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re: I haven't seen The Wire
Posted on 3/22/13 at 12:19 pm to boom roasted
Posted on 3/22/13 at 12:19 pm to boom roasted
quote:
If you get hooked, you get hooked.
While this is true, some shows do start slower than others. The Shield had an incredibly strong start (and finish, for that matter), but a couple of middling patches. BB has been consistently good, and kind of keeps one-upping itself. The Wire (again, I'm halfway) has been fairly gripping throughout. GOT is like that as well - the more you spread the story out, the more the storyteller has to keep your attention. This also allows for them to off people now and then because there's so much story left to tell - and, although still fictional, this makes it seem more realistic.
BB is, ultimately, all about Walt though and his journey. It's just so well done that it gets compared to these other shows that are also character dramas, but of, realistically a much broader scope - even The Shield.
2
Posted on 3/22/13 at 12:25 pm to Ace Midnight
quote:
While this is true, some shows do start slower than others. The Shield had an incredibly strong start (and finish, for that matter), but a couple of middling patches. BB has been consistently good, and kind of keeps one-upping itself.
Beg to differ. I found parts of BB to drag, and there have been storylines that went nowhere. The plane crash, for instance, was just stupid. Never seen anything like that in the Shield
Posted on 3/22/13 at 12:31 pm to davesdawgs
Are you trying to make the argument that breaking bad is even close to being as good as or is better than the wire based on awards? 
Whew! Let me catch my breath...
Whew! Let me catch my breath...
Posted on 3/22/13 at 12:34 pm to REG861
quote:
The plane crash, for instance, was just stupid.
I think they may have stretched the metaphor a little too much, but you can't say they're unwilling to take chances.
quote:
Never seen anything like that in the Shield
The artificial conflicts with outsiders, and particularly the flow of guest stars are my biggest peeves with The Shield (and I'm in the "it's the best show ever" camp) - the writers and actors did great things with it, but a lot of it seemed gimmicky. The Armenian gang thing was probably a well they dipped into a couple of times too many - part of it was external - the network wanted a seventh season and the team was already geared up to finish it in six, so the compromise of the 2 shortened final seasons threw the pace off a little.
Minor quibbles for what I consider to be the GOAT, but I think the plane crash is a minor quibble in BB's run - especially when you consider "Boxcutter" and "Face Off" - just riveting television right there.
This post was edited on 3/22/13 at 12:36 pm
Posted on 3/22/13 at 12:38 pm to Ace Midnight
Just started The Shield. That pilot episode was awesome. Loving it so far.
This post was edited on 3/22/13 at 12:40 pm
Posted on 3/22/13 at 12:45 pm to bamafan425
quote:
Just started The Shield. That pilot episode was awesome. Loving it so far.
I envy you - I've watched Season 1 through 5 approximately 3 times. I remember watching those first episodes and being blown away.
Posted on 3/22/13 at 12:52 pm to davesdawgs
I love Breaking Bad (used to sport the avi), Mad Men, and Boardwalk Empire right now. I could watch Boardwalk reruns everyday 'til I die. I can still admit that the show is flawed and nowhere near what The Wire is.
This shite right here
and this shite right here
... don't deserve to be anywhere near a Wire thread. Loving it doesn't mean it isn't still an action show with some serious cheese. The storyline, parallels, and character study are what put it in a higher category than the majority of action shows.
This shite right here
and this shite right here
... don't deserve to be anywhere near a Wire thread. Loving it doesn't mean it isn't still an action show with some serious cheese. The storyline, parallels, and character study are what put it in a higher category than the majority of action shows.
Posted on 3/22/13 at 12:52 pm to Ace Midnight
quote:
I've watched Season 1 through 5 approximately 3 times
Season 5 is the best season of television I've ever seen
Posted on 3/22/13 at 1:21 pm to REG861
quote:
Season 5 is the best season of television I've ever seen
It is definitely up there. The finale is so brutal.
Posted on 3/22/13 at 1:39 pm to Ace Midnight
I'm more addressing the fact that there is no "hook deadline" for a show. Just watch it. If you like it, keep watching. If not, stop watching.
I watched a few episodes of Lost, realized it wasn't for me and quit watching.
I watched a few episodes of Lost, realized it wasn't for me and quit watching.
Posted on 3/22/13 at 1:45 pm to boom roasted
quote:
I'm more addressing the fact that there is no "hook deadline" for a show. Just watch it. If you like it, keep watching. If not, stop watching.
I didn't think I was disagreeing with you - younger people tend to have much, much shorter attention spans. I got conflicting opinions when I was getting ready to start up The Wire - some said it started slow, others said not, but it didn't necessarily sprint off and a single person (on this board, I believe) said, "Meh, it starts off fine." Turns out that last person was correct, at least for me, but that shows how subjective it can be.
People love Lost - I don't. People love Sons of Anarchy and I should, too, because of The Shield, but I can't stand the lead. Like my grandpappy used to say, "People like different things, and that's good - otherwise I'd have a fight on my hands keeping people off your grandma."
This post was edited on 3/22/13 at 1:46 pm
Posted on 3/22/13 at 1:57 pm to Ace Midnight
I haven't watched beyond Season 1 of The Shield, and I do intend to circle back and watch it, but its pilot episode is one of the single greatest first episodes ever. The rest of Season 1 is downright disappointing after that, and S1 is pretty good.
Posted on 3/22/13 at 1:59 pm to Wooly
quote:
the chess scene is what hooked me... i think it was the second episode.
Amazing scene.
They were playing checkers with chess pieces
This post was edited on 3/22/13 at 2:00 pm
Posted on 3/22/13 at 2:01 pm to Na Mean
quote:
They were playing checkers with chess pieces
One of the single best uses of metaphor in television history.
Posted on 3/22/13 at 2:01 pm to Na Mean
What I love about that scene is that the metaphor is pretty cliche. Everyone has used some variation of "we're all pawns in the game of life". But what is so devastating about that scene is how brutally aware of their lot everyone is. A pawn is a pawn, and he stays a pawn. They have no illusions of ever rising up and being the king. Or even winning.
Which sets up a scene much later in the series I won't spoil, but it is my favorite scene of the Wire.
Which sets up a scene much later in the series I won't spoil, but it is my favorite scene of the Wire.
Posted on 3/22/13 at 2:08 pm to Na Mean
We may argue about what the best show ever is, But there is no argument that the wire is the most important show ever.
It completely changes the way one looks at America.
Simple television awards would be an insult. The Nobel Prize for literature is more appropriate.
It completely changes the way one looks at America.
Simple television awards would be an insult. The Nobel Prize for literature is more appropriate.
Posted on 3/22/13 at 2:09 pm to Baloo
quote:
Which sets up a scene much later in the series I won't spoil, but it is my favorite scene of the Wire.
frick that scene.
Posted on 3/22/13 at 2:10 pm to Na Mean
Also, I hate people that give up on shows after two or three episodes. At least give an entire season a chance.
The Wire takes a while to build up. At the beginning, events don't make sense, but toward the end, everything always comes together.
The Wire takes a while to build up. At the beginning, events don't make sense, but toward the end, everything always comes together.
Posted on 3/22/13 at 2:19 pm to Na Mean
quote:
The Wire takes a while to build up. At the beginning, events don't make sense, but toward the end, everything always comes together.
I'm not in a position to doubt your take on it, but this kind of talk made me a little wary. I guess my experience with B5 and DS9 helped, in that they had seasonal arcs (much like an act of a play), multi-seasonal arcs and series long arcs, and things turned on and off as necessary. Once you recognize that's what The Wire is doing, it is even fairly effective episodic storytelling, but the episodes build a wall and the walls form a building.
I was hooked at about episode 3 or 4. Maybe I'm easy.
Posted on 3/22/13 at 5:18 pm to TigerRad
quote:
But there is no argument that the wire is the most important show ever.
Actually, it's highly debatable. For instance, please explain to me how a show that depicts drug/thug culture and establishment corruption in Baltimore (a small subset of the U.S. population) has the same level of importance as for example Mad Men which describes an era in our history and the condition of women, marriage, minorities, homosexuals and business practices leading up to modern times. Or Band of Brothers which documents conditions during WWII arguably one of the most important periods in world history. Or The Sopranos, The Shield, Six Feet Under, LOST, Dexter, Breaking Bad, Friends, The Office, Cheers, Seinfeld, Planet Earth, All In the Family, M*A*S*H, Dallas, Little House on the Prairie, Bonanza, Big Valley, Gun Smoke, the list goes on and on; each of these shows made important contributors in our history and culture. To single out The Wire as the most important show ever with no argument (you presented no evidence in your case for The Wire), is quite frankly ridiculous.
quote:
Simple television awards would be an insult.
Why? Because it received so few?
quote:
The Nobel Prize for literature is more appropriate.
Then surely its writers would have won at least one Emmy or Golden Globe award? The Wire was/is a fine show and very well written but it receiving a Nobel Prize for Literature would be about comical as Obama receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.
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