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The Wire is awesome, British TV less so

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McTaggart:
I'm putting this back on the front page to tell all the Australians who may not know that ABC2 will be showing season one Tuesdays at 9:30, starting tomorrow.

I am going to piss off so many people by making sure absolutely everyone knows about it over the next thirtysomething hours.

Inlander:
Oh good, I'm glad someone else did this for me!

I read in a review that they're showing seasons 1-3, which sort of makes sense in that that's basically the complete Barksdale storyline, but I'd be surprised if they don't end up showing the others, too. Channel 9 might still have the rights to Season 5 as, to the best of my knowledge, they haven't screened it yet in Australia (they've screened all the other seasons, though so late at night and with so little fanfare that you probably missed them). Also, ABC2 is showing the first two episodes back-to-back, which is probably a good idea as the first episode is a bit bumpy. I don't know if they're going to continue doing that throughout the entire run.

Has anyone else noticed how TV reviewers and other people are finally starting to talk about this show? I think a lot of people have caught up with it since it came out on DVD. About time!

a pack of wolves:
It would be a real shame if they don't show all five. I enjoyed the first three seasons the most by far, the Hamsterdam plotline was the peak for me, but when you take the show as a whole it absolutely needs those last two seasons. Aside from perhaps a little too much schmaltz in season four, one character who was a bit too stereotyped (the academic) and that plot in season five being perhaps a little far-fetched I don't think they could have been made any better, and they're completely necessary for broadening the scope to the level needed and emphasising the cyclical nature of life in West Baltimore. Even those criticisms are things I'd have barely noticed in almost any other piece of art, it's a testament to The Wire's incredibly high standards across the board and the amount of time it's prompted me to spend thinking about the programme that I even registered them.

Inlander:
I've watched each of the seasons at least three times, and some of them four or five times, and for some reason I could never really get into season 3. It just never quite seemed to get into gear for me, it never seemed to quite get up to those incredible Wire heights and I couldn't see why so many people count it as their favourite. But just recently I watched the whole series all the way through from season 1 episode 1 to season 5 episode 10 for the first time and I finally got season 3. I realised that, in effect, the Hamsterdam story is the B-plot; the real story is the decline and fall of the Barksdale empire. And when I watched it like that, as the culmination of three seasons' worth of storytelling, it was amazing.

As for season 5, it's clearly the weakest of the lot but it does have rewards and, as with all season of the Wire, it only gets better with repeat viewing. I like to think of the serial killer storyline as something of a satire on other, lesser cop shows, with their obsession with over-the-top serial killers: the only time the Wire features what a villain who'd be recognised as a serial killer in the conventional sense, and it's all made up!

a pack of wolves:
* Warning: this post is chock full of spoilers. *

I think I saw it in reverse to you so to speak, because the first time I saw it I enjoyed Hamsterdam but a huge part of my attention was given over to all the "that's fucking brilliant" moments related to the Barksdale plotline. The dream team of Brother Mouzone and Omar with their fantastic Western-styled face-off, Avon being brought down, Bell and Bunny meeting in the graveyard, neither Stringer nor Avon being able to look at Brianna when she brings Avon the accusations over D'Angelo's death (possibly the best single scene they ever did) and of course Stringer's death. You really couldn't ask for a better end for the Barksdale story, the whole thing is superbly crafted. On subsequent viewings I found myself drawn more to Hamsterdam and Bubbles, and trying to think through what was going on with Hamsterdam as a ghetto within the ghetto.

I never thought about the serial killer plot like that. Although I'd hazard that it might be The Wire criticising itself as much as other cop shows. One of the reasons I think season five is so crucial to The Wire when taken as a whole is because it's where they most directly apply their lense to the media and it's role in what happens, and The Wire is part of the media. I never felt like they gave themselves an easier ride than anyone else, critiquing their own biased viewpoint and the limitations of their medium while they were ripping apart the war on drugs, urban economic decline, the education system and just about everything else.

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