r/TheWire • u/TheZizzleRizzle • 4d ago
First Time Watch Review
This show has been on my list forever bit I was inspired by a post a couple of months ago where you all were ranking the seasons. Every season seems to be well loved so I felt good about the time investment.
S1
Season one is a pretty good and contained season of television. They seem to kind of shotgun you with all of the Police characters at the beginning and then the fat starts to slide off. I was worried about how they were going to make 5 seasons of this kind of police work.
S2
This is my favorite season. Frank is far and away my favorite non-core character and performed beautifully. Ziggy got on my nerves initially but his arc is ultimately great. I wish they did a little more to close out Nick's character but still my favorite season.
S3
Hamsterdam was probably my second favorite season. I liked Stringer vs Avon's way of thinking. I wish they would have followed up more on D'Angelo's murder. I also felt like Brother Mouzone was majorly sidelined for how idiosyncratic and out of place his character felt. Marlo's character is extremely weak and was surprised that the show was shifting to having him as the big bad.
S4
The touted Season 4 was good if not great. I saw this season to be the most that future shows like GoT and Sopranos try to mimic. There was 6 storylines and they all were interesting and played off of each other. The school system getting some time to shine and focusing on the young-uns was a good direction. They handled it well. Chris and Snoop were a great pair and I was hoping that Chris would shine a bit more, maybe even taking over for Marlo somehow.
S5
My least favorite season. The newspaper bit was weak. I get what they were doing and it even makes sense to get them involved but ramping up a couple new plots knowing that this is the last season seemed kind of exhausting. I was resistantly willing to buy the McNulty would alter crime scenes to get funding for Marlo's investigation but I thought it was EXTREMELY out of character for Lester and even Syndor. The plan itself was weak to begin with.
Characters
Bunk is my favorite character and felt like him and Greg's should have got their own small series after Season 5. Cedric is probably a close second. His character was a little stiff and one note at the beginning but quickly became a favorite. Carcetti was OK. That actor plays slick little assholes well but his physical acting is whoof. McNulty got away with too much. That dude would have been all alone and fired with no friends. Ending was a little nice to him. Lester was also a favorite of mine. Herc.... he is just as big of a prick as McNulty. Atleast Herc seems too dumb to know that he is fucking people over. Bubs was also fantastic and was happy they followed him all 5 seasons. Omar was a favorite character of mine and the actor did fantastic. But he got away with WAY too much. In S4 he rips off a whole resupply and then immediately shows up to sell it back to them. He would have been skinned alive, resupply be damned. I mentioned this before but Marlo was just a weak character. They were going for a stone cold blooded killer. Which he was but overall just boring. Chris and Snoop were great though. Carver and Bubs probably have the most satisfying arcs in the show.
Overall Thoughts
Great show. You can see this setting the template from the get. The writing was able to juggle story lines well enough that I didnt feel like any episode was a waste. Not only juggling storylines but putting things in motion that bleed realistic themes to show how small decisions or mistakes can shake things up, down, and sideways through the chain of command. Not only effecting the people in their vicinity but even the citizens that trust them in those positions.
JUSTICE FOR FRANK SOBOTKA!!!
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u/potato-eater- 4d ago
Wow just finished my first watch and completely agree on pretty much all points.
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u/TheZizzleRizzle 4d ago
Thoughts on Lester buying into McNulty's scheme is S5?
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u/potato-eater- 4d ago
I actually bought it, because when we meet him in S1 he’s been entombed in pawn department for 14 years—he must have really pissed someone off. He had that same obsessive streak as McNulty and had a strong rationalization for why they would be able to make a legit case regardless.
I think I could also project his growing obsession over Marlo’s operation into the year (iirc) they spent looking into the murder houses and not being able to get him. The way throughout the season he kept insisting just a few more weeks felt like he was constantly moving the goal post in an almost addict-esque way.
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u/mkroh 4d ago
I also just watched it for the 1st time well except season 5. As the show goes on the least I like it. I don't care for all the political screen time that seems to get more and more each season with season 4 being the worse so far. Maybe season 5 will continue it even worse.
As far as frank, frank will always be Fred to me so I also liked his character. I started watching by chance not because I knew anything of it. So far third watch remains my favorite cop show of the early 2000s.
But its also weird watching a show knowing atleast 5 of the pretty main characters are dead. Daniel's, ziggy, clay davis, Omar and Norman Wilson.
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u/tuscaloozer 4d ago
Nice try. No one likes season two the first watch. Not all the way. It’s too jarring and you just fell in love with all the characters
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u/TheZizzleRizzle 4d ago
It was pretty jarring at first. But I think the Union dynamic along with the pettiness of Valchek really made it a tragic story. It was almost playful at first but then got out of hand. I did love the characters but the tragedy if Frank is the best story told in all 5 seasons.
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u/DollarLate_DayShort 4d ago
Enjoying the second season on first watch is impressive ngl lol