Who else loves 'The Wire'?

I get a lot of the Maryland inside jokes -- "Where do you think you are, Montgomery County?" or spotting the real governor as a security guard -- but not as many as someone who's read the BALTIMORE SUN over the past twenty years. A friend says a lot of the incidents, like Hamsterdam, are based on real events.

It is, without a doubt, the greatest television drama created. I've had a hard time enjoying anything else since THE WIRE was finished; it set the bar too high.

 

David Simon, I think on on of the commentaries, said that Hamsterdam was not based on an actual event.

Anyway, I cannot watch another cop show after this.

 

I feel the quality dropped a bit after season 3 and Stringer Bell. Still a great show after that, just not quite as involving.

 

I wonder how the Baltimore Sun felt about their unflattering portrayal in the show?

After watching The Wire I took some interest in Baltimore-everything from the murder rate to lake trout.

I agree that The Wire set the bar too high. I just started to watch Treme and find that the quality of that show is similar to that of The Wire.

 

Currently watching The Wire for the third time (and fourth time for season one) and I ain't nowhere near the point of diminishing returns.

 

As long as this thread's been revived, and what with this being a music forum and all, what's your favourite version of the theme song?

Season 1 is the one closest to what I'd normally listen to. Season 4, with the kids, is the furthest but ties into the drama the most effectively. Season 5, sung by the guy who plays Waylon in the show, strikes me as the blandest.

 

The Waits version. Great show. One of the best dramatic series I've seen on TV, along with Mad Men, Homicide, the original BBC Edge of Darkness and a US series about RFK and Jimmy Hoffa with Robert Blake (name escapes me).

 

Love "The Wire"? Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeit!

 

That's Steve Earle, a pretty popular country-rock singer/songwriter.

 

That's what I hinted at in a post from July, 2009. I didn't enjoy Season 4 as much as the earlier seasons. At that point I was told that many fans of The Wire considered Season 4 their favourite.

Forgot to post last year. I did finish watching Season 5. I enjoyed it a lot. The ending was satisfactory for me.

It's a real shame The Wire never garnered any Emmy Award attention.

 

Not merely a shame, but quite bizarre.

Add Deadwood and I Claudius to my list!

 

Direct TV is rerunning the series from the beginning on channel 101 in HD. The Wire was never shown in HD in it's original run so this is pretty awesome.

 

The Wire was never filmed in HD. It was always shown in 4:3 format. If Direct is showing it 16:9, it is a stretched format, not the original format.

 

I have never seen The Wire

 

Then you've never seen how good TV can be.

 

"Who else loves 'The Wire'?"

Um, I do.

 

Yup One of the greatest pieces of American art, IMO.

 

Seasons 1 - 4 were near perfect, but I felt season 5 wasn't on the same level. The newspaper characters just weren't that interesting to me and neither was Marlo and his crew... and I didn't like how Omar went down either.

As someone who lives near Baltimore it was fun to catch the local references

 

Totally disagree. Season 5 was a beautiful close to everything that came before. Without the newsroom characters, the whole thing wouldn't have come together. Simon really did illustrate what (he thinks) is wrong with that world and how it impacts government, police, crime, etc.

I might add: this is my favorite show of all time. TV hasn't ever been better than this, and probably won't ever be.

 

Your in for a treat if you decide to invest the time. Even better the second time around. Glad to see others enjoyed the show as much as I did.

 

A buddy at work kept telling me how great The Wire was, and eventually he lent me the first season on DVD so I could finally see what all the hype was about. The first few episodes didn't do much for me, but I still watched the rest of the season, just to give it a chance. But by the end, I still wasn't terribly impressed, and I have no plans to watch any further seasons. It wasn't a *bad* show, but I just didn't find it very interesting. I think one of the main problems I had was that I just didn't give a crap about any of the characters, which is obviously a deal-breaker for any type of TV series or movie.

 

IIRC, the creators decided not to go to HD (which became popular mid-series) to maintain a consistent look.

 

Thanks , i've requested season 1 from the library

 

Watching the first season when it originally aired, I had a similar reaction. I had been a fan of Homicide: Life on the Street, and considering the many points of commonality between the shows (which I recall being played up at the time), I thought that The Wire would be in a similar spirit. But I was disappointed to see it was not character-driven in the same way. For me, I guess it was matter of trying to look past my expectations.