Metal Reviews

Season 1 was an excellent stand alone look at the cops, drug dealers, addicts and drug robbers in Wire level detail. I have it ranked just below Season 3. Season 2 I actually really liked once the port storyline got going, and the midseason return to the Barksdales was a great change of pace.

Seasons 5 and (especially) 4 have not aged well for me. I thought a lot of the school stuff, was, I'm sorry to say, boring, while the news stuff was marginally better. The big thing was that the political biases of guys like David Simon and Ed Burns get more overbearing by the end. I know it is implicit that The Wire had a leftist viewpoint, but when the pace of the story continually grinds to a halt for creators of the show to point out and lecture us about how bad things are my patience was tested.

Season 3 is my favorite because it juggled the street and cops storyline of season 1 with the political stuff while showing the connections in an interesting way: Stringer's character was the most interesting for me in the way he tried to leave the former world for the latter. Clay Davis was just a hilarious, brilliant character, but at the end of the day The Wire wasn't about characters (not even Omar or McNaulty), but it was about the story of how all these characters are simply replaceable. I think the ending does a good job of showing that: the real star of the show was the city of Baltimore, and it wasn't very pretty.

My season ranking would be 3, 1/4 (tie), 2/5 (also tied).

Most people consider Season 4 to be the best and while it's a damn good choice I agree that Season 3 is the strongest. I can't really explain it though, everything just kind of clicks together for me. Middle Ground is probably the best episode in the series.

agreed here on your last paragraph (haven't seen the end, but about the rest of it). the port storyline i thought they could have done much more with it. too much time spent in the bar, i think. there was much more to explore in blue collar/unions stuff.

season 4 could've warranted its own show, i think. politics/economics of education make for a fascinating topic.

EDIT: finished season 5. that was some goooooooooooood television. now for my drama slot, either the sopranos or true detective.

Yeah, I think part of the minor problem I had with seasons 4/5 was the show was juggling one more layer than it could handle.

Season 1: Cops and Street (2)
Season 2: Port, Cops, and Street (3)
Season 3: Cops, Street, and Politics (3)
Season 4: Cops, Street, Politics, and School (4)
Season 5: Cops, Street, Politics, and Media (4)

Season 1 is narrowest in scope, and takes advantage of this by going the most in depth. After that, I thought adding a third layer made since, and while season 2 is awkward in places, I think it does end very well. You are right about a spinoff being possible though...and how about how 'The Greek' and his organization operates? Fascinating.
As I mentioned earlier, I thought season 3 balances the trio of politics, cops, and the street very well, with Stringer at the core of it all.

The problem with season 4 and 5 is that additional layer. I admire the ambition of the last two seasons, but the broad scope really hurts the depth of the show, the cops in season 4 and the politics in season 5 are almost total afterthoughts, while the interest on the street never approaches that of seasons 1 and 3. Like you though, I liked the ending.

Regardless, the show was tremendous, and still in my top 5.

True Detective or the Sopranos? Damn, I'm jealous. The former is way shorter than the latter though, so you might want to get that out of the way before you dive into the Sopranos.

See if you agree with my rationale on Season 3 over Season 4, regarding the layering of the show. I agree on Middle Ground, and I'd put it in my top 3 TV episodes ever.

I think season 4 is extremely popular for two reasons:

First, The Wire was nearly cancelled after Season 3, and had a hiatus between 3 and 4 of almost 2 years. In that interim, a bunch of people campaigned to keep the show going, and the hype around the show led to more people watching.

Season 4 is about the kids in the school, and people that might not have identified with the show otherwise empathized with the story of the four kids. Personally, I thought season 4 was the worst written of the series, probably because of that unusual reliance on character over story, which didn't feel much like the Wire. But it does work at the empathy thing, and that is probably why season 4 is so loved.

Not sure about the layering since it's been a while since I've watched the show (I'm due for a rewatch). Even though I ranked the seasons, the difference in quality between them is very minimal to me. Like if I had to assign each season a score out of 5 it would be something like:

Season 3 - 5/5
Seasons 1 and 4 - 4.5/5
Seasons 2 and 5 - 4/5

When I think about The Wire I tend to think of it in scenes instead of the story. I think about D'angelo teaching the kids chess, Stringer and Avon's rooftop conversation in Middle Ground, Michael saying "I don't" to Dukey at the end of Season 5. It's not to say the story is bad or anything because it's obviously excellent but that's just how it is for me. I did really love the concept of Hamsterdam, though, in Season 3....another reason why it's probably my favourite.

great point about the breadth/depth issues in The Wire.

saw True Detective episode 1. didn't really grab me but i stopped expecting that from dramas, so i'll watch ep. 2 soon. also, black priest guy is Lester Freamon what up.

"Surviving Jack" is an ok tv comedy. no laugh track. the father is very reminiscent of Dr. Cox from Scrubs... a rip-off, actually, but still.

Supernatural hits its stride in season 4 and 5 leading up to the apocalypse. Three is decent, but if season 4 doesn't grab you then maybe it just isn't your thing.


I can appreciate the existential crisis that the show was able to bring forth, but the wit and monster hijinx that made the show great were lacking in those seasons in such a way that it seemed very imbalanced. I watched the show for the wit and humor; the intelligence of the narrative was simply icing on the cake.

so i went out with some friends in São Paulo and they brought along this guy i hadn't met before. he used to work at an NGO dedicated to teaching kids at juvenile detention centres, his was one just outside SP. he told some downright fucked up stories, as well as some really inspiring ones. that shit would definitely make an excellent TV show.

Really enjoying season 4 of the Wire so far, the school elements is definitely a welcome addition to me. The child actors are fantastic.

I thought season 4 was great and rather well done in comparison to the use of the media in the fifth season, which was a turn off in the end.

As for GoT, ebd made me think that the show's intrigue was going to drop off entirely, but after Oberyn's declaration of being Tyrion's champion, I'm excited for this fight. This is going to be some good stuff to close the season off with. And Brann and Tyrion being honest with one another was a great scene.

I didn't say that did I? The final episodes should have plenty of intrigue based on the source material. It was just getting through all the malaise in the middle of the season.

The malaise wasn't as malaise-y as I feared is all.

Watched True Detective last week. Wow, that got really generic really fast. I didn't love everything about it, but the two dudes are just too great to not watch and enjoy. Listening to The Body now and this easily could have been the soundtrack for all of the shows truly fucked moments. I did enjoy the soundtrack, though, with Nick Cave, Melvins, and Sleep included.

The ending still makes me laugh, but yeah I enjoyed the ride. That end to the first episode where Kohle glares at the detectives interviewing him and says: "Then you better start asking the right fucking questions," hooked me for the series. Both of the lead performances were stellar.

Their performances were next level. I was instantly sucked in, and the beauty of sitting on it was that I was able to plow through the eight episodes in two days.

Watched some of the X-Men animated series the other day to get pumped for the new movie.

watched 1.5 episodes of True Detective and couldn't. i mean the performances were good but the story was building up way too slowly.

latest game of thrones episode was crazy. ending was even nastier than i thought it would be from the book.

So Thrones is fast and furious but True Detective was too slow? Wow.

GoT for me, at least when it was starting, was more about seeing the books i already knew and loved come to life. i know the plot threads there also took a while to make sense, but it was easy to digest if you read the books. i do remember my friends complaining it was pretty empty for the first 3 episodes or so.

i know it's HBO but you have to give it time, but i figured, it's an 8 episode single season show, you can't have 2 episodes of it just setting up.

I understand reading the books made it easier for you to get into initially, but since I read the books between season 2 and season 3 I became much more jaded on the TV show, because I simply haven't liked the character changes (I can't stand the show trying to make Cersei sympathetic or Stannis obsessed with Mel) that the showrunners have inserted. Plus I saw how glacial the pace of the show would likely become based on the changes in Martin's writing style.

I thought True Detective did an excellent job of setting up a creepy, foreboding mood through the first couple episodes, not only based on the horrific crime scene shots, but just the really eerie shots of the Louisiana bayou wilderness. Setting plays a huge role in setting up the series and I understand if that doesn't connect with you than you'd find it boring at the start.

There's the obvious first murder scene, which is disturbingly beautiful in how it is shot and what not, that moment when the camera looks over McConnaughey's shoulder as he sketches it and what not and even more so the weird, somber decrepit nature of the bayou, all of that is really gripping. But seriously, I kept watching because the duos interactions were perfect. I really thought everything they said to one another was fucking hilarious.

Having not read the book, that GoT's ending caught me by surprise honestly. And then once it happened I was like yup should have saw that coming. I just thought this would have been the way Tyrion could survive while being cast out. Well, that didn't work.