Yeah, I’m with you there. I re-watch it every 2-3 years. Time might be right to kick off my next round. And maybe my second go-around of Boardwalk Empire, which I have been contemplating for some time now.
Is Boardwalk empire really in the same ballpark, quality wise, as The Wire? I don’t think I’ve seen a realistic show done quite as well ever as the Wire elsewhere.
And man, so sad about Mr Williams!
Personally, I couldn’t get through The Wire. I got bogged down in season 2. Boardwalk Empire, however, I loved.
Man clearly had some demons, but delivered some iconic performances!
I’ve loved him in everything he’s been in, but his performance in Lovecraft Country–raw, real, and vulnerable–was definitely the best thing about that show. He was such a great talent.
Yes, I think it is definitely in the same ballpark. For me it is hard for anything to top The Wire, but BE is up there - fwiw, it is rated comparably on Rotten Tomatoes.
Of course I’m a big fan of Steve Buscemi and the theme song is by The Brian Jonestown Massacre so what’s not to love!
EDIT: If Steve Buscemi played Bubbles’ sidekick and The Wire used Maybe Tomorrow as the theme it would be untouchable.
I love Boardwalk Empire. It’s very hard to compare it to The Wire though. The Wire was amazing entertainment, but it also felt like a documentary or journalism in the best ways, exploring part of the same world I was living in but rarely saw. That sets it apart in my mind from pretty much any other show out there.
An easier comparison is to The Sopranos. Still a mostly realistic, contemporary drama, exploring a corner of the US that doesn’t touch my life, but where The Wire used an unfamiliar perspective to examine systems and institutions that in some ways affect us all, The Sopranos is “just” about a crime family in Jersey.
Boardwalk Empire is more like that. It’s got some real history, characters, and events, it’s not wholly made up like The Sopranos, but it’s also “just” a drama about organized crime, it’s not like The Wire.
That’s why The Wire stands alone in most of my comparisons. It’s my favorite TV show, but it almost doesn’t seem fair to directly compare it to much else.
The rest of my top five would probably be The Sopranos and Mad Men at #2 and #3, and then Breaking Bad, Boardwalk Empire, and Better Call Saul (pending a satisfying conclusion) jockeying for #4 and #5, and probably constantly in flux.
So that’s a long way of saying I don’t know how to compare The Wire to most other TV, but Boardwalk Empire is great.
The Sopranos comparison is really good.
The Wire came off of a book called The Corner, in which David Simon and Ed Burns (creators of The Wire) spent a year documenting an inner city Baltimore neighborhood in stunning detail.
It’s a fantastic read for anyone curious about social decline and drugs.
It was turned into a movie, but I haven’t seen it so I couldn’t say how good it is, but it’s clear how it inspired The Wire, and I think it’s why that show hits so damn hard. There’s simply a lot of truth in there.
Roland Pryzbylewski is based on Ed Burns himself, having been a cop and then a teacher. I’m not sure if he’s guilty of any of the same shenanigans though.
No love for Homocide: Life on the Street? (sad Andre Braugher/Yaphet Kotto noises)
I have to admit, I can’t imagine Andre Braugher in a non-comedic role anymore. He’s so good at comedy!
Wonderful show for most of its run, though it got weak toward the end. I would rank it one of the top shows of the 1990s, along with Twin Peaks and a couple others. The 90s were a very weak decade for TV.
I never watched it, I was a teenager at the time and David Simon certainly wouldn’t have meant much to me then. I’ve heard that it was good, but still just “good as network police procedurals go”.
I’m not trying to be cynical but it’s hard to imagine it holding up against The Wire now, surely anything good it did, The Wire did better? I wouldn’t be surprised to hear it still holds up and can be an enjoyable show, and maybe even more so to anyone specifically interested in seeing where The Wire came from, but I’d be surprised if it was making anyone’s all-time top ten lists or anything. It never occurred to me to go back and seek it out after The Wire.
Marc put up the Michael K Williams episode again, and listening to it again was great. I’d forgotten he was such a big fan of Rachel Ray.
This was a good interview with MK Williams if you haven’t heard it:
Here’s David Simon reflecting on the creative process working with MKW. Great stuff.
Official confirmation of what we already knew…
Yeah, lots of reports of cocaine being tainted by fentanyl in the NY area. This doesn’t make much sense as coke is an upper and fentanyl an opiate, but I guess people who don’t die enjoy it.
Thank you for sharing this David Simon essay. Powerful.
Arrests made, they’re going to charge with a variety of stuff. Apparently this crew of four was already under investigation for selling laced heroin in NYC, and they apparently sold Williams fentanyl-laced heroin – and then continued to sell it even though they knew it had killed the actor.
After Williams’ fatal overdose, Deputy Chief John Chell had instructed the 90 Precinct Detective Squad and Brooklyn North Narcotics Group 2 83/84/90 to treat it as a homicide.
“Treat this case as if Michael K. Williams was hit by a bullet,” Chell remembers telling the detectives. “Make believe he got shot.”