The original post: /r/television by /u/KindaLeftOfCentre on 2024-08-09 17:47:47.
Original Title: Released over two decades ago, “The Wire” is well worth your time. It started great and has only gotten better. I’m half-way through Season 3 and it’s better than great. It’s unrelentingly good which is a much higher bar.
Reasons to watch:
- It’s a chance to see actors, such as Michael B. Jordan, Idris Elba, Lance Reddick, and Aidan Gillen swing for the fences and carve out territory before they were more recognizable.
- Not every character gets an arc, and that’s refreshing.
- Really interesting characters might get introduced halfway through a season rather than there being broad exposition of the chessboard in the first episode.
- Everyone does what they do for understandable reasons. There’s no “good guy is good because he’s the good guy” or vice versa. Bonus: no edgelord “everything is shades of grey” either. Just cause and effect. If A then B. A, therefore B.
- Chaos is introduced liberally and impacts everyone. Nothing goes completely according to plan for anyone. No omniscient genius-Joker/Batman type scenarios that are hand-waved away by coincidence and contingencies. Sometimes stuff just happens.
- I’m halfway through Season 3 and only just now clued into the cop/alcohol vs criminal/drugs juxtaposition. There’s so much quality content that I missed the obvious.
- I find copaganda revolting, but was surprised how well the show enabled me to sympathize with the predicament “real police” and “cops” are placed in.
Every episode watched brings me an hour closer to the conclusion of the series, and that makes me anxious. I figure that’s the calling card of a fantastic show.