Good Quality TV, Thread 1: The Wire

Originally posted by FMF
Really enjoyed the intricate parallel in Series 5 between the police doing their thing and the newspaper doing their thing. Perhaps a classic The Wire moment was when the profilers' profile of the McNulty-conjured-serial-killer had McNulty down to a tee: the look on McNulty's face as he listened!

That was good.

I think on of my favorite scenes (not sure which season) was with McNulty and his partner going over a crime scene and the only thing they both said was F*** as they saw the different evidence.

Truly great tv! As ambitious as a great novel, characters who are complex, themes that spread throughout the show, incredible complexity of moives, amazing shades of grey. By far the best TV show ever! In case you didn't get it - I loved it! brett van toen

The Wire was very, very good. The Sopranos as well. However, my favorite HBO series remains Deadwood. Because of the characters. No show has ever had so many good ones. I's the reason why it never finished as a film. Too many actors were unavailable as they were in such demand.
Boardwalk Empire is getting to Deadwood territory with the number of great characters in the show however. The sets are just as great as well, and the series was just renewed for a third season. It could surpass Deadwood in my opinion. Time will tell.
Nob-HBO shows: Anything by Josh Whedon except Dollhouse.

Originally posted by DanTriola
The Wire was very, very good. The Sopranos as well. However, my favorite HBO series remains Deadwood. Because of the characters. No show has ever had so many good ones. I's the reason why it never finished as a film. Too many actors were unavailable as they were in such demand.
Boardwalk Empire is getting to Deadwood territory with the number of great ch ...[text shortened]... dwood in my opinion. Time will tell.
Nob-HBO shows: Anything by Josh Whedon except Dollhouse.

Yes. Got to agree about Deadwood. One of the best contemplations on the 'American Dream' that TV has given us.

Originally posted by WoodPush
Yeah, The Wire is great TV. The acting is outstanding, and the writing is really pretty good.

My wife isn't getting into it, and she loves cop shows, and I generally hate cop shows, so go figure...

In her case, I think she's not getting into it partly because she has trouble understanding it. She was born outside the U.S. (in Serbia) so some of th ...[text shortened]... h old-school netflix mailers. Ahem, make that quickster, sigh. But so far, it's real good.

I loved all seasons of The Wire but 1-3 more so than 4 and 5. I found Stringer Bell to be one of the most compelling characters on TV. A gangster/ drug kingpin who takes Economics classes and the local college and reads Adam Smith. He wants to be a business man and he certainly styles himself as such but alas, the business he runs happens to be illegal.

I loved the line where Avon looks him in the eye and tells him: "Maybe, just maybe, you ain't smart enough to make it out there; and ain't tough enough to make it in here." That one line summarized Bell's plight through his entire role in the series.

What I also thought was classic was when he's running a meeting of drug pushers in that corporate like conference and he sees a guy writing in a notebook:

"Are you taking NOTES on a criminal f*****g conspiracy!?" LOL