The Wire

[D-Dogg]

So which actors are so great? why am I wrong?

All of them. You were born that way.

 

[CardinalsFan11]

We watched the first five episodes this weekend. Here is what I think:

This show is not better than the Sopranos. Never. It is not better than Hill Street Blues, NYPD Blue, and definitely not better than Homicide: Life on the Street.

Ugh.

Well acted? Not.

You have to have faith. The Wire is not like any other television show, it has a different pace and a different feel to it. David Simon equates it to a novel and you have to have faith that the writers have a story ark in place and your time will be rewarded

 

[Mulli]

All of them. You were born that way.

All of them? Come on now, there is some serious high school acting going on with a lot of them. The lesbian detective is a horrible actor.

 

[Mulli]

You have to have faith. The Wire is not like any other television show, it has a different pace and a different feel to it. David Simon equates it to a novel and you have to have faith that the writers have a story ark in place and your time will be rewarded

I suppose that is reasonable. Just not sure I care enough about a cop show...

 

[D-Dogg]

All of them? Come on now, there is some serious high school acting going on with a lot of them. The lesbian detective is a horrible actor.

I suppose that is reasonable. Just not sure I care enough about a cop show...

It's not an EFFING COP SHOW!!!! It's a show with cops in it. This isn't Chips we are talking about, Pancho.

 

[Mulli]

It's not an EFFING COP SHOW!!!! It's a show with cops in it. This isn't Chips we are talking about, Pancho.

How is it not a cop show with some time spent with the dealers? I care less about the dealers (though most are better actors than the cops).

Are you saying it is a detective show?

Only one person has told me to give it some time.


I have never heard anyone say you had to wait and give the Sopranos time. It was awesome rom day one.

 

[D-Dogg]

It's not an EFFING COP SHOW!!!! It's a show with cops in it. This isn't Chips we are talking about, Pancho.

And to back that up, from David Simon:

Simon has said that despite its presentation as a crime drama, the show is "really about the American city, and about how we live together. It's about how institutions have an effect on individuals, and how ... whether you're a cop, a longshoreman, a drug dealer, a politician, a judge [or] lawyer, you are ultimately compromised and must contend with whatever institution you've committed to."

 

[abomb]

It isnt that they are bad actors. The arent over-the-top caricatures like Paulie Walnuts, Silvio Dante, Tony, etc.

If you saw any character from The Wire in the street, you'd believe they were a real person.

 

[Mulli]

Come on now. No matter how intellectual the guy wants to make it, the dialogue is just not that great.

At some points I think, "okay, that is the dumbest thing that guy could have said."

Seriously, even John in Cincinnati had WAY better acting as a whole.


Am I really supposed to give a flying flibbleefloo about a guy who cheats on his wife, is a total jerk to her, but can only get the kids every other weekend? Somehow I cared about Tony Soprano. No Tony Sopranos on this show.

 

[D-Dogg]

Hmm....

Kansas City Star Aaron Barnhart
To me, what allows “The Wire” to surpass “The Sopranos” in the pantheon of greatest American TV shows is its ambition and its anger.

TV Guide Matt Roush
This is TV as great modern literature, a shattering and heartbreaking urban epic about a city (Baltimore) rotting from within.

Newsday Verne Gay
A critic for this paper once declared "The Wire" "the greatest dramatic series ever produced for television" and as the fourth season gets under way Sunday night, there's no reason to quibble with that assessment.

San Francisco Chronicle Tim Goodman
The breadth and ambition of "The Wire" are unrivaled and that taken cumulatively over the course of a season -- any season -- it's an astonishing display of writing, acting and storytelling that must be considered alongside the best literature and filmmaking in the modern era.

Chicago Tribune Maureen Ryan
If you have only one hour a week for television, give it to "The Wire."

Philadelphia Daily News Ellen Gray
The best show on television.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Melanie McFarland
If there ever was a series that makes HBO a necessity, "The Wire" is it.

USA Today Robert Bianco
Brilliant, scathing, sprawling, The Wire has turned our indifference to urban decay into a TV achievement of the highest order

.

Variety Brian Lowry
When television history is written, little else will rival "The Wire," a series of such extraordinary depth and ambition that it is, perhaps inevitably, savored only by an appreciative few.

Entertainment Weekly Gillian Flynn
The best series on TV, period. [15 Sep 2006, p.63]

New York Post Adam Buckman
One of the finest TV shows ever made.

The New York Times Virginia Heffernan
This season of “The Wire” will knock the breath out of you.

San Jose Mercury News Charlie McCollum
If you stick with it, you will be rewarded with some of the most compelling, provocative drama ever produced for television.

Washington Post Tom Shales
So is "The Wire" as good as ever? Perhaps even better.

Slant Magazine Keith Uhlich
David Simon and his writers... aren't out to change the world; the slippery slope of civilization is already in place on The Wire and Simon is just out to document how each and every person survives. Or doesn't, as this season quite devastatingly proves.

LA Weekly Robert Abele
A vibrant, masterful work of art, HBO’s novelistic urban saga The Wire is the best show on television.

Salon Heather Havrilesky
Yes, it's tough to trace the relationships between various ranks within the police department and the city and state governments, but that doesn't mean this is an incredibly serious drama it takes a degree in literature to understand. "The Wire" is funny and odd and sad and, above all, engrossing.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Tony Norman
"The Wire" is as complex a picaresque as one is likely to find this side of Dickens.

Time James Poniewozik
They have done what many well-intentioned socially minded writers have tried and failed at: written a story that is about social systems, in all their complexity, yet made it human, funny and most important of all, rivetingly entertaining.

New York Daily News David Hinckley
It just might be the kids, the ones who grow up too soon in the hard world of "The Wire," who steal opening night.

ASFN, Mulli
It stinks and I don't like it. Plus the acting is poopy and cop shows are for the jerky jerkfaces.

hmmmm.....

One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things just doesn't belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?

Did you guess which thing was not like the others?
Did you guess which thing just doesn't belong?
If you guessed the last one is not like the others,
Then you're absolutely...right!

 

[D-Dogg]

Am I really supposed to give a flying flibbleefloo about a guy who cheats on his wife, is a total jerk to her, but can only get the kids every other weekend? Somehow I cared about Tony Soprano. No Tony Sopranos on this show.

Uhm, you basically described Tony Soprano when he and Carm split up.

 

[Mulli]

It isnt that they are bad actors. The arent over-the-top caricatures like Paulie Walnuts, Silvio Dante, Tony, etc.

If you saw any character from The Wire in the street, you'd believe they were a real person.

No way. I have dealt with many cops, detectives, defenders, prosecutors, judges. I have even met my share of addicts/dealers. This show gets the dealer types. But the interactions of everyone else are kinda painfully not that great.

I get it. People who say this is better than the Sopranos didn't really like the Sopranos.

 

[Mulli]

Uhm, you basically described Tony Soprano when he and Carm split up.

And that is why I said "somehow I cared about Tony, no Tonys on this show."

 

[Mulli]

As I said, I watched five episodes. Who cares what critics say? If that is all you can point to, I am not any closer to getting any more episodes. They were on my queeueu but I took them off.

 

[D-Dogg]

No way. I have dealt with many cops, detectives, defenders, prosecutors, judges. I have even met my share of addicts/dealers. This show gets the dealer types. But the interactions of everyone else are kinda painfully not that great.

I get it. People who say this is better than the Sopranos didn't really like the Sopranos.

David Simon is a former Baltimore Sun crime reporter and Ed Burns is an ex-homicide detective.

I think they have a preeeetty good handle on what is realistic. And since one of the shows hallmarks is its "gritty realism" then I'm going to have to vote with David and Ed on that one, Mulli.

Hamsterdam forever!

 

[abomb]

Is Mulli drunk?

 

[Mulli]

David Simon is a former Baltimore Sun crime reporter and Ed Burns is an ex-homicide detective.

I think they have a preeeetty good handle on what is realistic. And since one of the shows hallmarks is its "gritty realism" then I'm going to have to vote with David and Ed on that one, Mulli.

Hamsterdam forever!

I get it, day in the life stuff. Fine. Cast better actors to get me to want to watch. The problem with a day in the life is some of the episodes little if anything worth watching happens most days. It is a grind. I get it. Not much entertainment value to me. Especially on a channel I am paying extra for. Especially on HBO?

Better than Sopranos? No. Better than Rome, no. Big Love, no.

 

[Mulli]

Is Mulli drunk?

Maybe a person needs to be drunk to think this show is the GREATEST ANYTHING IN THE HISTORY OF HISTORY!!!

 

[D-Dogg]

As I said, I watched five episodes. Who cares what critics say? If that is all you can point to, I am not any closer to getting any more episodes. They were on my queeueu but I took them off.

The Docks season and the Politics seasons, IMO, are the greatest of any show, ever. Seasons 2 and 3. I can see how it might take one a while to get into the show, but if you drop it you will miss out.

If you drop it now, I will pray for your soul. I will also ask everyone I know to pray for you too.

 

[D-Dogg]

The show is realistic in depicting the processes of both police work and criminal activity. Many of the plot points were based on the experiences of Simon and Burns. There have even been reports of real-life criminals watching the show to learn how to counter police investigation techniques.[39][40] The fifth season portrays a working newsroom and has been hailed as the most realistic portrayal of the media in film and television.[41]

Wiki



I haven't watched Season 5 yet...I'm scared to see it all end.

 

[Mulli]

The Docks season and the Politics seasons, IMO, are the greatest of any show, ever. Seasons 2 and 3. I can see how it might take one a while to get into the show, but if you drop it you will miss out.

If you drop it now, I will pray for your soul. I will also ask everyone I know to pray for you too.

Was it that hard to say "Wait it gets better"

If the detectives are all the same, PASS.

 

[D-Dogg]

If that is all you can point to, I am not any closer to getting any more episodes.

It is Obama's favorite show, and his favorite character is Omar Little.

Ok, now go re-queue those bad boys!

 

[Mulli]

It is Obama's favorite show, and his favorite character is Omar Little.

Ok, now go re-queue those bad boys!

Hmmm, maybe after a while. I need to forget how disappointed I was with the episodes I have seen.

 

[D-Dogg]

Was it that hard to say "Wait it gets better"

If the detectives are all the same, PASS.

I don't think it gets better...I think it stays at a continuing plateau of awesome. I happened to like some of the characters from those two seasons a lot though (beadie russel, Sobotka, carcetti, Bunny Colvin) thus those two seasons were my favorites.

What is awesome about that show is it completely refocuses each season on new areas of Baltimore and new characters, but ones from each previous season continue to weave their way through the storylines. Or it moves them into different situations.

 

[D-Dogg]

Maybe a person needs to be drunk to think this show is the GREATEST ANYTHING IN THE HISTORY OF HISTORY!!!

Drunk with good taste, yes.