The Wire -Episode 4 - Old Cases
Jun. 14th, 2011 10:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatBriefly...That was one of the most brilliant pieces of television that I've seen. And the best Cop Show/Criminal Procedural bit I've seen. It was better than Homicide.
There's three brilliant sequences in this episode. Actually four. No, make that five. The writing in this show - that is how you write a police procedural dialogue folks. If you want to know how to write good television scripts and not paint by numbers? Rent The Wire.
A really famous bit, that is so realistic that it blew me away. (An aside - while in law school and prior to law school, I did a lot of internships such as orders of protection, public defender, housing authority, legal aid, etc.) Two homicide detectives come to a crime scene, and figure out how a woman was shot. The only word of dialogue stated is variations of "fuck". The scene is exactly how cops do investigative work. And it's entertaining. I was riveted. I kept rewinding.
Watch The Wire - and you will understand why I can't watch any of the police procedurals on television which include Bones, CSI, NCSI, Castle, Law & Order, Criminal Minds, etc..all of which repeat the same formula, same dialogue, same situations, same mysteries and never take any risks.
Whoa. Just Whoa. That episode blew me away. And Lester is my new favorite character.
How is it possible for a tv series to just get better with each new episode? Usually it's one good one, one okay one, one good one, one so-so, one good one, one horrifically bad one.
Although HBO tends to be fairly consistent. There is something to be said for just doing 10-13 episodes a year as opposed to 22. Cheaper, and the writer's don't get burned out as quickly.
There's three brilliant sequences in this episode. Actually four. No, make that five. The writing in this show - that is how you write a police procedural dialogue folks. If you want to know how to write good television scripts and not paint by numbers? Rent The Wire.
A really famous bit, that is so realistic that it blew me away. (An aside - while in law school and prior to law school, I did a lot of internships such as orders of protection, public defender, housing authority, legal aid, etc.) Two homicide detectives come to a crime scene, and figure out how a woman was shot. The only word of dialogue stated is variations of "fuck". The scene is exactly how cops do investigative work. And it's entertaining. I was riveted. I kept rewinding.
Watch The Wire - and you will understand why I can't watch any of the police procedurals on television which include Bones, CSI, NCSI, Castle, Law & Order, Criminal Minds, etc..all of which repeat the same formula, same dialogue, same situations, same mysteries and never take any risks.
Whoa. Just Whoa. That episode blew me away. And Lester is my new favorite character.
How is it possible for a tv series to just get better with each new episode? Usually it's one good one, one okay one, one good one, one so-so, one good one, one horrifically bad one.
Although HBO tends to be fairly consistent. There is something to be said for just doing 10-13 episodes a year as opposed to 22. Cheaper, and the writer's don't get burned out as quickly.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-06-15 06:23 am (UTC)Thought you might like that one. :) It's such a fantastic scene - so very simple, and at the same time so clever, telling the audience what's going on not by dialogue but by acting and showing them. By the end of that scene, we know not only how the woman was killed, but how Bunk and McNulty work, what sort of criminals they're up against, etc... and all of that without a single exposition.
And Lester is my new favorite character.
Yay! 13 years and 4 months in the pawnshop unit for being too good at his job - and once they forget why they put him there and let him out, he just picks up where he left off. Lester Freamon is da man.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-15 04:09 pm (UTC)Agreed. But...it's even more brilliant in how the writer sets it up.
It actually does have a little exposition...but it is so deftly done you don't notice it or remember it. There's three prior scenes that set it up. 1) Jay, their supervisor, gives them this file - stating he's found a cold case or past case that may get them D'Angelo. They whine about it. All they have to go on is a piece of paper with D and a phone number. Bunk calls, it's disconnected, he calls Verizon to get the new one and locale. 2) Jay - goes in to see the Major and in a rather hilarious and insane monologue tells the Major that while McNulty is a pain - he's great at solving cases. 3)D'Angelo tells his gange about how he shot this woman, in detail - and showing how he isn't happy about it. Then
we get that brillaint "Fuck" scene. But the writer sets it up so beautifully...
Most TV shows, books, and films give you this lengthy bit of exposition. Or in say a show like Bones? We'd have Booth and Bones discuss in detail where they are going,
why they are going there, who they thought did it, what happened. To the point in which, I've wandered off to the internet in a fit of boredom.
Also..here, that word conveys so much - emotion, frustration, and what this type of work is like. Looking at a picture of woman, brutally murdered is not pleasant.
In reality? You'd say "fuck" or "motherfucker" if you saw that picture. That's the knee-jerk emotional response. It gives the violence a weight and meaning, as well as the work involved that most tv shows fail to do.