Monday, July 23, 2007
Wired for sound
BALTIMORE! The Wire, FX, 10pm » It’s Charlie Brooker’s favourite show. He even presented a recent documentary, Tapping The Wire, about just how much he loves it. The glorious people on our messageboard worship Brooker so we should trust his judgement.
Rather a lot of American cop shows on here lately eh? Well let’s draw this completely unintentional lowculture season to a close with the mother(fucker) of all cop shows, HBO’s The Wire, which is being shown in its entirely from the very start on FX from tonight. Lots of clever stuff gets written about The Wire, e.g. “it’s the televisual equivalent of a novel!”. This may lead you to believe that it is a boring show for boring people, but it really is as addictive as everyone says. However, should the discerning lowculturer require further evidence of its greatness, read on.
» Watch it purely for all the muscular young men being all dangerous and macho, then show off to your friends by saying chin-strokingly clever things like “yeah, but it’s not really about the war on drugs, it’s about, like, institutions and the death of America.”
» Come to think of it, it’s a total man-fest. Notable fitness mentions go to D’Angelo Barksdale, McNulty (Dominic West) and Stringer Bell. Aiden Gillen (Stuart from Queer As Folk) stars from season 3 as an excellently sleazy politician. Rest assured though, that what ladies there are, are completely badass, like Kima the cop.
» The Wire is home to possibly one of the greatest characters of all time: Omar (pictured). He’s a shotgun-toting gay with massive scars who isn’t on anyone’s side but his own. He really doesn’t like swearing, is as hard as fuck and even recruits a posse of housewives to help him rob drug dealers.
» The acting is bloody amazing. Just to prove how authentic it is, you won’t understand what anyone is saying half the time. The level of detail gone into is such that you will know more about the characters than you know about yourself. When someone gets killed, it feels like the telly has ripped your still-beating heart from your chest and stamped all over it.
» If it seems like nothing is happening a lot of the time, just remember that this is true of all the best shows, like Crossroads.
By Kellie :: Post link
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2 Comments:
Ok, sold, have set the sky plus...tho' it's being all wibbly at the mo and may not tape, and 10 is too late for me! Party hard {makes devil fingers}.
OK, now remember to give it a chance... you need to watch 3 episodes before you become obsessed to the point that you wake in the night wondering what the characters are up to.
Hey, with my personal school-night cut-off point of 11pm, I feel like the Keith Richards of telly watching now.
