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

[cage kiasuyo]

yeah ^^ the withdrawl from it can be serious! series 5 is the last, and if you want to indulge in the loss heres a kinda emotional report of how things wrapped

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/02/AR2007090201454.html


leave when the party's still good tho...

 

[PeteUM]

Thanks. I thought Snoop was convincingly bad and Jimmy McNulty's English accent was terrible, but now I appreciate the subtlety...

 

[hucks]

My significant other and I are two episodes off finishing Series 4 and the cold turkey is going to be very brutal. I hear Series 5 will be the last too?

Sheeeit...

Half way through Season 4 now. Loving how Councilman Clay Davis's "shhhheeeeit"s just get longer and longer...

 

[cage kiasuyo]

Thanks. I thought Snoop was convincingly bad and Jimmy McNulty's English accent was terrible, but now I appreciate the subtlety...

yea snoop was/is something else. the nail gun buying scene?! the intro to season 4... that one is up there for me along with the 'f*ck,.... f*ck,.... f*ck' scene from season 1. occasionally she really works it.

 

[PeteUM]

Yeah! One of many, many great characters. Others I particularly enjoy include Bunk, Lester, Bunny and the Polish Major guy, and of course Omar. I know the show is ostensibly gritty and real, but sometimes Omar seems to have some mythic quality about him, or he seems to function as a sort of unreal element in the true-to-lifeness of it all, almost as light-relief. Like, everyone else is flawed and trapped and subject to contigencies or whatever, but he's just impossibly bad.

 

[crackerjack]

Yeah! One of many, many great characters. Others I particularly enjoy include Bunk, Lester, Bunny and the Polish Major guy, and of course Omar. I know the show is ostensibly gritty and real, but sometimes Omar seems to have some mythic quality about him, or he seems to function as a sort of unreal element in the true-to-lifeness of it all, almost as light-relief. Like, everyone else is flawed and trapped and subject to contigencies or whatever, but he's just impossibly bad.

Omar is definitely half supervillain, the way he's shot lurking in corners with his long dark coat and a trail of smoke - the embodiment of the anarchy of 'the streets'. His big scene with the NOI hitman could be out of Batman.

Still awaiting season 4, so steer clear of any spoilers, pretty please.

 

[gek-opel]

Thanks. I thought Snoop was convincingly bad and Jimmy McNulty's English accent was terrible, but now I appreciate the subtlety...

Pete you realise Dominic West who plays McNulty is British...?

 

[cage kiasuyo]

Omar is totally mythic. impossibly bad is a good way to describe. he is full circle. he is so bad he's good. the whistle, the clean language, the strict moral code. immensely beautiful but wit the scar running down his face.. i am nearly uncomfortable with how much a fan i am of this character. pedastils are never a good idea but what are you gonna do with Omar?

 

[Lichen]

Pete you realise Dominic West who plays McNulty is British...?

and an Old Etonian to boot!

 

[gek-opel]

and an Old Etonian to boot!

Yes that's right... listen to some of the commentaries he does on the DVDs... his American accent is decent tho...

 

[PeteUM]

Pete you realise Dominic West who plays McNulty is British...?

Yeah, that's what I'm saying about subtlety. I only just found out when I read that link to the wrap of the final series. This put the scene in Series 2 where he pretends to be a British salesman looking for an escort in a new light, because he does a real Dick Van Dyke. I thought to was meant to be funny in and of itself, so it had me fooled. Sheeeit, next you'll be telling Clay Davis is played by a Hungarian or something.

 

[PeteUM]

So what's Arrested Development all about then? Surely it can't be as good as The Wire?

 

[UFO over easy]

Yes that's right... listen to some of the commentaries he does on the DVDs... his American accent is decent tho...

a couple of guys from baltimore over on dubstepforum actually said that other than Snoop, McNulty's specifically Baltimore accent is one of the best in the show. it's got that hint of slur to it..

I just re-watched series 1-3.. bought them all on dvd after watching them on the PC. it's actually ridiculous how much more I've got from it second time round, seeing the whole thing in context and on a proper television

 

[nomadologist]

Wow that guy who plays McNulty is British? His accent is great...

He goes down in history after 1) Christian Bale, and 2) Hugh Laurie (as House) as guys who I would've SWORN were American based solely on their ability to speak in absolutely perfect American dialect.

I've only seen a couple clips of the Wire, my friends are constantly telling me I would love it and die for it and never stop watchin git..

 

[gek-opel]

I've only seen a couple clips of the Wire, my friends are constantly telling me I would love it and die for it and never stop watchin it..

I think they are right... almost certainly the best television programme of the last 10 years, possibly ever...

 

[UFO over easy]

He goes down in history after 1) Christian Bale, and 2) Hugh Laurie (as House) as guys who I would've SWORN were American based solely on their ability to speak in absolutely perfect American dialect.

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

 

[Lichen]

I just re-watched series 1-3.. bought them all on dvd after watching them on the PC. it's actually ridiculous how much more I've got from it second time round, seeing the whole thing in context and on a proper television

I'm halfway through Season 2; FX Channel in the UK is running the entire show in prep. for their screening of Season 5.


But I'm tempted to buy some fuck-off box set and start from scratch again. Box DVD's are the way to go with this kind of TV; you can take it at your own pace (i.e greedily).

 

[UFO over easy]

do you know if FX are showing it at the same time as it airs in the US?

If it doesn't I won't be able to stop myself downloading but if it does I'll have to prep my friends who have sky, for I will be a regular visitor

 

[Gabba Flamenco Crossover]

Yeah! One of many, many great characters. Others I particularly enjoy include Bunk, Lester, Bunny and the Polish Major guy, and of course Omar.

My favorite's gotta be Bubbles. He's so achingly human. David Simon has spoken about how Omar is the only character in the show who's 'pure', but for me, Bubbles represents a fundamental humanity. He can walk through hell, but his flame of basic decency never quite dies.

The scene at the very end of s3 where he meets Bunny in the ruins of Hamsterdam was monumental, it encapsulates the Wire's sheer ambition in 3 minutes - the term 'Shakespearian' is no exaggeration. I once saw a production of one of the king plays at the RSC, can't remember which one, that ended in a very similar way. Except the Wire does it better obviously.

Bubbles is like a Delphic oracle, he sees everything. Others may battle against fate, but he knows that what must be so will be so. But he accepts it with such grace, it's heartbreaking.

Also really like Prop Joe and Sgt. Landsmann - Landsmann gets some of the best lines in the script.

 

[Gabba Flamenco Crossover]

So what's Arrested Development all about then? Surely it can't be as good as The Wire?

Very different kind of show, but AD for me is the sharpest sitcom ever made. It's about a monumentally disfunctional family who go from riches to rags when the corrupt patriarch gets done for tax evasion. No other show better captures the pompous, brainless insanity of lalaland.

Example: I went to LA several years ago and got dragged to this incredibly tasteless art pageant, where rich people pose as characters in tableaus of famous paintings. I tried to be polite, because it's quite a prestigious thing, but inside I was thinking 'this is the tackiest thing I've ever seen'.

And there's an episode of AD based around this same art pageant, where the patriarch gets a day release from jail to play God in Michaelangelo's The Creation Of Adam, and uses the opportunity to escape... so the tableau is unveiled with a gap where god should be, and one woman in the audience shouts 'Where is God?'. And another one stands up and shouts 'THERE IS NO GOD!!!'.

So yeah, any sitcom that can shoehorn in Neitzsche jokes gets my vote. Check it out. In terms of ambition, acting quality and attention to detail, it's as good as The Wire, definitely.