What's so great about The Wire? (theme, Chicago, NYC, best)
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One of the things that made the Wire really extraordinary compared to most scripted dramas, IMO, was how purely character driven it was. Every character, major or minor, had his or her own goals and motivations and the plot grew naturally from how those goals clashed or aligned. I think it's part of why the show felt so honest and realistic (along, of course, with the showrunners' deep research and experience, and the show's frequent use of local community instead of regular actors), because that's how life works. It's not a story populated with characters, it's characters growing their story.
So I don't get what's so special about this show special as it really seems like average stuff we have seen so much before, unless I am wrong?
The Wire came out in 2002. It's one of those shows that's been much imitated by other TV and films, with varying degrees of success.
There are occasional shows and movies that deeply influence the language of cinema, and sometimes when one goes back and watches them decades after the fact, it's hard to place in context how innovative and original they were at the time, because they've been echoed ever since.
The Wire is definitely more than an average Cop Drama that anyone can figure out who did what in about 15 minutes. It's like reading Shakespeare instead of Mad Magazine. You had to pay attention as a lot of the clues were visual and not always stated. I realized that Bubbles' white buddy, Johnny, wasn't around and wondered what happened to him. Had to go back and got found a 4 second segment showing him lifeless with a needle in his arm, no other mention. All the characters, Bunk, Stringer Bell, Bubbles, Omar, Ziggy, were all excellent. Good to see so many of the actors doing well.
The last season in particular was interesting to me when they got the press involved. They had a political reporter with years of experience that knew every official in town. He was replaced by a college newbie that don't know a thing. Same thing happened to my cousin in Boston. Part of that story was a stretch, but it really described what was going on in newspapers all across the country.
Again, what shows DO you like? Scooby Doo?
Re your comment about final season—-the removal of seasoned investigative reporter for cheaper newbie
We are seeing in today’s media a similar swath of retrenching in online media
And you can be sure that if there are replacements they will be less experiences/lower cost part-time writers who likely go on a piece pay basis...
The woman who has been following Guantanamo since it became a holding pen for terrorists is getting the chop
Now that story line is not as important as it has been but her knowledge is deep and it will be gone
Going to happen in other areas as well
And we are all partly responsible for it by wanting cheaper news
I pay for subscription to NYTimes and had one to WaPo but get most of my news off the air even though I do read
Many people read only what is posted on FB and don’t care what the real source is...
One of the things that made the Wire really extraordinary compared to most scripted dramas, IMO, was how purely character driven it was. Every character, major or minor, had his or her own goals and motivations and the plot grew naturally from how those goals clashed or aligned. I think it's part of why the show felt so honest and realistic (along, of course, with the showrunners' deep research and experience, and the show's frequent use of local community instead of regular actors), because that's how life works. It's not a story populated with characters, it's characters growing their story.
The scene where McNulty and Bunk use one bit of profanity in variety of inflections for over 10 minutes is one of the top 10 scenes in tv...
See if it is on YouTube or some other platform—
Awesome for how the writers and the actors could use inflection to totally modify perception
OMG I had forgotten about this scene until you mentioned it. Great great scene.
One of the things that made the Wire really extraordinary compared to most scripted dramas, IMO, was how purely character driven it was. Every character, major or minor, had his or her own goals and motivations and the plot grew naturally from how those goals clashed or aligned. I think it's part of why the show felt so honest and realistic (along, of course, with the showrunners' deep research and experience, and the show's frequent use of local community instead of regular actors), because that's how life works. It's not a story populated with characters, it's characters growing their story.
OMG I had forgotten about this scene until you mentioned it. Great great scene.
S1 E4 I believe from previous post I made
It is just superlative combination of acting, directing, and the use of a knowledge of how people—real people—use profanity that is both timeless and an icon of its era...
Definitely one of the six or seven shows in my rewatch rotation. You cannot give up on the first episode and have a credible opinion. (Yes if it wasn't popular or talked about how it's one of the real treasures I would've given up in the first fifteen minutes). It's different and the realism in the show is what's so enjoyable.
Oh okay, I started watching it so far, but I think the realism works against the show, because, no one is allowed to do anything to crazy, cause they are limited by the reality of the world.
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