Just finished this off for the first time. Went in completely dry to get the full experience. I certainly enjoyed it, but not to the degree that people talked about. Any time I hear people talk about it, I've heard nothing but total praise like, like it's a perfect show. Again, I didn't dislike it, I just didn't think it was solid gold.
What are your thoughts on it?
I just started it. Im 5 episodes in. It’s ok. Good but not great yet. I live in Baltimore so there’s a certain satisfaction with it being portrayed as the shithole it is.
The quality varies from season to season. It's got great characters. It's pretty dense and slow, so it's not something most people can just throw in and watch anytime. It's like eating a really rich chocolate cake.
The characters are definitely what kept me invested. I just couldn't bring myself to give a shit about most of the subplots, especially in the later seasons. I didn't care about Prezbo's adventures in teaching, and the newspaper story bored the shit out of me.
You really need to pay attention you probably missed a lot if you were dicking around while watching.
The newspaper story and season 5 in general was pretty bad. I cared about Prezbo though. I knew those kids were fucked, but I was rooting for them. It's a big fuck you to the audience though that the most annoying piece of shit kid is the one that gets saved, by Bunny.
I wasn't though. I silenced my phone and paid attention. Again, I liked it. I just don't see why it's regarded so highly.
>didn't care about the teaching
That was the best season.
I enjoyed the police work and the character interactions, not a bunch of rowdy tarbabies and their white teacher trying to reech these keeds.
I wanted a cop drama, not Dangerous Minds.
Every season finale feels like being denied ejaculation.
I thought they avoided the trope of "white faggot teacher tries to save inner city niggers" pretty well. It showed you how people like Bodie, Omar, and Avon were made. The show is a bit blunt about how they're all just innocent niglets, besides Kenard, but I didn't think it was too preachy. It was supposed to show how drug lords, soldiers, and dope fiends weren't spontaneously created but instead came through a system.
Dunno if I'd call it a "fuck you" necessarily. Seemed kinda predictable. The most obnoxious, biggest troublemaker turns out to be the one who turns around and betters himself. Kinda trope-y.
Who the fuck names their son "Bunk"?
>Season 1: Excellent all 'round. The most grounded and brutally realistic of all the seasons, with basically no slips into sentimentality or cheesiness. Very slow but very impactful
>Season 2: Some truly great moments and great characters sprinkled throughout (Frank being possibly my favourite character in the entire series), but a lot of it is fairly dull and unmemorable
>Season 3: Arguably the most fast-paced season, with a noticeable increase in "action" scenes. This is a fan-favourite, but I found it to be cheesy and borderline absurd at times. Marlo sucks compared to Avon and Stringer
>Season 4: Pretty great overall, although there are definitely some cheesy moments with Prez being a teacher. Occasionally heavy-handed but still brilliantly written and emotionally satisfying
>Season 5: Shit
I'd give the show an 8.5 out of 10. 8 seems too low for the highs the show reached in seasons 1 and 4, but 9 seems too high for the absurdity of seasons 3 and 5.
His name was William though
I cannot watch it anymore because aspect ratio
I cannot remember - in any detail anyway - any scene Marlo was in, and I literally finished season 5 today. Avon and Stringer had personality, but Marlo was just a bland sociopath. There wasn't any character to him besides that he likes money and power. Granted he didn't have the same amount of time to develop his character like the other two, but he was a fucking monotone, blank slate the entire show.
Even though both Avon and Stringer were scumbag drug dealer assholes, I still appreciated the small moments of humanity and humour with them, like Avon paying heaps of cash to set up a boxing school for kids, and Stringer trying and failing to get into real estate.
Any time you go into a show with your head full of people telling you how amazing it is, you're going to nitpick, look for every little flaw, and be too preoccupied to really enjoy it. Perhaps you should watch more shows and kino rather than reading shitposts about them.
I didn't find myself nitpicking and over-analyzing though. I enjoyed the characters and the story enough to get genuinely invested in the story, and I cared enough about certain characters that it impacted me when they bit it. I didn't approach the show with a mentality that it's gotta live up, I tried to view it objectively, and came back with a "yeah, that was pretty good" reaction rather than "this is the greatest show I've ever seen".
4>1>2>3>5
Avon had some fucking gangly-ass long fingers man
Marlo is supposed to show you how Avon was in his early days. Take it all and take it now.
The teaching season is considered the best. It shows how the hood is created. How kids are created, fixed, and destroyed by the system. There is a reason why the show is called the wire.
Its the greatest show ever because it combines character and plot into a carefully woven masterpiece. It's structured like a novel, not a television show. Each season is a cycle and the entire show is also a cycle. It's not my favorite show ever(but easily in my top 10), but it's yet to be topped as objectively the best show ever. Depending on how Fargo shakes out that might take the crown.
>not season 2
pleb detected
The Wire is arguably the best show ever, but you can't talk about it being number one without bringing up The Sopranos. I'd argue Twin Peaks (especially The Return) is up there too, but I understand why a lot of people don't like it.
Season 1,2,3 really good
Season 4 and 5 not so good
It's a fine show. People say it's the best show ever. It's not. It's just a fine show. And the last season rots
The Wire was first sold as a cop show, and at the time it was mind-blowing to people for its realistic approach to crime solving compared to shit like CSI. It's starting to show its age now, it's almost innocent in some parts compared to modern gritty dramas. But it's still the best multi-layered exploration of a city and all of its multiple plotlines have a satisfying development across 5 seasons, which I don't think can be said from any other series. It's like the Shawshank redemption of series, basically perfect in its execution.
Marlo was the real deal. He is a more realistic character. Most criminals are like that, just retarded, they don't have any empathy, they don't have any charisma, they are just ruthless.
Also I really liked his hitman I don't remember his name, Christ Partlow I think
Which do you consider the best shows you've ever seen?
Just curious, I want to start watching something new.
Innocent compared to what?
I'm watching the 1st season of The Wire and I just got done watching the episode where DeAngelo teaches the younger kids chess. I was blown away! I had to watch it a couple times to really pick up on it, but did you guys realize that when he was teaching them about the chess pieces, he was really referring to THEM being the pawns! What an amazing metaphor!
It was so deep and meaningful, I am amazed by the deep symbolism of this.
Do the later seasons continue on with masterful symbolism like this? This was truly the pinnacle of storytelling that I have ever seen on a television show, and I think I can confidently say The Wire is the best show ever made without even having seen the entire series.
Also the acting is amazing. Idris Elba and Dominic West do a great job with their Baltimore accents.
name a better show then
t.reddit the show
False, 4 is fantastic, I'd say 2 is better, 1 being the best, but 4 is good
Fuck 5 though
Just a reminder that Herc got BLACKED
i think sopranos edges out the wire, but the wire has ruined tv for me. i can stand anything thats not realistic