The first time through, I thought Season 2 was a lesser season (although still great) but after the second time through it is my favorite one. There is so much character development there.
It is my favorite too.
I like season 2 the best too. It builds wonderfully on the first season
Damnit, guys, I may have to go back and watch season 2 again, now. I only watched it once (as it was airing) and thought it was pretty weak sauce compared to the first season.
Once you accept its extreme shift in focus, Season 2 really is exceptional. I liked it better the second time through.
I’m another Season 2 convert. The first time through I just hated it…
…second time through I was all “Oh, crap, I get it now.”
Watched it again earlier in the year, and yeah, it’s just outstanding, maybe my favorite of the entire series.
The only “I just hated it” moment I remember was when McNulty started to forge evidence in the final season. That seemed completely out of character for him, ego or not.
I just finished watching the entires series about a week ago averaging a season ever 1-2 weeks. I think it actually did fit in with the way his character progressed from the first season to the last. He was desperate to put them away towards the end. He didn’t like the idea of a bad guy getting away and would do what was necessary (in his mind, alcohol infused or not).
I totally get it, I see what they were trying to do with season 2. I just hated watching those characters.
I only watched the show once, so maybe I’ll change my mind on second viewing, but I just remember countless hours in Season 2 spent in that bar on the docks, with characters I didn’t care about talking about stuff I didn’t care about. Every time they went into that bar, I’d be fighting to stay awake and force myself to keep paying attention somehow.
Maybe on a second viewing, that bar will become a magical fascinating place. Who knows?
Is season 2 when they spent all the time with the longshoreman? I don’t remember that being boring.
I enjoyed a lot about season 2. Amy Ryan certainly helped.
I think that I liked Season 2 so much because it deals with a completely different topic/issue. Human trafficking. The change of scenery is nice too, and you get to see some of the beginnings of the political corruption angles from seasons 3 and 4. The Prison stuff with D’Angelo is great, as well as seeing the east side drug trade. Ziggy can DIAF, but you are supposed to hate him, and he story at least goes to an interesting place. That ending of the season was so great. Busting down the hotel room door with still warm cigarette ashes and forged passports in the ashtray. The season is a big downer and a lull in the overall Barksdale/Stringer story, but I really liked it. I think that it is so different of a season is what made it so memorable.
The only thing wrong with season two IMO is that it’s the only one that didn’t significantly impact later seasons. The characters introduced in one, three, and four all continued their plot lines into subsequent seasons. Two just kind of closed off its arcs and went away quietly.
That is true. I said to my GF when we finished watching season 2, “Say goodbye to all of those characters”
Except of course… Amy Ryan.
Reviews for the HD transfer look good. So far I have been able to resist double-dipping for any blu ray release, but I don’t think I have a choice for this one.
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/15880/thewirethecompleteseries.html
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Wire-The-Complete-Series-Blu-ray/120000/#Review
Something I have noticed with reviews of the Wire is that everyone has a different way of explaining why the show is so good. I find myself agreeing with every review, and yet when I explain why it’s great to someone else it’ll probably come out very differently. They’re all true, yet can’t possibly grasp the full nature of it. To me it’s a bit like how pluralists think of religions, they all have parts of the ultimate truth in it, but none can claim to cover it all.
I only just read this old article from the New Yorker about David Simon and The Wire:
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/10/22/stealing-life
I wanted to bring it up here as I had never heard of the incidents mentioned in this paragraph and it quite surprised me:
Filming on city streets in marginal neighborhoods carries its peculiar risks and rewards. On one occasion, a car involved in a high-speed chase smashed into one of the actors’ cars, and everybody had to dive out of the way. Another time, a man got shot yards away, staggered onto the set trailing blood, and was treated by the show’s medic. Once, a man pressed a package of heroin into the hands of Andre Royo, the actor who plays the sympathetic junkie and police informant Bubbles, saying, “Man, you need a fix more than I do.” Royo refers to that moment as his “street Oscar.”
— Alan
The pot of gold in the Variety article is the link to David Simon’s 1987 piece on Melvin Williams in the Baltimore Sun. Fantastic reading. Lot of bits and pieces of The Wire in there.
I’ve been rewatching the Wire on blu ray (which is really fantastic) and was surprised to see Ben Carson namedropped (although it makes sense considering he worked at John Hopkins):