The Wire

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HMW

Well-Known Member
May 11, 2012
145
744
Sweden
This is the series that made me interested in television as a medium again. Before The Wire I, incorrectly, assumed that if it was on TV - it had to suck. Don't get me wrong, I still believe that assumption to be true in at least 80% of the case, but it is - as I have learned - a major error to promote such an idea into a general truth.

The Wire is ”old”. It started in 2002 and ended in 2008. Personally I started watching (on DVD) the show after I broke my wrist in an accident in 2009. All of a sudden I had a lot of free time, and decided to at least give this show, who many of my friends hailed as the best thing ever shown on TV, a chance. They were right. This is the only show I have watched that managed to move me on such deep levels that I actually welled up when watching the final episode.

There have been other good, and some great, series created after The Wire. But this far, not one of them has come close to what The Wire achieved. Yes, I enjoyed Breaking Bad a lot, as I did True Detective and Game of Thrones and - to some extent - The Walking Dead (I like zombies!).

But The Wire is different in the sense that you actually believe what you see. It is fiction, but at the same time it is not. This sh*t is real life, and that makes it so much stronger. I too need escapism as much as the other, but what really moves me are stories about real people, in real life, and The Wire delivers just that. After The Wire, I watched both Generation Kill and Tremé (also by David Simon). All series, although very different in subject matter, have that in common: real people, in real life situations. All are great, but The Wire simply is the greatest.

Before I let you go, and if I haven't convinced you just yet. Not only is The Wire the best thing that has ever happened to television:
George Pelecanos was both a writer and co-producer of the show.
Dennis Lehane was a writer for the show.
The Theme song is ”Way Down in the Hole” by Tom Waits.
Steve Earle is in it (basically playing himself).
The Pogues are played several times throughout the series.

Watch. Now.
 

Lord Tyrion

Well-Known Member
Oct 24, 2013
1,582
6,257
The Wire was definitely a great TV show. My favorite season was season three with Amsterdam and a look at city hall. I agree that there was a grit in this show and it demystified the cop TV drama to where I can't take shows like CSI and Law and Order seriously. It was also the first (in my experience watching TV) show that treated people living in urban neighborhoods as regular people. There was no over the top rapper Hollywood acting performance and it broke the myths of gang culture, like the idea that once you're in a gang you can't leave unless you die which many people in the suburbs believe.

The Wire was a great TV show, but whether it was the greatest ever is highly debatable. Breaking Bad was not realistic at all, but I enjoyed watching that show over everything else. The raw drama of Breaking Bad reached depths that film rarely reaches and it created a mythology around it's characters that was epic. I would also add Mad Men to the mix. This season has been exceptional.
 

HMW

Well-Known Member
May 11, 2012
145
744
Sweden
It was also the first (in my experience watching TV) show that treated people living in urban neighborhoods as regular people.
That is my experience too.

And yeah, Breaking Bad was one hell of a show that I enjoyed immensely.
 
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