The Wire

Is anyone else as completely addicted to this show as I am?

I see that a lot of people like Six Feet Under, or Carnivale, and I'm sure everyone has heard of Sex in the City and The Sopranos, but for my money, not only is The Wire the best show HBO has to offer, it's simply the best thing currently airing on any network.

To call The Wire a "cop show" is an enormous understatement. The brainchild of David Simon (formerly a reporter with the Baltimore Sun, whose book, Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, inspired the NBC series of the same name), The Wire is an intricately structured look at the complex interactions of the various institutions that comprise modern urban society, and how they affect the lives of the people who are beholden to these institutions. To even call it a "series" is misleading, as each season could more accurately be described as a 13 hour film, or a 13 chapter book that grows steadily more engrossing as it evolves. The main plot thread involves the strategic cat and mouse maneuvering between a certain Baltimore police detail and the Barksdale crew of dealers, their confrontations with each other and with their respective superiors as it all pertains to "the Game."

The show is currently leading up to the culmination of the 3rd season (3 episodes left!), and it is literally the only thing on television I will make time to watch. And while it's probably too densely structured and too far along for someone to just jump into without seeing the previous seasons, the first season DVD box-set was just released in October, and (obviously) comes highly recommended.

But the point of this is, does anyone else on SG watch this show? I've been wearing out my HBO OnDemand rewatching this season, and I can't find anyone else who watches every week to geek out about it with.

9 PM Sundays! Brother Mouzzone! Hamsterdam! Herc and Carver! O-motherfucking-mar!

Here's some more press on the Wire for the hard-to-convince:

Newsday: "If there were an Emmy for most great moments per hour, "The Wire" would deserve it. And the TV academy probably would flub that one, too."

SFGate: "Years from now, when collecting the complete seasons and studying the dark, TV-as-literature motivations of 'The Wire' is all the rage, you can say you sat through the original episodes. You believed that great television was worth the effort."

Daily Lobo: "Week by week, 'The Wire,' which begins its third season Sunday on HBO, leaves me with a sense of elation at the end of every single episode. It's not just the best of HBO's lauded dramatic lineup - 'The Wire' is the best show I've ever seen, and I can't imagine liking another show this much."

MSNBC: "With 'The Wire,' the entire series is like a brazen gunfight on an inner-city street. Even if you think you are safe, you could still be hit with a stray bullet. Characters that you've invested time and emotions in suddenly are gone. Executive producer David Simon apparently has too much integrity, intelligence and respect for the harsh realities he and his crack team of associates deal with to hand out one-hour helpings of vanilla. Here's hoping he keeps it up."

Tony Kushner, who wrote "Angels in America": "It is, you should pardon the expression, utterly addictive. And best of all, in its very, very dark way, it is an improbably, outrageously, profoundly optimistic work of art . . . week after week, and now season after season, 'The Wire' arrives at something very much like the truth"

Yeah, it's definitely the best show on TV right now. I was a big fan of the Homicide book and series also....

Like The Big Sleep member name...

I was hoping this would be about the brilliant English punk band OR the brilliant English music magazine.

But no bones.

I thought it was the band too. I am definitely listening to Pink Flag right now.

However I do want to see this show, everyones panties do appear to be in a knot over it.

Yes! Best show on TV. Whenever a thread comes up named "The Wire" before now, it's always been about the band and my hopes get dashed.

It's tough to get people to watch it, though. "It's like if Law & Order took an entire season to do one case. Also, it's like if Law & Order was still good. Plus, it's so hugely complicated that you have to go out and buy the expensive season one DVD to catch...where are you going?"

This is what I tell end up saying to people. "Mother Fuckin' Omar! Just watch the show until that phrase makes you want to switch sides."

I'm really itchin' to watch season 3. I don't wanna pay for HBO so I have to wait for the DVDs. So far, no release date has been announced for season 3!

But yea, season 1 and 2 are pure fucking brilliance!

This show is amazing. I recently got ahold of all three seasons, and blazed through the first two in one gigantic binge. I stalled after the first three episodes of the third season, but that's mostly because my laptop crashed and I got hit with a deluge of freelance work. I'll get started again soon...

I wasn't as big a fan of season two, but one and three were spectacular. The whole thing's like watching a novel.

It's weird to have to wait two years between seasons though. The show already has only marginal popularity. I hope that they'll find a way to build a bigger audience for this one.