The Wire, Arrested Development - Prototypes of a new type of telly?

UFO over easy

online mahjong
for me, Bubbles represents a fundamental humanity. He can walk through hell, but his flame of basic decency never quite dies.

have you seen season 4? don't want to spoil it for you, but bubbles displays the same weaknesses as everyone else in that season, but I guess that's part of what makes him a sympathetic character.

I see what you're saying though. Omar's 'purity' is totally unattainable, he seems barely human. Which makes sense but is sort of fucked up when you think about who he is and what he does. It's only in those moments where harm comes to those he cares about where you see any spark of weakness, but even then that just serves to fire him up in his quest for justice. Batman!
 

PeteUM

It's all grist
Thanks. It's as good as done, or lazily sat in front of anyway. And you're right about Bubbles too. He's certainly walking through hell in the last episodes of Series 4. One to go... :eek:
 

stelfox

Beast of Burden
I absolutely love the fact that rawls is gay and especially the way it's revealed, so deftly and with more or less no explanation at all - a real blink-and-you'll-miss-it, what-the-fuck moment
 

PeteUM

It's all grist
I absolutely love the fact that rawls is gay and especially the way it's revealed, so deftly and with more or less no explanation at all - a real blink-and-you'll-miss-it, what-the-fuck moment


Yeah! Nothing before to suggest it, and nothing afterwards. Even as fuck.
 

Jonesy

Wild Horses
Box DVD's are the way to go with this kind of TV; you can take it at your own pace (i.e greedily).

Box sets (of the Sopranos, Deadwood, Six Feet Under and more) have been a lifeline since moving abroad. But they can be dangerous. It takes discipline to watch just one episode a week and make them last.

Though I'm the type who eats everything and leaves the yolk until last.
 
N

nomadologist

Guest
Christian Bale has a natural US accent doesn't he? I knew he was from here originally but I always thought he must've moved over pretty early. Weird to think of Batman with an English accent.. I also remember thinking his english accent in the prestige was really corny

the hugh lawrie thing is too perfect as well. I think I squealed in that scene where he does an old school blackadder-esque english accent... I got bored of that show though. As far as superheroes go, Omar blows House out of the water

Says on IMDB that Bale is Welsh-born and began his acting career on the London stage. Not sure if he'd lived in the U.S. for a long time before starting the film career, but he sure sounds like he did..
 

zhao

there are no accidents
it's impressive for the dude who plays McNulty to sound convincingly American, but even more so when he does the American imitating British accent thing in that one part where he was going into the whore house pretending to be an English john.

oh yeah forgot to mention i watched the first 2 seasons since the Sopranos thread got hijacked by Wire fans... :D
 

zhao

there are no accidents
oh and who ever was wondering if Omar is entirely based in reality, i can say from living in the US and having contact with shady characters that he absolutely is. but the Nation of Islam bow-tie I'm not entirely sure about... might be an exclusively east coast thing.
 

muser

Well-known member
The Wire is brilliant, got through series 1 & 2 through borrowing DVDs need to acquire series 3 now!

As for British drama in comparison to the Wire the only one I can think of that came close was "This Life" (maybe even on a par but they are very different) which was also brilliant, but I can't ever see something of the scale of The Wire ever being made in Britain.
 

hucks

Your Message Here
As for British drama in comparison to the Wire the only one I can think of that came close was "This Life" (maybe even on a par but they are very different) which was also brilliant, but I can't ever see something of the scale of The Wire ever being made in Britain.

This Life was not in the same league as The Wire. On anything - characters, plots, scripts, scope. It was nonsense mid 90s sunday supplement navel gazing. And, God, that update they did last year was the worst hour of telly this decade. And that includes Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps.
 

muser

Well-known member
This Life was not in the same league as The Wire. On anything - characters, plots, scripts, scope. It was nonsense mid 90s sunday supplement navel gazing. And, God, that update they did last year was the worst hour of telly this decade. And that includes Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps.

The update was shocking I agree but I thought the series was very good. Maybe not in the same league as the wire.
 

PeteUM

It's all grist
Yeah, I enjoyed This Life, much as it pains me to admit it. A better homegrown example would be Cops, but still not in the same league as The Wire.
 

ether

Well-known member
If anyone hasn't checked out DEADWOOD yet do so.

It's so fucking dope, similarly to THE WIRE the dialog is insanely dense and hard to decipher.

If t.v series like this where made more often I'd actually buy a t.v set again (haven't owned one in four years)

My brother tole me about and article he read recently on how decent telly has to be made via home box office now because sponsors are so powerful they don't want their brand to be strongly associated with negative issues.
 

crackerjack

Well-known member
plus DEADWOOD features love joy as a syphilitic pimp what more could you want?

Deadwood is brilliant. Love the way it dramatises real historical figures in among the fictional ones. Shame it's been cancelled now - they were going to make a couple of feature-length specials to tie it al up, but apparently they've been scrapped too.

Why wasn't it a hit? I mean apart from its depiction of American society as corrupt from top to bottom, being so potty-mouthed (the swearwords were almost the only ones you could understand) it made the Sopranos look like Mary Poppins and almost everyone in it being affleicted with some sort of horrible disease.
 

ether

Well-known member
t.v dead long live the box set.

yeah it weird how these things seem to bomb so much, the media in the u.k seem to be talking alot about the death of t.v at the moment, but in my opinion t.v hasn't been stronger, we just cant get too see any of it! unless we go out and buy a box set.

Broadcasters seem unprepared to take risks, by showing or commissioning decent programs because when the do they fall flat on their face.

surely there still must be a market for this stuff, I think people just want to be spoon fed crap most of the time its depressing.

hopefully with the arrival of on demand services, the dumbing down and one size fits all approach to t.v broadcasting will cease. As they realize theirs an audience for this kind of thing.
 

crackerjack

Well-known member
yeah it weird how these things seem to bomb so much, the media in the u.k seem to be talking alot about the death of t.v at the moment, but in my opinion t.v hasn't been stronger, we just cant get too see any of it! unless we go out and buy a box set.

Broadcasters seem unprepared to take risks, by showing or commissioning decent programs because when the do they fall flat on their face.

surely there still must be a market for this stuff, I think people just want to be spoon fed crap most of the time its depressing.

hopefully with the arrival of on demand services, the dumbing down and one size fits all approach to t.v broadcasting will cease. As they realize theirs an audience for this kind of thing.

I guess the problem with a lot of the American stuff is it's just too demanding - you have to watch the whole series or you're lost. Even The Sopranos wound up in an 11.00pm slot at the end. DVD box sets are the natural home for things like Deadwood and The Wire.
 

jordan

New member
I watched the first season of Arrested Development, but stopped about halfway into the second as I felt the quality had dropped considerably by then. I remember there being a huge difference in quality between the different episodes depending on who the writer was. All in all, a pretty good TV-series.
 
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