Daryl

Well put. As my man Lester himself said "We're building something here, detective. We're building it from scratch. All the pieces matter.”

Rizor

There's a reason why everyone who loves this show feels the need to go on and on about its greatness. It's just a terrific series that can't be praised enough.

For a new viewer, it's important to know that it's a slow burn. But it trusts the viewer in ways other shows don't. It has the patience to follow a single case through the entire season. Each episode simply presents information, facts about the characters and about the case. Nothing's ever tidily wrapped up. There's no "previously on" or anything like that, but each episode builds upon the last. Even if you find it "boring" or whatever, it takes until the end of the season for pieces of the puzzle to really fit and for it to all come together. When it does, and when you're there seeing it all play out, it is immensely rewarding.

As far as the characters go, it's good to maybe pick one or two to like at first. Just someone accessible. Maybe it's McNulty or someone. For me, I think early on I liked Daniels and D'Angelo. It's an intricate world and it can be hard to keep track of who's who on any new show. As the episodes play out, you get to know each character a little better and before you know it, you'll care deeply for each and every one on the show.

As I started watching the show, I knew the scope would continue to expand, so i got worried the characters would get lost in it all. Luckily, they never did. With each season, the narrative expands but the show never loses sight of its characters. I can't describe just how satisfying that is for a viewer. Usually in TV, characters go off the deep end or the writers just lose interest - before long every body's acting incredibly stupid just to service the plot. For this series, the characters and the humanity always come first. I've read someone put it this way: with other shows you're always aware that the characters you are watching are characters. They are created by writers and performed by actors. With the Wire, each character has such depth that they feel like living, breathing people.

I've read some critics discuss how The Wire has destroyed television for them. The quality of the writing is simply unparalleled. It may be hard to see in the first season, but as the scope of the show expands, the series takes on a very literal quality. It's no longer about cops and bad guys. It's about life in a dying, decaying city. What's really rewarding is that, as Daryl quoted above, "All the pieces matter". Have you ever watched a show and it felt like the writers were making it all up as they went along? This show avoids that. Everything builds in an incredibly organic manner. And as the show progresses, it calls back to moments or details set up in previous seasons in a very satisfying way.

Anyway, just stick it through the first season. I don't know if you've progressed beyond episodes 7 and 8, but things start to come together soon. Watch the first season and if you like it, watch the second. The second will take some getting used to as the show does something very brave and completely different. By the time you get around to the third, you will know that you are watching the best show ever.

One of my favorite TV critics is Alan Sepinwall, and each summer he rewatches a season of The Wire and puts together a thoughtful companion piece. He even did a version for new viewers that avoids spoilers. It might be cool to read along after each episode to pick up on bits you may have missed or didn't know were there.

http://sepinwall.blogspot.com/search...max-results=20

tbird2340

I felt the same way when I started out.. The first episode was brutally painful for me to sit through.. I almost fell asleep.. I didn't go further than that until months later when I had nothing to watch.. I decided to give it another go..

Since then I've watched the entire series start to finish 4 times.. It is the single greatest TV show to ever air on television, period..

I love the Shield too and that is definitely in my top 5 of all time but you can't really compare the two.. And for the people comparing it to the Sopranos, seriously? Come-on...

Nefarious

The Shield is to The Rambo Series as The Wire is to Band of Brothers. I've seen all of both so I'm not judging The Shield unfairly.

The Wire is my all-time favorite series with Mad Men & Deadwood tied for second. I enjoyed The Shield as entertainment and nothing more. The Wire is much more....it challenges preconceptions, educates, and moves a person.

There are maybe 6-10 characters that make up The Shield. Wire fans could rattle of 30-40 names that all play an integral part. As Daryl quoted, "The pieces matter." And what a beautiful picture they made when assembled.

There are so many great moments. And just try hearing Farmer in the Dell and not think about Omar comin'.

Some favorite moments:

Season 1:


Season 2:


Season 3:


Season 4:


Season 5:

bootsy

Your Season 4 spoiler is an absolute certifiable(if that is a word) classic. Never gets old.

davidh777

Amazon Gold Box Deal of the Day today, for those willing to make the jump (I have it but haven't watched it)

Saxofonix

I couldn't get into The Shield.

It took me just a few episodes to really get into The Wire.
And it gets better as the series develops over the seasons.

I would easily rate The Wire as the best cops TV show that I've seen.
What sets it apart is not just the huge cast, but that the story unfolds and weaves together on several layers. All at once.

mattysemo247

A couple years ago we rented the first two seasons of The Wire. We watched them but were not hooked so gave up after that. A couple months ago I bought The Shield series. In a little under a month I finished it and kept thinking about The Wire. So over the past month or so we rented the last three seasons. I think we have 4 or 5 more episodes left of the series. I’m glad that we are finishing it but I don’t think I’ll ever revisit it.

Nefarious

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Navinabob

I'll agree that The Shield was more "must-see-TV" as I devoured the show and really enjoyed it. But aside from the series final episode, it did not linger in my mind. Thinking back on it now, people and events get muddled together. I have a hard time recalling the plot lines and character motivations and what each one of them was about for each season.

The Wire, on the other hand, I can easily write an essay on almost every character as I can clearly illustrate what journey each character took as the series went on. I can describe the events of each season and what the big-picture message was.

I honestly think Terriers was a more polished attempt by Ryan and had he used the skills he possesses now to go back and redo The Shield it would probably compare to The Wire in depth and quality.

superfro

But it doesn't need to. I think there's a reason why the shows are constantly brought up together. I don't think it's coincidence. They obviously operate overall on different levels, but I don't think there's anything about The Shield that needed to be done differently. Other than the casting of Chiklis' mongoloid daughter.

Navinabob

I dunno, the Shield tended to write itself into corners early on (sorta like 24) where things built up to a conclusion that felt like it pushed the show near A-Team status of 1980's action hour pay-offs.

The show got better at that as it went along... each season felt like it had a plan at the end. But certain characters just got rebooted each season like the writers went "Ok... this year we are gonna do this to her, and that guy is gonna become a blahblahblah, and then those two guys are gonna get together."

The Wire felt like they knew where each person started and where each person ended and it took 5 seasons for that all to happen.

superfro

I guess I would need examples (or even to actually rewatch it) because I feel that way about the Shield folks too. (Aside from Julien who they completely abandoned halfway through the show.) Again, on steroids compared to The Wire, but everybody's changes made sense within the show for me.

Navinabob

Actually, Julien was my best example as they game him a new theme every season. But Corrine and Wagenbach getting together felt forced... and then they really didn't know what to do with it later. Aceveda was basically a cartoon character that they needed to reinvent each season. Wagenbach vs. Cat was one of the most powerful character turns I had ever seen... that was never brought up again. Hell, they could turned him into Dexter and instead they just rebooted him as comic relief.

Billings was there for half the entire series... and I still can't figure out why he was there or what he did other then a vending machine sub-plot.

Claudette, Mackey, Shane & Wagenbach made the show in my opinion. Bringing in Anthony Anderson, Glenn Close and Forest Whitaker (even though that character just ended flatly and suddenly) were brilliant moves as they made fantastic additions to the story.

Jam Master Jay

Just got into this show recently and had to post some Clay Davis from Season 4..."Shhhhhhhhhhhhhheeeit" NSFW for language

Gunde

Like so may others I think you completely missed the point of that scene.

Jeremy517

He killed the cat to try to understand how serial killers think, not because he was turning into a killer.

Navinabob

I know... I got that point. I just wanted something to come from it.

-Being drunk for an episode to show the character had remorse.

-Setting fire to a homeless guy to show he had a dark side.

-Picking a first fight with one of the strike-force to show he grew some balls.... or letting himself get his ass kicked in that same fight to show he wanted to be punished.

-Holding a choke hold just a second too long on a suspect he caught up with in an ally before pulling his hands away in horror to show he had some sort of conflict about it.

-Getting 5 cats as a way to show repentance.

-ANYTHING but pretend it didn't happen.

I honestly don't care what they did as long as it was part of a bigger plan on the writer's part. Killing the cat was out of character by Dutch. To veer that far off course they should have had a plan in place.

I looked up online why it was dropped and if that scene was ever mentioned again and found this from an interview with the actor.

“I think he regretted it immediately,” Karnes said of Dutch’s darkest moment. “I think he’s deeply ashamed of it. I think he blocks it out of his mind – I don’t think he wants to examine what that means.”

Still, around the “Shield" set, Dutch’s worst moment gave rise to a bit of gallows humor.

“There’s this joke that the final shot of ‘The Shield’ will be of Vic Mackey,” Karnes said. “But the penultimate shot is of Dutch coming home and unlocking his front door, unlocking a door within his house, going down a set of steps to a group of people chained up in various states of decomposition. And the final line [of the scene] is, ‘Who had a good day?’”

JayDerek

This was because the actor who played Julien didn't like that his character was gay and didn't want to go down that path. The writers basically then did very little with him.

I'm not sure if the actor was super conservative or what he expected (considering the end of the pilot confirmed that this was probably going part of his ongoing character arc)

rocketsauce

Anyways back to The Wire... I just started re watching this and I have to say so far as I start season 2, it's a lot better. I'm currently reading "Homicide" by David Simon and it's pretty cool seeing how real this show really was. A lot of little anecdotes from the book are scattered throughout. Still the best police show ever created hands down.

Navinabob

Thanks for the back-story!

superfro

I have a number of friends that live in Baltimore, and I think it made the show 100x even better for me as they were able to provide insight into how things on the show mirrored tons of stuff that pretty much went down in Baltimore over the years. That guy is basically this guy and so forth. It was awesome.

rocketsauce

Wow that would have been great to have as a backdrop while watching.

superfro

It put the show on an entirely different level for me honestly. It was fantastic on it's own, but once I saw the (pretty much) historical fiction aspects of some of the story threads it was really just amazing.

MikahC

It's the internet age. You're supposed to type all that information into a blog somewhere so we can read it while we watch. And yes, "supposed to" might be overstating it a bit.

I watche the HBO series Rome that way, so I know what you're saying. Someone on another forum typed up a lot of commentary about what really happened in history and what happened in Rome. It was great having an "on-line commentary" to go along with the show, and definitely increased my enjoyment of the show.