The Wire...

[JoeGKushner]

Well, while talking about the Shield, someone mentioned the Wire.

Lot of fans here?

It (like many HBO series), is an expensive puppy. I see Amazon has the first season for something like $74.95.

 

[Steve Jung]

Yeah. It's put together by some of the same people behind Homicide: Life on the Streets.

 

[Aulayan]

My advice is join Netflix and rent it. The Wire is a very slow series. The entire first season is devoted to one investigation.

As the creator says, it's a visual novel. The first episode is the first chapter, second is the second and so on. And thus it does start out completely slow. In the first episode, you see the beginnings of it, by the time you're a few episodes in, it's unfolding before you and by the time the season is done, you have become invested in it's characters. It just takes a little while.

I just recently lent my copy of the First Season to a friend of mine, it took him forever to get into disc 2, but now he's trying to watch as much as he can because it grabbed ahold of him by then.

 

[RangerWickett]

This is the best television series ever.

 

[coyote6]

What RW said, or very near.

 

[Morrus]

I keep trying to get into it. I have the first series boxed set. But I keep trying to watch the first episode and can't understand a single word anyone says! The accents are so thick it's like watching a German movie or something.

 

[RangerWickett]

The American release comes with English subtitles. And compared to actual street speak that I hear in Atlanta, you're lucky they hired actors instead of real drug dealers.

 

[Mark Hope]

It's awesome. Easily the best TV show I've ever seen. Yes, it takes about a half-dozen episodes just to get up to speed, but once it's off and rolling, it's the most original, surprising, inventive and downright believable show out there. Just simply the best. It's all in the game .

 

[Remus Lupin]

I keep trying to get into it. I have the first series boxed set. But I keep trying to watch the first episode and can't understand a single word anyone says! The accents are so thick it's like watching a German movie or something.

It's never occurred to me that a Baltimore accent was difficult to discipher for a non-American, though I can see how a lot of the street language would be really difficult to understand.

I think there's also a lot of "Method Actor" Marlon Brando style mumbling going on as well.

The series is well worth it if you can get past those accents though!

 

[RangerWickett]

Admittedly, it is grounded in the woes of the modern American city, but I assume some of the problems are fairly universal in major cities.