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

craner

craner

Beast of Burden
Wow, this latest Mad Men episode is grim!

I am loving Series 3 so far, more than Season 2, but I do hope they some more cheerful episodes.

Actually, the one with Peggy Olson and Paul Kinsey smoking dope was a bit of a hoot.

Some of the male second leads are totally underrated, like Kinsey, Harry Crane and especially Salvatore Romano.
 
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petergunn

plywood violin
mad men is really overrated... it's OK and can be very entertaining, but it's just a tv show of its time and place, like Moonlighting or Dallas... it's nothing "next level" like the wire...
 
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paolo

Mechanical phantoms
scottdisco said:
yeah i proper wanna check out Treme.

w actors from The Wire and H:LOTS appearing it's like D Simon up to 11 :D
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I'll definitely check Treme, but frankly I'm not getting my hopes all worked up after Generation Kill. It's a decent series but not in the same league as The Wire, at least in my opinion
 
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scottdisco

rip this joint please
petergunn said:
mad men is really overrated... it's OK and can be very entertaining, but it's just a tv show of its time and place, like Moonlighting or Dallas... it's nothing "next level" like the wire...
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i used to think that (disclaimer: The Wire is perhaps my fave show ever), then i watched a few back to back from the start and quite got into it, idk the show Moonlighting admittedly; it's getting up there w any of the greats of contemporary American drama IMO.

even to put it in the same sentence is doing Dallas a far greater service than it deserves. though you could turn all that around tbf and say our gaze is a knowing one, appreciating all the details of a less liberal time, and if someone from Mars crash-landed and watched it straight off, they might not get into it so much from that pov, and just assume it was a very well-made telenovela. but i'm told by people i trust who've watched from the start that season 3 is starting to really see the show mature into something pretty special, so who knows.

oh i don't know :cool:

paolo said:
I'll definitely check Treme, but frankly I'm not getting my hopes all worked up after Generation Kill. It's a decent series but not in the same league as The Wire, at least in my opinion
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oh gosh yes, obviously don't expect anything, i just meant w the likes of the Bunk, Freamon and Melissa Leo from H:LOTS we'll have a lot of people the dude's worked w before, so it's definitely an interesting prospect, but no claims to be made until after the dust has settled.
 
nomadthethird

nomadthethird

more issues than Time mag
petergunn said:
mad men is really overrated... it's OK and can be very entertaining, but it's just a tv show of its time and place, like Moonlighting or Dallas... it's nothing "next level" like the wire...
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I couldn't even get through the first season... it had some moments... but the whole subplot about Don Draper being somebody else? Cheeeezy.

And again, the wardrobe is pure hollywood-style fantasy with a few real vintage designer pieces mixed in. Not that that matters--it's clearly fooling people who aren't from the U.S. Some of it is ahead of the year it's supposed to be in, a lot of it is very far behind.

I watched the show with my mother, who said "my mother had the nightgown--in 1950"...
 
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scottdisco

rip this joint please
nomadthethird said:
And again, the wardrobe is pure hollywood-style fantasy with a few real vintage designer pieces mixed in. Not that that matters--it's clearly fooling people who aren't from the U.S. Some of it is ahead of the year it's supposed to be in, a lot of it is very far behind.
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i hope Craner see this ;)
 
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crackerjack

Well-known member
nomadthethird said:
I couldn't even get through the first season... it had some moments... but the whole subplot about Don Draper being somebody else? Cheeeezy.

And again, the wardrobe is pure hollywood-style fantasy with a few real vintage designer pieces mixed in. Not that that matters--it's clearly fooling people who aren't from the U.S. Some of it is ahead of the year it's supposed to be in, a lot of it is very far behind.

I watched the show with my mother, who said "my mother had the nightgown--in 1950"...
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quality is timeless
 
nomadthethird

nomadthethird

more issues than Time mag
crackerjack said:

quality is timeless
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I found her exceptionally unattractive in the show.

Her face is pretty, but she's not attractive...

Plus, she has no ass. That's not her fault, I know. Some people probably like that. But I think her body is very strange, I don't actually like it that much. I realize most of the show is an excuse to have some kind of scene where she's naked, so the consensus is obviously not on my side.
 
nomadthethird

nomadthethird

more issues than Time mag
crackerjack said:
Either you're blind or they just make them bigger over there.
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There's a scene where she's in her underwear in a hotel room with that old gray-haired guy from the firm, and her ass is just weirdly shaped and not sexy to me. I notice a lot of times that white women, if they have really large breasts, have oddly shaped asses. I'd prefer Sharapova (even with a soundtrack of Craner's fantasies about qualling limbs) over her anyday.

There's a threshold for me where cartoonishly exaggerated "feminine" characteristics become really icky instead of hot, especially in the chest area. I suppose that's why I'll never be a full-on lesbian.

But I think we do make bigger asses over here. Aren't British women known for having flat asses and bigger chests? As French women are for having small breasts and being slim? Hot people come in all shapes and sizes, these are just the rumors I've heard...
 
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scottdisco

rip this joint please
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Sick Boy

All about pride and egos
Mad Men isn't the best TV show that's ever existed, but it is definitely of a much higher standard of TV writing than most things you find on TV. I think it's natural to become overly critical given how easy it is to take our television renaissance for granted.

Season 3 for the most part was shit though. Flogging dead horses (everyone's an adulterer, Don's marriage sux, etc.) and not really adding anything to their best characters with the most potential for plot development (i.e. Peggy), moving into the territory of a boring soap opera. It seems like they realized this on the season finale though, by basically cutting out all the excess fat (namely, all the worst characters), and bringing things to conclusions that really needed to be concluded. I really hope Season 4 has the balls to shift the focus upon Peggy who is capable of continuing the shows major themes while still remaining so unexplored. It's taken three seasons for her to even really become a fully realized character. Don seems to be running out of real possibilities that could captivate the bulk of attention for another entire season.
 
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crackerjack

Well-known member
I'm not reading the rest of SB's post in case there are any more spoilers, but yeah, took 6 episodes to get going and now that I'm up to Ep 9, it's still not more than lukewarm.
 
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