The Wire

[Magnum Valentino]

I'm after finishing The Wire for the third time, first on Blu-ray. Think I watched it in 2009, then again in 2012 or so, so it's been a while. Also read Truth Be Told and am working my way through the oral history All The Pieces Matter as companion literature.

I think I enjoyed the first two seasons more than I ever did before, and though the third is particularly propulsive I felt for the first time watching it like it was a bit more far fetched than the mostly plausible first two seasons.

Those first two years have a documentary realism to them that comes from the (at least apparent and tangible) authenticity of the dialogue, locations and anecdotal assembly of the plot. There's also very little (arguably no) concession to the viewer in terms of explaining jargon, slang or procedure, which I absolutely loved. I don't mean it looks like a documentary (like, say, I'm Alan Partridge bizarrely does), but it has some foundation of truth to it and that same truth is shot through l the little details too. Colvin's experiment is harder to swallow but the third season is just really, really good fun to watch.

Now, my problem with the fourth is that the political stuff is a hard sell already and it absolutely dies on its arse because Aiden Gillen is such a consistently awful performer in every role I've ever seen him. What's worse, though, is some of authenticity, some of what it's apparent that HBO allowed the creators to get away with, starts to show through. There's a scene that opens one episode where Chris and Snoop are training Michael how to be a killer where, after he 'kills' them, they discuss how the paint guns look like real guns. It's almost offensive how little credit you're given as a viewer after three whole seasons of being expected (and thus developing the hard won skill) to keep up.

I also felt like the development of the four-kids angle accelerated a touch too quickly at the end and Michael's and Chris' unspoken bond over a shared unseen trauma was too easy, too mainstream. Colvin' looking after Namond, even the idea that ever came up never mind Wee-Bey agreeing to it, is heartwarming but seems inherently implausible because again, this show established rules for presentation tone and storytelling that it seems shakier with after the season break in 2007.

Season 5, yeesh, it just comes off the trails. Some of the stuff in there (Bubs' redemption story, the newspaper stuff, Marlo's final display of fury when he finds out he wasn't told about his rep being sullied) is excellent, and, skipping ahead, the last episode is close to perfect.

But the Sopranos-lite way in which characters begun to get killed off at a rate of nearly one per episode is the final nail in the coffin that buries the Wire as just a TV show rather than the transformative viewing experience it was at the start. Season 5 has a few more instances of that shoddy tell-don't-show writing (Bubs memorably explaining to the audience his arrangement with his sister, by telling HER the arrangement, is a low point), which is a shame because Simon's "fuck the average reader" ethos worked so well, against odds.

McNulty's plan just feels like one step to far, even though the explorations of its consequences are robust and hang together. It's too much like one of those Marvel 'What If' stories. It doesn't fit snug in the remit of the show. His desperation, his ego, his defiance, everything that leads to it, that all works. It's just a really stupid device to evidence character development.

I'm sure more will come to me as I look back properly, but I've made the very risky choice to write this big OP on my temperamental phone and am filled with petty anxieties that it might just get lost at any moment, so for now, the question -

What do you think of The Wire, cabbers?

[Magnum Valentino]

edit double post

[greenman]

Never really had a problem with Aiden Gillen here personally and I think he fits that role very nicely being charming enough to be a believable success but slimy enough to fail when he gets power.

In retrospect I think your probably right that the better option might well have been not to end the school plot in the fourth season, carry it over into the 5th instead and replace or at least reduce the fake serial killer/reporter stuff which did I think come across a bit as Simon wanting to settle a few scores.

I wouldn't say the show really depends on "nailing its ending" either, by that point a great deal of the drama and many plot points have been resolved successfully.

[evilcommiedictator]

I'm re-watching it now with my partner, and we're about 5 episodes into season 2, but Peep Show is more resonant with her, so we're finishing that first. I've given her permission to watch The Wire without me, as our time is a bit complicated ;).

But yeah, the average person loves season 1, with very simple and cool plot, and McNutty gets what he wants. It's been a while honestly since the first watch and I'd struggle to name the plots of seasons 3-5, other than it's about political bullshit and Gillen is in it. It really is a law of diminishing returns after an amazing season 1, Russian mobsters don't have the same appeal as Idris Elba

[checkoutgirl]

that buries the Wire as just a TV show rather than the transformative viewing experience it was at the start.   

Maybe you should only have watched it once.

Is there any TV show that is a transformative viewing experience? Especially after 3 watches? The only epic drama I've watched more than once is The Sopranos and I plan to watch it more. I've only watched The Wire once and even though it might still be my favourite I've no inclination to see it again.

[Fambo Number Mive]

Really enjoyed series 1,3, 4 and 5 of the Wire. Did struggle to get into series 2, despite its focus on blue collar workers, the docks and unions, which sounds really interesting on paper. I'm not sure why I didn't like series 2 as much (it's been a while since I watched the Wire) but I wonder if how annoying Ziggy was had something to do with it. Major Valcheck was a great character though.

I think the Wire's message about the dysfunctionally of institutions is one that resounds across the world to a greater or lesser degree. It was also a really interesting look at Baltimore, I knew nothing about the city before I watched The Wire.

Hamsterdam was a really interesting idea and looked at in a balanced way - I can imagine most residents of the area would find it a more difficult place to live in, as shown by

Spoiler alert

the focus on the elderly lady who was a resident there

[close]

.

We need more shows like The Wire.

[Magnum Valentino]

Maybe you should only have watched it once.

Is there any TV show that is a transformative viewing experience? Especially after 3 watches? The only epic drama I've watched more than once is The Sopranos and I plan to watch it more. I've only watched The Wire once and even though it might still be my favourite I've no inclination to see it again.

Yes, it was a literally transformative viewing experience. The first time I watched it I more or less stopped watching everything else I was watching at the time (network shite like Heroes, Prison Break, 24 etc, and even some early-promise shows that paled in comparison like Damages). Nothing else could hold up. It spoiled me.

The second time I watched it I was in the depths of terrible depression and can't really remember it.

Coming to it this third time, it's the first time I've watched it since I've started writing myself, and I've found it educative without even having to study it. It's so well executed that I've absorbed lessons from it without having to pore over it.

So first time it transformed my taste and consumption of media, and this most recent time it's transformed (or reinformed) an element of artistry within me, simply through exposure to high quality and an awareness of how it was achieved.

I find that if you leave enough time between watching anything a second or third time, any significant changes in your life have a good chance at impacting your viewing experience. My critical faculties were sharpened since the first time I watched this (same goes for The Sopranos, which I watched last summer) and as a result I reckon I get more out of the stuff I love, but I'm harder on the stuff I don't.

But yeah, the average person loves season 1, with very simple and cool plot, and McNutty gets what he wants. It's been a while honestly since the first watch and I'd struggle to name the plots of seasons 3-5.

Or season 1 mate ;-)

I wouldn't say the show really depends on "nailing its ending" either, by that point a great deal of the drama and many plot points have been resolved successfully.

No, me neither. There was something of a rush to tie things up, though, which probably comes from knowing they had no more seasons coming. There's not much that would run into an imagined sixth season, in the same way that each previous season closer had strands than ran on (much as life does, like). Even Marlo's last scene works as a write-off for that character.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

One of the great things is how it gradually, as in, over several seasons, builds an interconnecting world, exhibiting why changes in society happen so slowly and dysfunctionally; why certain problems rarely, if ever, go away.

The good guys are hideously compromised, whether through past mistakes, present fallibilities, or are jaded by the world around them and have no fight left. In some cases they even fight to preserve the horrowshow because they are more scared of what change may bring, more terrified of things being in flux.

I watched it all around 2008 and came away with a deeper understanding of society and politics.

[sevendaughters]

Enjoyable write-up. I think it is difficult to maintain a tone of documentary realism in a longform drama because of the inevitable process of identification. As soon as the wall is broken down that stops a character merely being part of a group ie. cops, lawyer, politician, criminal, civilian, addict then our whole way of spending time with them is altered. Sometimes that happens in the split-second it takes you to realise which character is the main one; it pulls them out of herd, and they suddenly become an individual and we think about their psychology (individual) more than we think about them anthropologically or structurally.

One thing I noted on my third watch-through about a year ago are some subtle notes of copaganda. I'm not talking about "making policemen and women into humans with rounded characteristics" but actual slippages where the storytelling seems to take sides. The one that comes to mind is when, I think, Daniels and Rhonda go to a wireless company to demand a whole load of information about the phones they sell to drug dealers. The head of the company (clearly a stand-in for the obfuscations of business; in previous episodes the police were stopped short by a flunky) puts the ice on, even when threatened with bad publicity. The scene finishes on the two heroes looking on him in disgust, how dare you stop us and the narrative now it is in chase mode.

I still completely love The Wire and think of it as one of the 3/4 best TV series ever, but these little moments are to be expected (according to Derrida).

[Ferris]

It is a tremendous piece of work. I agree with some of the criticisms of the later series (and S5 was undeniably a bit shonky in comparison to the previous ones), but still excellent.

My favourite telly ever, and season 3 is a complete masterpiece. So many little bits put in there if you know to look for them (

Spoiler alert

what colour hat does Bubs use to point out the mark to everyone? What colour is Stringer's hard hat compared to everyone else on the construction site and what could that foreshadow eh? Etc etc

[close]

).

I watched this the other day which shows off some of the cinematography from the season 1 cold open. Also very good, worth a look: https://vimeo.com/39768998

[Magnum Valentino]

I would like to point out I love much, much more about the Wire than I dislike about it, and will try and get a list of just ten or fifteen brilliant amazing things about it later on, for balance. Just in case the original post came across as overly negative. If I was talking the Wire to a stranger, I'd promote it unreservedly.

Thinking of watching The Deuce next as I've seen The Corner and Generation Kill years ago and fancy something new. Is it decent? Looks good.

[BeardFaceMan]

Really enjoyed series 1,3, 4 and 5 of the Wire. Did struggle to get into series 2, despite its focus on blue collar workers, the docks and unions, which sounds really interesting on paper. I'm not sure why I didn't like series 2 as much (it's been a while since I watched the Wire) but I wonder if how annoying Ziggy was had something to do with it. Major Valcheck was a great character though.

This is what has stopped me doing a rewatch of The Wire, I know that I'm going to have to watch season 2 and sit through Ziggy again. I don't think I could do it, Ziggy very nearly made give up on the show altogether when I first watched it.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I'd pretty much managed to repress him, so it was a bit hard going in S2 at first. It's and series 2 probably my favourite series, I just wish they'd done away with him.

It was such a shame that the only thing they managed to do with Amy Ryan after series 2 were a few cameos of Beadie scowling at Jimmy being a selfish arsehole.

[El Unicornio, mang]

I loved this show but for some reason that I don't recall, stopped watching about midway through season 4, back when it was originally broadcast. My Dad adored it.

Tempted to go back to the beginning with the 16:9 HD versions rather than the SD 4:3 originals. As has been said though, it's not a show I've felt like I'd want to rewatch regularly like The Sopranos.

[Bazooka]

I would like to point out I love much, much more about the Wire than I dislike about it, and will try and get a list of just ten or fifteen brilliant amazing things about it later on, for balance. Just in case the original post came across as overly negative. If I was talking the Wire to a stranger, I'd promote it unreservedly.

Thinking of watching The Deuce next as I've seen The Corner and Generation Kill years ago and fancy something new. Is it decent? Looks good.

I finished Series 1 of The Deuce last month, started 2 and bailed.  It's not badly made per say, but the world didn't draw me in, felt like I was watching a bunch of actors I am very familiar with dressed up in 70's get up poncing about, the illusion didn't work on my ability to get lost in immersion, but of course give it a shot it worked for many people.  I ultimately found the stories and pace uninteresting. I felt the same with Treme also.

[druss]

Seen it twice but haven't watched the 16:9 version yet. I was always put off by reading that every scene is framed as though it was in 4:3, so you have these weird shots where the middle of the screen is packed with detail and then nothing at the sides.

Is it particularly noticeable? Does it take away from the experience? I do really want to re-watch it again.

[druss]

This is what has stopped me doing a rewatch of The Wire, I know that I'm going to have to watch season 2 and sit through Ziggy again. I don't think I could do it, Ziggy very nearly made give up on the show altogether when I first watched it.

I liked how they made him very annoying because I was always wishing for something bad to happen to him, then felt guilty when he was inevitably getting raped in prison. Touché, The Wire.

[El Unicornio, mang]

Seen it twice but haven't watched the 16:9 version yet. I was always put off by reading that every scene is framed as though it was in 4:3, so you have these weird shots where the middle of the screen is packed with detail and then nothing at the sides.

Is it particularly noticeable? Does it take away from the experience? I do really want to re-watch it again.

I've heard it looks good, it was shot on 35mm, but since it was framed for 4:3 with the stuff at the sides just being "safe area" it's definitely a lot of extraneous visual info. Apparently there are about 200 shots where camera equipment and other stuff that shouldn't be in the pic had to be digitally removed or cropped out for the widescreen version.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I watched the HD ones, they look excellent, the composition is fine for the most part and they look really filmic (of course being shot on film), it's not just a matter of detail (although there's loads more you can see the grain easily), the SD version looks really bleary and flat light/colour wise compared to the HD version.

[Magnum Valentino]

I don't think it occured to me once that it was framed for another format originally throughout my recent watch in HD. Season 2 onwards looks especially good on Blu-ray. The last shot of the series is noticeably green screened though and I reckon they'd have got away with it in SD.

[druss]

Cheers, think I'll end up giving it another watch then.

[checkoutgirl]

Yes, it was a literally transformative viewing experience. The first time I watched it I more or less stopped watching everything else

It did that for me too. But not only did other shows not measure up after the first watch of The Wire, even subsequent viewings of The Wire didn't match up to the first time for you. The show didn't even hold up against itself. It's like a philosophy question. If you knew subsequent (TV viewing) experiences would not be as good and might burst a certain bubble, would you still repeat them?

After I watched The Wire I remember watching The Shield and thinking despite the accolades and recommendations it felt very repetitive and a bit stupid. The one of a few exceptions was The Sopranos. It feels like I should have watched all the other shows and slowly worked my way up to The Wire.

My favourite Wire series is the second one, the sense that the world was expanding outward and getting more and more interesting and complicated and intertwined, without sacrificing and intrigue.

[mr. logic]

A bit odd to me that series four is being almost written off here. To me it's television's crowning achievement, alongside that last run of Sopranos episodes

[Ferris]

A bit odd to me that series four is being almost written off here. To me it's television's crowning achievement, alongside that last run of Sopranos episodes

Nah 4 is a cracker and all.

[Mister Six]

Season 5, yeesh, it just comes off the trails. Some of the stuff in there (Bubs' redemption story, the newspaper stuff, Marlo's final display of fury when he finds out he wasn't told about his rep being sullied)

I didn't like the newspaper stuff at all. Maybe because I work in the media (although I wasn't in news at that point), but the characters seemed barely two dimensional. There's the good, upstanding journo who cares about his job and the soulless hack who'll do anything to get ahead, and some people who stand around in the background, occasionally participating in broad metaphors like the bit where they wonder what the smoke across the city might be rather than going down to find out.

Felt, as said above, like Simon settling scores rather than making good dramatic use of the subject. He was too close.

The only bit of that that rang true was the editor waking up in the night and fretting that an error hadn't been corrected before going to print.

[sevendaughters]

the whole heart of the show is Bubbles. he is the victim of nearly every system that exists in the show; the law, the gangs, social security, health, etc. and yet arguably he is the only character who really manages to look himself in the eye in the most profound manner possible in order to 'change'. the show tells us that we all are who we are - or who we are meant to be - in the end, illusions and delusions all removed. a kind of anti-transcendentalism. that's why i like series 5.

[Mr Farenheit]

I liked how they made him very annoying because I was always wishing for something bad to happen to him, then felt guilty when he was inevitably getting raped in prison. Touché, The Wire.

Was it implied that he was raped? I took it that he had been beaten up but dont remember thinking it was anything else... maybe should have had him in a crossover role appearing as Ziggy in Oz.
My favourite Ziggy moment was where Method Man accosts him, takes his jacket and makes a joke at his expense in front of everyone. And Ziggy laughs along. What a dope!

[BlodwynPig]

I liked the guy who says 'Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit' all the time. The best bit, yeh?

[Magnum Valentino]

It did that for me too. But not only did other shows not measure up after the first watch of The Wire, even subsequent viewings of The Wire didn't match up to the first time for you. The show didn't even hold up against itself. It's like a philosophy question. If you knew subsequent (TV viewing) experiences would not be as good and might burst a certain bubble, would you still repeat them?

First, second and third series didn't just hold up for me but I enjoyed them more than ever before, said it right there in my first post.  checkoutgirl, both your posts suggest you've misread something fundamental about why I started this thread.

I am in agreement that season 2 is my favourite, and I also think that season 4 is ace. What lets it down are the scenes concerning the politics - they're vital and essential to what The Wire is, what it was driving towards, but they aren't dramatically engaging in the way the minutiae covered in earlier seasons was.

[Ferris]

I tend to agree on the politics not being as engaging, but it is still a fascinating storyline.

The epitome of that story in s4 for me was the pullback from the politics characters and the crossover with the streets on election day; you've seen all the time and effort and lobbying and money go into garnering every single vote, and you are shown how utterly irrelevant it is to someone like Cutty[nb]who, to be fair, couldn't vote in Maryland at the time as a convicted felon[/nb] and the other street characters who just don't know or care about the political machine because it essentially has nothing to do with them[nb]it really opened my eyes to this phenomenon - I'm a white collar middle class twat who is engaged in politics, and (or possibly, because?) the system is set up to engage with me as I'm demographically likely to vote. I'd never considered how that same system looked to a disenfranchised neighbourhood before I saw this season in my late teens[/nb].

It's a devastating critique of cynical retail politicking[nb]"is we having the Salisbury steak today?"[/nb], and the structure of political power and associated systematic failure to represent (or even engage with) vulnerable communities in the US, and you get to listen to Move On Up while it happens. Magic.