This must be said: The Wire is overrated

[DonDadda59]

I agree, it depends on the kind of show in question.

A show such as The Wire needs more realistic characters, not as bombastic, whereas The Sopranos can even benefit from it. Sure the Sopranos wants realism, but they're not trying to be what the Wire was.

Only brought it up is because some knocked the Wire and BB for having over the top characters, but they're not trying to be a documentary-ish type show a la Wire.

Fair enough, but IMO Breaking Bad has a lot more issues than just over the top characters, but I'm sure that's a topic for another thread.

[longtime lurker]

So you conclude the Wire is an overrated show from watching one season in a five season series? OP is not serious about life. Sounds like just an attention whoring thread.

[Styles p]

also the ring little story line in the wire. omar took it from marlo at a card game, the cop took it from omar then michael took it from the cop. marlo asks mike where he got it from and he said "took it from some *****" marlo thought mike took it from omar, which immediately made marlo respect mike more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpKpMtLioUU

[Raymone]

I finally forced myself to watch the full first two seasons of this show. Holy shit, I do not see the appeal. At least not to the level it gets exalted. The only interesting characters to me are Omar and Stringer. The rest are either flat, poorly written or poorly acted. McNulty; boring. The black detectives; meh. The lesbian cop getting shot; are we supposed to feel something?

Oh, and the scene where Barksdale's nephew gets murdered in prison is some of the worst acting I've ever seen. Not even kidding. I wasn't thinking, "Oh wow, a main character is getting choked out!" I was thinking, "I'm watching an actor unconvincingly pretend to get strangled."

The only thing holding this show up at all is the plot and the acting from Williams and Elba. I don't think I'll make it into season 3. Verdict confirmed: overrated.

[KyrieTheFuture]

Of course someone with your terrible taste dislikes this show

[AlphaWolf24]

The show came out like 13 years ago....prolly seems a little dated now...

but it was good when it first aired

[IamRAMBO24]

The main character was using an Android.

[imdaman99]

Doesn't surprise me blandgar dislikes the Wire

Overrate apple and underrate the Wire. iSheep

[dazzer87]

Sooooo Breaking BAd >>>> The Wire and Sopranos????


breaking bad is overrated....turned that shit off after first episode

[iznogood]

I agree with those that say Wire is great, but not that great. I remember watching The Wire for the first time and being completely hooked (the 2nd season was my favourite). It was my favourite show for a long time. However, I think it was mostly because I'm from Europe and not really familiar with the environment portrayed in The Wire.

Watching the show for the second time I admit I had a hard time watching it once I knew what the plot was about. I appreciate the fact that the show gave a very good inside in the way systems work and also presented another angle on the war on drugs, but at the same time I think it was often too simplified or sometimes very cheap or just wrong. I also felt like there was a lot of stuff thrown in just to keep the level of authenticity and I thought it killed the dramatic part of the show. I feel the same way about Treme, which was done by the same people and is basically The Wire happening in New Orleans. Bringing in a lot of authentic characters and locations to cover for the lack of story or some writing that felt very cheesy to me. I get it, life is neither simple not fair. I feel many people get overwhelmed by the show like I was when I watched it for the first time and then call out people who don't like it for not being able to "understand" it, which I find funny, since I don't think the ideas the show presents are particularly difficult to understand, unless you're not educated.

I also thought some of the acting was very bad, which is understood considering the fact a lot of the people in the show are not trained actors. I thought Marlo, Snoop and Chris were all bad even though I thought the Marlo storyline was really good. Also I hated the way McNulty and Bunk were portrayed. I love Idris Elba, but he just seemed like a naive douchebag and was not convincing to me at all. I also thought there was a lot of good acting, but on average it felt nothing special.

I also thought cinematography could be better. I understand they probably didn't want to make any "nice" shots to keep the feel of the city kind of ugly and bad, but they could've done it much better. Most of it just looks pretty boring.

I also strongly disagree with the poster who suggested the comedy elements were better in The Wire than in Sopranos. I actually hated most of the humour in The Wire, most of it was extremely cheesy and very simple. Sopranos are very subtle in that aspect, but there's a lot of stuff in that's just ridiculously funny.

All in all, Sopranos and The Wire are 2 very different shows, but I think the level of acting, writing, depth and level of detail can't be compared. Sopranos are simply a better show. I don't even think The Wire is as good as Oz, Deadwood or Twin Peaks in that aspects. Fargo and True Detective also both looked nothing short of amazing so far, but it's to early to tell.

[iznogood]

I agree with those that say Wire is great, but not that great. I remember watching The Wire for the first time and being completely hooked (the 2nd season was my favourite). It was my favourite show for a long time. However, I think it was mostly because I'm from Europe and not really familiar with the environment portrayed in The Wire.

Watching the show for the second time I admit I had a hard time watching it once I knew what the plot was about. I appreciate the fact that the show gave a very good inside in the way systems work and also presented another angle on the war on drugs, but at the same time I think it was often too simplified or sometimes very cheap or just wrong. I also felt like there was a lot of stuff thrown in just to keep the level of authenticity and I thought it killed the dramatic part of the show. I feel the same way about Treme, which was done by the same people and is basically The Wire happening in New Orleans. Bringing in a lot of authentic characters and locations to cover for the lack of story or some writing that felt very cheesy to me. I get it, life is neither simple not fair. I feel many people get overwhelmed by the show like I was when I watched it for the first time and then call out people who don't like it for not being able to "understand" it, which I find funny, since I don't think the ideas the show presents are particularly difficult to understand, unless you're not educated.

I also thought some of the acting was very bad, which is understood considering the fact a lot of the people in the show are not trained actors. I thought Marlo, Snoop and Chris were all bad even though I thought the Marlo storyline was really good. Also I hated the way McNulty and Bunk were portrayed. I love Idris Elba, but he just seemed like a naive douchebag and was not convincing to me at all. I also thought there was a lot of good acting, but on average it felt nothing special.

I also thought cinematography could be better. I understand they probably didn't want to make any "nice" shots to keep the feel of the city kind of ugly and bad, but they could've done it much better. Most of it just looks pretty boring.

I also strongly disagree with the poster who suggested the comedy elements were better in The Wire than in Sopranos. I actually hated most of the humour in The Wire, most of it was extremely cheesy and very simple. Sopranos are very subtle in that aspect, but there's a lot of stuff in that's just ridiculously funny.

All in all, Sopranos and The Wire are 2 very different shows, but I think the level of acting, writing, depth and level of detail can't be compared. Sopranos are simply a better show. I don't even think The Wire is as good as Oz, Deadwood or Twin Peaks in that aspects. Fargo and True Detective also both looked nothing short of amazing so far, but it's to early to tell.

[Raymone]

Again; overrated to a laughable degree.

[ArbitraryWater]

This thread also:

Gotta agree... its not GOAT.

BrBa >>

[Lebron23]

watching some reruns it was a good show. Edris Alba, and Michael B Jordan became huge stars because of the Wire.

[SATAN]

Only seen a couple episodes and never understood the hype. Didn't seem that much better than New York Undercover tbh.