Another Wire Thread - kinda sorta

by ChicagoPete on Mar 13, 2009 9:24 AM CDT

In support of the courageous Fanposting of dasox, I too shall stand up to the brutal Gestapo tactics of the editorial board and put up whatever I want as a fanpost whenever I want to. Never again!

Hey, any Wireheads on here also into "The Shield"? I'd never watched the show, but read a few of the rave reviews being written for the final episodes and decided to DVR a few of the shows and check it out. HOLY SHIT!

The final two episodes were just insane. They just kept raising the stakes and going all in every 15 minutes, and just when you thought they couldn't push it any further they jacked the stakes again. Unreal, that was some of the most intense television I've ever seen.

Unfortunately I don't have the time to digest all 7-whatever seasons, but was hoping I could get some advise on how to optimize viewing. eg, I'd say if you had to condense the Wire, then watch Seasons 1 & 4 only. I heard the season with Forest Whitaker (love him) was awesome.

SouthSideSox is a community driven site. As such, users are able to express their thoughts and opinions in a FanPost, such as this one, which represents the views of this particular fan, but not necessarily the entire community or SouthSideSox editors.

Tweet Comment 41 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

Flagged for claiming to be a Wire thread

White Sox: Trying to roll a hard six.

by vince_ on Mar 13, 2009 9:28 AM CDT reply actions

kinda sorta, HA!

Wilder Bilked Money from Sox to Fund Struggling Gay Bar

by ChicagoPete on Mar 13, 2009 9:33 AM CDT up reply actions

gave me false hope

But Frank Thomas was always his own guy, he always lived by some sort of code that wasn’t especially clear to anyone but him.

by U-God on Mar 13, 2009 10:04 AM CDT up reply actions

Fuck that, I want to talk about Season 2

Officially certified Cedric Daniels as my favorite character. I liked the port storyline, but hopefully none of the shipping people or union guys show up again. And Method Man as Cheese? This show is full of goodness.

Confusion breeds success. If they don't know each other, opponents can't have strategy. GENIUS.

by Ozzie Montana on Mar 13, 2009 10:43 AM CDT reply actions

my favorite on the side of the law is lester

But Frank Thomas was always his own guy, he always lived by some sort of code that wasn’t especially clear to anyone but him.

by U-God on Mar 13, 2009 11:20 AM CDT up reply actions

Bunny Colvin, thanks

by Sox-35th on Mar 13, 2009 12:09 PM CDT up reply actions

cedric is one serious motherfucker

i like the scene where rawls is talking him into taking the cases, and cedric declines. lendsman says, “he’s smarter than he looks”…some good shit…

what your beef with the union folks? yeah, ziggy was a drag and nick was annoying, but good acting from the rest of the bunch.

by onlysoxfaninboston on Mar 13, 2009 12:41 PM CDT up reply actions

I feel like they served their purpose, but there are bigger fish to fry in the next seasons

Prop Joe’s dealings with the Greek, who is being aided by a FBI agent. I think that’s all good territory, though watching the season 3 premiere right now, I guess it’s going it’s going to be tackling city politics.

Confusion breeds success. If they don't know each other, opponents can't have strategy. GENIUS.

by Ozzie Montana on Mar 13, 2009 1:02 PM CDT up reply actions

you said you liked the port storyline, how could you not include the union angle?

that’s all i’m getting at. chapter 2 is about the decline of the ports and the unions, that’s pretty much it.

by onlysoxfaninboston on Mar 13, 2009 1:16 PM CDT up reply actions

I'm saying I don't want them to pop up in later seasons, that's all

I loved Season 2, but from all that I’ve read about the show, it kinda stands along in the subject that it tackled. I do find it kind of odd that the only season that covered the decline of middle-class, working whites, is considered unpopular. Or maybe I’m just speaking out of my ass.

Confusion breeds success. If they don't know each other, opponents can't have strategy. GENIUS.

by Ozzie Montana on Mar 13, 2009 1:41 PM CDT up reply actions

i hear you, it disrupted the flow of the primary theme of the show

but to correct, season 2, according to simon, was the most popular by viewer ratings, and he alluded to race as a factor.

by onlysoxfaninboston on Mar 13, 2009 1:49 PM CDT up reply actions

Really? Well this is what I get for watching the season years after it initially aired

Confusion breeds success. If they don't know each other, opponents can't have strategy. GENIUS.

by Ozzie Montana on Mar 13, 2009 1:55 PM CDT up reply actions

but it makes sense that was highest rated season doesn't it?

by onlysoxfaninboston on Mar 13, 2009 2:05 PM CDT up reply actions

if it turns out that most fans of the show didn't like season 2 that well

it could have been season 2 that cratered viewership at the time.

how much to the have to pay the Players -- that's what she said -- of the league like BA?

by colintj on Mar 13, 2009 2:08 PM CDT up reply actions

interesting theory, not sure if i buy it though

wait a second, wasn’t this thread supposed to be about the shield??? haven’t seen it, was wondering for those who have seen it if the plot/storyline is as ridiculous as 24 (producer is fox, right?)

by onlysoxfaninboston on Mar 13, 2009 2:35 PM CDT up reply actions

The Shield is the anti-24

I actually love 24 because it dropped any pretense after Season 1 of being a realistic, serious drama. It’s just a shitload of action, following the same formulaic plots.

On the other hand, The Shield has all of that violence and action, but actually attempts to look at its characters, and in the end they end up paying huge consequences for the shit they do over the course of the series. It takes a hard look at gang life and police corruption.

Confusion breeds success. If they don't know each other, opponents can't have strategy. GENIUS.

by Ozzie Montana on Mar 13, 2009 2:44 PM CDT up reply actions

you sold me on the shield

i’ll try to make room for it. 24 is crack, you know what you’re getting into and you still want more …

by onlysoxfaninboston on Mar 13, 2009 5:26 PM CDT up reply actions

I could never get into 24

My wife was watching it when it first came out, I’d hang around for a few episodes but it never grabbed me – so I’d go to the other room and watch the Sox. But the Shield took me by the throat and flung me against the wall, I can’t believe I never checked it out before. The realistic/unrealistic aspect didn’t bother me, really good drama should create its own little world and hold your belief in suspense – the few episodes I saw certainly accomplished that.

Wilder Bilked Money from Sox to Fund Struggling Gay Bar

by ChicagoPete on Mar 13, 2009 5:41 PM CDT up reply actions

season 2 gets all sorts of grief although thematically

as documenting the US transition from manufacturing based to information based economy and the outcomes for its citizens, the scope might be the widest of any of the seasons.

I liked the 2nd season, I rank it 4,1,3/2 5.

5 just didn’t do it for me, although still an incredibly strong show, not up the standards of previous seasons IMO.

by madvillian on Mar 13, 2009 2:36 PM CDT up reply actions

Season 2 was necessary for the arc

He had to have some explanation for why cities have become such shitholes, and Season 2 was Simon’s take on why jobs vanish and the toll it takes on lives. Season 1 was boom, this is the vipers nest. Season 2 was more of, well – how did we get from here to there? Season 2 grows on you, I even got to like Ziggy by the end of it. Early on he was so annoying I kept hoping they’d kill him off already.

Wilder Bilked Money from Sox to Fund Struggling Gay Bar

by ChicagoPete on Mar 13, 2009 5:51 PM CDT up reply actions

i probably liked season 2 the least

…but it’s also the one I think about the most and want to rewatch the most.

rmlumley.com

by shaftr on Mar 14, 2009 2:27 AM CDT up reply actions

it's the easiest to quibble with for most

and lord knows blue collar white folk have an interesting past in this country. and i think that’s what makes it totally necessary and intriguing. i just finished it with my friends and fishing out Simon’s argument about labor and his perspective makes it very interesting to consider.

how much to the have to pay the Players -- that's what she said -- of the league like BA?

by colintj on Mar 14, 2009 11:37 AM CDT up reply actions

what's there to fucking fish out yo?

labor’s been getting a raw deal since reagan. i think the interrogation with sobotka was damning. the feds are like “we want to help your union”, and he’s about to flip out.

by onlysoxfaninboston on Mar 14, 2009 8:25 PM CDT up reply actions

you telling me that labor's been getting a raw deal

isn’t the same thing as me suspecting or believing the same. i doubt you were swayed by simon’s depiction; his depiction in fact meshes nicely with your pre-show impressions of labor’s predicament, no?

i’m ignorant enough of the issues at work that i don’t feel the need to be swayed at this point. and while i’m sympathetic toward the plight of the impoverished, i’m skeptical of unions. by the time we get to frank sobotka, the union in question is so decimated that it hardly resembles an institution. such are the baltimore stevedores.

if this were the case everywhere, it would mean that the only way the unions could currently have any national political clout would be to be underwritten by off-the-books payola. so pressing is the economic situation. if that’s the case, there’s a huge scandal brewing if only someone would do some real journalism. and if you’ve got that kind of reportage, i’d love to see it.

how much to the have to pay the Players -- that's what she said -- of the league like BA?

by colintj on Mar 15, 2009 1:41 AM CDT up reply actions

The union did what it had to do to survive

Just like Simon’s other institutions. This debate is off target though, it’s not that we should assign any sort of value judgement to all unions (or even this one union), but rather that we should see what happens to the politically unconnected when shit gets bad and jobs dissapear, whether those folks are longshoreman or urban youth.

by madvillian on Mar 15, 2009 9:03 AM CDT up reply actions

the latter point isn't interesting to me

since it’s basically decided: bad shit happens when shit gets bad. who knew?

how much to the have to pay the Players -- that's what she said -- of the league like BA?

by colintj on Mar 15, 2009 12:33 PM CDT up reply actions

you don't think that those capitalism (with all it's conventions) leaves behind are interesting?

by madvillian on Mar 16, 2009 10:01 PM CDT up reply actions

actually, no, his depiction of the union as struggling, but surviving by being corrupt

does not mesh nicely with my impression of the organized labor movement in general.

madvillian says it best below…

by onlysoxfaninboston on Mar 15, 2009 10:20 AM CDT up reply actions

"yo, where my cheeze at?"

by madvillian on Mar 13, 2009 2:34 PM CDT up reply actions

The "The Wire" vs "The Shield" debate is one that I always found interesting

I knew of The Shield well before I got into The Wire, so it was a first love. The intensity was quite different than anything I had seen on most other shows and the acting and camera work lent to it a certain level of realism (plus the fact that concept was based on a real police unit that became known for it’s brutality). However, once I started getting into The Wire and was exposed to hyper-realism, any show that once looked like it was displaying the true to life experience of law enforcement now seemed almost silly by comparison (Not just The Shield, but early Law and Order and even David Simon’s previous show Homicide: Life on the Street).

However, after some reflection on the subject, I realized The Shield was never trying to be the same thing as The Wire. The Shield is a character driven show. The Wire is a show which exposes the cruel nature of the organizations we belong to. While on the surface these shows both use the man vs. man conflict, if you delve a little deeper, I think you can make the argument that The Shield is much more man vs. self (especially if you have seen the last episode) and that The Wire’s driving conflict is actually man vs. society.

I still think The Wire is the better show, I just don’t think that the flaws it exposes in The Shield’s realism are necessarily so damning that The Shield should not be appreciated for what it does well.

As for the best seasons, they all lose a little impact if you know where it ends up, but I would say 1,2 and 5 (and 7 which you appear to be watching now) were all quite strong. Seasons 3,4 and 6 were all good as well, but more in service to set up other seasons. That being said, I strongly recommend watching the entire show beginning to end to get the full effect of the drama.

by CatBrains on Mar 13, 2009 11:01 AM CDT reply actions

David Simon has said that he used a Greek model

i.e. man vs. the gods, and the gods here are the institutions

how much to the have to pay the Players -- that's what she said -- of the league like BA?

by colintj on Mar 13, 2009 11:27 AM CDT up reply actions

That works.

I was thinking about calling it a cross between man vs. society and man vs. nature, but if I went down that path I was in danger of invoking every conflict there is to invoke.

by CatBrains on Mar 13, 2009 12:03 PM CDT up reply actions

Man vs. Self and Man vs. gods

From what I saw of those few episodes of “The Shield”, I’d say it was more Man vs. Satan – and Satan winning in a landslide. You can practically feel the devils grabbing Vic and Shane by the ankles and dragging them into the pit of hell. And the more they struggle the deeper they fall. I’ve never seen such a powerful depiction of hell on earth – and the end with him in the cubicle was perfect. Kind of like winningugly in Orlando /shiver/…powerful stuff man.

Wilder Bilked Money from Sox to Fund Struggling Gay Bar

by ChicagoPete on Mar 13, 2009 5:36 PM CDT up reply actions

I just may cloak this whole thread

for Sox irrelevance.

(Signed, he lardiest Poster evah.)

the post wasn't for you. fuck off.
by larry on Feb 10, 2009 12:43 PM EST

by winningugly on Mar 13, 2009 7:24 PM CDT reply actions

wtf are you doing here?

:-)

by onlysoxfaninboston on Mar 14, 2009 8:26 PM CDT up reply actions

sorry about that

should stay away from sites when drunk

"Oh, that's easy. White Sox. I'm not one of these fair-weather fans. You go to Wrigley Field, you have a beer; beautiful people up there. People aren't watching the game. It's not serious. White Sox, that's baseball. South Side." -O'Bama

by Hawk is God on Mar 15, 2009 2:05 PM CDT up reply actions

well its been almost 2 years since the last episode

and I still believe The Wire is the best show of my lifetime. Sorry but season 2 was the worst season. Once they killed the 12 yr. old informant in the 1st season about 8 ep. in I was hooked. What separated the Wire from the Shield, the Sopranos, etc is they weren’t afraid to kill any character in any episode at any time. When watching the Sopranos the drama was the whole episode but the important moments were always at the end of the episode. Whereas the Wire, they killed Omar 20 minutes into an episode in the middle of the season. The Wire continually rewarded the fans that understood the concepts of the show. Some thought Season 2 was a misfire. Some thought the Baltimore Sun plotline was a personal vendetta for Simon. Personally, I think it was the best show of all time and that’s all I have to say about that.

by Hawk is God on Mar 14, 2009 3:44 AM CDT reply actions