I’ve been watching re runs of the whole series over the past few months, just finished up the other day. I would tend to agree that it’s probably the best thing on tv (non-comedy anyway… though it does have its moments). I’d even rank it above other HBO series like ‘The Sopranos’, ‘Six Feet Under’ and ‘Deadwood’ which were all very good. It was refreshing and entertaining throughout; great effort put into the writing of all the seasons that ensured there was no nadir of the series, ie. it ended before it waned (unlike The Sopranos). The actors were excellent, even the child actors in season 4 were very convincing. As I was watching the last episode the other night I have to admit I was getting emotional when it came into the last 30 mins, I didn’t want it to end. Then my fucking satellite tv fucks up, I throw a wobbler and only calm down when I find the episode on the internet. The end is so cynical but it levels it off with a satisfying send off to some of the characters, esp. McNulty
The series is marked by a complete lack of pretension or cliche which makes it King in my book… plus all the violence, sex, swearing and drinking helps. I better not go on much more in case no one else digs it.
Six Feet Under is the best out of all of them though as far as I’m concerned. It just had some really fucking amazing moments in it which were deeply emotional, Funny, touching and just straight out bizaare…something The Wire and all the other series I’ve watched haven’t had as a total package. The charcter acting in Six Feet Under was just spectacular…they just all worked so perfectly together. No other show has hit me like that one.
Deadwood is amazing too. Ian McShane is fucking supreme in it. The coolest character ever.
Weeds is great too.
Dexter is another kick-ass one.
One of my other favs was the two Underbelly’s. They kicked ass and I absolutely LOVED them. Looking forward to the third. If you’re anywhere in the world apart from Australia & NZ chances are you haven’t heard of the Underbelly’s…if this is so I recommend you do yourself a favour and hit up ebay or amazon for both of them. The first is based on a string of gangland killings in Melbourne while the 2nd is based on the infamous Mr Asia syndicate.
My girlfriend and I also recently finished watching both seasons of Mad Men. This is yet another fantastic offering. It captures the early 60’s amazingly. My girlfriend is mad about that style and look.
I’ve also been hearing about a NZ series called Outrageous Fortune. My mum is sending that one over to me in the near future.
At the moment we’re watching True Blood season 1 which I’m digging very much as it’s Alan (Six Feet Under) Ball and fellow kiwi Anna Pacquin involved…plus I’m a sucker (no pun intended!) for a good vampire story.
We REFUSE to watch any of these things on TV and just wait for the boxset as I can’t fucking stand ads. Plus it’s great getting to the end of an episode and being able to go straight into the next one!
I’m sure I’ve missed out a few other cool series (Californication for example) so do recommend more if they’re out there.
Oh and of course Twin Peaks is the daddy too!! I loved that bad-boy…hell I even loved the bonkers 2nd season! hahahahahahaha!!
Fantastic until they brought in that jack ass from T-2 to replace Moulder! and the second movie was just disgraceful. Written like just a crime drama movie but they added in the 2 characters from Xfiles just to get people into see it,
Late,
grmpysmrf
Robert Patrick is a great actor. Yeah he plays the same guy over and over but he plays it better than the rest. He was the best actor in the Johnny Cash film. X Files was overrated; Mulder thinks there’s something weird going on, Scully rolls her eyes, someone gets abducted, roll credits
The Wire was definitely one of the best, if not the best, non-comedy series on HBO and on TV in general. No need to add anything since all has been said, although I have to admit, being Polish, seeing those “Pollacks” do all kinds of stupid shit in Season 2 was weird.
With this said, I think Sopranos is superior as a series. I dont think it ever waned towards the end, in fact the final episode is probably the best directed thing ever on TV and even impressive if it was considered cinema… The final sequence alone has been the topic of many a MA dissertation, my own included.
On the other hand, Six Feet Under was pretentious bullshit. Never understood what people saw in that series.
The Wire was definitely one of the best, if not the best, non-comedy series on HBO and on TV in general. No need to add anything since all has been said, although I have to admit, being Polish, seeing those “Pollacks” do all kinds of stupid shit in Season 2 was weird.
With this said, I think Sopranos is superior as a series. I dont think it ever waned towards the end, in fact the final episode is probably the best directed thing ever on TV and even impressive if it was considered cinema… The final sequence alone has been the topic of many a MA dissertation, my own included.
On the other hand, Six Feet Under was pretentious bullshit. Never understood what people saw in that series.
Good to see another fan of the show. Season 2 is generally regarded as the worst of the 5 which I think is baloney. It had probably the strongest storyline of all the seasons (and also has McNulty’s biggest bender to fix all benders)
What I said about The Sopranos waning I did not mean to imply the last episode (which was arguably the best of the whole thing) or even the last few episodes but moreso it could have cut out most of season 4 and the first part of season 6 (except the alter ego episode). They could have went 5 seasons of 13 instead of 5 of 13 and the 6th of 21. (The only memorable part of season 4 was Joe Pantoliano’s demise, the end of that episode was excellent. Robert Loggia was sadly underused in season 5 too.)
As a matter of interest what was your MA dissertation title or what was it’s focus? Would be cool to see an abstract if ya have one knocking around.
Oh and want to see something pretentious? Watch these shitehawks talk about The Wire on a BBC panel:
2 x=files episodes made me cringe when i wsa little. the one where the worm dude lives in the toilets and bites the people, gets cut in half, they think he’s dead and regenerates… and then the one where they cut down the really old tree and release the flesh eating bugs that feed in the dark and mulder and scully gotta get down the mountain before sundown.
As a matter of interest what was your MA dissertation title or what was it’s focus? Would be cool to see an abstract if ya have one knocking around.
Oh and want to see something pretentious? Watch these shitehawks talk about The Wire on a BBC panel:
The title of my dissertation was “Rhizome Image: Quality Television as a Mutating Medium”. Essentially, it was about showing that certain series that are often categorized as quality television (a very poor term, but accepted in academia) offer a new way of visual storytelling (or more broadly, visual communication). One of my arguments was that quality television, unlike ordinary television, uses visual language to tell a story, much like cinema. The Sopranos’ final episode was obviously the best possible example to prove this point, although it is true even for such a shit show as Prison Break. Nevertheless, I decided an analysis of the final sequence in Sopranos would be the best way of showing how cinematic language is used in television, which of course traditionally is actually an aural medium evolved from radio.
The rest of the dissertation had little to do with our discussion here, if you’re really interested I’d be happy to email you a copy.
And yes, that discussion about The Wire is totally ridiculous; however, hardly surprising considering most of these discussion programs are designed to appear intellectual to the uneducated viewer. A discussion about this show by actual academics would be completely different.
I’ve also been hearing about a NZ series called Outrageous Fortune. My mum is sending that one over to me in the near future.
I’m sure I’ve missed out a few other cool series (Californication for example) so do recommend more if they’re out there.
I’ve heard good things about Outrageous Fortune, but the few times I’ve caught it on TV I didnt get into it much, strikes me as something you would want to watch from that start. Something that, you know, develops characters and has continuity… unlike some shite like Two and a Half Men Spew which gets played ENDLESSLY on one Aussie TV channel.
Ok Slightly irrelevant I just wanted to express my dislike for 2 1/2 Men.
As for californication… god, I watched the first episode, most over-hyped POS IMO… DD fucking a bunch of wimmen folk and smirking for an hour. Wow.
The one time some people at work started talking about it, I thought ok some intelligent discussion about it, this came out “DId you see that chick from the Nannys tits, NICE!”
Meh… another gripe Entourage… WTF… overrated loser fantasy. “HEY DUDE, I FUCKED A CHICK IN THE ASS”
“Wow, Me too, what about you “cool guy””
“Nah, I just blew all over my one night stands face… THEN I FUCKED HER IN THE ASS” High fives all around
2 x=files episodes made me cringe when i wsa little. the one where the worm dude lives in the toilets and bites the people, gets cut in half, they think he’s dead and regenerates… and then the one where they cut down the really old tree and release the flesh eating bugs that feed in the dark and mulder and scully gotta get down the mountain before sundown.
I don’t think I’ve seen either of those… Now I wanna see those… Although the tree one does sound familiar. Did scully spend most of her time in a broken car hoping the bugs don’t get her?
Late,
grmpysmrf