Your Opinion on 'The Wire'

[kirkmc]

On a similar subject, I've been re-watching The Sopranos recently. I'm near the end of season three, and while it's a great show - well written, very good acting from little-known actors - I realize that it's hard to empathize with many of the characters because they are all, without exception - even the children, in some ways - sociopaths. Tony Soprano is antipathetic, and most of his crew are as well. Even the kids grow up to be like him - not unexpected - and there's not one character in the entire series who is really likable.

Nevertheless, it is a good series, which shows that you don't need to like or identify with characters to appreciate their stories.

[Tryphon]

For once, I totally agree with you. Except that I wasn't able to go further than season 2 of Soprano's.

Strange enough, I like Dexter though the main character is a psychopath.

[Jedo]

Yeah, except the thing that bothers me about post seasons 2 Dexter is that he's basically a saint. The only exception to that is when he kills that hillbilly guy, but even that they make as sympathetic as possible.

I miss old Dexter who seemed to actually have a dark streak in him. The face-offs with Doakes are something I'll always remember.

[Tryphon]

I've just finished season 3, and yes, that's a problem... I'm disappointed if it remains the same in s4...

[SpongeBob]

This was my christmas present:

TheWire.jpg (17.87 KiB) Viewed 8247 times

First impression: very explicit language - I wonder if those people really speak like this in Baltimore ...

[SinK]

+1 for 'Dexter' and +100 for the whole first two seasons bit.

What I cannot believe in all this chat about 'best' TV series no one mentioned 'Mad Men'. Nothing on TV is quite like it and very little comes close in terms of quality (from what I've heard 'The Wire' is the only one in the same league). I am a fan of more obviously popular shows and I don't miss an episode of 'House' or 'The Mentalist' when they come out, but 'Mad Men' I save up the whole season, buy it on DVD as soon as it comes out and watch the season through in a week.

[SpongeBob]

The first season has a nice introduction to chess.

Yo, check it out, right here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0mxz2-AQ64

[John Fairbairn]

First impression: very explicit language - I wonder if those people really speak like this in Baltimore ...

When I went to B'more on holiday last year I went specifically because I enjoyed The Wire so much. But I very rarely heard anything like what I heard on The Wire. The only time I heard a genuine Aw yight was on the my very last day on the tram back out to the airport, from a blind black man who answered a mobile phone he had just dropped. When someone picked it up for him and he thanked them, he spoke a bit differently from the way he spoke to whoever was on the phone.

Obviously I was usually in the mostly white city centre, though I did end up in some totally black areas - and felt perfectly safe despite a few stares. The language there was more Wire like, but without the expletives and the slang. The only time I witnessed yobbish behaviour (and was threatened once) was by drunken white youths. I had a similar experience in Chicago, the only very, very tiny blips on 10 out of 10 holidays (helped by the fact that US Immigration behaved themselves for a change!).

As to the programme, I did talk at some length to a policeman who told me that The Wire was 100% accurate, so much so that all the police force knew exactly which real people and events were being dramatised.