the BEST SHOW on television EVER!!!

[KickTheBobo]

I mean, c'mon. art and entertainment is so damn subjective. I always hated those Rolling Stone covers: "REM: the most important band in the world". like, how do you quantify enjoyment of art?

so I gotta agree with B_Buster. great show, but it pretty much ends there. I don't see myself getting a full backpiece tattoo of Prop Joe any time soon.

BUT, I gotta say, if I were to rank the top 10 tv shows of my adult life, I think The Wire would be up there.

it just occurred to me: Beadie was totally the Winnie Cooper of The Wire. she went from hmmm...cute? to whoa momma! in a season.

sorry I brought it to that.

WIRE 4 EVA, BYOTCHESSS!!!

[Ason]

I wanna see Snoop dressed up in girl clothes just once

If they could shoe horn that into the script
maybe she needs to play a vixen one time to get the drop on somebody.....awesomeness



THEN it would be undeniable.

[Jouster]

That happened already.  One of her first appearances, she's on the back of a motorcycle and does a drive-by from it.

[Ason]

That happened already.  One of her first appearances, she's on the back of a motorcycle and does a drive-by from it.

you sure that was her?

I remember that one

white pants

[yesno]

One difference between The Wire and the Sopranos... I'm not going to say which show has the better approach... is the way the Wire is just really, really tight and self-contained.  Characters run in to each other all the time, and reappear.  Plotlines get resolved.  It feels much more planned out.

The Sopranos, by contrast, would just introduce characters and have them fade away.  Whole, suggestive storylines would appear, and then fade into nothing-- like the terrorism angle towards the end of the series.

The Wire approach to storytelling might seem more satisfying.  But it's certainly not more "realistic."

Anyway.  Anyone here like the show Brotherhood?  I'm about midway through the first season, and I just can't get into it.  Tom was saying (well, guessing) that The Wire isn't funny.  Compared to Brotherhood, the Wire is Laugh In.

[masterofsparks]

That happened already.  One of her first appearances, she's on the back of a motorcycle and does a drive-by from it.

you sure that was her?

I remember that one

white pants

Yeah, it's definitely her, as confirmed by Felicia Pearson herself in one of the specials that aired prior to this season.

[Ason]

That happened already.  One of her first appearances, she's on the back of a motorcycle and does a drive-by from it.

you sure that was her?

I remember that one

white pants

Yeah, it's definitely her, as confirmed by Felicia Pearson herself in one of the specials that aired prior to this season.

wow, guess I got what I asked for without knowing it.

I was more picturing her dressed up as Scarlett O'Hara




photoshop anyone?

[electricdunnahoo]

One difference between The Wire and the Sopranos... I'm not going to say which show has the better approach... is the way the Wire is just really, really tight and self-contained.  Characters run in to each other all the time, and reappear.  Plotlines get resolved.  It feels much more planned out.

The Sopranos, by contrast, would just introduce characters and have them fade away.  Whole, suggestive storylines would appear, and then fade into nothing-- like the terrorism angle towards the end of the series.

The Wire approach to storytelling might seem more satisfying.  But it's certainly not more "realistic."

Anyway.  Anyone here like the show Brotherhood?  I'm about midway through the first season, and I just can't get into it.  Tom was saying (well, guessing) that The Wire isn't funny.  Compared to Brotherhood, the Wire is Laugh In.

I thought that made Sopranos more realistic, though I wont say its more or less so than The Wire because that wouldnt even make any logical sense. Sopranos focused on one mans life, where The Wire focuses more on a community of characters. But, as in life, things come and go, much like the writing of The Sopranos, I think, did a solid job of portraying.

[jane]

What I'm wondering is, is The Wire just like a regular cop show?  This seems to be what some people are saying.  I'm not into cop shows and have never even seen an entire episode of Law And Order (I saw the 24 Hours on Hunter S. Thompson) but don't those shows have different criminal offenders every episode?  It seems that the thing that sets The Wire apart is that not only do we follow the lives of many people, but that some of those people are the lowly hoods, (mopes), and drug addicts and we see things through the perspective of these people, who are presented as three dimensional characters.

[Chris L]

For the life of me I don't see how it's "just" a cop show - how many of the cast portray cops, 1/4 at the most? - but apparently it's hugely pompous to suggest otherwise.

[B_Buster]

Good one, Chris L.! I consider it a cop show because cops and crime and the impact crime has on politics, education, and journalism are at the core of the show. The Wire differs from most cop shows by following a single investigation throughout a season, but the major themes it deals with are all familiar to most good cop shows.

[Ason]

For the life of me I don't see how it's "just" a cop show - how many of the cast portray cops, 1/4 at the most? - but apparently it's hugely pompous to suggest otherwise.

people like to put things in neat little boxes.

The Best Show is just a glorified radio talk show one could say.

I know bad example.

[moonshake]

people like to put things in neat little boxes.

Exactly! Like this Reuters reporter on "No Country for Old Men":

"No Country," directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, is a gory meditation on slipping moral values presented within the framework of a highly stylized chase movie.

http://www.reuters.com/article/filmNews/idUSN2054595020080122?sp=true

A highly stylized chase movie? Really?

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

Well, in all fairness, the Coens are masters at genre formula.  They usually take every single convention of a particular film genre and tweak one or two elements, modernize it, and voila.  This isn't a criticism at all - better this than quirky-cute indie movies that pretend to be original but are infinitely more formulaic.  For example, The Big Lebowski contains pretty much all of the elements of a typical noir like The Big Sleep, but all of the characters are these weird modern-day LA types.  And who doesn't love that movie?

I think The Wire is pretty fucking great.  But what does it say about me that I maybe like Lost just a little bit better?

[Omar]

I think The Wire is pretty fucking great.  But what does it say about me that I maybe like Lost just a little bit better?

It says that you are a teledummy!