Another item to add to the list of qualities that are insufficient to raise The Wire from good to great: underlying political and social messages. Who cares. It's supposed to be a TV show, not a documentary. If it doesn't add to the show's overall entertainment value or make it any more compelling to watch, then it's a non-factor.
didn't this guy already admit he's only watched a few episodes? why bother trying to convince him lol
just so you kno what you're missing raymone: the wire is straight damning social commentary on whats wrong with the way your tax dollars are spent. its an expose on how the public sector has been perverted and compromised to the point that its making promises it can't keep and fighting battles it can't win... and everybody knows it except the folks making the promises and fighting the battles. and it demonstrates those facts with such poignancy and modern relevance, to the point it can actually tweak the way you see your every day, because it dissects institutions we not only live and breathe but also fund; the police force, the school system, city hall.
just don't happen anywhere else. that first scene is a city cop taking the exact same giant shit on a wildly corrupt defense attorney and a top notch angel of a public prosecutor, one right after the other. thats why it tops virtually every list imaginable. on top of the fact its extremely well written and well acted.
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Originally Posted by Kblaze8855
Can you imagine if HBO managed to buy an entire commercial break during the superbowl to air the Paper Bag speech?
HBO would have had 40 million new customers the next morning.
Amen.
While completely dissecting and destroying the fictitious "War on Drugs," which I would say is the show's primary subject, it also manages to hit other extremely important topics, like the illusion of border control, the ridiculousness and destructiveness of one size fits all school testing, the decline of print media and how that has destroyed competent, in-depth reporting, etc.
There is no way to overplay the brilliance of David Simon and the show's writers/producers/actors that they were able to tackle these extremely layered societal ills and present them in such an entertaining way, while not losing a bit of realism.
I love The Sopranos... recently just re-watched the whole series, which I do routinely every couple years.
But, the difference between The Sopranos and The Wire is like the difference between appreciating a beautiful painting of a fictitious scene from the past and actually visiting a slum and investigating how it got that way... the difference between art appreciation and investigative journalism.
Another item to add to the list of qualities that are insufficient to raise The Wire from good to great: underlying political and social messages. Who cares. It's supposed to be a TV show, not a documentary. If it doesn't add to the show's overall entertainment value or make it any more compelling to watch, then it's a non-factor.
The brilliance is in the creator's ability to entertain you and pull you into the story while also informing you about social ills... whether you even realize it or not.
But, by all means, if this is how you feel... don't watch the series. I've never been one to push someone to inform/entertain themselves.
But, the difference between The Sopranos and The Wire is like the difference between appreciating a beautiful painting of a fictitious scene from the past and actually visiting a slum and investigating how it got that way... the difference between art appreciation and investigative journalism.
Another item to add to the list of qualities that are insufficient to raise The Wire from good to great: underlying political and social messages. Who cares. It's supposed to be a TV show, not a documentary. If it doesn't add to the show's overall entertainment value or make it any more compelling to watch, then it's a non-factor.
I bet the creators of the Sopranos would wish for better fans of their own product if they read some garbage like that.
I bet the creators of the Sopranos would wish for better fans of their own product if they read some garbage like that.
And I bet if they were tasked with creating a drama series that insisted on delivering some social commentary with the goal of "changing the way you view your daily life" and public institutions, they could so in an entertaining manner and still create a captivating universe and storyline and characters like The wire largely failed to do.
How is The Wire not captivating and entertaining? It's the epitome of authentic life drama. It creates a society with real people going through real issues. Every single season of The Wire you have ending episodes that hold real gut punches when shit hits the fan. It created iconic characters, delivered mature storylines and dialog, all while entertaining with witty quotes and surprising developments. I guess the issue lies in the fact that the show doesn't insult people's intelligence. They reward it with complex material.... And unfortunately it seems that not all who view it can grasp it's value.
How fitting, came here to post an article about how GOT's season premiere got the highest ratings for HBO since the Sopranos finale and people are in here arguing about the latter and the Wire.
GOT had 6.6 mil viewers, the Sopranos finale had 11.9 million
That prompted HBO to immediately renew GOT for 2 more seasons.
On topic...err sort of... I've seen every episode of both the Wire and the Sopranos and I think both are at the top in terms of dramas all time. I prefer the Sopranos though. Didn't care for Season 2 of the Wire and Season 5 pissed me off. But Season 4 of that show is as good as TV gets. I do think the writing on the Wire tends to get overrated a bit IMO. People mistake quantity as automatically being higher quality sometimes.
Quantity? Im not sure how that even applies. You saying the wire had a lot of writing as opposed to the sopranos?
No, I'm saying it had a larger scope. In that it covered, or attempted to cover, the 'war on drugs', the importation of said drugs, the education system, the media, etc. On the other hand The Sopranos was more character driven, with more centralized figures and micro-focused as opposed to macro style of the Wire.
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You know the show Talking Dead where people just...talk about the previous Walking Dead episode?
That shit had 7.3 million viewers one night. Not related to anything...just saying.
Walking Dead is a monster. Its post show interviews get better ratings than some of the biggest shows on tv.
So what?
You do realize AMC has over 100 million customers compared to HBO's 32 million (28 million in 2007), right?
I actually wonder what it would have been on HBO. It would be too brutal for many parents to let their kids watch. And the topless zombie rate might get out of hand....
Re: A Game of Thrones
