The Wire

Whats it all about Al(fie)

The only Wire I know is the British band. The other wire is to hang yourself with.

Sadly, I have to buy my kids shoes and food instead of getting quality television like HBO or Showtime:(

Such are the trade offs I suppose

EdelBrock wrote: Sadly, I have to buy my kids shoes and food instead of getting quality television like HBO or Showtime:(

Such are the trade offs I suppose

If you givbe your kids posh shoes and posh food, then yes, oui, there's no TV.

There's a big article in the Guardian Guide today. Charlie Brooker says it's the best thing on telly ever. Some good quotes from the cast too. They reckon that the real Police were listening on a real phone tap which went silent for ages. When it finally rang, the guy who answered it shouted 'What did I say? Don't ever call me when The Wire is on!'

What higher (or lower) praise could you ask for? I'm looking forward to seeing it.

Yes it will soon be shown never here

Guardian Link

While researching the role, Andre Royo [Bubbles] decided to deny himself certain vices to find out how it felt to have an itching, aching need. "Anything I liked to do, I stopped doing it. So no watching TV, drinking Coca-Cola, having sex... Five months without that, you're scratching."

Ledysman wrote: There's a big article in the Guardian Guide today. Charlie Brooker says it's the best thing on telly ever. Some good quotes from the cast too. They reckon that the real Police were listening on a real phone tap which went silent for ages. When it finally rang, the guy who answered it shouted 'What did I say? Don't ever call me when The Wire is on!'

What higher (or lower) praise could you ask for? I'm looking forward to seeing it.

Brooker was creaming about this on his show, months ago.

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EdelBrock wrote: Sadly, I have to buy my kids shoes and food instead of getting quality television like HBO or Showtime:(

Such are the trade offs I suppose

If you givbe your kids posh shoes and posh food, then yes, oui, there's no TV.

Yer right! I'll strap some bamboo leaves together and they can were those, and give them a rationing of rice balls with half a glass of water! Yipee HBO HERE I COME!

Unfortunately haven't seen any episodes of it yet, I certainly need a show to fill the Deadwood void. It has also been highly recommended to me by a couple of friends, I just need to make time to watch it either via torrent or television or DVD.

Looks like it might be worth a watch,if I can catch it from the start.Where can you download it from?

Ah "The Wire" I live about 30 miles south of Baltimore so it feels very close and yet far.

HBO is premium cable so it does not have the language and subject matter restrictions of Over the air TV. Witness how "Deadwood" made "cocksucker" seemingly a word worthy of art.

David Simon, "the Wire"'s creator was a police reporter at "The Baltimore Sun." His fist book "Homicide: A Year on The Killing Streets" was made into The network TV show "Homicide" (1992-99) (my favorite show EVER) which seems like a dry run for "The Wire" along with another Simon book "The Corner" which tracked a year in the (drug)life of the corner of Fayette and Monroe Streets. "The Corner" was made into an HBO mini-series.

"The Wire"'s co-creator is Edward Burns, a former Baltimore homicide cop who made a brief appearance in the book "Homicide"

BonoShed wrote: I live about 30 miles south of Baltimore so it feels very close and yet far.

I lived 30 miles north about 10 years ago, at Aberdeen Proving Grounds. Strange place that was. Only one mall in the area, and there would be groups of 12 year olds outside smoking cigarettes, and people passing by like nothing was shocking about it... the chicks in that area dressed like middle aged homemakers... and of course the good Balitimore Airport has exits 15 miles away from the airport that say 'exit here for airport' then another similar sign every two miles (can't tell you how many times I got lost trying to find that blasted airport). But Baltimore was a better place to hang out...

EdelBrock wrote:

BonoShed wrote: I live about 30 miles south of Baltimore so it feels very close and yet far.

I lived 30 miles north about 10 years ago, at Aberdeen Proving Grounds. Strange place that was. Only one mall in the area, and there would be groups of 12 year olds outside smoking cigarettes, and people passing by like nothing was shocking about it... the chicks in that area dressed like middle aged homemakers... and of course the good Balitimore Airport has exits 15 miles away from the airport that say 'exit here for airport' then another similar sign every two miles (can't tell you how many times I got lost trying to find that blasted airport). But Baltimore was a better place to hang out...

Yes places like APG, Essex, Rosedale, and those burbs feel like a whole different dimension. Towson doesn't count-too many yuppies!!

BWI is meant to be that way. "Let's fuck with the non-locals and non-Baltimorons" All I know is blast up I-97, look for say the Hanover exit and I am in the neighborhood of BWI.

But omg of I ever moved far away, I would crave Chesapeake blue crabs and crab cakes.

That reminds me. I need to get some to build more fences. Yeh the same neighbours.

Oh and Edel I have been past that Aberdeen proving ground. I still have a postcard somewhere. It was the Jamestown trip.

Isn't Duff ahm Bush Gardens somewhere there as well?

Busch Gardens is like 5 hours south of Balmer in Williamsburg, Va

El Jarvo wrote:

Ah, Deadwood. I've got all three series of that backed-up on my hard-drive too. Never seen a single episode though. Will probably watch it in 2011 or summat.

Does HBO have a rep for decent TV stateside then? Sopranos, Wire, Deadwood? They had that John from Cincinatti thing recently, didn't they though? Read somewhere they were hoping it was gonna take the Sopranos fanbase, but it flopped miserably didn't it?

Yeah, they do, I enjoyed Curb Your Enthusiasm a lot, though Entourage isn't something I particularly enjoyed. There has been a growing feeling, now that some of the best HBO shows are no more, and their replacements haven't been quite as compelling to view, that Showtime has replaced them as the leaders in the cable series field with shows like Weeds, Dexter or Brotherhood, though I personally haven't seen any of 'em as I've got a bit of a backlog on some other series as well.

NOOLigan wrote:

Oh and Edel I have been past that Aberdeen proving ground. I still have a postcard somewhere. It was the Jamestown trip.

Its an Army base, but my speciality was as a refrigeration mechanic (well I worked 6 months of it in 10 years) and we had to get our schooling from the Army. It was really fun messing with the Army... they are intimidated by Marines....

The first day there, all the recruits (as MOS school is the last phase of boot camp for the Army) are sitting in class, each stands up and says something along the lines: "hi,my name is so-and-so, I chose this MOS because it has good paying benefits when I get out as a civilian, and I chose the Army for the G.I. Bill"

I whispered to my buddy (only 2 of us in with 30 soldiers), we then decided to sit squarely staring hard at the board... we were last, I jumped up and said: "My name is PFC Cottrell. I didn't chose this MOS the Marine Corps gave it to me. I join the Marine Corps to KILL!" and sat back down in the postion I was in before... my buddy did something similar....

Man was that hilarious... those soldiers avoided us for 3 weeks, and when we talked to them they all stuttered and dropped things, a couple even cried...

oh good times were had there

That is awesome!! Dumb Army pukes