Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

The Wire Series 1

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    I love Spiral and have watched every episode of all 8 series (baring last Sundays which I haven't had a chance to yet), but it isn't a patch on The Wire. It isn't even trying to be. It's a police/justice system procedural, that happens to follow that in a different nation. You get very little sense of the motivation and situation of the criminals, or that they are humans too. I wouldn't have said doing that is sentimentality. It's just being complete.
    Spiral is obviously a much superior show to Law and Order, but in essence that is what it is similar to. The Wire is an entirely more ambitious beast. About the only other show I can think of that brought a wholly different aspect into a police show in the way The Wire does was The Killing, which showed at great length and depth the effect of the crime on the victim's family (actually not something The Wire covers particularly, so maybe it isn't complete after all).

    Comment


      Hmm, on second thoughts, Law and Order is not an accurate comparator. Because that show has little sense that the entire system is corrupt and f*cked up. And Spiral definitely has that going on. But even so Spiral is much more in the mainstream of (maverick) Cop or Lawyer shows, that just happens to be about Cops and Lawyers. Or the justice system end to, er, middle because they haven't done prison all that much. Which, again, The Wire did cover.

      Comment


        Originally posted by Evariste Euler Gauss View Post
        Chatting with my siblings over Zoom today, my eldest sister said she reckoned Spiral was better than The Wire because it didn't have the "American sentimentality" of the latter. She still thought the Wire was great, mind, but wow, that's some austere attitude. We need a bit of sentimentality.
        Ha, I actually have said on the "Spiral" thread that no-one suggests it is as good as the Wire and then I come over here. I know what she means - I mean, we are talking about a cast of characters that includes a great many wo are second generation Irish and/or high functioning alcoholics.

        Comment


          ? Second gen Irish/alco= Sentimentality?

          Comment


            I tried not to conflate alcoholics with second generation Irish, it is just that there are second generation Irish characters and there are characters with high functioning alcoholism and there are characters that have both traits in the Wire. Indeed, being based in a major west coast US City's police department, culturally, Irish lineage and, indeed, alcoholism are part of their DNA. Don't get me wrong, the sentimentality isn't an exclusively Irish preserve. The Welsh have hiraeth and I am sure the Scots have got their version and I know the Portuguese and Basques have. It's just that they aren't represented in The Wire nor, to a great extent, in American culture.

            Comment


              Saw these on another forum. A guy is using Wire lines to re-caption Family Circus comics.

              https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...1.13.53_PM.png

              https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...7.47.41_PM.png

              https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...788&height=893

              Comment


                Originally posted by Bordeaux Education View Post
                I tried not to conflate alcoholics with second generation Irish, it is just that there are second generation Irish characters and there are characters with high functioning alcoholism and there are characters that have both traits in the Wire. Indeed, being based in a major west coast US City's police department, culturally, Irish lineage and, indeed, alcoholism are part of their DNA. Don't get me wrong, the sentimentality isn't an exclusively Irish preserve. The Welsh have hiraeth and I am sure the Scots have got their version and I know the Portuguese and Basques have. It's just that they aren't represented in The Wire nor, to a great extent, in American culture.
                Who is irish American in it apart from mcnulty? And even then it's not clear how far you have to go back in his characters family before you meet an irish person. The culture of the police with the wakes and the pogue songs speaks to a strong recent irish American tradition, but I remember more poles than irish in the show. Even the actual irish person in the show is playing an Italian american

                Comment


                  Originally posted by The Awesome Berbaslug!!! View Post

                  Even the actual irish person in the show is playing an Italian american
                  But then McNulty is played by an Old Etonian- and the show makes a habit of casting against type.

                  Melvin Williams, the actor who plays the Deacon, was a Baltimore drug kingpin who was arrested by Ed Burns in 1984 when he was a Baltimore city police officer. The case was reported by David Simon for the Baltimore Sun

                  Comment


                    Thank you D-Mak.

                    Now we need Rust Cohle True Detective quotes for Marmaduke to make that one readable.

                    Comment


                      Originally posted by The Awesome Berbaslug!!! View Post

                      Who is irish American in it apart from mcnulty? And even then it's not clear how far you have to go back in his characters family before you meet an irish person. The culture of the police with the wakes and the pogue songs speaks to a strong recent irish American tradition, but I remember more poles than irish in the show. Even the actual irish person in the show is playing an Italian american
                      I always assumed that Polk and Mahon, the deadbeat cops assigned to the Barksdale investigation in Season 1 were of Irish descent given the in-joke provided by their combined names.

                      Comment


                        Augustus Polk is more likely a Scots-Irish Protestant name. Patrick Mahon would be very Irish Catholic.

                        I didn't know this

                        • The name of the pair, "Polk/Mahon", is homonymic with the Irish expression "p?g mo th?in" ("kiss my ass").

                        Comment


                          I'd forgotten about them. It's the real name of the band.

                          Augustus is a very roman name for a scots prod.
                          Last edited by The Awesome Berbaslug!!!; 07-06-2021, 22:44.

                          Comment


                            I just finished season 2 of City on a Hill, which is airing on Showtime in the US. This season included various characters from the Wire and the show is kind of a Wire/Law and Order mix. The acting is really good in this show and every time I start to think the writing is a little off or a scene seems a little cheesy, the next scene is emmy award winning. I don't know where this airs outside the US but I'd recommend the show.

                            Comment


                              Yes, same. Excellent show, and Bacon is just so freakin' good and cheesy. Combine it with any number of recent documentaries, like Trial 4, and you get a sense of the depth of police corruption in places like Baltimore and Boston.

                              Comment


                                Originally posted by danielmak View Post
                                I don't know where this airs outside the US but I'd recommend the show.
                                It's on Sky / Now in the UK, I've got it on my watch list on Now.

                                Comment


                                  We just started watching The Wire again, three episodes into Season 2 now. So yesterday we entertained a priest who lived for many years in the US. In the course of the conversation he told us, by the by, that he knew Wendell Pierce when he was based in New Orleans. I'm not easily impressed by that kind of thing, but that was something that did impress me, more so as we are rewatching The Wire.

                                  Comment


                                    To avoid spoilers, I'm not reading the earlier posts, but I have to ask: when does it start to become the so-called greatest TV show ever? I've seen the first 5 episodes so far, and it's just not drawing me in.

                                    Comment


                                      Just one man's opinion, but I think if you've watched 5 episodes and just don't connect with what they're doing, it's probably not for you. It's a show that gets richer and deeper as you get to know the characters, their personalities, their fuller lives, motivations, etc. It's very much a people show. But 5 is a good investment so maybe it's just for you.

                                      Comment


                                        Yeah I’d agree with all of that. I did rate it more the more I watched, but if you’re not impressed after 5 episodes I doubt you’ll ever get excited about it.

                                        Comment


                                          It took me a while to buy into the whole "this is the greatest series ever" vibe, certainly more than five episodes of series 1. When I rewatched the opening series, I liked it a lot more. But series two blew me away

                                          Comment


                                            It's also very male. Other than Kima and Snoop (and the latter is not in the first series) there really aren't any major female characters. I know women who've loved it, but the "greatest TV ever" opinion may also be a fairly male one

                                            Comment


                                              Originally posted by Heliotrope View Post
                                              To avoid spoilers, I'm not reading the earlier posts, but I have to ask: when does it start to become the so-called greatest TV show ever?
                                              Don't forget that it's 15-20 years' old.
                                              Last edited by treibeis; 27-06-2022, 16:30.

                                              Comment


                                                The seasons were also designed as distinct entities with different themes.

                                                I agree with WOM that if the first five episodes of Season One haven't grabbed you, the you really shouldn't feel obligated to watch the rest, but you might want to try Season Two.

                                                Comment


                                                  I have posted across different threads that David Simon's shows usually take about 3 shows to decide if it will work because he has so many plotline thread and characters in his shows. For me, the two exceptions have been The Wire and We Own This City. The latter, which aired this year, was only a one-off season so the central plot and characters had to be established quickly. But I agree with WOM: If you're not feeling it after 5 episodes, you're probably not going to feel it. The caveat I'd share with UA is that each season has a different angle. The first season is exclusively about the drug war at a street level. Future seasons start to show how the love of fake stats and the grind of bureaucracy spread out to other types of institutional life.

                                                  Comment


                                                    I think that it took eight episodes for it to really click into place for me...

                                                    Comment

                                                    Working...
                                                    X