Television The Wire

I'll try to make one more effort to continue with it.To be honest after finishing watching "The shield" last night,I don't wanna follow any series in the next couple of weeks.
 
I've just re-watched some episodes from the second season.

The Bunk is such a legend.

Carver's face after the truck ran over the tennis ball with the bug in it. :lol:
 
horselesspaul said:
Hahaha, it'll do that do you.
I have had to buy a new DVD player just to finish off the complete boxed set because my old one overheated..
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Im turning into a sleep deprived lunatic, I only started on this like 10 days ago or something, into the last 2 episodes of season 4. Im quite close to saying something about it being better than The Sopranos (something I never thought Id say EVER!) Omar's character is fecking quality.
 
Decotron said:
Im turning into a sleep deprived lunatic, I only started on this like 10 days ago or something, into the last 2 episodes of season 4. Im quite close to saying something about it being better than The Sopranos (something I never thought Id say EVER!) Omar's character is fecking quality.
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Same thing when I watched it over the summer as well.

Also considered it better than Sopranos while I was watching, but now after I've had time for both shows to sink in, Sopranos is undoubtably the king of crime dramas.
 
Im tempted to start watching this, im a massive fan of the Sopranos. It cant surely be better than that....

Is it worth getting the box set?
 
Most certainly worth getting your hands on it one way or the other. If you like The Sopranos I cant see how you could fail to like it. Which one you prefer will be a matter of personal taste but you will rate it, that is for sure.
 
Decotron said:
Im turning into a sleep deprived lunatic, I only started on this like 10 days ago or something, into the last 2 episodes of season 4. Im quite close to saying something about it being better than The Sopranos (something I never thought Id say EVER!) Omar's character is fecking quality.
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My new DVD player arrived this morning and I just blew a whole days work watching season three. Damn you David Simon! (and others).
We have a tendency on the Caf to have to say who is better than who in football and entertainment and just about everything else but it doesn't really matter, does it. Obviously The Wire is good enough to fuq my life up, as was, and is, The Sopranos. I have yet to watch The Shield but I am sure the same result will occur.

Buy the boxed set peoples. These guys deserve to get paid for all the work they do just the same as you, it really is that good.
 
I've just got series 5 of the Wire, and am desperate to watch it.

But series 7 of the Shield starts in the UK in a week or so, so I'm desperatley working my way through the DVDs of the earlier series to fill in the odd show or two I missed. I'd forgotten just how good the Shield is. I still think The Wire just shades it.
 
horselesspaul said:
My new DVD player arrived this morning and I just blew a whole days work watching season three. Damn you David Simon! (and others).
We have a tendency on the Caf to have to say who is better than who in football and entertainment and just about everything else but it doesn't really matter, does it. Obviously The Wire is good enough to fuq my life up, as was, and is, The Sopranos. I have yet to watch The Shield but I am sure the same result will occur.

Buy the boxed set peoples. These guys deserve to get paid for all the work they do just the same as you, it really is that good.
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Are you saying horselesspaul > Simon Adebesi as a poster?
 
The real Adebesi doesnt wipe his arse after taking a shit and loves being given head by other men. So there are some very distinct differences between the man I named myself after and myself.

But I see his addiction to "tits" reflected in my own enthusiasm for posting on Man United message boards.
 
horselesspaul said:
Hahaha.
Simon Adebesi<Stringer Bell as a character.
Loved Oz, btw.
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I always thought Stringer was one of the weaker characters in the show myself. He was just a heartless cnut with no real wit or grace about him. At least characters like Avon Barksdale and Prop Joe had their comedic sides and you actually felt sorry for Avon at times. I was always just hoping Stringer would get hit.

Omar is probably the best character I've ever seen in a TV show, and Bunk, Lestor, Mc Nulty and co. ain't too far behind.
 
cina said:
I always thought Stringer was one of the weaker characters in the show myself. He was just a heartless cnut with no real wit or grace about him. At least characters like Avon Barksdale and Prop Joe had their comedic sides and you actually felt sorry for Avon at times.
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Stringer was trying to 'better' himself and climb up the greasy pole (having been the political one as a youngster, we're told by Avon) but in the end was rejected by the world he sought to join and had alienated his lifelong friend. He thought he was cleverer than Avon and too cool for school but in the end he got played by everyone.
Great writing imo and brilliantly acted by Idris Elba.
Watching Season 3 again today I did actually feel sorry for Avon for a while.
Dennis/Cutty is another subtly mapped character.
 
horselesspaul said:
Stringer was trying to 'better' himself and climb up the greasy pole (having been the political one as a youngster, we're told by Avon) but in the end was rejected by the world he sought to join and had alienated his lifelong friend. He thought he was cleverer than Avon and too cool for school but in the end he got played by everyone.
Great writing imo and brilliantly acted by Idris Elba.
Watching Season 3 again today I did actually feel sorry for Avon for a while.
Dennis/Cutty is another subtly mapped character.
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Yeah, feck were they ever close to demolishing Marlow in that finale.
 
horselesspaul said:
Stringer was trying to 'better' himself and climb up the greasy pole (having been the political one as a youngster, we're told by Avon) but in the end was rejected by the world he sought to join and had alienated his lifelong friend. He thought he was cleverer than Avon and too cool for school but in the end he got played by everyone.
Great writing imo and brilliantly acted by Idris Elba.
Watching Season 3 again today I did actually feel sorry for Avon for a while.
Dennis/Cutty is another subtly mapped character.
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Thing about Avon is that as much of a violent, cold hearted killer as the man was, he did have huge family morals and really was gutted at the death of D'angelo . You actually felt that the guy had some decency about him, and treated people close to him very well. Stringer on the other hand... I never saw anything good about him, he was willing to do whatever it takes, and feck over anybody who got in his way in order to get to the top. I mean ... He orchestrates the death of D'angelo and then starts banging the guys missus.

Once thing I've always loved about The Wire is that pretty much every character has their good and bad sides, but Stringer always just seemed to be an absolute cnut.
 
I would agree with that Cina. I would go further and say the characters in The Wire are more layered and believable than in any other show I can think of. That is its greatest strength. The "goodies" are flawed to various degrees, the "baddies" tend to have endearing qualities.
 
horselesspaul said:
I loved Season 2 but it was a surprise after all the "gangster bullshit" and took its own sweet time to get nasty.
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My daughter needed to start watching this season from the beginning when she came back to stay for a couple of days today. I stand by its slow burning brilliance AND it's got the Omar v Levy courtroom scene!



Must, reclaim, life...however. Do, some, work.. Stop, watching, Wire....
arrrrghhh...
 
cina said:
Thing about Avon is that as much of a violent, cold hearted killer as the man was, he did have huge family morals and really was gutted at the death of D'angelo . You actually felt that the guy had some decency about him, and treated people close to him very well. Stringer on the other hand... I never saw anything good about him, he was willing to do whatever it takes, and feck over anybody who got in his way in order to get to the top.
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I found Stringer a more sympathetic character than Avon by the end of Season 3. Stringer wasn't just climbing the ladder, he was changing the way The Game was played throughout Baltimore. And within his own crew, he had almost completely done away with the violence that accompanies the drug trade, had turned it into something more like a business. No more shooting people over corners, which resulted in the innocent child getting shot when Bodie and his boys stirred some shit with a rival crew, something that happens far too often in American inner cities. Lessening this sort of violence benefitted the entire city, including people who weren't in the game.

In season 3, Avon is shown to be a child whose only games are posturing and violence, and doesn't want to put his toys down. People are always going to want to do drugs, so the drug trade will always be with us. Done Avon's way, the game is an endless war whose collateral helps to terrorize communities full of decent people. Done Stringer's way, it can be done without the killing of innocents or those in the game.

And the "family man" tag just doesn't hold up. Avon cared so much about his family that he got them involved in a life of violence and death. His "love" got D'Angelo a game in which he didn't belong, and his greed led to D'Angelo getting arrested, after Avon had sent him on the drug run to New York that left him hopelessly exposed. In season 3, he sends his female cousin to feck Marlowe and then set him up to be killed, which only gets her killed instead. When push came to shove, his "family first" credo was a complete sham, as was his sister's. One of the lines that best sticks with me is when McNulty is telling Brianna Barksdale about his theory of D'Angelo's murder, and she asks why he didn't come to her first. "Honestly? I was looking for somebody who cared about the kid. You were the one who made him take the years, right?"


The Wire > Sopranos > The Shield. Hands down, The Wire is the best piece of dramatic art I have ever seen. A 50-hour film with brilliant writing, intricate characters, and spot-on social commentary every season across a wide spectrum of American life.
 
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