A real fucking police force
The Wire is back for its fifth season. It is on a small cable channel. It is very good. No, really, it's very, very good. If you haven't seen it, and don't have access to FX, the box sets await. If you haven't seen it and are sick to the back teeth of being told by the media that it is either the best or second best TV drama ever made, don't let the loud voices of the converted turn you off. Get the first season on DVD, give it a whirl. Be patient. Keep your ears open. Don't expect neat conclusions. Don't worry if you don't understand what they're saying on first listen. If me telling you this is also bringing you out in a rash ("When will they stop going on and on and on about The Wire?"), step away from the blog. For UK Wire fans, this season - the final one - is the dictionary definition of long-awaited. Unfortunately, for those latecomers among us who devoured the first three or four seasons in box-set form, bingeing on them in twos and threes and more, this season will be long-awaited while it's airing, as we're not used to having to wait seven days between episodes, and in fact, the gaps really slow down the flow. (I loved season four, but watched it in situ, week by week, and frustration really does set in.) So be it. I'm not waiting until it's over before I start watching it.Can you sense a backlash? (I mean in the media, not in the real world.) It was inevitable. Resist it. What's great about The Wire is its confidence. A new season begins, it's a continuation of the last season. Life, in Baltimore, goes on. Police work, especially in the Major Crimes Unit, is laborious and boring and slow and frustrating. That's the point of the show. God, as one of the new characters at the Baltimore Sun (season five: the Media) notes, is in the details. This show is not about crime, it's about politics at every level: City Hall, the higher echelons of the police, the law courts, the unions, even drug dealing, which is the city's key industry. It's about how these disparate worlds bump along together. There's no central character. McNulty is the closest it comes, but entire episodes go by with no "story" for him. He's still boozing. Still coming home late. Still neglecting the kids. Still bitching and moaning. It's not about McNulty. Nor is it about Carver (who's been promoted to Sergeant), or Omar (who has yet to appear), or Marlo, or Prop Joe, or Bunk, or Greggs, or any of the other living, breathing participants in this living, breathing ecosystem.
So, the first episode has aired. We've met the staff of the Sun. There's politics there, too. They have their fingers in everything. I loved the way they were alerted to the breaking news story about a fire when they saw it out of the window. Bubbles, after finding himself in rehab in season four, is attempting to straighten himself out. Presumably you were as tense every time you saw him as I was? (Perhaps The Wire is, in fact, about Bubbles.) There's no money for the police. It's all going into education. (Season four: Education.) And Homicide are still doing everything they can to amuse themselves while the bodies pile up - including conning one corner boy with a Xerox machine. The scene is set for trouble ahead. The cops are angry. The mayor is in a cleft stick. The reporters are sniffing around a property deal that links just about everybody to everybody else. Nobody can stop swearing. And Bubbles is selling the Sun.
It really is very good.
posted by Andrew Collins @ 11:47 PM
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I'm saving last night's first ep for a few days, so it won't be too long before the 2nd. Though I'll probably end up saving THAT one too, which means I'll still be watching every 7 days.
David Simon gave an excellent interview on the Culture Show last week, though we could have done without Lauren Laverne 'acting' Bad Cop. But what a fantastic moment when Lauren asked David, "what about the casual viewer?" and he replied "fuck the casual viewer... This show is for the committed viewer." Or words to that effect.
Thank you Mr Simon. And thank you FX for running all 5 series back to back.
You could always use torrents to watch it when it comes out: http://www.mininova.org/search/the+wire/seeds
Loved Leander Sydnor's "I wasn't on that case" comment about season 2's docks storyline.
Ah The Wire, how I miss you. I think you've ruined all other TV for me. Watching (most) other shows feels like being spoon-fed now.
I watched season five a few months ago over a short period (in a torrent, one might say) and loved it. Yes, yes, I know people say it's not quite up to some of the earlier seasons, but we're talking degrees here. It's riveting stuff.
I was interested to hear that one of the journalists is played by the director of The Station Agent and The Visitor.
I think the backlash is already here, in that people on The Guardian's site get uppity at the number of column inches it gets compared to the number of viewers. But then compare the column inches with the number of IQ points the viewers feel they've gained by watching it and you have a fairer measure.
Best not go into detail in case we spoil it for the likes of Swineshead.
But the best thing about last night's opener was that sense that we (or they) had never been away. Like life in Baltimore, it just continues.
I think Carver is my favourite character. Without giving too much away he really did respond to that dressing down he got (was it in series 3?) from Colvin, about him not being proper PO-LICE. It's a dreadful cliche but he really has been on a journey ever since.
Backlash? Not yet but itis inevitable isn't it? But it'll survive it because a) it is that good and b) it's finished!
Maybe if people could be trusted to watch The Wire then the media will not have to keep telling them why they should.
Instead the public really have no one to blame but themselves. Their watching of programmes like Hollyoaks and Big Brother means no one can rely on their (lack of) judgment.
They need a good beating around the head. With words. And not just ordinary words, but approbationary ones. (A word so un-ordinary it is underlined in red by my browser)
On a related note, FX really is a great channel when it wants to be. Did you see Matrioshki the other year?
It was a rather good drama about the trafficking of girls from eastern Europe forced to work as prostitutes. In Flemish. And Lithuanian. An actual Belgian series.
Just what has happened to Channel 4?
It has been usurped as the home of dark and intelligent drama series by a Murdoch-owned cable channel that is mostly a place for endless reruns of his own 20th Century Fox properties.
They need a good beating around the head too.
Not only a peddler of lies (with their great swindle swindle) and lazy formats, but they are also denying the nation of seeing The Wire.
And they claim to be a public service broadcaster. Pah!
I see it only attracted 38,000 viewers. It's without doubt beloved more by the media, who clearly recognise a great show when they see one.
I love The Wire. Just finished watching season 5 at the weekend. Normal Friday night routine for me and the missus is pizza and 2 episodes of The Wire. You might say 2 episodes is greedy but you've never seen how much pizza I eat.
Good to see a couple of the old Homicide characters popping up too. Takes me right back.
I'm watching Big Brother. It is intellectually possible to watch both BB and TW.
38,000, eh. I notice Big Brother is still pulling in 3.6 million.
I'm not being snobby about Big Brother. It's still popular, is all I'm saying. While The Wire ... isn't. This is often the fate of great art. Look at all the column inches devoted in newspapers to novels and other books that sell far less than 38,000 copies, while the big sellers don't get reviewed at all. (Remember when, a few years ago, Stephen King suddenly started getting grown-up reviews?)
Lesson? Fuck the casual viewer!
I watched BB and TW last year, Oldnathan.
I reckon that means we are blessed with the widest intellectual spectrums possible Andrew (I have no idea what that means either. Maybe I'm just trying to justify the unjustifiable to my cultural superiors).
Anyway, how can they possibly know only 38k people watched it? I'm sure Sky can't count the viewers, can they? Can they? Or is it based on those limited surveys of people pressing buttons to indicate what they are watching live?
And does that include all those people who, like me, Sky+’d it so they could watch it in piece and quiet after everyone else had gone to bed?
One of the many things I love about The Wire is the way they take on and subvert all the tv cop show cliches.
Perhaps the ultimate cliche is the hard-drinking, divorced womanising cop who doesn't play by the rules, in other words McNulty. But they set him up in episode one series one as the main protagonist and then immediately start to demolish this idea, revealing the contradictions and complexities of the character.
He's not really even an anti-hero. He's just a real believable screwed-up human-being.
They let you know fairly quickly, this isn't going to be like any cop show, or any other tv show, you've ever seen.
Great great tv.
And as mentioned above, at the risk of encouraging illegal activity, all of these seasons can be downloaded in torrents in perfect quality.
Get someone young and hip to show you how to do it - it's all in the game.
Just make sure there isn't a wiretap on your phone when you do so.
My girlfriend and I finally decided to start watching it about 2 or 3 months ago. We're now hooked and halfway through Season 3. Without giving too much away, we've just seen the episode where something major happens to Prez out of the blue. I felt so gutted for him!
We've been watching them in pairs, on one occasion 3 in a row, and it's got to be the best thing I've seen on TV in a very long time (other faves are The West Wing, Studio 60, and Californication).
I love the theme song too. The Season 3 version is the best so far - nice and bluesy. Apparently all versions other than Season 5 were pre-existing covers of that song. Only one has been written specifically for it.
I hope Bubs can sort himself out. Seems like a decent chap all told.
I agree that the best version of the feem tune is the third one by the Blind Boys of Alabama. The fourth one was by a group from Baltimore, I believe. New one by Steve Earle. First by Aaron Neville, second by Tom Waits, which is the original.
I hope I'm correct on those.
You just converted me! I am convinsed. I have never watched this, but it has always been something I am quite drawn too. I was going to watch it about a year ago but I started watching The West Wing and didn't look back. I am going to give this a try, and hey by the time I get to season 5 it will probably be on dvd. Woo!
Thank goodness that, for us non -FX types, the dvd of season 5 is out late September. Not too long to wait.
Yes. I have the album of the songs from the show 'All the pieces matter' and I think thats right Andrew.
Wiki-doodah has the Blind Boys of Alabama down as doing the first series. I'm no expert on the Neville Brothers (unless it's Gary) but it doesn't sound like him at all. Either way the signature tune is best in series 1!
Can I just add one note of criticsm now we are really at it? I was never that convinced by the Spiros character in series 2. It always felt a bit over-acted to me. Like the guy playing him (just looked it up, Paul Ben-Victor) had studied how you are supposed to play gangsters on screen. It was very De Niro at times. And that isn't the TW way is it?
A very minor gripe.
I'm sure that's correct, Oldnathan - Wikipedia never lets you down. Except when it does. Whatever order it comes in, the Blind Boys of Alabama's is the best.
For me nothing comes close to the Tom Waits version for capturing the raw, menacing essence of the show. The Blind Boys version is positively pastoral by comparison. They make Jesus the star of the song. But He's not supposed to be. Oh no!
sorry, yes nathan. Have just listened to the blind boys version which is on their album 'spirit of the century' and that is the one from series 1.
On a seperate note, does anyone have a guess as to what the contestants will be cooking tomorrow?
Perhaps from Liz - some pork chops in a hot spicy vindaloo sauce (Atomic Mutton)
And from Andy - indigenous wildfowl in a bitter red wine gravy ( crow and sour grapes)
that should be lamb chops obviously ... I'll get my coat ....
That trick with the photocopier - is that the same one they managed in Homicide:Life on the Street? It must be a Baltimore thing.
I'm afraid I'm very pro David Simon - Watched Homicide: Life on the Street, The Corner, The Wire, up to ep 2 of Generation Kill, and now HBO has commissioned the pilot for his New Orleans project - Treme.
He got a large backlash from online media in the US over his 'vendetta' against his former bosses at the Baltimore Sun, but if without giving too much away, it is an illustration for how readily the majority of us believe what we read in newspapers when a large number of them are self-serving and sensationalist as after all they are seeking viewers, and The Wire is perhaps Simon's vision of a newspaper acted out on screen - telling the truth as it is.
And ratings being quoted annoys me. I wish more things were judged on their content rather than how many bums on seats they attract. If the former were true, The Wire would be closer to Mad Men's total of 16 Emmy nominations and not have just one.
machine levine.
Still find it amazing that the Wire was never picked up by terrestrial TV. I suppose in the past the BBC were reluctant to buy imports, but now having brought us the likes of Mad Men, it makes you wonder?
Anyway, I found Season 5 a little disappointing in parts, but still better than 90% of the rest.
Aaw, god, I really do need to persevere with this, don't I? I've watched four episodes of the first series, and though I can see that the writing is fantastic, I haven't yet been able to get past my knee-jerk dislike of 'lovable, troubled, brilliant, charismatic maverick' McNulty. What to do?
The thing about McNulty is: he's not that brilliant. Nor does the series turn out to be about him. It's a rich tapestry. You don't have to like him, because he's not the hero. There are no heroes. Persevere. Persevere. My favourite characters in season one were all drug dealers: Bodie, Barksdale, Bell. But you've got to love Carver and Herc! And Lester Freemon! So many favourites to choose from.
There can only really be one favourite though can't there Andrew? Omar steals the show as far as I'm concerned!
But yes, I agree the show isn't about anyone in particular. I had the same problem as Ishouldbeworking when I first started though. I kept coming up against a brick wall when trying to figure out the the goodies and the baddies were, and who the hero and the villian were.
I love Carver, but I think Herc is a bit of a tit to be honest. Thought that from the start.
I still get a stiffy when senator clay davis says sheeeeeeeeiit
Swineshead isn't reading this is he? Good I can do a bit of plot talk.
I can't really explain why but the scene in series 4 when Lester finally gets back to the Serious Crime Operations room and he just.. well, wanders about a bit on his own, was one of the most moving scenes I've seen on TV. It's one of the reasons you have to watch the whole thing right from the beginning.
My other favourite scene from series 4 was the one they showed on the Culture Show with Bodie and McNulty. Incredibly powerful stuf regardless of what happens next. even though what happened next made me shout NOOOOO!!! at the telly.
Getting my 'Serious Crimes' mixed up with my 'Major Crimes' there. These things are important.
Still I was right about the theme tunes eh?
Finished Season 4 now OldNathan so feel free to talk about it. Gawd it was a belter...
So yes - talk away...
Nathan?
Hello?
Anyone?
Oh.
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