The Wire

[Combine Hunter]

Charlie Brooker made this brilliant 30 minute special on The Wire, designed specifically to encourage people who haven't seen it, to check it out. I really want to encourage as many people as possible to watch this, because to be quite frank, it's a masterpiece!

Part 1



Part 2

[AndyKurosaki]

Got a lot of love for The Wire, it took a little while for me to get into it, but once I did I became so hooked I went through all 5 series back to back. Easily one of the best TV shows ever made.

[magicjoef]

The start of season two was the only sticking point I had, but once it was about 6 episodes in, I got my head around the fact this wasn't going to be a standard TV show.

I loved the mayoral race with Carcetti.

Sheeeeeeiit.

[AndyKurosaki]

Yeah, once it gets it's hooks into you, you can't put it down.

My favourite character has to be Omar. The man's a legend

[magicjoef]

My favourite character has to be Omar. The man's a legend

Ice cool.

[Ghost World]

Watched the first season and liked it but didn't LOVE it, that was about 3 years ago and even though I own Season 2 on DVD I've not been back.

[AndyKurosaki]

I have to admit I didn't love it at first, I found the first episode on BBC2 hard to follow, with tons of legal/cop talk on one side, and gangster lingo on the other. Sticking with it though, I eventually got into the characters, and I was hooked from there.
Personally I enjoyed Series 2, again it starts a bit slow, but then every series of The Wire does as it's introducing a new 'target' and showing you where Mcnulty and his team are at.

[Ghost World]

As I've only seen season 1 I'm not going to proclaim it isn't the greatest show ever but when you have as little time as I do to spend watching stuff it's hard to justify going back to something that wasn't clicking first time around.

Still as Josh is such a super fan I'll take another look in the future.

[AndyKurosaki]

That's fair enough, and when you're talking 45 minutes to an hour per episode, with a few 1 hour 20 minute episodes here or there, it's asking a lot of time

Still, I'll always remember how I felt at the end of Series 3, the consequences of the series action's almost made me stand up off my sofa and applaud. I didn't, because, you know, that would be mental. But it genuinely made me think "Wow. That was outstanding".

[Combine Hunter]

I should note, that I didn't start thinking "This is the best TV show ever!" until half way through season 3. It's a slow burner.

[Buckled Kipper]

Thinking about starting my third watch through of all seasons. For me this is simply the best TV series of all time.

[AndyKurosaki]

Yeah I rewatched it a second time earlier this year, once I start you just feel "fancy going through the whole lot".

[SqueezyCheesyPeas]

I finished watching Season 1 a few nights back. I really enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to season 2.

I don't think it's the masterpiece it's claimed to be, at least not yet. The writing is terrific and on the whole the acting is fantastic. The one thing that I found pulling me out of total immersion was Dominic West's accent, it is very bad, not quite Dick Van-Dyke bad but the amount of times his English accent comes through is a real problem for me. West's performance is top notch but boy oh boy that accent is a horror show. Idris Elba on the other hand, well, his accent is practically flawless.

Having said that it hasn't put me off watching the rest of them.

A lot of people say this is the greatest TV show of all time, at the moment it's a long long way from that for me but I'll reserve full judgement on that until I've seen the entire thing.

[magicjoef]

...but I'll reserve full judgement on that until I've seen the entire thing.

The deliberate five season arc does contribute a lot to that praise I think. Especially considering so much American TV writes itself into the ground.

[SqueezyCheesyPeas]

I was hoping that would be the case. I'm really excited to see the rest of them.

[AndyKurosaki]

Definitely, as I say it took for the end of Series 3 for me to see why it's claimed to be one of the best shows ever made. Of course, there's bound to be people that don't agree with that, everyone has different tastes and all that.
To not like Omar though, that would be a bad thing. As he rules

[Buckled Kipper]

Yep, this is deffinately a story told over 5 seasons and the further you get, the more complex and rewarding it becomes. I loved them all, but seasons 3 & 4 were my favourites.

[AndyKurosaki]

Absolutely, Series 4 is a great one, the transformation of the new characters over the course of the series is an unforgetable one.

[catbhoy]

Season5 is the hardest watch for me jimmy going right off the rails not easy watching.

The Charlie Brooker videos were excellent didn't realise stringer bell was English