Entertainment For Lively Minds
The Wire - Fifth Series Coming to the UK in July
Posted by woodface on 9 June 2008 - 6:02pm.
Fellow Wire fans will be counting the days until the fifth and final series is shown in the UK, where do you put this great show in the grand scheme of things? I think it is the best piece of Television ever (regardless of genre) surely most sane people agree? For me it is the minor characters that really add to the quality of the show, just how great is 'Bubbles'? The acting is of a standard unseen before, who would have thought that the actor behind McNulty is a posh bloke from Sheffield? No other programe has sustained such total brilliance over 60 + episodes, I dare you to disagree with me!
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Don't hate me
I'm going to the NFT next week to see episode one of the new series. I have approximately 9 episodes to watch before then...
Don't hate me but I'm going
Don't hate me but I'm going to Baltimore on Friday to tour some of the series locations with a member of the production team and visit the Wire exhibition in the city. However, I haven't seen any of series 5 as yet.
Very nice
I tried to find someone doing Wire tours in Baltimore last time I was in the US, but no such thing exists as yet, as far as I can tell. I wish I'd known about the exhibition.
So I settled for the Sopranos tour of New Jersey. The onion rings at Holsten’s aren’t all that good, but finding myself stuffing dollar bills into a stripper's cleavage at one o'clock in the afternoon at the original Bada-bing wasn't an altogether unpleasant surprise.
Don't hate me either
I've seen Series 5 all the way through. And it's killing me that I've got nobody to discuss it with.
I don't agree with you.
Neither do I disagree. I haven't seen a single frame of "The Wire", and I'm afraid life is too short to even contemplate starting now.
Dunno, let's find out...
I've not seen so much as a trailer for The Wire, but given that several members of The Word editorial staff, and many Word Website regulars whose opinions I value, have all raved about the show on innumerable occasions; and given that there's no more Sopranos, ever, I shall hie me to amazon.co.uk and snap up the first 3 boxsets while they're all at amazon.co.uk for under 18 quid each... (a couple of minutes later)... Or I will when Amazon returns from the dead. Bugger - how did they know I was just about to bag a bargain, eh?
Like Vulpes
....I simply haven't got the energy and interest to watch it now. Also, observing the passing of comments, a lot seems to hinge around people saying "fuck" which hardly seems a powerful plot device to me.
Just plain silly
To be honest the programe has lots of very bad language as you would expect given the subject matter. It is, however, in no way a plot device or indeed used instead of one. You may not have the time or energy to view but in 30 years time people will still be talking about this series and you will have missed out.
You may well be right
I'd probably give it a whirl if I had time but I just don't spend that much time in front of the telly. What I could do with is a nice long debilitating illness to catch up on stuff like the Wire, West Wing etc. Happily I did see all the Sopranos and Mad men so they don't need to be on the list. I do contend though that constant bad language is a bit tiresome. People don't actually talk like that in real life. A few well placed curses are very colourful - endless ones are boring and lazy.
The game done changed...
Singing Detective apart I'd agree. The Wire's a fantastic series, not judgemental of its characters and full of the ordinary complexities of life and, er, selling drugs or trying to stop other people selling drugs. Does all those things telly should: inform, educate and entertain. Series 3 dipped a bit, the speed with which they shoot and edit the programmes began to show for me anyway, scenes got shorter, a little done by numbers and, y'know, mostly ending on a disbelieving facial expression from a main character. Series 4 started and I thought 'oh no, inner city schools story, lefty liberals preaching to the converted like me' but of course it transcended that, not least because the co-creator had been a cop who taken just that journey from police to sink school teacher. This next one focuses on the media I'm told, on past form...
Singing Detective - truly great but..
It was only a single series and in my view was no where near the wire for sustained brilliance. There have been plenty of great individual series (Edge of Darknness springs to mind) but I still feel nothing comes close to the wonder of the wire.
A Joy to Behold
I've seen series 5 and it maintains the incredibly high standard set by the other 4 series. I agree with the hype.It's brilliantly filmed and acted and let's hope TV takes note and follows up with more programmes of this quality.
I've only seen Series 1
Would it be as long as a couple of years ago?
I agree it is great stuff. Someone used to post the episodes on a torrent tracker the night after they were shown on tv in the US. Same with "Lost". We don't have Sky/Virgin so unable to watch this and my wife was getting friends to record it.
Anyway.....The Wire is an hour long and there are 12 episodes per series(I think).....great though it is, I simply don't have enough time to catch up.
On the first series I spotted Steve Earle playing a drugs councellor in a couple of episodes.
Yep
And Clarence Clemons in season 3.
Steve Earle's character
Steve Earle's character makes a substantial return in Season 5. In fact (and I don't think this is a spoiler) one of the joys of the final season is seeing several characters from earlier seasons pass through - often only for a moment.
great
I'll add my name to the fellas above who have already seen series 5, it maintains the incredibly high standard and I'm only sorry that, like the West Wing and The Sopranos, there won't be any more of it.
Good Po-lice
I only started watching the Wire a couple of months ago, when my son seconded David H's recommendation. I'm halfway through series 3 and loving it. It's one of the things that makes my 2 hours each way daily commute bearable. Highly recommended.
and not only
is McNulty a posh bloke from Sheffield but Stringer Bell is from Hackney.
All in the game
I'm midway through series 4 on FX, agree season 3 was not as good as first 2 and because of this I thought series 4 would be a season too far but not at all - has anyone played an addict like Bubbles so well previously...where the Sopranos stayed round for probably a season or two too long I think The Wire will benefit from sticking to 5 seasons.
Also agree on season 3
It was dodgily paced, I think - episode after episode of Hamsterdam not really going anywhere and then suddenly, oops, the whole of Othello had to be crammed into the last two hours.
I agree
3 is the weakest section but that is only in comparison to the others, in isolation it is still a brilliant piece of drama.
Bubbles
Just a really great character, the part at the end of series 3 where he bumps into the retired policeman behind the Hamsterdam experiment is really moving. The actor who plays bubbles has been consitantly great throughout the run.
And a hat-doff is due to the makeup people
He actually looks like this:
Wow
And again, wow.
Yes do believe the hype
After what feels like months of relentless badgering from Word, us latecomers have joined up and we are 3 episodes into series one. And yes, me and even the Mrs (who generally if it isn't Doctor Who doesn't want to know) have been blown away. How good is it? It makes The Sopranos and The West Wing look like light entertainment (not that that's a wholly bad thing).
I am actually envious in some ways
Trust me it only gets better, series one was a serious slow burner which just built and built. I can remember the sheer wonder of seeing it for the first time and really the impact can never be the same as you just kind of expect perfection from then on.
Certainly bears repeats.
I'm watching series 4 on Fx, but am working my way through the Dvd's (coming to the end of series 1).
Really helps having sub titles as a lot of the patter is tough to pick up.