Scots Taffer on 9/1/2008 at 09:45
The problem is, I think, that it can be a bit much to sit and digest an entire season in the typical time you'd rent a movie. Plus I've not seen many series boxsets in video rental stores... but it's been a couple of years since I visited one.
doctorfrog on 9/1/2008 at 17:37
In a time of cop shows that claim to be gritty and realistic, but are either violence-porn, dull procedurals, or simply designed to appeal to what the producers feel is the American sense of justice: utterly irredeemable bad guys built of the very charcoal of evil, and the tired, halo-wearing cops that go after them. Worse, they're utterly boring and predictable.
Homicide: Life on the Streets was the best cop procedural of its time, and it went on for seven seasons in spite of viewership. Last year, I found out that my local library had every season on DVD, and I hungrily devoured them again.
Then I heard about this "Wire" thing on NPR, Terry Gross interviewing one of the creators or some such. Really? The spirit of Homicide lives on?
The very next day I signed up for Netflix. I'm about midway through season 3. I get a little thrill every time I see an actor from Homicide show up. (Luther Mahoney is now a medical examiner? roofles.)
What a show, and I'm glad it's continuing.
Rug Burn Junky on 9/1/2008 at 18:13
Then you'll get a thrill out of Season 5.
As you might know, Clark Johnson plays a newspaper editor, but supposedly the Belz is going to show up.
demagogue on 28/1/2008 at 06:19
I've been watching this since this thread and it's good.
There's lots of strings. I haven't seen enough to know what the hell just happened.
A few quick questions ...
- What exactly is Marlo's agenda?
I get that he's like an upstart making power plays to work his way up the ladder ... I guess I should ask specifically, what's his deal with the house murder, Omar, the Russian guy in prison, and Prop Joe? And what's he actually after in the end?
- What's the advantage of the new commissioner (Daniels?) that the mayor wanted him in and the old guy out?
- And the other thing that's sort of hard to follow is the interaction between the mayor, the state senator guy, and city council president woman ... what each wants and what's the skeleton in their closet.
It's good that they keep some threads long and some short ... so I can follow pretty well what McNulty is up to (...just when you think it can't get worse) and what goes on at the paper, things like that. Other things I just completely miss, like the conversations of two mid-level cops.
Muzman on 28/1/2008 at 07:06
Dude! Stop right now and rent the first series, and then the second one and... and ...
You'll thank me. Really. Actually you'll thank them.
Tape or tivo the rest and save them til after. I think one point of the fifth season so far is the reduction of thought and knowledge into convenient byte size surface pap and the ashcanning of real, deep rooted understanding of life and locality. Likewise you will (and you should) have a hard time understanding The Wire without seeing the life of the show. There are no simple characters and there are no simple motivations. Cliches, archetypes and generalities seem to fit in many instances, but the more you look the less they do. Like life, really
In short though, Marlo wants 'to wear the crown', as he puts it. That, to him, is the only end.
The rest I can't really illustrate better than the show. Well, I don't really want to I guess. It's better that more people see it. I know it's all sigh-worthy fanboy wank that's been said about a million things before, or it all sounds too damn inconvenient to plan to watch 50hrs of complex TV, but I gotta say it.
(finally got hold of some eps meself :o , I almost hate watching it knowing that each goes one step closer to the end. and *sigh* Jimmy Jimmy jimmy :nono: you're breakin' my heart)
demagogue on 28/1/2008 at 08:32
Quote Posted by Muzman
Stop right now and rent the first series, and then the second one and... and ...
Actually, I can get most of my questions answered just reading the HBO forums ... I was just a little taken aback to see
Prop Joe get offed like that. Marlo is some cold sob.
I think eventually the little kid that he didn't shoot will talk and his one act of mercy may be his undoing.
henke on 28/1/2008 at 11:15
I started watching season 1 recently on the strength of RBJ's recomendation and the Tom Waits penned title-tune. I'm 5 episodes in now and... things better pick up if I'm gonna be bothered watching season 2. Don't know why but it just ain't catching my interest the same way that Lost, Entourage, House and all the other shows I've been hooked on recently have. D'Angelo and Lester are interesting but everyone else mostly just bore me. :erg:
Scots Taffer on 28/1/2008 at 12:52
All the shows you mention are the instant-hook or one-trick-pony shows, not the SUSTAINED INTELLECTUAL EXPLORATIONS that RBJ is talking about.
But, to be serious for a moment, HBO's star shows - being The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, The Wire, Deadwood - all feature intimate character work culimating through slow-burning arcs. They often feature day-to-day minutiae that means nothing in an immediate context but build up to meaning a great deal about the motivations, emotions and intent of a character when taken in the greater context of "time". I can already tell from 1.5 episodes of The Wire (just sat down and rewatched the first with my wife tonight) that it will be a decidedly slow-burn, but those are often the most satisfying and rewarding to the patient, attentive viewers who don't need explosions or clichés or trite exposition every five minutes to keep them fixed on the screen.
Aja on 31/1/2008 at 06:46
I just finished watching Arrested Development and holy shit that show was brilliant. I can't believe I never watched it when it originally aired...
