The Wire (HBO) TV Show • Page 8

I want to watch this show with my fiance, but she can't do torture at all. I know this is a drama and has to do with crime, are there any torture scenes? if so, I'll probably just watch it on my own. It's been on my list for a while and HBO making it free has given me a sign to finally start it.

 

I don’t think so. It’s been a while, but the violence is mostly just...violence.

 

There’s one kinda torture scene in the second season.

 

None are coming to mind right now.

 

There’s a pretty intense torture scene at the end of the first season but all you see is the aftermath (it’s brutal)

 

Hamsterdam was created for the show based on the Baltimore Mayor in the late 90’s being vocal about legalizing drugs. My stepfather was a Baltimore City officer during that time (in the SE district) and confirmed that there never an actual Hamsterdam although it’s sort of a local urban legend around Baltimore ever since the show aired

 

How much time did the Hamsterdam plot supposedly span? After a certain point I would imagine a journalist or someone connected like that would hear something or notice some sorts of trends

 

It's not torture but there is a scene in season 4 of a one sided beat down that is very graphic and brutal.

 

That scene is disturbing as hell.

 

Okay, thank you! Besides that scene - the show is free of that kinda stuff?

 

It’s a heavy show. I can’t think of anything that’s unnecessarily violent or brutal. It’s not the kind of series to rely on shock value but it IS realistic, and while sensitively portrayed, it doesnt stray away from the really dark sides of things. There’s drug addiction, gang violence, police brutality, domestic violence, a series-long plotline following a homeless junkie. A lot of scenes are hard to watch. But it’s all really well done.

 

Agreed with all of the above. It's definitely not an easy watch by any means, but well worth it, and I think the scene I described is probably the hardest to watch in the series as far as violence goes.

 

Thank you so much for the detailed responses!

 

The drop in quality in season 5 is more noticeable on rewatch.

 

I straight skipped it on my last rewatch. Imo the series ends with s4

 

Tho I think then Bubbles has a really bad ending if I’m remembering s4 correctly

 

The S5 ending is very “neat” for the show and the arc is probably one of my least favorites (least realistic) but I still enjoyed that season for what it was.

 

I am halfway through season five and it makes one wonder how it can be the same show. McNulty is back to being a drunken womanizer all of the sudden. Marlo takes over the syndicate and is toppled about two episodes later. While other seasons painted nuanced portraits of everyone, the newspaper antagonists are pure villains, obviously David Simon trying to get even with people at the Baltimore Sun. The serial killer story is bad, and it feels like it might have been a compromise stemming from the shorter episode length. It would have been much better seeing the detail spend a whole season bringing down the Stanfield crew and their new methods.

 

Chris and Snoop baiting Omar and then Omar jumping off the third story is also bad.

 

What is really frustrating is that the media arc is an essential one to wrap up any examination of corruption and rot. Why do they keep getting away with all of this mismanagement? It is part of media complicity. There are shades of it; the education story being dropped as the serial killer story develops and the boss killing a story about racial diversity numbers because he is a friend with a dean at the college. You also have the bits about murders of black people in crime-ridden areas being buried, particularly the way they shrug off Omar's death despite him being such a gravitational force in the context of the show. Unfortunately, it gets tied up in the serial killer game.

 

Has anyone been listening to the new Ringer podcast about The Wire? Wondering if it’s worth doing a paired rewatch.

 

I listened to half of the first episode and bailed.

 

It’s not good, I bailed as soon as they started talking about Lake Trout in Baltimore. Clearly the line “like egg creams in New York - no eggs, no cream” went over their heads.

 

A sixth season really could have run wild with Valchek as commissioner and Campbell as mayor. They make the previous administrations look like saints.

 

Just finishing season one, it took a bit but I'm really getting into it now. Also why does everyone have messed up eyes lol