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I know I've talked about this show in roughly a billion other threads and I think Bomby has too so I figured having an actual thread about it might be nice. I'm not sure how many others around these parts have seen the show apart from Bomby and myself (I know SML was watching through it around the same time I was but he's not particularly active around these parts anymore) but whatever.

In case you're wondering The Wire is a television show originally aired from HBO about crime in Baltimore, particularly the drug trade. Though unlike the average procedural crime drama, the world is much more expanded. Instead of focusing on one crime unit, The Wire shows law enforcement from a variety of crime units and districts, from rookies to the commissioner, as well as providing in-depth looks at the courthouse, local politics, the school system, the port system, the drug trade, and even journalism. The expansive world filled with interesting characters makes this show all the more realistic.

I also liked how this isn't just a black-and-white world of good guys vs. bad guys like so many other police dramas. The police department oftentimes cares more about good stats than good police work. The schools don't care about the kids actually learning stuff as they do about standardized test scores. Good cops can end up on the pawn shop unit while bad cops climb the ladder. People with noble qualities like becoming clean or getting out of the drug world are put in situations that make them repeat the same mistakes or make their lives even worse. Even the person closest to being the main protagonist is somewhere between "great detective who is willing to put himself on the line for his case instead of letting his case die" and "just kind of an a**hole." Again, the more gray portrayal of the world makes everything more realistic.

Spoilering everything else from here on out because they deal with more specific themes and plot points:

[spoiler]Season 4 is probably by far the most emotional I've ever been watching a TV show. It was downright hard to watch sometimes, particularly at the end. Especially with the Bubs-Sherrod incident, Randy ending up being caught in the system labeled as a snitch, and Bodie getting killed after agreeing to help McNulty. Easily the best season of television I've ever seen, though season 3 isn't too far behind. Season 1 is phenomenal too.

The show is great throughout but season 2 and season 5 definitely suffer in comparison. They're still head-and-shoulders above most things but they don't hit the same notes as consistently as The Wire at its best. Season 2 would've been much better if the whole port system storyline didn't seem so separated from the rest of the show. Frank was an interesting character and Nick was okay, but it didn't help that Ziggy was probably the most unbearable person to appear throughout the series' run. Overall I enjoyed it (I mean, at the very least, it gave us an Amy Ryan character and I am always on board

The last few episodes of the show are great, but season 5 doesn't compare to others because of a few things. First, while some of the things that happened in previous seasons seemed a little far-fetched (Hamsterdam), nothing compares to how silly McNulty's serial killer thing was at times. I could see McNulty thinking about the idea but even as dedicated as he was to the Stanfield case and getting results from the case no matter what, the idea of him fabricating a serial killer (and ESPECIALLY Lester being completely on-board with it) seemed like a little much. The other reason season 5 suffered was I think the newspaper story wasn't as fleshed-out as the other parts of The Wire's universe. I guess it makes sense that it would be my least favorite part because I praised how the show isn't generally black-and-white about things and that was the most black-and-white setting of the entire series. I don't remember Gus having any real flaws and on the other side of the spectrum, I don't remember Scott having any real good qualities. Like, I'm pretty sure the character bio for Scott Templeton is "Scott Templeton is a jerk that does jerk things because he likes being a jerk that does jerk things. What a jerk." That being said, the finale is phenomenal and wraps up the entire series incredibly. The season does a great job overall giving closure to as many characters as possible, even the ones the season barely even featured. Also there may never be a character death that I am more upset by than the death of Omar. Again, even at its weakest moments this show is still one of the best I've ever seen.[/spoiler]

Dude, that was one hell of a sales pitch. It's really hard to get me into law enforcement-genre shows, but this might just do it.

Question: it sounds like it does a really good/interesting job of 3-dimensionalizing the police force and all the kinds of motivations and people therein, which is awesome, and [[sorry if you answered this in the spoilers or if you inferred it and I didn't catch it]] I'm curious as to whether or not they do the same justice to the people involved in criminal activity? I loooove shows that do a damn good job of fleshing out everyone so that you see how everyone is, in their own mind, doing the justified thing.

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semi-related; did you ever watch Cold Case? I've only seen a couple episodes, but it's one of my favorite crime/law enforcement shows because of the stories it tells and how human the victims, the culprits, everyone involved, seem.

Oh for sure. The civilians and criminals are just as fleshed out as the law enforcement. Some think dealing is the only way they can actually make money and actually become successful. Plenty of characters over the course of the series begin to have second-thoughts about their lives. Some get out of the drug business successfully while others get reeled back in by whatever factors. The most notable person at the "criminal" level is probably Omar, who while being a notorious stick-up man, has his own moral code and will only target criminals, never firing on a civilian.

Major **** spoiler:

[spoiler]if I go out I'm going out Bodie-style. knahmeanuheard?[/spoiler]

Were you guys hooked right away, or did it take a few episodes?

It took me a few episodes I think. I'd say it's kinda like Game of Thrones that you have to wait a little bit to see the scope of the world to really get engrossed.

But by the end of the season you're fully engrossed in the season and then **** goes down and emotions

season 1 spoilers:
[spoiler]Wallace, man. :( [/spoiler]

^
[spoiler]WHERE'S THE BOY STRING? WHERE'S WALLACE?[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Man, I never thought I'd forgive Bodie after the whole Wallace situation. And then his death might've made me even sadder.[/spoiler]

I took to Game of Thrones pretty much right off.

I've watched the first 3 or 4 episodes of The Wire now. I haven't gotten to a point where I'm eager to see what happens next, though.

I'd say the next few episodes are where it starts to pick up.

[QUOTE="metal boxes METAL BOXES, post: 1477793, member: 29448"][spoiler]Man, I never thought I'd forgive Bodie after the whole Wallace situation. And then his death might've made me even sadder.[/spoiler][/QUOTE]
[spoiler]Same here. Bodie was actually one of my favorite characters by the time seasons 3 & 4 came around.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Oh, for sure. The back-and-forth he had with Carver was definitely one of my favorite parts of those seasons.[/spoiler]

Eh, I heard it's good, but then again, everyone raves about Throne's Game, Twentyfour, Doctor Who's and Breaked Bad, so Wires will probably go unwatched. I have decided to watch at least the first episode of all these popular shows eventually so I can hate them legitimately (I already watched Throned Games' pilot).

I have to admit though, I think I'll probably get Telltale's game based on Game of the Thrones.

Some ******* stabbed the actor who played Slim Charles. Thankfully the wounds are apparently not life-threatening.

Omar's the best. Freamon's the best. Everybody. Good night. Go home. We done.

Also I hope bubbles gets clean but I don't think he gonna.

I'm only up to season 4 though.

[SPOILER]rip love you wallace *pours a 40 out*[/SPOILER]

vaguely related

http://www.avclub.com/article/wires-dom ... h-j-209141

where's dory, string? where the **** is dory, huh!?

http://www.buzzfeed.com/kelleylcarter/r ... .lhjQox19x

buzzfeed decided to rank the characters by "likability" and somehow got everything wrong aside from #1

Oh god... that list was terrible.

like i can't even believe it

how is herc one of the most likable cops? dude was a ********. bunk was the most likable cop aside from probably lester and was ranked like last as far as cops go

why did they rank all of the kids as a whole and then each individually? and how is michael more likable than namond or randy?

how is stringer last?

how is scott templeton in front of ANYBODY?

how does rawls beat landsman? landsman was at least funny. rawls was just an ass.

also ziggy sobotka should've been on this list just so he could've been ranked last

the wire is good. please don't compare it to garbage show game of thrones. its a **** travesty that idris elba was like the only actor who actually got more work because all the actors are insanely good.