Quote:
Originally Posted by
iacas 
Watched every episode of The Wire.
Regretted wasting the time in the end.
Sorry. I think the show is the type of show people say they like because everyone else said they like it. 
I completely understand this sentiment. I mean, I think ultimately when it comes to anything we "buy a ticket for," the bottom line is "am I entertained?" That's why the Wire isn't the perfect show, because it entertains a very, very small niche of people.
I think without season four, I don't like the Wire nearly as much as I do. Season two lulls significantly in terms of pacing, as do all the seasons frankly, and I think the audience in the general sense is left wondering where the payoff is. For me, it was season four, where I felt the entire story came together and everything finally reached its climax.
But season five had its muddled moments, story wise, as well. But when its all said and done, its to me really a masterpiece study of the city of Baltimore in the early 2000s. I think when you can see a city's problems up close like that, and as realistically as that, the show carries enormous weight in the grand scheme of shows simply because most shows just aren't that ambitious nor successful in terms of trying to do the same thing. So in that regard, the show was a major success. I think though it might have been elevated to the next level in terms of more mass appeal had they added a veteran writer who understood that, ultimately, the question to be asked was "is this entertaining enough?" Purest may disagree, and of course, you all know I loved the show, but I'm just using a hyper critical eye here. I'm not saying the show needed "more gun battles" or whatever, but simply turning the entertainment dial up a notch or two for the sake of the audience investing time into the show would have IMO been a prudent idea. The writing strength of David Simon and Ed Burns is truth, honestly, realism, and experience of having lived through a lot of what the show explores. So I think throwing in a writer whose strength is knowing how to purely entertain people would have been a magical grouping.
In terms of "everyone liking it," though, I think that's incorrect because I've tried to get friends and family to watch it and to this day, no one has liked it . They all say they got bored very quickly. To date, I only have three friends total with which I can talk about the show.
