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The Wire - S2- Episode 1: Ebb Tide
Jun. 25th, 2011 07:12 pm[I've decided to review and watch this differently than I did Farscape, reviewing each episode or pair of episodes, detailing my first unspoiled impressions to see how my opinion of the show changes as it plays out, along with my opinions of the characters. Example of changes?
I started out hating Stringer Bell and Rawls - and now find both rather entertaining and amusing. Very odd.]
The fucking Wire, man, I'm addicted. (Also clearly been watching it just now, since I'm thinking in the slang.) Just finished watching the first episode of S2, and it blew me away - kept rewinding. This is rewind tv at its best. Also, if you've been following along on my reviews and never heard of this show or just seen various people on lj or elsewhere rave about how brilliant it is - and are thinking, it's a cop show - WTF? Why I'd be interested in a show about the drug culture of Baltimore? Trust me - there's more going on. Also unlike a lot of these types of shows, it has a sly wit.
The Wire is an integrally woven character piece - plot and character seamlessly flow into each other. And it requires work to follow. You can't do something else during it. This is lean forward on your coach and play close attention television. Or rewind tv. And the characters play with your head long afterwards...I think I'm developing a crush on Omar, Daniels, Greggs, and McNulty. Because it is so detailed. Little details...like the temperature outside, Bunk's dislike of water, the confined spaces, a dove stained glass window...
While on the surface it appears to just be a cop show or a show about the drug culture, it's really a character piece about people solving work place oriented problems, and struggling in their lives, struggling to make a difference or just to survive in a difficult world - and it discusses directly and indirectly the abuses and uses of power within that world. Not everyone wants power, those who do don't understand those who don't. And not everyone can achieve it. In some respects it addresses power better than the sci-fantasy/urban gothic series that I've been addicted to have, or at least far more realistically and in a far more subtle manner. This world feels familiar to me. I feel the grit of it between my fingertips. I can hear the voices in my head. Painful, but gripping, and oddly comforting - it also acts as others have said as a deft social criticism of our societal structure and the power plays within it.
"It's all about self-preservation, that something you never learned, McNulty," Jaye Landsman.
( spoilers for episode 1, Ebb Tide )
Should I do a season review of Game of Thrones...or have enough been done already? On the fence.
Meant to...but no real time.
I started out hating Stringer Bell and Rawls - and now find both rather entertaining and amusing. Very odd.]
The fucking Wire, man, I'm addicted. (Also clearly been watching it just now, since I'm thinking in the slang.) Just finished watching the first episode of S2, and it blew me away - kept rewinding. This is rewind tv at its best. Also, if you've been following along on my reviews and never heard of this show or just seen various people on lj or elsewhere rave about how brilliant it is - and are thinking, it's a cop show - WTF? Why I'd be interested in a show about the drug culture of Baltimore? Trust me - there's more going on. Also unlike a lot of these types of shows, it has a sly wit.
The Wire is an integrally woven character piece - plot and character seamlessly flow into each other. And it requires work to follow. You can't do something else during it. This is lean forward on your coach and play close attention television. Or rewind tv. And the characters play with your head long afterwards...I think I'm developing a crush on Omar, Daniels, Greggs, and McNulty. Because it is so detailed. Little details...like the temperature outside, Bunk's dislike of water, the confined spaces, a dove stained glass window...
While on the surface it appears to just be a cop show or a show about the drug culture, it's really a character piece about people solving work place oriented problems, and struggling in their lives, struggling to make a difference or just to survive in a difficult world - and it discusses directly and indirectly the abuses and uses of power within that world. Not everyone wants power, those who do don't understand those who don't. And not everyone can achieve it. In some respects it addresses power better than the sci-fantasy/urban gothic series that I've been addicted to have, or at least far more realistically and in a far more subtle manner. This world feels familiar to me. I feel the grit of it between my fingertips. I can hear the voices in my head. Painful, but gripping, and oddly comforting - it also acts as others have said as a deft social criticism of our societal structure and the power plays within it.
"It's all about self-preservation, that something you never learned, McNulty," Jaye Landsman.
( spoilers for episode 1, Ebb Tide )
Should I do a season review of Game of Thrones...or have enough been done already? On the fence.
Meant to...but no real time.