"The Wire" on DVD

[Muse]

Finally broke out The Wire last night and watched Season One first episode.

Man, this is not The Little Mermaid (which I've never seen). It is also not How to Train Your Dragon (which I watched the night before and didn't like, but stuck it out anyway). It does smack of reality a ton, which I dig.

My hearing is so so but I didn't rewind and turn on/off subtitles like I sometimes do, and some of the dialog was kind of colloquial anyway, so I didn't pick up on a lot of the interdepartmental shenanigans going on with the Baltimore Police Department, court system, etc. Everything else seemed pretty self-evident to me.

Is there a place where you can read a synopsis of The Wire episodes?

 

[A Casual Fitz]

The wikipedia page is very detailed. I found it helped when I was losing track of people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Target_(The_Wire)

 

[CraKaJaX]

I actually just started watching this as well. A buddy at work told me about it after I mentioned that I binge watched Amazon's 'Bosch' and was needing more episodes. I'm through two episodes so far and I think I'll dig it. I usually tend to like the detective/cop/crime series stuff.

FYI - If you haven't seen Bosch... check it out on Prime. Highly recommended :thumbsup:

 

[Charmonium]

Rumple and gururu.... I don't want to overhype Homicide, tell you it's the best and then it can't live up to expectations. But I really think anyone that liked The Wire will like Homicide.

I second this. Personally I think Homicide: Live on the Streets is better than The Wire.

 

[momeNt]

hmm, another show depicting the stereotypes of poor minority communities. i'll pass.

Doesn't depict any stereotypes. It tells what is essentially a true story of Baltimore crime.

You can oversensitively broaden that into a stereotype by taking it upon yourself to generalize everything the show is about.

Take a specific story about specific people with specific skin colors. Then say that the story talks generally about general groups of people....

What does that say about you?

 

[Muse]

The wikipedia page is very detailed. I found it helped when I was losing track of people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Target_(The_Wire)

Thanks. I will check that out. I was hoping there was a site where I could get a synopsis of each episode.

 

[Muse]

Doesn't depict any stereotypes. It tells what is essentially a true story of Baltimore crime.

You can oversensitively broaden that into a stereotype by taking it upon yourself to generalize everything the show is about.

Take a specific story about specific people with specific skin colors. Then say that the story talks generally about general groups of people....

What does that say about you?

You know, I was thinking about the post you just reacted to about stereotype poor people/ethnicities, whatever and having watched the first episode, there was plenty of depiction of stuff like that, the projects, street action, drug trade and use, arrests, street crime, gang activity. I have had some first hand contact with these areas of urban American life and I did not have the sense that they'd blown it at all, that they'd glossed over, "stereotyped" anything at all. Just the actions of choosing actors, writing lines, filming, you are necessarily narrowing down your focus. Everything in life is a narrowing of focus. The world is multifaceted and there's no view that's all encompassing. It doesn't matter who the artist is, Scorsese, Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, I don't care who you pick, compared to reality itself, what they produce is going to be a narrowing (stereotyping?). If you want to avoid all that you avoid all art.

 

[momeNt]

You know, I was thinking about the post you just reacted to about stereotype poor people/ethnicities, whatever and having watched the first episode, there was plenty of depiction of stuff like that, the projects, street action, drug trade and use, arrests, street crime, gang activity. I have had some first hand contact with these areas of urban American life and I did not have the sense that they'd blown it at all, that they'd glossed over, "stereotyped" anything at all. Just the actions of choosing actors, writing lines, filming, you are necessarily narrowing down your focus. Everything in life is a narrowing of focus. The world is multifaceted and there's no view that's all encompassing. It doesn't matter who the artist is, Scorsese, Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, I don't care who you pick, compared to reality itself, what they produce is going to be a narrowing (stereotyping?).

I don't really see it as stereotyping. How could it be stereotyping unless you generalize the casting or scripting of one particular person into a statement of how that director feels about a group.

Who created the group? To use the show as an example, is the director concerned about making the character of Avon Barksdale the person? Or Avon Barksdale, insert class distinctions here, black, drug dealer, no father on birth certificate, etc. Same goes for any of the characters.

So to use your words, the only way it really is stereotyping is to project reverse the narrowing of the focus (the specific character) and use it to generalize. Who did that?

 

[A Casual Fitz]

Thanks. I will check that out. I was hoping there was a site where I could get a synopsis of each episode.

That is a site where you can get a synopsis of each episode.

 

[Muse]

That is a site where you can get a synopsis of each episode.

Maybe so (Wikipedia's site), but I only see season by season breakdown. Reading it, I'm already getting into action I'll only encounter in further episodes (I've only watched the first).

I found a site with episode by episode analysis, etc.:

'The Wire': Links for reviews to every episode

This splits reviews into two treatments, one for newbies (i.e. like me) and the other for "veterans," folks who are "die hard" fans.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

I've heard great things about this and decided to check it out, literally, I went to my local library's website and saw that I could check out one DVD at a time, assuming they were available. I checked out Season One / Disk One, and before getting it decided to just buy the whole 5 season series on DVD, for $41 shipped, "Like New":


The Wire - The Complete Series (DVD, 2011, 23-Disc Set).

Then I got the one disk from the library and it says it's 4:3 format. I'm wondering if the whole series is 4:3, always, or if it's also been released in 16:9, and of course, what I'm going to receive.

I have a Blu-ray player, but figure DVD's would be OK with this, but I don't want an image designed for 16:9 trimmed to 4:3, naturally.

What's the scoop on this??? Thanks...

It was all shot and originally broadcast for 4:3 and was later remastered to HD 16:9. If you watch the HD carefully you might notice a couple of places here or there where the scene composition changes because of extra info being added. But it's most definitely not a hatchet job. They did great work on the remaster/conversion and most of it looks better. Unless you're a complete purist who insists upon seeing something in the original formatting you're going to enjoy seeing it in widescreen even more than you would in 4:3. I saw it when it first aired on standard def and rewatched the HD remasters many years later and would not go back to the SD.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

One of the best scenes in the series :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtHetIaWZNc

NSFW due to a few seconds of titty flash in crime scene photos.

 

[Muse]

It was all shot and originally broadcast for 4:3 and was later remastered to HD 16:9. If you watch the HD carefully you might notice a couple of places here or there where the scene composition changes because of extra info being added. But it's most definitely not a hatchet job. They did great work on the remaster/conversion and most of it looks better. Unless you're a complete purist who insists upon seeing something in the original formatting you're going to enjoy seeing it in widescreen even more than you would in 4:3. I saw it when it first aired on standard def and rewatched the HD remasters many years later and would not go back to the SD.

I saw something about HD remastering but didn't know it involved changing the aspect ratio to 16:9. Or if I did, I had no clue that it would be superior. See the first few posts in this thread... they indicate that David Simon insisted he wanted 4:3. I suppose that pretty much got what he wanted if that's the way it was aired. Anyway, I already bought the entire 4:3 DVD set, I am not about to order a replacement set.

 

[Muse]

One of the best scenes in the series :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtHetIaWZNc

NSFW due to a few seconds of titty flash in crime scene photos.

There was some tasty titty etc. flashing in the pilot. Man, they weren't holding back, HBO??? The FCC obviously doesn't give a shit what they do. Only thing they didn't put out on the pilot was straight up porn.

 

[MongGrel]

I had not watched The Wire until recently myself, was an excellent series. If you think those shots were risque, I guess you do not watch HBO often in general I guess.

HBO and Amazon Prime are the only things we pay for premium these days, and we did Prime initially just for the free two day shipping on purchases. The video is just a plus, Bosch was a very good series on there, are a few others.

The second season of Mozart in the Jungle just started.

Anyway, if you like The Wire check out Generation Kill if you never have either, same people involved in that one. Still a one season series that I re watch now and again. That Wire scene always makes me think of beautiful being

The FCC doesn't play very highly into into anything sub hard core on Premium TV channels really. I take it you're not a GOT fan

 

[Muse]

I had not watched The Wire until recently myself, was an excellent series. If you think those shots were risque, I guess you do not watch HBO often in general I guess.

HBO and Amazon Prime are the only things we pay for premium these days, and we did Prime initially just for the free two day shipping on purchases. The video id just a plus, Bosch was a very good series on there, are a few others.

The second season of Mozart in the Jungle just started.

Anyway, if you like The Wire check out Generation Kill if you never have either, same people involved in that one. Still a one season series that I re watch now and again. That Wire scene always makes me think of beautiful being

The FCC doesn't play very highly into into anything sub hard core on Premium TV channels really. I take it you're not a GOT fan

GOT fan? Demystify?

I don't have subscription TV, so the only time I see it is when I buy a series. I can get stuff from the library but they dole it out to you one disk at a time, generally, and I don't bother. I have 8-10 series. So yea, I'm often shocked when I see what's on subscription TV, like with The Wire. Well, shocked is too strong a word. It's more like a little surprised. I like it though, I thought the pilot for The Wire was extremely well done. Really good casting and acting. I didn't pick up on all the stuff but I have that episode by episode site to go to.

 

[1sikbITCH]

GOT fan? Demystify?

I don't have subscription TV, so the only time I see it is when I buy a series. I can get stuff from the library but they dole it out to you one disk at a time, generally, and I don't bother. I have 8-10 series. So yea, I'm often shocked when I see what's on subscription TV, like with The Wire. Well, shocked is too strong a word. It's more like a little surprised. I like it though, I thought the pilot for The Wire was extremely well done. Really good casting and acting. I didn't pick up on all the stuff but I have that episode by episode site to go to.

Men were getting fucked up the ass on Oz back in 1997. Dicks swinging in every other scene. Hardcore graphics are nothing new to HBO

Anecdotally, those accents you can't understand are the real ones. The Wire cast as much local talent as possible, using several actors and a whole lot of non-actors from Baltimore to give the show it's true-to-life grit. David Simon had previously written Homicide: Life on the Streets as well as The Corner and he cast the people he met on the street as well as the cops, teachers, and newspaper reporters (later seasons) he had met when creating The Wire. Local people throughout the show. Jay Landsman is real police as is former Commissioner Ed Norris (both play themselves). After watching the show and then discovering that most of these people were just Baltimorons like myself was a source of pride. Except Landsman inhaling burgers was worse than watching buttfuckings on Oz. Yikes.

The show is good because it was written from and acted out thru experience. It could have easily sucked.

Edit - hah I just realized that if I was telling you all of that in person you'd have to ask someone else what I said.

 

[MongGrel]

GOT fan? Demystify?

Game of Thrones.

 

[thebestMAX]

Dont understand the dislike for the second season. I skipped the first but second season hooked me good. Was a fan of Chris Bauer and when I saw he was in it I decided to give it a try. Seen em all now. Great TV.
Did the same thing with Sons of Anarchy. Watched second season and then caught up.

 

[Muse]

Game of Thrones.

Never seen it, period.

Anecdotally, those accents you can't understand are the real ones. The Wire cast as much local talent as possible, using several actors and a whole lot of non-actors from Baltimore to give the show it's true-to-life grit. David Simon had previously written Homicide: Life on the Streets as well as The Corner and he cast the people he met on the street as well as the cops, teachers, and newspaper reporters (later seasons) he had met when creating The Wire. Local people throughout the show. Jay Landsman is real police as is former Commissioner Ed Norris (both play themselves). After watching the show and then discovering that most of these people were just Baltimorons like myself was a source of pride. Except Landsman inhaling burgers was worse than watching buttfuckings on Oz. Yikes.

The show is good because it was written from and acted out thru experience. It could have easily sucked.

Edit - hah I just realized that if I was telling you all of that in person you'd have to ask someone else what I said.

Thanks for this information, it's great and does explain why I thought that what I saw in the pilot was very realistic. I love that aspect!

 

[A Casual Fitz]

Maybe so (Wikipedia's site), but I only see season by season breakdown. Reading it, I'm already getting into action I'll only encounter in further episodes (I've only watched the first).

I found a site with episode by episode analysis, etc.:

'The Wire': Links for reviews to every episode

This splits reviews into two treatments, one for newbies (i.e. like me) and the other for "veterans," folks who are "die hard" fans.

What? The link I provided was the first episode only and you can click on specific episodes on the side.

 

[who?]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX1Du7d4gTU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Sgj78QG9Bg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qAU-YC3y6M

 

[Charmonium]

 

[Chiropteran]

Jay Landsman is real police as is former Commissioner Ed Norris (both play themselves).

Jay doesn't play the character based off himself, he plays another character later in the series though.

 

[Muse]

What? The link I provided was the first episode only and you can click on specific episodes on the side.

For some reason when I hit your link I get this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Target_%28The_Wire

...where it says

Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name.

Persistence does provide the page you intended, but I only found that out just now (i.e. poking into links at that page).