The Wire (HBO) TV Show • Page 6

Yeah, season four was something else.

 

Ironically enough season 4 is my least favorite season. For me it’s always been 2>1>3>5>4

Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a damn good season...just my least favorite of the 5

 

Season Four is far and away the best. There is none of the wasted time getting the detail together and the lack of McNulty allows the show to focus on the strengths of its docudrama style.

 

Watching David Simon have yet another Twitter meltdown tonight reinforces why I have had little interest in going back to the show, even though I have gone back to shows like The Sopranos and Deadwood. Everything the Wire taught me about corruption and societal ills is contradicted in his obsession with carrying water for the Hillary Clinton wing of the Democratic Party. For a guy who lives in a blue state to be a cheerleader for the party, even though he documents their corruption in the show, is so bizarre. It should not affect my views of the show, but it makes me think I read into things that were not there.

 

Season 4 is the best followed by season 2. All of the other main storylines -- the cops, the crews, the politicians, the journalists -- were focused on the permanent institutions that perpetuate the cycle. The longshoremen and the kids, in contrast, are more or less the victims of the cycle. They're the otherwise unassuming "civilians" who get chewed up and spit out by the system in one way or another, and once they stop being useful, the show, like the institutions, ignores them and moves on.

 

Season 2 is taking a bit to get going, but on ep 5 and the gang is finally getting back together!

It was kind of depressing the first ep to see how after all they did in the first season, they all got the shaft and screwed over right after.

 

That slow burn storytelling process in season two definitely pays off in the end.

 

"How many times have you arrested?"
"Too many times to know not to take it personally"

lol I love Omar.

 

Onto season 3. Season 2 was good but not as good as the first for me. It felt like it was building to something that never happened if that makes any sense. Because of that I'll probably be in the boat that doesn't think season 2 is the best of the bunch when all is said and done.

Still loving this show.

 

Frank. Ugh. Frank.

 

Even though he was (one of) the bads, I loved every scene he was in.

His fate sucked, but that's what I like about the show so much is that it never goes the way it should.

 

I always felt like Frank did the best he could given the cards he was dealt, but I'm due for a re-watch. It's been too many years.

 

He was super loyal to his family and union, but was still in bed with smuggling drugs and women lol.

 

Frank wasn’t really that bad at all. He helped smuggle things for the Greeks, but he didn’t know they were smuggling women and was outraged when he learned about, and he didn’t do it to enrich himself but to keep the union and its individual members afloat.

 

This right here is why I think the show is so great so far. Even if you are a "bad guy", it fleshes out everyone so you get their story and reasoning. You can argue any side isn't "that bad" at all which is cool.

I still think getting into drug smuggling makes you bad no matter the reasoning, but being able to argue the other side is what is so cool about this.

 

The "bad" people face no consequences; the incompetent police chiefs are given comfortable consulting jobs when they are forced out, the real players in the drug game (the Greeks and the lawyers) continue on even though the drug kingpins die and go to jail, and the former mayor goes on to run for a council seat and the new mayor moves on to becoming Governor. The actual architects of power in this country almost never face reprisals for their behavior; how many people went to jail for the Iraq War or the banking crisis?

 

No, Littlefinger noooooooooooo.

He has to be a schemer in everything he's in doesn't he?

 

So far I like season 3 the best, I'm just a few eps from the end. I think I just like the city better than the docks honestly.

Prez can't catch a break huh? The writers have it in for him. Every season so far they have him get himself into some crazy situation.

 

Felt the same way on my first watch and I even felt like it was dragging on but now season 2 is probably my favorite.

 

Yeah I'll have to see my ranking at the end. Watching how everything is coming together in season 3, it makes season 2 look more like just set up for this one. Like filler while Avon is in jail and the crew of police are getting back together. Filler is probably the wrong term to use actually....

 

S3 has some great highs.

 

Almost done with season 4 and it's enjoyable, but man season 3 felt like a final season type of story and the way it ended. Obviously I have no idea where it goes from here though.

 

Finished. Show is great. I probably wouldn't place it above The Shield or Breaking Bad, but I can see why people rank it as the all time great, esp for it's time.

I feel like it was weird in the last season to introduce the whole journalism department and a whole new cast of characters for the last 10 eps instead of focusing on wrapping more up and spending more time with the characters we'd known for 4 seasons. Seemed like they didn't know it was going to be the end?

I already kind of stated it above, but season 3 really does feel like it would have been the perfect ending. I think they jumped the gun by telling that part of the story so early!

 

My roommate is doing his first watch. I'm so fucking excited for him to get to season three. For me, that's when the show really cemented itself as my favorite show ever.

 

Rewatching the show, I have never felt that D'Angelo fits in the show. He always feels like an actor playing a drug dealer rather than a drug dealer, and it is hard to imagine him killing multiple people.

The show will always be important for its examination of corruption and the ways systems preserve themselves at the cost of change, but a lot of the traditional drama is stale. The "wife who just doesn't get the job" of Daniels-McNulty-Greggs really slows down the interesting parts.

There was a time that this would have been my favorite show, but a lot of that is because it came out at a time that it could be a political awakening for my own belief system. It is still great, but it is a level below things like The Sopranos or Deadwood or Mad Men.