The Wire - what am I missing?

It was filmed. IIRC, HD television came about in the middle of the series and the creators made the conscious decision to stick with standard definition and ratio to maintain a consistent look.

I didn't understand the terminology of the technical article I read, but the gist of it was that they even if HBO could go back and remaster the original film to HD, they can't issue a widescreen version of THE WIRE without chopping. It wasn't blocked/framed/shot for widescreen.

 

You don't realize how much other shows explain and repeat things to you until you encounter one that does not. THE WIRE does have the occasional narrative re-hash -- you know, the sort of scene where the adepts explain to the newbie what's going on -- but most of the time you're expected to have done your homework on the previous episodes. It's not a series to jump in mid-stream. By Season Five you're expected to recognize several dozen people on sight.

 

It really took you half a season? What about all the conversations and meetings Stringer had with the underlings and street dealers? They always called him by name, or "String". What about the relationship with Stringer and D'Angelo Barksdale? I would think that alone would identify who Stringer Bell was immediately. They had dealings from the very first episode when D'Angelo beat the murder charge.

 

I think the best part of the series is that it does not insult the audience. American dramas, and films in general like to have perfect, clean endings where everything is neat and falls into place, most major characters live, the bad guy dies, the hero gets the girl etc.

Major characters in The Wire die. Kids get beat up and murdered on screen. It's a synopsis of street life. It's a synopsis of the press (when the newspaper room comes into play later down the road), it's a synopsis of America. No major drama before, or since has depicted street life so earnestly. As an aside, most of the characters were based on real people.

 

One of the best shows ever for me.

 

"The Wire" was the best TV show I saw - but "Breaking Bad" and "Dexter" come awfully close .......

 

Nobody wants or needs anyone to change the aspect ratio. There's plenty of hi-def 1.33:1 stuff out there already; 'The Wire' just needs to be added to the list. 'The Wire' was definitely filmed, and blu-ray would make it look MORE accurate and film-like than the DVDs do.

 

It challenges the viewer, no doubt. Maybe the hardest challenge is in watching characters you come to care about go through some horrible, gut wrenching stuff.

Or maybe even more challenging, finding you like or even partially understand characters that can at times do unbelievably cruel, ignorant, evil things. It's a tribute to the writers and actors that even the worst of them still come across and human.

And once again let's hear it for this guy:

 

So, speaking of random stuff about this show that takes a few viewings to catch. I was watching an episode from season 3 last night. In one of the scenes where Brother Mouzone's bodyguard is waiting in the gay bar for Omar, Major Rawls is briefly shown in the background, wearing civilian clothes and sipping a drink. It's a very brief shot and I had to rewind it to make sure I wasn't crazy. As far as I can recall, this is never brought up again in the show. It's kind of brilliant, when you think about it.

 

Yeah, I like how they did that - just show it, then that's it.

And no, unless I really missed something VERY subtle, it's never brought up again, even indirectly.

 

It's because of stuff like this which made me love the show. You had to be really watching to catch it , and if you were viewing on DVD you had the luxury of rewinding just to make sure you really saw what you saw (I remember telling my wife "Wait a minute...wasn't that...Oh, my God !" )

 

There was some bathroom grafitti at the station that said "Rawls S**ks C**k" the following season, however they never followed up on that.

 

"Just like you man. I got the shotgun, you got the briefcase. It's all in the game though, right?" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYj7q_by_2E

Omar Little is one of the most complex characters to appear on television.

 

Have you given up on The Wire, Linto? I'm curious to know if and when your opinion changes.

 

I need to revisit this. I bought the first season a few months back and only watched the first 2 episodes, I did struggle with the language.

 

Yeah, I kept waiting for that to come up later somehow in a plot tangent, but they never expounded on it, and if that was intentional then it's brilliant. If it was just a matter of running out of time to explore it further, or somebody simply forgot, then - well it's a brilliant accident.

I think it was a great show, but it excels mostly in how the whole thing wraps up rather than in what happens every episode, what happens in the end, what happens with all the story arcs, is amazing. Very satisfying ending, like a great novel, and without happy/tidy endings either, just a lot of parallels and cycles, and futility...without giving too much away.

I don't know if it is the greatest drama in the history of TV, although I am hard pressed to name others I enjoyed more. The jury is still out on Breaking Bad for me since it hasn't wrapped up yet. The Shield is right up there & might be my favorite. The Sopranos was great but had some low points and I hated the way they ended it. Can't think of any others I'd put in the same class as those, but I don't watch much TV anyways.

 

In my opinion, Breaking Bad has not had one serious misstep in 4 seasons. If season 5 follows that trend, it will join my shortlist of perfect series – so short, it only has one show on it right now: The Wire. Downton Abbey is close to joining it too, but it's too soon to know.

 

Except for the first episode this past season, I felt the first couple were lousy and I was afraid it had jumped the shark, but then it came back stronger than ever. I 4get how many episodes it went on for like that, but it really dragged & seemed pointless to me, like from episodes 2-4 or something like that. That slow pace was a big departure for a show that always had me on the edge of my seat. But all was forgiven after that with where they went next.

 

I watched an episode of "Fades" on BBCA the other day and had difficulties with the dialogue. I couldn't understand 90% of one young man's dialogue for awhile. I had to devote 100% attention to him and rewound (thank goodness for DVR's) several times.

I feel for you guys that are having difficulties with "The Wire". It is worth the effort.

 

As I've said before in the Breaking Bad thread, that slow pace deliberately mirrored the feeling of stuckness that Walter White was experiencing. It is precisely what made the "coming back stronger than ever" feel so good. So, for me, not a misstep in the slightest.

 

I really disliked those episodes. Almost stopped watching it, was afraid to see it get even worse and was getting impatient for that usual BB buzz. Obviously glad I stuck with it. Can't stand having to wait like a year for next season.

 

I'm still watching `The Wire' up here in Canada on an
`on demand' basis through the cable provider. I'm enjoying
the show very much, but I don't think I would have had
the patience to view it on a weekly basis. Right now I'm
about 1/2 of the way through season four: that initial
scene of the first episode with Snoop in the hardware
store was absolutely priceless. She is something else!
This series is filled with great characters (although I feel
that McNulty was really miscast) - my favourites are
Bubbles, Ziggy (that actor should have been put in a
Jeff Buckley bio), Prez, Snoop...man, the list goes on
and on.
One question, however - who or what was the `Bowtie'
character all about? Where was he from and who was
he working with or for? Was it ever explained? Obviously
he did work in concert with Omar....

 

Brother Mouzone? Nation of Islam assassin hired by Avon Barksdale as street muscle against Prop. Joe's people, who Stringer Bell wanted to form an alliance with. Stringer Bell lies to Omar that Brother was the one who killed and tortured his boyfriend, hoping to lose either or both of them. While trying to kill Brother (but only wounding him), Omar realizes that he's been played. Once Brother recovers, he returns and teams up with Omar to take out Stringer Bell. This would have left Avon in charge, except that Stringer had already leaked information to the police that leads to him being arrested. With Stringer dead and Avon behind bars, the murder rate skyrockets as everyone tried to take control of the street traffic. This leads to the political mess everyone tries to take advantage of in season four.

 

While this was fictional there are a number of instances in REAL LIFE where this happened. Particularly during the crack epidemic.

 

One of the only times the series really screwed up - this character belonged in a comic book.