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Season rankings best to worst: 3, 4, 1, 2, 5
Third season takes the crown for me as it was the most dynamic and easily the most exciting. Not to mention, Barksdale characters >> Stanfield. Marlo and his goons just felt far more 1-dimensional and overly violent. It's like Chris and Snoop are killing every god damn thing come season 4, lol. Also, the whole Hamsterdam experiment was intriguing to watch. Breaking the rules for what is perceived to be the greater good is always fun in a story.
I can definitely understand why the majority prefer the 4th season though. Out of all of them, I do feel like that was the one that hit the hardest and really got its message across the best. Though it does take a really long time to start getting good, it does nail it in the end.
Though I ranked the 5th last it is still better than like 95% of TV out there. It only occupies the bottom spot because it feels rushed (and it was sadly ;; ). You just don't quite get the time to become attached to the Baltimore Sun characters, nor the institution they're apart of. Which is a shame, as I think the media was a great institution to close the series out on. At least the finale did a good job in touching on nearly every character throughout the series.
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4>2>1>3>5 for me.
4 was probably my favorite season of anything ever, so fucking sad that season. I don't understand everyone's problems with 2, I thought it was great. 1 was great, didn't really like the idea of Hamsterdam in 3, and 5 was kind of awkwardly done.
Like everyone says though, the worst Wire season still stomps on 99% of TV
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Just finished season 5, proper ending through and through. But now, as always when finishing a great series, there's a giant void in my free time! What to watch, what to watch...
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On June 26 2013 19:59 Tilorn91 wrote:
Just finished season 5, proper ending through and through. But now, as always when finishing a great series, there's a giant void in my free time! What to watch, what to watch...
Breaking Bad!
final 8 episodes start in August
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On June 26 2013 20:03 FrostedMiniWheats wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2013 19:59 Tilorn91 wrote:
Just finished season 5, proper ending through and through. But now, as always when finishing a great series, there's a giant void in my free time! What to watch, what to watch... Breaking Bad! final 8 episodes start in August
Waiting breathlessly for a long time now. Haven't watched Deadwood and Firefly yet, they have been sitting on my hdd for a long time now.
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2nd Worst City in CA8938 Posts
On June 26 2013 19:59 Tilorn91 wrote:
Just finished season 5, proper ending through and through. But now, as always when finishing a great series, there's a giant void in my free time! What to watch, what to watch...
Oz, if you want something kinda similar.
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On June 26 2013 20:48 Souma wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2013 19:59 Tilorn91 wrote:
Just finished season 5, proper ending through and through. But now, as always when finishing a great series, there's a giant void in my free time! What to watch, what to watch... Oz, if you want something kinda similar.
Watched all of Oz as well, even tho the last season or two were totally batshit crazy (aging pills?).
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On June 26 2013 20:48 Souma wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2013 19:59 Tilorn91 wrote:
Just finished season 5, proper ending through and through. But now, as always when finishing a great series, there's a giant void in my free time! What to watch, what to watch... Oz, if you want something kinda similar.
Oz is garbage and not similar at all. If a police show is what your're looking for you should try The Shield. It's not as realistic but it's fucking intense and not in a stupid way like Oz. It gets really good around season 4 if I remember correctly. The last seasons are some of the best tv ever.
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On June 26 2013 21:24 d00p wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2013 20:48 Souma wrote:On June 26 2013 19:59 Tilorn91 wrote:
Just finished season 5, proper ending through and through. But now, as always when finishing a great series, there's a giant void in my free time! What to watch, what to watch... Oz, if you want something kinda similar. Oz is garbage and not similar at all. If a police show is what your're looking for you should try The Shield. It's not as realistic but it's fucking intense and not in a stupid way like Oz. It gets really good around season 4 if I remember correctly. The last seasons are some of the best tv ever.
oh yeah! I always forget about The Shield. Good series overall, though very repetitive at times.
The season with Forest Whitaker is easily the best, and probably the best role I've seen him in.
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@ Oz, I thought it started very well but dies around season 4 or so and ends up being totally ridiculous at the end. You kind of see everything the show has to offer too early. Like the greatest episode is probably the 2nd.
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After the fourth season of The Wire, the possibility emerged that the show would be cancelled before the fifth and final season.
Luckily, it wasn’t. However, Simon emailed TV critic Alan Sepinwall the pitch he would have used to persuade HBO CEO Chris Albrecht to keep the show on the air (via All The Pieces Matter: A Critical Analysis of HBO’s “The Wire”):
I’m going to tell him, ‘Chris, one day in the distant future, you will find yourself sitting across from a man who doesn’t understand who you are, what you did, what you accomplished. He will stare at you, uncomprehending, as you explain the fundamental actions, accomplishments and motivations of your life, until finally, you look him in the eye and say, ‘I was the guy who kept The Wire on HBO for its full five-year run.’ And that man will then cock his eyebrow, nod, and reassess the paragon of enlightened humanity before him. ‘That’s really great, sir,’ the man will say finally. “But it’s 2 a.m., so you need to finish that drink and go home.’”
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On June 21 2013 06:35 Little-Chimp wrote:
4>2>1>3>5 for me.
4 was probably my favorite season of anything ever, so fucking sad that season. I don't understand everyone's problems with 2, I thought it was great. 1 was great, didn't really like the idea of Hamsterdam in 3, and 5 was kind of awkwardly done.
Like everyone says though, the worst Wire season still stomps on 99% of TV
2 was the union one right? I think most people hated it the most because nobody can relate to it anymore. It also centered a lot around "woe is us" and "this guy is a complete and utter moron." I'm a cynic.
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Just finished the series last night. I don't really know if I can rank the seasons. I actually feel season 5 could have been amazing, if they just would have had 2-3 more episodes to make it complete like the other seasons. The absurdity of how big McNulty's and that reporter's lies got was pretty hilarious. I think it was the series' best attempt at comedy (it had me laughing, at least).
A few things that surprised/disappointed me:
+ Show Spoiler +
-I wasn't really sure if Omar was going to make it, but being killed by a little kid caught me off guard (but that is probably the point).
-I wish we could have seen a little bit of Avon in season 5, just for a bit. Maybe there were issues with the actor?
-I felt like Marlow had it coming, but nothing ever happened to him. That seemed like the biggest loose end to me. You really start to hate him after 2 seasons, and he never gets his. I knew the series wasn't going to have a "happy ending," but I thought someone was going to get Marlow at the end.
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On June 26 2013 20:46 Tilorn91 wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2013 20:03 FrostedMiniWheats wrote:On June 26 2013 19:59 Tilorn91 wrote:
Just finished season 5, proper ending through and through. But now, as always when finishing a great series, there's a giant void in my free time! What to watch, what to watch... Breaking Bad! final 8 episodes start in August Waiting breathlessly for a long time now. Haven't watched Deadwood and Firefly yet, they have been sitting on my hdd for a long time now.
Oh man Firefly is awesome. Can't wait for the finale of Breaking Bad either. It's the only show that has come close to The Wire for me (maybe season 3 of Walking Dead as well).
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I think that the people who really don't like season 2 can't relate to it very well. Living in Baltimore, the slow death of the Port and the death of the Steel Industry is relevant to most of the community. Baltimore is and always has been a working class town. It isn't a technological hub, there isn't any sort of banking sector, there aren't many Fortune 500 companies employing upper/middle class college educated people. It is a town built on hard working, blue collar folks. Factories, mills, and the port were the lifeblood of the city.The loss of all this has had a huge impact on the city, driving out many working lower/middle class families. It has pushed some into dirtier lines of work, and opened up avenues for organized crime to take advantage of.
"They used to make steel there, no?" I think most Baltimorians can understand this quote. Many people in the area are related to or know someone that worked at Bethlehem Steel, which was a major employer back in the day. The people who used to work at the mills, and as stevedores, and other working class jobs have either left the city or turned to other avenues of income. They're people that have no reason to come back to the city, leaving houses that will never again be lived in, and communities that have been stripped of working class families and ideals.
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On July 06 2013 00:17 HardlyNever wrote:Just finished the series last night. I don't really know if I can rank the seasons. I actually feel season 5 could have been amazing, if they just would have had 2-3 more episodes to make it complete like the other seasons. The absurdity of how big McNulty's and that reporter's lies got was pretty hilarious. I think it was the series' best attempt at comedy (it had me laughing, at least). A few things that surprised/disappointed me: + Show Spoiler +
-I wasn't really sure if Omar was going to make it, but being killed by a little kid caught me off guard (but that is probably the point).
-I wish we could have seen a little bit of Avon in season 5, just for a bit. Maybe there were issues with the actor?
-I felt like Marlow had it coming, but nothing ever happened to him. That seemed like the biggest loose end to me. You really start to hate him after 2 seasons, and he never gets his. I knew the series wasn't going to have a "happy ending," but I thought someone was going to get Marlow at the end.
+ Show Spoiler +In a way Marlo got his. I mean Omar didn't get his revenge by killing him, but he did manage to assassinate his rep. Which, if you look at Marlo's character throughout the series was what he valued above all else.
The final scene with him is brilliant in that he can't get back in the game if he wants to avoid prison, but he still wants to feel the streets and the legacy he left behind....and there's nothing there. Instead people refer to Omar as the legend.
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@ season 2.
I just think people dislike this one because it's the biggest departure from the show. Every other season has the dynamic between the dealers and the police as its backbone, whereas in season 2 it all takes somewhat of a peripheral role.
Personally, I liked it and still narrowly rank it above season 5. That scene where Sabotka walks to his death gives me chills.
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If you want something similar to The Wire, I really recommend the HBO miniseries "The Corner" and the long running show "Homicide: Life on the Street". They're both by David Simon and they both have influenced The Wire.
Also, if you're a reader, you should check out the books for "Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets" and "The Corner". David Simon is a very good writer, and the books themselves are very gripping.
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On July 06 2013 15:54 armada[sb] wrote:
I think that the people who really don't like season 2 can't relate to it very well. Living in Baltimore, the slow death of the Port and the death of the Steel Industry is relevant to most of the community. Baltimore is and always has been a working class town. It isn't a technological hub, there isn't any sort of banking sector, there aren't many Fortune 500 companies employing upper/middle class college educated people. It is a town built on hard working, blue collar folks. Factories, mills, and the port were the lifeblood of the city.The loss of all this has had a huge impact on the city, driving out many working lower/middle class families. It has pushed some into dirtier lines of work, and opened up avenues for organized crime to take advantage of.
"They used to make steel there, no?" I think most Baltimorians can understand this quote. Many people in the area are related to or know someone that worked at Bethlehem Steel, which was a major employer back in the day. The people who used to work at the mills, and as stevedores, and other working class jobs have either left the city or turned to other avenues of income. They're people that have no reason to come back to the city, leaving houses that will never again be lived in, and communities that have been stripped of working class families and ideals.
I agree with this. Season 2 is integral because it shows the slow death of the city and why Baltimore is as jacked up and hopeless as it is. It also shows much more detail of politics in the trenches. There are themes of police vs unions, how politics gets as petty and dirty as who gets primo location for stained glass at a church, and the subtle racial difference of how white people deal with criminal investigations (in contrast to the black reaction of the first season).
Where the show is ingenious is that it explores this completely different aspect of the show world while advancing and deepening the characters. Bringing in the mysterious Greeks through the port provides the perfect way to import drugs after the problems of the first season with supply. You get a better look at the higher-ups of the BPD and how they fight their own little turf wars for allocated resources.
Ironically, it also follows with Daniels' advice to Carver in the first season that the men take their cues from the leader. Valchek plays his game to get the Major Crimes unit to fight his personal little war for him, and accordingly, McNulty and Daniels (and subsequently Herc) also start playing games to manipulate police resources for their own gain. They're less petty than Valchek, but they're playing the same game.
EDIT: But I will say admittedly that the season is much drier than the others and there are a few too many coincidences. Also, the show does such a good job of attaching viewers to the drug trade that it does seem strange that drugs are secondary and background to the season overall.
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honestly, if it wasn't for season 2, i probably would not have finished the series. I like the investigative parts and the authenticity of the first season, but frankly I didn't feel like there was a story to be told behind it. The show to me was more of a window to the streets rather than a purposeful narrative. Coupled w/ the jarring reset @ the beginning of S2, I didn't see a reason to keep watching. Until I got to All Prologue. That was the episode that got me hooked on the wire. It has all the best scenes of that season there, from Omar @ trial to the death of D.
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Finally got around to watching this show and I just finished the last season after 2-3 weeks of watching it.
Certainly one of the best shows ever made.
The peak of the show for me was S3, but it's pretty difficult to rank the other seasons beyond that because they're all just so good in their own right.
It almost feels like 5 separate mini-series more-so than a show with 5 seasons. I found it a little hard to get into each new season for the first couple episodes.
Each season ends as pure gold and when the next season starts, and it takes a while to get used to the fact that it's a very different show than the gold of the season you just watched. But eventually, that new season comes into it's own and becomes a new gold standard of its own. All 5 seasons are outstanding.
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just finished the second season, I know it's a huge risk spoiler-wise for me to be here but I just gotta vent somehwere
goddamn
Frank Sabotka has got to be one of the most tragic characters of all time
I sat staring at the screen while he drove to meet the Greeks. I knew that he was going to die, the episode was building it up, but ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffucking hell. GOD.
Everything he did, he did for his people. and it ultimately led to his death, his son's breakdown and the Union's destruction.
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EPT
