The Wire

I could literally write an essay on why I love The Wire. To me it's the most brilliantly interwoven story on TV. Although McNulty is kind of a focal point, he isn't like the main character/protagonist. Almost all the characters are significant and each of them is so unlike other characters on other shows. Stringer Bell is like a gangster Warren Buffet in the making, Bunk is a guy who while silly and drunk half the time, actually gives a crap about his city, Brother Mouzone is like Godzilla in the body of a small black man, and Omar is just a breakthough in characters.

Ok I'm probs a little biased but the little attention to details, fantastic writing, and how real it feels really blows me away each time I rewatch it. I personally hate politics but The Wire really got me engrossed in how it all works, that in itself is a milestone :P

Repped.

The Wire is simply the best show ever made.

It might sound as if I'm exaggerating, but out of all the TV shows I've seen (and I have seen a great many shows in their entirety), it is the only show that I consider decent. I do not respect any other show apart from The Wire. I like to watch plenty of TV shows all the time, I'm constantly watching different types of shows all across the spectrum. Mostly just to fill time, I get bored every easily. I find plenty of shows to be enjoyable, I don't completely hate everything that's not The Wire.

For example, I've enjoyed watching episodes and scenes from shows like Breaking Bad, Dexter, Battlestar Galactica, Prison Break, Walking Dead, CSI, NCIS, Monk, Psych, Game of Thrones, Sons of Anarchy, Reaper, Sopranos, and many more. But I consider all of these shows to be...well, trashy. That's the only way to describe them. The problem with all of these shows is that they're very inconsistent. They have some really nice episodes, but they're far and few between. For every decent episode, there are 5 to 10 filler episodes which are trashy and boring. These shows tend to have very low quality writing. The story just isn't very engaging. It's okay for passing time, but it doesn't amaze me, I forget about it as soon as I'm finished watching.

Let me just talk about Breaking Bad a little bit more. This show had some epic episodes. But the vast majority of the episodes were filler trash, really boring stuff. And you can clearly tell that the writing is terrible. The plot is completely unrealistic and unbelievable. The plot frequently goes through major confusing twists which only serve to make the show more ridiculous. The series finale was the final nail in the coffin - one of the worst episodes of any TV show I have ever seen. Completely unbelievable, unrealistic, absurd, and just completely uninteresting. What a fitting way to kill off a trashy show.

This is a common problem among most shows nowadays. Shows contain way too many plot twists and murders. The writers mistakenly keep thinking that by increasing the complexity of the story and adding more murders and creating more changes in the plot, that this will make the show better. Wrong. It doesn't. The only thing that can make a show good is high quality writing. And a well written story doesn't need to kill 4 characters each episode and introduce a new subplot and change in the story each episode. No, no, no. That's why Breaking Bad is trash.

Now lets talk about The Wire. The Wire...a true masterpiece. I've watched it multiple times. I cannot emphasise just how amazing this show is. It would be an understatement just to say that it's ten times better than everything else. An exceptionally well written show. It's still just a TV show, so I don't want to say that it's realistic...but compared to every other show that I've seen, I have to say it's a 100 times more believable than anything else I've seen. For instance, you'll never see 2 characters holding each other at gunpoint and having a cheesy 5 minute conversation where they're each coming up with witty quotable remarks. The show doesn't need to kill off a few people each episode to make the plot exciting and interesting. That's the thing about The Wire...it's completely different from all the other trashy shows. You'll never see a character in The Wire take out a whole group of adversaries in a room using a blind firing machine gun situated outside the room. Lol, you'll never see such a silly thing!

Another thing about The Wire: it doesn't have any cheesy music playing in the background. That's how amazing the show is! It doesn't need any cheesy dramatic devices. The only music you will hear in The Wire is the main theme in each episode, the occasional gangsta rap blasting from the car stereo of some drug dealer, and a nice little soundtrack lasting just a few minutes in each season finale episode. That's it!! It just goes to show how strong and how well written the story is. The characters don't need cheesy, witty remarks. No cheesy music is needed. The show is very raw like that. That's how great the writing is.

The Wire hardly contains any filler material at all. And the filler scenes aren't too long or boring. Every single episode is decent, I can't pick a single weak episode. That's another thing I love about the show - its consistency. No other show is as consistent as The Wire. It doesn't serve up any BS. It doesn't conform to the standard Hollywood formula. It's original, unique, gritty, and completely different from any other show. So much so that for a few weeks after I finished watching The Wire for the first time, I found it very hard to sit through other TV shows. After you watch The Wire, you realise how far it is above everything else, I immediately realised that everything else that I had been watching was trash. I just sit there watching Breaking Bad laughing and shaking my head, but I was very bored so I just sat and watched it.

There has never been and never will be anything like The Wire. I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing. On the one hand, it's an amazing show, easily 100 times better than every other show ever made. But I find it very hard to believe that no one else has ever been able to create a show and write a story to match the quality we saw from The Wire. How hard can it really be? I'm tired of watching countless trashy shows like Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones.

Cheers.

For instance, you'll never see 2 characters holding each other at gunpoint and having a cheesy 5 minute conversation where they're each coming up with witty quotable remarks. The show doesn't need to kill off a few people each episode to make the plot exciting and interesting. That's the thing about The Wire...it's completely different from all the other trashy shows. You'll never see a character in The Wire take out a whole group of adversaries in a room using a blind firing machine gun situated outside the room. Lol, you'll never see such a silly thing!

I think there's some elements that are a bit unrealistic. For instance, when Omar robs the Barksdale gang in S1 E3, he's able to rob about 4 or 5 gang members (at least), with only two guys to back him up, yet the Barksdale underlings don't think to attack Omar, even though he's clearly outnumbered. It's still a good scene, just not an overly realistic one in my view

From what I've seen, I can agree that the wire is good, though I wouldn't go so far as to call everything else "trash". Also, isn't Season 5 supposed to be a bit crap, at least compared to earlier ones?

The Wire is ****ing amazing. I've watched it twice completely and have just finished the second viewing about a month ago.

For me it stands out as the best tv show because unlike its contenders; the sopranos, breaking bad etc it doesn't have that soap-like feel. Ive watched both the sopranos and BB yet the wire reigns supreme; the character development and grittiness of the whole affair is what shines through.

In particular having watched the sopranos and breaking bad I get the sense that the wire is simply faster moving and much less boring than the others; for instance in the sopranos season 1 truly drags and sets the stage for six or so seasons of internal mafia politics. Dont get me wrong, I love the sopranos but this, compared to the wire, simply doesn't compare.

All in all I just simply love the realism, simplicity and passion that is the wire. Special shout out to my favourite characters!: Ellis Carver, Major Bill Rawls, Stan Valchek (he's such an *******, you have to love him!), Maurice Levy, Prop Joe, Stringer Bell, Omar Little, Frank Sobotka, Bodie, Herc, Jay Landsman and Bunk!

.......damn I want to watch the wire again, damn you! Haha


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Absolutely brilliant analysis of The Wire



Great to see two like-minded souls who share the same appreciation for iy

It really is just extraordinary , if you're looking for the absolute definition of character development then you'll find it perfectly exhibited in this show.

I could go on for ages but Season 3 and 4 are absolutely extraordinary no other season of any show comes close.

It cannot be accurately articulated the level at which the writing is on it.

The Wire is the best show ever made and I wonder if it will ever be topped.

"Deserve got nuthin' to do with it"

Man, I completely agree with this. It's impossible to state just how great the show is. It's not enough just to say that it's supreme and better than every other show ever created. Hard to describe it, you just have to watch it.

Also, LOL at Snoop's quote!!! Gotta love Snoop, great character, brilliant quote. "How my hair look, Mike?" lol

Gotta love Snoop, great character, brilliant quote. "How my hair look, Mike?" lol

That scene just shows how dire the sitatuation is within the wire - reminds me of when poor Prop Joe wants to simple slip away but that B@stard Marlo won't let him, I love and hate that scene.