Amph "Way down in the hole" - The Wire thread

It's Baltimore, gentlemen. The gods will not save you.

Still one of my favorite shows of all time.

 

It's one of the greatest. I'm surprised there's not a thread on it here actually. S2 is my fave. I thought New Hamsterdam was a stretch in 3, and I thought 5 sucked.

It's out on blu-Ray quite soon, which may warrant a re watch, although I understand Simon isn't sold on it.

 

Just happen to be finishing a first viewing of the series in the next few days. Not much to say that hasn't been said, but the ramifications of S4 are killing me in S5.

 

I think "sucked" is pushing it. The newspaper stuff was a misfire and the serial killer plotline did strain credulity, but otherwise I thought it was up to par.

 

Wasn't New Hamsterdam in 4, not 3?

 

Hamsterdam was 3.

 

Oh, yeah, it was. Good, that makes my favorite season, 4, even better.

 

Season 3 is still my favourite.

 

When I say sucked, I mean in terms of The Wire.

 

I don't think I'll watch Season 5 again, but not for the reasons most would assume.

When I watched Seasons 1, 2, and maybe 3 as well, I hadn't gotten into photography yet. I still appreciated the show immensely, of course, and I hadn't learned nearly enough by the time I watched Seasons 4 and 5 to make much of a difference. My recent rewatch is a different story. I think I had only re-watched Season 2 since going through Season 5, and several years had passed since then as well. The show's cinematography is excellent and sometimes better than that. The show overall is done in a way that speaks to some of the photo education I've received, and that includes the cinematography. It's interesting that they used the same cinematographer for at least a couple years, and then shifted through several other people.

The Blu-Ray release is apparently set to ruin the aspect ratio of the show, so if you want to see The Wire as it was broadcast, you may want to be sure you own the original DVDs.

There's an old thread somewhere about the show, but it's probably locked up by now. I think Evan started it back in the day.

 

Cutty's arc was probably my favorite plot line in the entire series.

 

Cutty is one of my favorite characters.

With regard to Season 3, I think "Middle Ground" may be the best episode of the series. Pelecanos called it the best thing he'll ever have his name on, which I believe.

 

ruin it how?

 

Check out this blog post from David Simon (credit to hudzu who posted it on FB): http://davidsimon.com/the-wire-hd-with-videos/

It isn't entirely ruined. He acknowledges that some scenes benefit from the HD transfer but also mentions that others were shot with 4:3 specifically in mind.

 

thank you

 

Maybe the 4:3 aspect ratio is a subtle reason I came to like the show a lot-- it's close to 4x5, which is my preferred aspect ratio for pictures. I don't like 35mm too much, with some major exceptions. It's hard to get right, and 4x5 looks good to me in general.

Anyway-- not that that has a lot to do with the series itself.

 

The Wire is nothing short of brilliant; IMHO, it's one of the top 5 TV shows of all time. I never saw it on it's original broadcast, but did catch the entire series on DVD. I liked that the series didn't try to solve the world's problems and/or wrap everything up in a neat bow at the end, but instead presented things realistically. Though each season was great, possibly my favorite individual episodes are 9 & 10 from Season 5. Especially the last 6-7 minutes of Episode 10....sheer poetry.

The theme song Way down in the Hole by Tom Waits was definitely one of the most iconic elements of the show. I enjoyed how each season had a different version of the same song - my favorite was probably the 5th season theme (sung by Steve Earle). The theme song(s) set the tone for each respective season, and gave each season it's own individual vibe.

Here's an interesting retrospective on the show from 2012:

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertain...-thing/257910/

Re: the forthcoming Blu-ray release, I'm probably one of the few that want it to be released in widescreen aspect ratio instead of the full-screen aspect ratio as it was originally broadcast - most of us these days have widescreen TV's, and I prefer that most (or all) of the screen be filled up - I don't mind the black bars on the top/bottom of the screen, but don't like the larger black bars on the sides - which is what you see when watching a show/movie in the full-screen aspect ratio....

One especially interesting aspect of The Wire for me was that I grew up in the Baltimore, MD area years ago & the show truly captures the city extremely well, i.e. the downtown rowhouses, the waterfront (S2) & Harborplace, & of course the accents - in fact, when I first saw the show I was completely unaware that three of the actors were from the UK - they sounded like they had all grown up in the B-more area. Though I had moved from there years before The Wire premiered, when I started watching the show it really felt like I was right back there, which is something that isn't always easy to achieve...

Two other great series set in B-more are the '90's series Homicide: Life on the Street & the 200X HBO mini-series The Corner...

 

The Wire is great, not my ATF, but great. But this is the greatest scene ever. Language, nipple warning.


It's up there with the interior decorator in The Sopranos.

 

Link isn't working.

 

Try now

 

I need to see the final season again since I missed most of it.

 

Greatest show ever. Every episode is almost perfect. Between this and breaking bad I'd have a lifetime worth of great tv. I don't get the hate on season 5 though, thought it was a fitting ending to Mcnutty and Marlo.

 

my favorite was probably the 5th season theme (sung by Steve Earle). The theme song(s) set the tone for each respective season, and gave each season it's own individual vibe.

Mine is Season 4's, though I like Season 2's a lot as well. The editing is beyond great and it's done in a way that is remarkably similar to a type of photographic editing that I learned while in school. The transition to and from Carcetti walking with his head bowed is unbelievable to me. The music matches the season and the visual sequence completely.

 

Omar getting the Boba Fett treatment still pisses me off to this day. As does everything Herc says & does. Carver & Cutty definitely had the best arcs.

 

Omar got eaten by a giant vagina?