The Wire, Season 4: It's arrived!
Posted by Archie Valparaiso on 13 March 2008 - 2:30pm.
I might be some time.
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fith and final season
is currently being broadcast in the US - I'm thinking I might wait and buy the complete 5 season box set. Then I can find out what all the fuss is about.
Season 5
Spent the last few days watching the complete season 5 (you all know where I got it) and I think it's the best of the lot. What a great show.
Wired
I watched series four over a single weekend in December - you're in for a real treat. Rumours suggest that HBO will be putting out series five in the US in November, so that's what I'm waiting for.
Season five just finished in the States this week.
..didn't it?
Yes
I meant the DVD release - I'm guessing that it'll be late in the year, as was the DVD release of season four.
Yes. Stay off the Net!
It's teeming with who-makes-it-to-the-end-alive spoilers.
The Wire and Mr Hepworth
Any chance you can post a link to your column in the current issue?
I chose my words very carefully....
...to make sure I didn't give away the plot. I hope it's vague enough. Anyway, it's not what happens as much as how it happens.
You can find it here.
Mondays
I'm still faithfully doing what Word told me to do: Mondays on FX...
Can someone tell me...
...is the first season thought to start off very slowly? Only Mr Jude started watching it over the weekend (to soothe the pain of me being off working abroad, I assume) and he was surprised that the first three episodes were so slow. I've heard this elsewhere, I think - is he right? Or just a right fuss-arse?
That's The Wire
There are no easy resolutions. The case being worked on at the beginning of episode one will still be unraveling at the end of the series. It's not Miami-Vice-style solve-everything-in-40-minutes fare. Give it time to work its magic.
It just one Proust-ass piece of work, yo
Season 1 takes half a dozen episodes or so to hit cruise mode, but it's not idling before then, despite first impressions. A lot of what goes on in the first few episodes in season 1 will turn out to be relevant - and in some cases crucially important - not only for later episodes but for later seasons too. The whole thing is like a five-volume novel that's constantly foreshadowing and recalling future and past events. The slow pace is part of its realism, too, I think. The characters' feelings and motivations, their ambitions and resentment, bubble under for a long time before bursting up to the surface, usually when you're distracted by all sorts of new things that have started to bubble away quietly.
Tell Mr Jude to be patient and watch 7 or 8 before deciding whether it's "slow". My money is on him being unable to stop if he makes it that far.
So much is happening
One of the benefits of DVD is watching again and seeing seeds being sown that will spring to life later. Sometimes it's something really innocuous and you don't pick up on it because on first viewing it just seems to be a bit of background colour. And this surely is one of the plus points of The Wire - it doesn't yell at you THIS IS SIGNIFICANT but relies on the viewer being attentive enought to join up the dots (even if it isn't necessarily on 1st viewing).
I'll tell ya...
It took me a good six episodes before I realised what the fuss was about. I watched the first AND the second series before deciding it was a masterpiece. The other night I watched the first episode again, this time with subtitles; and you know what? I think I missed 90% the first time round. I'm going to have to watch them all again, such was the degree of my enlightenment.
In a weird way, that's why I like it. For me, the records that I like immediately never last. It's the ones that take work that stay the course. When I first bought Music From Big Pink, I couldn't see what the fuss was about. Actually, I was angry. I'd spent £25 on one of those gold discs and I felt cheated. Now, it's probably in my top 3.
I've been trying to come up with a musical analogy. This is very personal to me, but here goes:
If The Sopranos is The Rolling Stones, then The Wire is The Band.
Fuss-arse. What a great term.
You're right
I stuck with it because a while back I happened across the whole of the first 4 series available to view online for nought. Not there anymore.
I'd not actually heard of it before I started watching. Sadly I suspect that the fact that it was free meant that I gave it more time. I'd probably not have persevered if I'd had to pay - how wrong I'd have been.
Apparently Crockett and
Apparently Crockett and Tubbs are the characters to look out for.
Oh my God
Episode 11 is my personal favourite of them all. Jaw dropping stuff....
It's All Over Now
It finished on Sunday night with a Double length episode.
The Wire has been consistently brilliant since episode 1.The Final season has been excellent. It hasn't been lauded enough in my opinion. And to think the three British actors in it can look back and say "Well sure it beats being in THE BILL".(Carcetti,Stringer Bell and McNulty)
It's a career making series for all the main actors but it'll take some beating in terms of a Highpoint. Have i said i liked it?
Now we have The return of THE SHIELD in April ,the only "COP" show anywhere near The WIRE.
Peaking
I saw an interview with Dominic West where he said that the saddest thing for him about it ending wasn't saying goodbye to all the other actors, because they're mates and will stay in touch, but still being a relatively young actor and knowing in your heart of hearts that you'll never get to work with writing that good ever again. As Paul says, for the actors their peak has come and gone.
My set arrived yesterday
Having been informed by Play early last week that my copy had shipped I was beginning to think that light-fingered Royal Mail employess had been up to their worst (things have failed to arrive before) and that I'd have to go through all the shenanigans of getting a replacement. But no, there it was. Unfortunately MrsP won't let me watch until I've cleared the backlog of Sopranos on the TVDrive that I've been enjoying again.
Its the Kids Stupid!
If Seasons 1-3 are drama then 4 is drama with much tragedy. You watch an episode, you go to the shops and your head is spinning - its the kids. You watch an episode, you go to bed your heart wizzes - its the kids. You watch an episode, you go for a pint; you pulse rockets - its the kids. You know in your mind their actors but in your heart their kids. Your concerned, you worry, your un-happy and you want it to turn out good but its the Wire and mainly it wont. Bugger that Wires good but in a sad way.
All Singing and Dancing
The Wire, with its broad canvas and the feeling of moral outrage that pervades it, could be seen as a modern take on Dickens and Victor Hugo. Perhaps it could be turned into a stage musical like Oliver or Les Miserables. Any casting suggestions? It would be nice to see Michael Crawford and Elaine Paige stretching themselves.
Minor changes required
First, as the title for a musical you will surely agree that "The Wire" simply doesn't cut it. We propose highlighting one of the core characters and optimising his potential as the most obvious hook for audience identification by going with the title Bubbles!
The location also gives us considerable cause for concern. Baltimore would have to be changed to something more in tune with the family feelgood factor that we need to push if we are going to to sell this. With this in view, instead of the corner of Monroe and Fayette, we propose a magical island in the Aegean.
As for the casting, that can wait (although I am told that Christopher Biggins may be interested in the role of Bunk Moreland). In order for this production to succeed surely what we need to be focusing on at this stage is concept, concept, concept!
Bubbles!
Greece is good but didn't Olivia Newton John and John Travolta star in something along those lines. You would I think have to downplay the narcotics side of things, could the struggles to control the drug trade be replaced by the less depressing merchandising of say lemons or feta cheese?