i was expecting this to be the cause of the thread bump: omar little arrested!
A familiar face shows up at 2:03 of this clip from Newshour about Theater of War - a program that performs selections from the plays of Sophocles (Ajax and Philoctetes) for US Soldiers.
How funny, I just started watching this show from the beginning for the first time ever tonight. 4 episodes in and I am hooked.
You are in for a treat.
I can tell. :-)
John Waters wants to make a Christmas Special. This would be genius.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/aca6f288-100c-11e1-a468-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1iwidchiY
Wow, something I can actually fully agree with HRose on.
Yes, for the most part, The Wire is perhaps some of the very best TV ever produced in America. It’s that good. Season 5 doesn’t quite stand up to the full weight of the previous seasons (especially the emotions that run rampant in Season 4), and for various reasons people thought it might be jumping the shark. In the battle for the corners, it was obvious the way it was going. For McNulty, it’s pretty much how you can see the character evolving if certain things happened. It wasn’t the perfect ending but… still, they closed it out on their terms. As you watch the show, realize that either Seasons 1, 3, 4 or 5 were intended to be end if it came down to that.
— Alan
I just watched the entire thing last year and pretty much loved every minute of every Season. Now, I reflect back fondly on it like it was 5+ years ago. Still have the big empty hole waiting for another excellent show to fill it and know that it is going to be a long wait.
We watched it all this fall/winter; I thought it was very well done, one of the most memorable shows I’ve seen post-childhood.
We serial-watched it a few years ago. My wife is a PG County (One county south of Baltimore) elementary school teacher. You should have seen her bobbing her head during the “school” season. She thought they hit it pretty well. That’s the cool thing about the Wire. I grew up in Maryland, near Baltimore, and none of this stuff (well, one or two things did) looked that far off center.
Good show.
I remember watching the first season when it aired and just being blown away by how far and away the writing and acting was above anything else I’d seen on television. I’ve since watched the whole series a couple of times and it just keeps on rewarding with cool little connections and nods. Deadwood, and a couple of other shows, has since risen up to the same level in my mind. The Wire deffinetly set the bar by which I rate serious drama’s on television.
I remember reading an interview with David Simon where he mentioned something about the specificity of the writing actually broadening its appeal. I had pretty much the same experience you did when I showed season 4 to my mother, who was a high school teacher in rural NSW for her whole career. And for that matter season 2 was something I think anyone who lived in Newcastle NSW in the late 80s/90s could nod along with as well. It’s a strange effect - where the location and broad situation can change, but the hyper specific details and insights someone working in that situation would notice actually have broader appeal than you’d get by writing it broadly on purpose.
It really does ruin you for other television. “Is there someone who actually did this who can write, surrounded by other great writers, on the writing staff? No? Fuck off then”.
David Simon takes that same eye for detail when showing New Orleans in Treme.
Yeah I’ve spoken to a New Orleans native who really likes the show (Treme), particularly since it doesn’t focus only on what Hollywood has deemed is the only interesting part of the city’s culture… Mardi Gras.
I lived there and I agree with your friend. Like the Wire, Treme really shows various levels of what makes a city and its culture. Treme lacks the structure of a police procedural and many think it suffers. It is more scattered, with some plots only connecting tangentially.
I think Simon realizes that he should be utilizing some of his strength with bureaucratic-police intrigue, considering how the second season has been going with some more focus on the lieutenant that wants to reform the department.
Simon’s journalist background makes him really strong at writing about inter and intra department politicking. Treme really distances itself from that sort of setting though.
Since we’re gushing about Simon, I’d put Generation Kill up there with anything before or since in the mini-series genre. Outstanding source material and all the Simon and Burns genius you could want.
Treme has suddenly become very interesting to me.
I should warn that Treme is probably harder to get into than The Wire. Treme doesn’t have the immediate cop vs robber hook or the feeling of imminent action. The music in it is fantastic and almost make the series worth watching by itself. They do cover some interesting new ground, but its all done with the same artistic style.
Generation Kill is fantastic. Talking about a show that really uses language, Generation Kill really makes you feel like a fly on the wall, which is fitting considering the POV character is essentially that. The unique personalities that were on display was probably my favorite part of the mini series.