paths the kids in season 4 have taken and that the problems with the American city is a cyclical menace (Chris is now the new Omar, Dukie is now shooting up like Bubbles, Roland is now straight gangster and owns that home he lives in, and I can see Namond as a politician in the future.) But the guys in season 2? lol
Click to expand...

Think you've got some names mixed up. Michael is the new Omar, and Randy is in the foster home, though I wouldn't say he's running it. Roland is Prezbo, which had me confused. I love the Wire. There's a 7+ page LTTP:The Wire thread which you can search for where people talk about it in OT, but the show is so great it deserves multiple threads.

I watched all the seasons twice and am now watching Homicide: Life on the Street, which is similar in that it's David Simon in Baltimore with the Homicide unit. The great thing about the Wire is the writing and the acting are both top-notch. Make sure you watch the featurettes on the DVD where experts talk about the social commentary and the actors go over their favorite scenes. It's the best part, when they relive great moments from the show.

The show itself is like literature. On the rewatch with my gf, she was predicting things that would happen before they did because you see them build things up gradually and foreshadow major events.
 
U

ueo119

Banned
I was looking for clips of the prequel on YouTube while i was still on season 3 or 4. I saw a clip titles "McNulty's Wake" on the sidebar. I fucking raged for a couple days knowing that stupid YouTube spoiled what was going to probably be one of the biggest OMG moments in the show. I fucking LOLed when I finally saw his "wake". I guess it was kind of a reverse-spoiler. I kept on thinking I knew what was going to happen and was waiting for it, but it never did, hehe.

Here are links to the prequels. I like Omar's the best.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RkcjjY_a0Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9eVsUgKczE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uzbmCWGHF8
 
A

Always-honest

Banned
yeah, it's fucking great. and great actors indeed. God, just thinking of those characters..


Sopranos and The Wire are just true masterpieces.
 
T

TTG

Member
They're rerunning it on Directtv's channel, it's on episode 7 or 8 of the first season. Seeing it in HD is nice and they've also got little clips before each episode with the creator talking about certain aspects of the show.

I gotta say though, both Generation Kill and Treme have been forgettable, I only stuck with it because of who made it. I doubt I'll be going back for season 2 of Treme. :/
 
P

Pikelet

Member
They're rerunning it on Directtv's channel, it's on episode 7 or 8 of the first season. Seeing it in HD is nice and they've also got little clips before each episode with the creator talking about certain aspects of the show.
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I thought the show was shot in SD?
 
C

classicdms

Neo Member
This show is the master of decompressed storytelling. The plot moves at a snails pace, if only to make the moments when things do happen mean so much more.

Think of all the inconsequential shit that we get shown, all in the name of character development. My favorite of which being Snoop buying the new nail gun. Scenes like that, and McNulty driving home drunk, crashing, and pulling the car out to try the turn again are what make this show what it is.
 
D

dabig2

Member
Yeah the Wire really spoiled television for me. How the fuck did this not win awards out the ass?


Some shameful shit.
 
R

Rpgmonkey

Member
I've just started watching it. Awesome show.

At first I thought it was just some show strictly about life (and crime) in Baltimore, with the usual stuff you see in crime dramas. I've seen a lot of this stuff before and I'm essentially a Baltimore native, so it never sounded that interesting to me.

After trying it out it was a fairly important part of the show, but I also started to see it as a show about various aspects of society in many American cities (which I assume was the intent anyway, just presented through Baltimore instead of the usual American cities TV shows and movies always use), and it got a lot more interesting. Actually kinda mad I overlooked the show for so long. :lol
 
D

Dabanton

Member
dabig2 said:
Yeah the Wire really spoiled television for me. How the fuck did this not win awards out the ass? Some shameful shit.
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"Simon makes it clear that the show’s ambitions were grand. ‘The Wire’ is dissent,” he says. “It is perhaps the only storytelling on television that overtly suggests that our political and economic and social constructs are no longer viable, that our leadership has failed us relentlessly, and that no, we are not going to be all right.”
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You think the Emmys want to celebrate that? :lol
 
D

Dabanton

Member
Drealmcc0y said:
Goes down hill after the first season

:) lol
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LFtWe.gif
 
S

sprsk

force push the doodoo rock
The death of Stringer Bell may be my favorite moment in television history. His character was simply amazing right to the very end.
 
D

Dabanton

Member
sprsk said:
The death of Stringer Bell may be my favorite moment in television history. His character was simply amazing right to the very end.
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It was very sad to see him go. But it speaks volumes for the show that it had the cojones to follow that magnificent character and season by basically giving over the next season to a bunch of kids. Who absolutely hit it out the park.
 
F

Funky Papa

FUNK-Y-PPA-4
Dabanton said:
It was very sad to see him go. But it speaks volumes for the show that it had the cojones to follow that magnificent character and season by basically giving over the next season to a bunch of kids. Who absolutely hit it out the park.
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The quality of every actor is outstanding. Weren't most of them total nobodies before the show?
 
M

Mumei

Member
Himuro said:
Amazing.

"Simon makes it clear that the show’s ambitions were grand. “ ‘The Wire’ is dissent,” he says. “It is perhaps the only storytelling on television that overtly suggests that our political and economic and social constructs are no longer viable, that our leadership has failed us relentlessly, and that no, we are not going to be all right.” He also likes to say that “The Wire” is a story about the “decline of the American empire.” Simon’s belief in the show is a formidable thing, and it leads him into some ostentatious comparisons that he sometimes laughs at himself for and sometimes does not. Recently, he spoke at Loyola College, in Baltimore; he described the show in lofty terms that left many of the students in the audience puzzled—at least, those who had come hoping to hear how they might get a job in Hollywood. In creating “The Wire,” Simon said, he and his colleagues had “ripped off the Greeks: Sophocles, Aeschylus, Euripides. Not funny boy—not Aristophanes. We’ve basically taken the idea of Greek tragedy and applied it to the modern city-state.” He went on, “What we were trying to do was take the notion of Greek tragedy, of fated and doomed people, and instead of these Olympian gods, indifferent, venal, selfish, hurling lightning bolts and hitting people in the ass for no reason—instead of those guys whipping it on Oedipus or Achilles, it’s the postmodern institutions . . . those are the indifferent gods."
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I love reading him talk about the show, and I love the approach he took:

NH: Every time I think, Man, I’d love to write for The Wire, I quickly realize that I wouldn’t know my True dats from my narcos. Did you know all that before you started? Do you get input from those who might be more familiar with the idiom?

DS: My standard for verisimilitude is simple and I came to it when I started to write prose narrative: fuck the average reader. I was always told to write for the average reader in my newspaper life. The average reader, as they meant it, was some suburban white subscriber with two-point-whatever kids and three-point-whatever cars and a dog and a cat and lawn furniture. He knows nothing and he needs everything explained to him right away, so that exposition becomes this incredible, story-killing burden. Fuck him. Fuck him to hell.​

I'm glad he felt that way. :lol

http://www.believermag.com/issues/200708/?read=interview_simon
 
D

Dabanton

Member
DS: My standard for verisimilitude is simple and I came to it when I started to write prose narrative: fuck the average reader. I was always told to write for the average reader in my newspaper life. The average reader, as they meant it, was some suburban white subscriber with two-point-whatever kids and three-point-whatever cars and a dog and a cat and lawn furniture. He knows nothing and he needs everything explained to him right away, so that exposition becomes this incredible, story-killing burden. Fuck him. Fuck him to hell.
Click to expand...

Wow. :lol
 
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