The Wire

[slowfox]

I'm about eight episodes into Season 1 of The Wire right now, which is proving to be pretty good, although sometimes I struggle to remember all the characters' names, and trying to keep up to speed when the characters are all conversing in street-parlance does require a fair bit of concentration.

Baltimore is portrayed as gritty and seedy, and the cops themselves aren't exactly angels throughout the piece. The interplay between McNulty and Bunk (particularly their conversation when they're scoping out the scene of a long-dormant murder case) is wonderful, and Herc and Carver are a cool kinda team. I like Lester and Bubbs, haven't quite worked out how I feel about D'Angelo just yet.

Comments

[uninvitedcat]

mR and I are working our way through season 1 as well! But with subtitles, so I have a chance of keeping up. (And that scene with McNulty and Bunk is definitely mR's favourite!)

[cynthia_black]

I find that strange, that a series in English language needs to bewatched with subtitles...

[slowfox]

Believe me, when you see it, you won't find that strange AT ALL.

It's very, very good, but one of the corollaries to that is that the accents in The Pit are a bit impenetrable.

[slowfox]

That McNulty/Bunk scene is genius! And all the more amazing because you get that this all makes sense to them, and that they really know what they're doing. A beautiful depiction of partnership.

It hadn't occurred to me that I should turn on the subtitles...

[slowfox]

So where you at?</D'Angelo>

Like I said, I'm at ep 8 just at the moment, but am pondering doing reviews per ep from hereon out. Wondering if we're anywhere near being synchronised...

[uninvitedcat]

Ooh, um, not entirely sure off the top of my head. Um. Have just looked at a programme guide - next ep up for us is number 9. So we're pretty synchronised right now - but I have to be quite awake to cope with watching an ep, so we're not exactly speeding through the season!

[carolanne5]

I loved The Wire S1. I'd love to watch all the other seasons but I'm struggling to get through the DVDs already in the flat!

[slowfox]

Well, I have all five seasons, and am intending to do the whole cycle. You may certainly borrow as and when, but given that your DVD-list is already backing up somewhat, I'm guessing that mebbe I should hang fire just for now :-p

[loup_noir]

One of the best HBO series ever! But do watch it with subtitles. I wish we had from the first episode. The street patois is so thick it's unintelligible to us, and we're Americans. Almost every plot point gets used, even if it takes three seasons to get back to it. This is one of the few series I would like to own.

[slowfox]

As I said to uninvitedcat above, the subtitle idea hadn't even occurred to me, but now you've both suggested it, I can see it makes an awful lot of sense!

But yes, really good, so far... HMV here had the box set at a discount, and I thought it was worth the risk, given the almost universally positive reviews I'd read here, there and everywhere.

[tikiberry]

I heard good things about the series. I've been thinking about giving it a go.

Keep us updated on how you fare, ok? I like to make an informed decision! :D

[slowfox]

I will certainly be continuing with the updates! :-)