Wire, The - Season 1 Reviews

Zzzzzzzzzz

I ordered this series on DVD when the Sopranos finished and I was feeling quite bereft. Someone said if you like Sopranos, you'll love this so I had high hopes but never got past the first disc. A bit of humour would have livened it up but I just found it tedious.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Masterful, Must See Television

Arguably more important, polished, and compelling than its largely incomparable stable mate "The Sopranos", "The Wire" is an essential, seminal piece of work.

By examining both the drug trade itself in intense detail, as well as the difficulty of sustaining an efficient fight against it in post-9/11 America, the programme delivers the most raw and honest depictions of both.

There are no easy answers or distinctions here - it takes the frustrating inevitability of the drug scenario as a given, and focuses solely on creating plotlines and characters that involve and grip.

In doing this, the creators of this show have invited more questions and debate than a million other mealy-mouthed preachathons.

Do not miss.

quite possibly the best cop show you probably never seen

A gritty and highly realistic cop show that covers one story over thirteen episodes. Detective Jimmy McNulty - our own Dominic West sprouting a US accent - is forced into tracking down drug dealers in baltimore with various other cops from narcotics and homicide.

The episodes are full of survelleince and wire taps (including a cloned pager) and is a complex drama. The show doesnt even give u any flash backs to whats happened in previous episodes.

If, like me, you love cop shows, you will love this. This is as brilliant and realistic as you will get. Just remember to LISTEN CAREFULLY.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Absolutely stunning

I came to The Wire knowing nothing other than a writer I respect and admire called it 'The best tv show ever made'.

Only a few episodes in and i'm already revelling in a stunning cast, superb acting, fantastic dialogue and brilliant storyline.

There's a feeling that comes along all too rarely, wherin you find yourself revelling in something so wonderful, so perfect that you just plain *glow*.

That feeling is exemplified so utterly in The Wire.

*ESSENTIAL VIEWING*

yawn

boring drab slow tedious

lol

Customer Review

On the face of it, a cop drama that follows detective investigations of one major case through an entire series seems a worthy idea, because it offers the opportunity to explore characters, background and plot lines on a much more detailed and realistic level.

Don't be deceived. Convolution should not be confused with depth, confusion with convincing narrative nor `grittiness' with reality.

On the contrary, the fact that the entire cast, especially the `authority' figures of the detectives themselves, spend so much time swearing, you can't help feeling that the entire squad has group Tourette's Syndrome, and speech includes so many expletives that it is actually sometimes difficult to understand what on Earth they are talking about (if anything.) Wading through all this coprolalia emphatically does not convince me that this drama is `real-life'. (Did they really write all this profanity in the script? - what a waste of paper! Just `be totally vulgar ad lib' on page one would have saved some time if not some tedium.)

But that is quibbling about a minor issue. Add the sheer, massive incompetence of nearly all the individual police officers involved coupled with the institutionalised incompetence of the authorities they work for - who, it appears, through political or personal ambition, actually penalise anyone who does actually show acumen, ability or genuine dedication to duty - simply beggars belief. This isn't a police force, this is just a bunch of bumbling clowns without baggie trousers and red noses (apart from the alcoholics on the force, that is.)

As for the residents living in `the projects,' the cheap welfare housing in run-down parts of, in this case, the city of Baltimore, where The Wire is set, the suggestion is that all anyone who lives there ever does is deal or do drugs. The project housing in many parts of the United States is often associated with social deprivation, crime, drug abuse and the like, as in other countries, but not all poor people are either crooks nor dope fiends.

And, of course, all the politicians are crooks as well? The judiciary has its own agenda, the laws intended to protect the freedom of the individual extend to the freedom to break the laws, including murder, with impunity?

No - The Wire is an attempt at a serious and de-glamorised piece of story-telling that tries too hard and sails miles over the top. It does have points of merit, but having a good premise and turning out good narrative in a seriously credible television drama don't always go hand in hand. It's a shame - a little less would have been so much more.

I agree, very over-rated

I'd heard great things about this series. I finally saw it and was disappointed.

It's nowhere near as good as 'The Shield' or the early seasons of 'Homicide;Life on the Street' (also set in Baltimore.)

I found the characters and plot lines simplistic and 2D.

Limited review!

Based (no doubt unfairly) on a single episode: 'dull' is the word that springs to mind. I found it trying too hard to be sophisticated with some fluffed effort to be hard boiled and failing spectacularly. A poor pretender to 'The Shield's' throne - I'm told it warms up with later episodes but this was sufficiently poor to put me entirely off the rest of the season. With so much great tv vying for viewer time (Sopranos, The Shield) this doesnt get a look in based on episode one.

Wire

Overrated formulaic and generally unpleasant.

Customer Review

I have tried to get into this series - got as far as episode 5 with 6 and 7 still to play - can't say I actually understand the lingo - of the cops or of the crims, or what is going on most of the time - though the latter are worse than the former. The internal political ins and outs are a different planet for me. What is going on? I can understand on the surface, what is going down in the police department - but not the under surface, just enough to know that there is graft and sleaze - but what is the motive for this? I haven't a scubby doo. Wish I hadn't wasted my hard earned ..........