May 5, 2009
A little note about The Wire
Dear everyone-I-know and everyone-on-the-Internet and everyone-in-the-media-especially-at-the-place-I-work,
You were right about The Wire.
Mos def, dog.
I watched the entire first season marathon-style* over the last two days of this bank holiday weekend, and am eagerly awaiting the delivery of S2 & 3 so I can spend even more time sitting on the sofa with a cat on my knee and less time thinking about moving house.
I don’t mind saying I was wrong to have previously shunned it for being merely - and I’m quoting myself, here - “people swearing and mumbling poisonously at each other”. That may well have been an accurate description of the first 15 minutes, but obviously there’s more to it than that. Sometimes they shout, too! And there are guns! And beeyatches! And bits which are possibly funny or possibly serious but I can’t quite figure out which! And actors who do brilliantly with accents, with the occasional teeny slip-up. Sorry.
But it’s good! I love it!
Please feel free to tell me you told me so. And no spoilers!
love,
Meg
x
PS The fucked-up dreams full of street slang with a thumping hiphop soundtrack, and the overwhelming temptation to call everyone rude words and to insist that they re-up my tea and move the stash of custard creams before I consume them all - this is normal, yes?
* Meaning “in several long sittings” rather than “with band-aids over my nipples and dressed as a Womble”
Ah, but has your “all right” gone Baltimore yet?
“Ah-eye.”
Incredibly habit-forming, and vaguely embarrassing to boot.
Um, yes. This sounds exactly like me.
When I first heard about The Wire - because everyone (and I mean everyone whose opinion I respect was raving about it - I was underwhelmed. “Guns, drugs, crime, swearing, violence. Blah blah blah. Is there a new Mike Leigh film out I could watch instead?”
But I’ve finally given in. Without having seen a single episode, I forked out £80 for the complete five-season box set this weekend, and can’t wait for it to arrive.
I watched the first series over a weekend too and spent the next work day feeling that something wasn’t right and eventually twigged that it was because people weren’t swearing every other word. Welcome to the cult…
I served jury duty two years ago and a woman there explained to us that she did not want the “Po-po” coming after her for skipping jury duty. It made me smile since I had never heard the slang word police used outside of this TV show.
Enjoy the series. Season two is not as strong but keep watching the last three are all excellent!
“You were right about The Wire.”
True, dat.
I just finished series 5. It took 6 months all told from start to finish but now I feel like loss like I haven’t since I was sweet 16. You feel me? OK that’s slightly exagerated but yes - it’s good and get’s better. Make sure you pause when you go to make a cup of tea as loads of stuff reveals itself through the most miniscule snippets that you literally miss if you blink. Enjoy - I’m jealous you haven’t seen it yet.
My wife and I recently finished a Wire DVD marathon and felt like something had been ripped out of our lives when we got to the last episode of the last series. If you think it’s good now, just wait!
Hey, us too! I know everyone’s been raving about it for, like, ever, but I *hate* watching stuff downloaded off the internet so have only just got around to it. I want to watch these things sitting on my sofa on my mahoosive telly, not on my laptop, at my desk (which is rubbish and too much like being at work).
If you can’t stand the wait, you’re very welcome to borrow series 2 and 3.