The Wire, Season 1
Well. That was a bit more intricate than an episode of Law & Order.
I’ve heard many, many people claim this show is the greatest of all time. Since I’ve only watched one season so far I don’t think I can make that claim myself, but I can see that the claims of others are likely not hyperbole.
Comments
It’s taken me a year to get only halfway through Season 1. I’ve heard it gets even better. It’s definitely enjoyable but I also don’t get the “best show ever” thing yet.
I just downloaded all of these. Haven’t gotten around to watching them yet, but I’m pumped to. I think Gos wants to watch Mad Men first, though.
I’ve watched three seasons of this show and it’s pretty damn good. Absolutely worth seeing for the epic scope, if you can endure its glacial pace and characters that exist more as ciphers and symbols than anything else.
I don’t agree with all the hyperbole about it being the best show ever… the writing always seems to value plot structure over actual characterization. Still, 90% of serial television doesn’t work this hard on the world-building and carefully embedded thematic arcs. In the long run I think that’s what people respond the most: watching the architecture of the narrative coldly snap into place is more satisfying than trying to develop any emotional connections with the characters.
I’ve got them all, too. I might start watching them after The Walking Dead because the first season will end up being unacceptably short.
Woah…Justin that was a good assessment of what has thus far left me somewhat lukewarm on the show. I’m a sucker for characters and character development and so far they don’t seem to be doing that and are more concerned with setting up this larger scale world. Which is also admirable, it’s just not necessarily what draw me to great shows. It seems like the complete opposite of Deadwood, where I rarely understood fully what was going on a good 75% of the time and who was who in the larger picture. Yet I believed in and cared about every single character and their emotions and actions felt 100% real to me.
I understand what you guys are saying about character development, but all of that kind of goes out the window if you are willing to accept that the central character on the show is the city of Baltimore itself. Having watched the entire series I am hard-pressed to think of a better developed “character” in any television show that I’ve seen.
That said, if you are stuck on the importance of more traditional character development, do yourself a favor and fight your way through season 2. They start introducing a bunch more people and ignoring the ones you’ve (maybe) grown to care about, but things get back to normal in season 3 (in my opinion the best season). Then season 4 rolls around, and, well, if character development is your thing you’re going to start to understand why so many people think this is the best show ever.
It is the best show I’ve ever seen.
Season 4 is the best of the five, and it will crush your soul into pieces. They actually do a really ballsy thing and almost abandon a lot of the main characters to focus on four high school kids.
It’s just really amazing….I’m almost tired of telling people how good it is. I just give people a “what the fuck is your problem” look when they tell me they’ve never seen it.