Is the Wire on Blue Ray (Currently on Amazon etc) the HD Re-mastered version or is that not available for Purchase yet?
Thanks
The HD remaster was made specifically for the Bluray release.
Yes, that’s the HD remaster. Prior to the HD remaster it was only ever available on DVD.
I own it on DVD. This is just a conspiracy to make me want to buy it again even though I already own it!
Has anyone seen the HD remaster? Thinking back on the show, the main star is the writing and performances. I’m not sure that can be enhanced much with an HD remaster and a few more inches of screen space on the sides.
In fact, the creator believes it may even be harmed by the transfer. He indicated that many of the shots were specifically composed for 4:3, with careful placement of elements to reinforce themes for a given scene. He didn’t mind too terribly, but he wasn’t thrilled with it.
I’m sure someone can dig up the relevant interviews (probably further back in this thread), but Simon seemed pretty rational about it. It was shot for 4:3, but just by nature of some of the scenes there are times when that looks worse at 16:9 and times where it looks better. I got the impression he wasn’t about to endorse the remaster as an improvement, but he also didn’t seem to resent it the way some people have been about similar efforts elsewhere. It’s just a different version from what they created, for better or worse.
Before their was a 16:9 remaster Simon said he wouldn’t do one because he wanted the show to retain the feel of a documentary or local tv news. And he had composed the show specifically for 4:3 and it would be only a worse version.
Years later he said the most important thing was for people to see the show. And that since it was going to be done anyway by HBO he’d better be involved with the transfer so it’s the best it can be.
And then after he did it, he was surprised that some scenes were actually enhanced.
At the last, I’m satisfied what while this new version of The Wire is not, in some specific ways, the film we first made, it has sufficient merit to exist as an alternate version. There are scenes that clearly improve in HD and in the widescreen format. But there are things that are not improved. And even with our best resizing, touchups and maneuver, there are some things that are simply not as good. That’s the inevitability: This new version, after all, exists in an aspect ratio that simply wasn’t intended or serviced by the filmmakers when the camera was rolling and the shot was framed.
Still, being equally honest here, there can be no denying that an ever-greater portion of the television audience has HD widescreen televisions staring at them from across the living room, and that they feel notably oppressed if all of their entertainments do not advantage themselves of the new hardware. It vexes them in the same way that many with color television sets were long ago bothered by the anachronism of black-and-white films, even carefully conceived black-and-white films. For them, The Wire seems frustrating or inaccessible – even more so than we intended it. And, hey, we are always in it to tell people a story, first and foremost. If a new format brings a few more thirsty critters to the water’s edge, then so be it.
I’m glad he was so involved with the HD transfer, and as a massive fan of the show, I thought it benefitted from going HD. Rewatched the first season, thought it looked stunning, more modern (which lends to the feeling that its still so relevant), and I never felt like anything was obviously lost. Granted, I have the 4:3 DVDs if I ever need to go back.
This sounds both good and bad. Generally I can´t stand reframings. I worked as a College projectionist for a while and I became very sensitive to wrong aspect ratios. I vividly remember going to rewatch Paranoid Park to a different theater after I watched it at the proper 1.37, and the projectionist there decided to show it at 1.85. It was horrible, a butchered movie.
But that movie was shot by Christopher Doyle. As other have said above, framing in The Wire in most of the time not very precise or not even something you feel was very important when shooting (with some exceptions). I´m sure some scenes will be butchered, but I don´t think it would fundamentally change my appreciation of the series.
Don’t watch old simpsons episodes on FXX. How not to treat 4:3 source material.
YUCK!
I believe the Apple TV FX app actually gives you the option to watch them in the correct aspect ratio, which is nice.
In the interests of finding one major media franchise in which I’m more knowledgeable than @tomchick, I’ve been watching The Wire on Amazon Prime Video. Someday he’ll break the seal on those DVDs he has and this particular moment in the sun will be over.
It’s pretty amazing to me how little in the show seems to be dated. It’s 15 years old, and yet only the technology really stands out to me. Pay phones and $150 for burner cells! Well, that and the occasional reference to Bush vs Kerry.
Outside of that, I really wouldn’t be surprised to see news articles pop up any day with the same subject matter. Drugs, corruption, murder, resource-starved enforcement, political maneuvering over actual results…timeless stuff. And things that our society has made remarkably little progress in addressing in the last decade-plus.
I particularly liked the social commentary aspects. Low-education worker struggles, legalization of drugs to improve neighborhoods, etc and all of it portrayed with plenty of gray area. Great show from a strictly entertainment perspective, but plenty to think over as well if you want.
Here’a a great article about the Game Day episode of The Wire:
Good article about The Wire, looking back in detail.
Just rewatched Season 1 and started Season 2 for the first time, and guys… I’m in love with Beadie Russell.
So say we all :)
LOL I had no idea this was a thing
http://www.sheeeeeeeeeit.com/2018-isiah-whitlock-jr-talking-bobblehead
I’m doing the rewatch of the show and I forgot how much I hate season 2. Man, I really hate season 2.
The docks? Yeah that was a weird tonal shift.
The docks season is what first elevated the Wire from a smart police procedural to the visual novel it became. The standard philosophy would have been to jump from Season 1 to Season 3, and keep the supply of drugs and the other parts of the city as some exogenous given and in no way related to the universe of the show.
Instead we learnt about where the drugs are coming from, and how technological change and the attack on unions might have had broader ramifications than is often admitted.
The characters take some getting used to, as I am sure the real personalities would to people like us, but in the end I also loved the characters, the plotting, the dialogue. The final episode also made me cry on my third rewatch, and I rarely ever cry at anything.
With all that said, I felt the same way about the second season until I rewatched it in full, here’s hoping the same happens to you @kerzain!