The wire, season 2

[Andy]

Finall waching the second season. It's still better than 95% of the shows out there, but it seems like too much of a reunion of the first season.

I'm only 7 years behind.

That is all.

[masterofsparks]

It's my favorite of the five, but I don't think that's a very widely-shared opinion.

[crumbum]

It's my favorite of the five, but I don't think that's a very widely-shared opinion.

I agree that it's one of the very best seasons (my favorite is season four, with this one next) of the very best show ever. Give it time. It develops beautifully and takes on grand Shakespearean dimensions by the end.

[moonshake]

It really peaks towards the end of the second-to-last episode. That's got to be some of the best TV drama.

[orator]

It really peaks towards the end of the second-to-last episode. That's got to be some of the best TV drama.

Yup. There's a scene towards the end with Frank and Beadie that's one of the most emotionally effecting scenes I've ever seen, and I don't think they even said all that much.

2 or 3 would be my favorite season.

[buffcoat]

It's strange how Frank ended up in the witness protection program, adopting a terrible Louisiana accent and fighting/loving vampires.

[Sarah]

It must be agony watching television/movies if you're from/living in the South and know what all the accents should sound like.  Most attempts at New England accents set my teeth on edge (Tom Bosley's on Murder She Wrote taking the most cake], but at least they crop up much more rarely.

 

[yesno]

I watched a hearing yesterday, and the delightful Representative Ed Markey (D - MA) said "Avatar."  It took me a while to even figure out what he was supposed to be saying--ay-yaa-vuh-tah--I thought he was saying "air guitar."

[buffcoat]

It must be agony watching television/movies if you're from/living in the South and know what all the accents should sound like.  Most attempts at New England accents set my teeth on edge (Tom Bosley's on Murder She Wrote taking the most cake], but at least they crop up much more rarely.

 

Jeffrey Donovan attempted a North Carolina redneck on Burn Notice that was breathtakingly bad.  But the very worst ones are generally done by young female actors.  I don't know what it is, but they miss the lilt and grace of the accent so badly.

Now, that's not to say that all Southern accents are pleasing, even to my biased ear. 

[Sarah]

My favorite mysterious Bostonism was "Mistagavodabody" (Mystic Ave. Auto Body). 

Buff, that accent sounded pretty awful to me, and I have no idea what North Carolingians talk like.

[yesno]

Congressmen play up their regionalisms pretty insufferably, though.  I'm surprised I haven't seen any of the New Jersey delegation sporting tracksuits in the halls of power.

I loved Meryl Streep's accent in Doubt, but I'd need a time machine/have to ask my dad if it was accurate.

Even recognizing that "southern" accents vary widely, I don't necessarily see a La. accent as southern per se.  Too much weird shit.

Oh yeah.  Wire S2 is great.  I think at the time, people may have wondered why the show changed its focus. 

[masterofsparks]

Oh yeah.  Wire S2 is great.  I think at the time, people may have wondered why the show changed its focus. 

That they did.

[Dan in Chicago]

Though the second season is still better than most TV ever, I think I share the opinion of most people that it is maybe the weakest. The writers almost seem to admit this, because it is the only season that has characters that are never revisited later. It definitely wasn't bad, but the ratings went up steadily once they returned to the drug trade more specifically. All I can say is that, in my opinion, you still have the best parts of the show ahead of you Andy.

[masterofsparks]

Though the second season is still better than most TV ever, I think I share the opinion of most people that it is maybe the weakest. The writers almost seem to admit this, because it is the only season that has characters that are never revisited later.

I didn't read the disappearance of the characters as the writers admitting defeat - rather, I saw it as a continuation of the season's "death of work" theme, where the characters suffer the same fate as their industry (and that of other similar industries). The city (and, by extension) the world forgot about these people, and so we don't see them again (well, briefly).

Just another take. You could be right and I could be totally wrong.

[buffcoat]

My favorite mysterious Bostonism was "Mistagavodabody" (Mystic Ave. Auto Body). 

Buff, that accent sounded pretty awful to me, and I have no idea what North Carolingians talk like.

Well, I have no accent, to the point where people always guess I'm from a place where they don't know what people sound like - Iowa is one I get.  They're just flailing.  I grew up in a faceless suburb surrounded by Yankees.

The most pleasing North Carolinian accent to the ear is the one spoken by rich families from the Piedmont. 

If they were to say "Don't cry, dry your eye," it would sound a bit like "Don't crah, drah your ayh."

It's impossible to replicate here, but it sounds really cultured and interesting.


There are, I hear tell, Southern accents that are less pleasing to the ear.