re: I haven't seen The Wire

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The plane crash, for instance, was just stupid.

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I think they may have stretched the metaphor a little too much, but you can't say they're unwilling to take chances.

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Never seen anything like that in the Shield

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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.