 |
When I tell people about The Wire, I begin with a moment of silence, which helps me keep my composure - somewhat - once I start to explain it. I tell them that The Wire is the BEST THING EVER. Not just the best TV show. The BEST THING EVER TO EXIST EVER. The care put into the series is visible from the dialog. Creator David Simon writes the lines so they flow naturally and show the idiosyncrasies of Baltimore dialects and jargon used by police or criminals. And the dialect coaching! Two of the main characters are actually British, but they sure had me fooled for a while. Even the American actors have been trained in Baltimore dialect so that the life-long Baltimore resident might even believe them to be natives. Check out the writers' credentials: David Simon, who penned two books of narrative nonfiction, 'Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets,' which inspired the hit series 'Homicide: Life on the Street,' and 'The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood,' which inspired the Emmy(R)-winning HBO miniseries 'The Corner'; Ed Burns, a former Baltimore police detective and Baltimore city public school teacher, who coauthored the book 'The Corner' with Simon; William F. Zorzi, a former political writer and editor for the Baltimore Sun; and Chris Collins, an up-and-coming talent who served as staff writer last season and also wrote the award-winning documentary 'Disarm.' Also writing for the series this season are novelists Dennis Lehane ('Gone Baby Gone,' 'Mystic River'), George Pelecanos ('Hard Revolution,' 'Right as Rain') and Richard Price ('Lush Life,' 'Clockers'), as well as TV veteran David Mills, who was one of the writers and executive producers on 'The Corner,' and a writer for 'NYPD Blue' and 'Homicide: Life on the Street.' - http://www.hbo.com/thewire A lot of the material in this show comes from Simon and Burns's real-life experiences. The series starts out following McNulty, a maverick (and alcoholic) cop who does whatever he can, no matter how sneaky or ethically ambiguous, to get funding for a special task force to investigate an inner-city drug ring and its leader, Avon. Unlike most cop shows, this one often highlights the red tape and bureaucracy that prevent law enforcement from taking on organized crime. 2nd season's foray into the lives of Polish-American shipyard workers is somewhat unfortunate. Be ready for Ziggy - not the boring but lovable comic strip character - who is the most annoying character since Jar Jar Binks. Season 3 returns to Avon's crew, thankfully. 4 brings us new characters, some 8th-grade boys, and shows how No Child Left Behind and the general danger of their environment affects them. We're also introduced to a new drug kingpin, the young criminal prodigy Marlo. Season 5 focuses largely on chasing Marlo and trying to get a warrant to do so. It goes into the newspaper business, focusing on the overstepping of ethical guidelines and sensationalizing of stories. I realize now that a synopsis of every season may be a bit much, but I'll go ahead and leave it, and here's why. If any of this information piques a single person's interest, that's enough for me. Described as "like Homicide, but grittier," or "like NYPD Blue, only grittier," such descriptions only scratch the surface. Give it a few episodes. I watched the entire series 3 times before I completely understood the 1st episode. The complexities make multiple viewings so worth it. And look out for Omar, the awesomest dude eva!Read full review
I have bough DVDs Box Sets in the past from eBay because they make great gifts. Believe it or no, once, I got bootlegs! I couldn't believe it. I bought them because they were $5 less than anyone else on was selling them them in quantity with BUY IT NOW. It had all stock photos, and looked all legit. I did that again, sorted the buy it now's, and looked for the cheapest Box set. Read the fine print, and everything twice. This time it was a WINNER, and has been every time since that once. Box sets make the best gifts. You can easily ask someone casually, "hey did you like that last season of ____whatever." Then you know if they even seen it. If they never seen it, you can buy one of these guarantee hits, and they will have weekend after weekend after weekend of pleasure enjoying the gift you got them. 1 Box Set watching 2 Disks per weekend can take a few Months to watch! And the best part of gifts in general is they bring people together, and tighten bonds. People will naturally want to do that with a box set. When they want to talk about how cool that show they never watched is, you will be the first one getting a phone call! That's just another reason why these are the perfect gift, and properly priced $40-$75 you can't beat the value you are gifting someone. I recommend The is review is for the Wire, and if you like the The Wire, I highly recommend, Breaking Bad, Lost, The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire, Curb your Enthusiasm, and Shameless, Game of Thrones, Star Trek (5 different TV Series, but The Next Generation makes the best gift and my favorite, or you can get all 11 Star Trek movies as a set), Star Wars Movie Pack (and have then watch it Chronologically Episodes IV-VI, then I-III Family Guy, (For a Sport Fan) The League, The Office, Dexter, Six Feet Under, Arrested Development, The X Files, finally... OZ ; just to name a few of my favorite Gifts Box Sets. The Wire is near the top of that list! I am sorry, but unless the person a little "slow" immature, or likes bad zombie horror, I wouldn't recommend "The Walking Dead" despite it being semi popular. The above choices are all much better.... Experience: I am a hobbyist film critic for an online website tailored towards people in their 20s - early 40's. I do find that buying DVD box sets are great gifts for people older than the group I mentioned above. A sizable portion of people in that group wouldn't like a box set as much as a gift because of digital downloads, and torrents.... For the most part, Box Sets are great gifts who aren't computer literate, if I had to put a number on it I would say 40+ as of 2013.Read full review
This show is addictive and so compelling. The characters are rich and storied, the action intense, the political realities totally on point. I received these disks as "New" in the box, and indeed they came sealed inside the box. However, many of them were a bit grainy, almost muddy, which rose my suspicions that these were in fact copies. I'm probably wrong, I'm so used to Blu Ray, which clearly these were not. I'd give this package a 5 star rate if not for the disks, as I loved the entire 5 seasons of this show, the second season being the absolute best!
I have to admit ... before watching The Wire for the first time, I was a little hesitant to check out a "Crime Drama." I kept having visions of the strangely famous David Caruso. I'm glad I took the plunge, though. This, really, is one of the best TV shows ever, if not the best. Equally awesome, seasons 1-4 each have their own unique "charm." Season 5 feels a bit rushed and like they were trying to cram 6 lbs of "content" in to a 5 lb. bag. Although, it's necessary to tie things up, and overall it's still enjoyable to watch. If you like sitting in front of the TV for any reason ... you will enjoy this show!
One of the best if not the best tv series ever written. Depth of each character goes way beyond your average urban crime drama. Absolute genius.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Best Selling in DVDs & Blu-ray Discs
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Save on DVDs & Blu-ray Discs
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- You may also like
