The Wire TV Thread

[Bandit]

Damn, just finished with season three. It's up there with the best I've ever seen on television.

 

[Gemma]

The Wire is great TV. Seasons 2 and 4 are really special. What sets it up apart from other shows is the variety of great characters throughout the whole series. The show isn't really focused on one arc and it never forgets a character.

 

[Tom]

Brilliant series.

There's no other show for me with enough rewatchability value that I'm willing to invest another 40-60 hours into it.

Seasons 2 and 4 are really special.

Season 4 was the outstanding season.

 

[Bandit]

Saddens me that no TV show today comes close. HBO had a golden decade with The Wire and Sopranos in the 2000s.

 

[Steve]

I just started a re-watch, on episode 2. It was already so good right from the start.

 

[Franco Pinion]

I just started a re-watch, on episode 2. It was already so good right from the start.

Last night I was chatting about The Wire with my son, especially how great the scene with Mike killing Snoop is and now I feel the urge to start another re-watch.

 

[Scotty G]

Last night I was chatting about The Wire with my son, especially how great the scene with Mike killing Snoop is and now I feel the urge to start another re-watch.

How my hair look, Mike?

 

[Black Sheep]

Funnily enough I started what is my 4th/5th rewatch a few nights ago. The wife was snoozing and with nothing else on the telly I stuck episode 1 on.

Immediately I'm back wrapped up in the absolute quality of it. The opening scene is brilliant and that last line is the whole show right there in perfect poignancy. A throwaway comment from an inconsequential character

Why'd you let him play?
Shit, you got to, this is America man.

 

[Steve]

Currently pushing through my rewatch, finished season 4 last night. For me, this was the best season of television ever made - and that idea has been fully cemented in my mind after this latest rewatch. It's absolute perfection. The way they integrated politics, the police work, education and the personal arcs of so many characters so seemlessly is amazing. The casting of the kids is spot on, and their stories are almost all heart breaking, to an extent. There's so many good storylines to pick, so many subtle elements, so many moving moments..

Spoiler: Season 4 Summary

• The whole of Bubs's story in this one is quite sad, just this constant grind, his attempts at getting Sherod to go to school, the bullying by that guy on the street, Herc's incompetence at taking him under his wing... all the pieces put together which culminate in his breakdown, his suicide attempt, and his heartbreaking sobbing in his final scene in the arms of his AA sponsor, Walon (another understated great character throughout the show) - which obviously then blends into his redemption story in season 5
• Herc turning out to be a complete piece of shit and poor police overall, ruining both Bubbles's and Randy's lives along the way
• Carver becoming a proper great sergeant, growing from the previous seasons and coming into his own (in large part thanks to Bunny's tutelage and Daniels's guidance too)
• all the stories in the school, both Prezbo's class and the project Bunny is involved in, understanding the root reasons to the everything we've seen in previous seasons, giving even more perspective to the tragedy that are some of these people's lives
• Michael, and the understated nods to him having been abused as a younger child, his protectiveness of his brother Bug, and the fact it's completely broken him and despite all his best efforts, the fact he's destined to join that life of crime
• Randy, outgoing and fun, broken by the system
• Duquan, just such a fecking tragic character man
• probably the most unlikeable kid of the group, Namond, being the one that gets the best deal in the end
• Carcetti, coming to terms with the reality of being mayor, and his idealism slowly vanishing in the face of calculated politics and cold pragmatism
• Bodie's story, and his ending

I'd say one of my only regrets is that the main gangsters from this season are just not very interesting - Marlo, Snoop and Chris are pretty basic characters, and while I understand it's somewhat by design, to highlight the new breed of crime, guys with no code, no values, no family, just violence, they just pale in comparison to the Barksdale/Stringer Bell crew overall. There's a lot of Prop Joe which is cool, but otherwise, it's a bit bland on that end. And there's a very slight nod to the fact that Chris would also have been abused as a child (how he takes Michael under his wing, how he destroys Bug's father), but it's all very subtle and passing.

Anyway, overall it's fecking fantastic, and the outro to the season is one of the best of the show's (I seem to remember the closing of season 5 being excellent, after an overall disappointing season). I'm gonna attack season 5 today.