The Wire or The Shield?

fretmeister

I did re-watch Murder One a little while ago.

Series 1 was great. It was very much of its time, but still great. Series 2 was not very good. Just couldn't replace Teddy.

Chalky

The Wire. But you have to watch it - it can't be on while you're texting or checking this forum!

fretmeister

Chalky said:

The Wire. But you have to watch it - it can't be on while you're texting or checking this forum!

Shiiiiiiiiit.

BigBearKris

lloyd;1045069" said:

Sopranos is amazing, I was in my 20's when it was on and the only to show I'd stay in to watch-Thursday's at 10pm....back in the days when you had to stay in to watch or record it. And the days when my weekends started on Thursday! It's my favourite to show and I've rematches it many times.

...and again... same here

I've watched "The Sopranos" when it was on TV and loved it already, but once I sat and watched the whole series - wow. Such a great show. I have a thing for cosa nostra too, so that helped

Absolute must see! @fretmeister

Its not only mafia and gang wars, like all HBO productions - the characters are well written and whole show is multi-layered. In my private box office its a notch above "The Wire". Must be Gandolfini (RIP - I miss him dearly).

MrSwanson

Deadwood is another great show, unfortunately got cancelled prematurely.

fob

The Wire for me as well. As good as TV gets.

I do seem to remember it being of it's time though - I think there's a scene where they're making use of cutting edge technology and using this new thing called Google!

Danny1969

I still Youtube Sopranos clips these days despite having watched all 6 seasons 4 times. The writing, the characters, the black humor, the whole thing is just immense and something for other writers to aspire too. 

I felt the wire got stronger as it went on with charactors like (the real) Felicia (Snoop) Pearson emerging and Omar really being a force to be reckoned with 

Deadwood was ok but it was for formulaic and predictable for me. Not in the same league as the above 2 

goldtop

fretmeister said:

The Shield was many years earlier and was one of the first super gritty cop shows.

Interesting. The first gritty cop shop I remember was NYPD Blue - a must-watch for me at the time (mid '90s?) I thought that got into the complexities and contradictions of cop life. Not as polished as The Sopranos, and may look dated if I watched it again, but Sipovitz is right up there with Tony Soprano as a character.

BigBearKris

goldtop;1045181" said:

fretmeister said:

The Shield was many years earlier and was one of the first super gritty cop shows.





Interesting. The first gritty cop shop I remember was NYPD Blue - a must-watch for me at the time (mid '90s?) I thought that got into the complexities and contradictions of cop life. Not as polished as The Sopranos, and may look dated if I watched it again, but Sipovitz is right up there with Tony Soprano as a character.

Nah mate - nowhere near as in-depth written character. I'm with you on NYPD Blue - great show and Sipowicz (...and Junior) was great but only some episodes were as gruesome and dirty as the ones in "The Shield".
I really liked the character played by Jimmy Smits (Bobby Simone) - he was great and still is (i.e. Sons of anarchy) but the show is just in different pace and dynamics than "The Shield".


"The Shield" is like "NYPD Blue" on crack!!

Wazmeister

You'll also learn the phrase "shit bird"...

fretmeister

goldtop said:

fretmeister said:

The Shield was many years earlier and was one of the first super gritty cop shows.

Interesting. The first gritty cop shop I remember was NYPD Blue - a must-watch for me at the time (mid '90s?) I thought that got into the complexities and contradictions of cop life. Not as polished as The Sopranos, and may look dated if I watched it again, but Sipovitz is right up there with Tony Soprano as a character.

I liked most of the Boccho written stuff, but it's not a patch on the newer shows.

goldtop

Wassup ma gingers? The Wire's dope. Mos def. Or something.

(me n shorty just finished the first season of The Wire. It's bl**dy good. Thanks y'all.)

Jalapeno

BigBearKris said:

lloyd;1045014" said:

fretmeister said:

I reckon the 1st series of The Wire is the best telly ever done. But as it changes through the series it is never quite as strong again.

The Shield was many years earlier and was one of the first super gritty cop shows. I'd watch that one first if for no other reason than it was made first. That one gets better over time too as the writers realised the punters were liking what was happening and got more stuck in. It also has a wider universe in that there are more side stories to the main event. 

I'd happily watch them both again from the beginning.

This thread has made me want to watch them again, I've just started deadwood so once done with that I'm going back in. Shield first for me.

Hah! Same here. I'm currently wrapping up the Banshee series and once I'm done it's "Deadwood". I've never seen even a single episode of "Deadwood" but I have not seen a HBO production I didn't like yet.
"The Wire" ; "Sopranos" ; "6 feet under" ; "Boardwalk Empire" ; "The Affair" ; all the documentaries - all absolutely great TV.

I assume Deadwood is the same?

"Cocksucker !"

lloyd

Jalapeno said:

BigBearKris said:

lloyd;1045014" said:

fretmeister said:

I reckon the 1st series of The Wire is the best telly ever done. But as it changes through the series it is never quite as strong again.

The Shield was many years earlier and was one of the first super gritty cop shows. I'd watch that one first if for no other reason than it was made first. That one gets better over time too as the writers realised the punters were liking what was happening and got more stuck in. It also has a wider universe in that there are more side stories to the main event. 

I'd happily watch them both again from the beginning.













This thread has made me want to watch them again, I've just started deadwood so once done with that I'm going back in. Shield first for me.

Hah! Same here. I'm currently wrapping up the Banshee series and once I'm done it's "Deadwood". I've never seen even a single episode of "Deadwood" but I have not seen a HBO production I didn't like yet.
"The Wire" ; "Sopranos" ; "6 feet under" ; "Boardwalk Empire" ; "The Affair" ; all the documentaries - all absolutely great TV.

I assume Deadwood is the same?

"Cocksucker !"

Deadwood is good fun but hasn't got the depth of many other series. 

I'm stalling on it now, not that it's not very good but I'm not compelled to binge on it like other stuff.

Jalapeno

goldtop said:

fretmeister said:

The Shield was many years earlier and was one of the first super gritty cop shows.

Interesting. The first gritty cop shop I remember was NYPD Blue - a must-watch for me at the time (mid '90s?) I thought that got into the complexities and contradictions of cop life. Not as polished as The Sopranos, and may look dated if I watched it again, but Sipovitz is right up there with Tony Soprano as a character.

Andy Sipowitcz FTW, my all time fave scene from that was when he was explaining about keeping pet fish "... then you're not just a cop, you're a guy who knows about fish !"  - classic !

NYPD Blue was really a Diet Hill St Blues, but excellent nevertheless. Hill St Blues Boccho's finest hour IMHO (theme by Mike Post, played by one Larry Carlton), and without equal until The Wire  Boccho's biggest weakness was to continue casting Barbara Bosson on his projects, his wife.

Danny1969

The BBC Two series Line of Duty is a  good cop show, it's not up there with The Wire and The Sopranos but what is! 

Worth a watch, there's 3 series available 

Moltisanti

goldtop

Just bumping this old thread to say thanks, y'all. We just finished watching The Shield. It started much better than it finished, I think. And I think it got lost somewhere and became The Chiklis Show. There were some great moments (Dutch and the cat!), but the constant plot movements and unrealistic speed of police work jarred a bit.

Not close to The Wire or Sopranos for rewatchability. That "Snoop buys a nail gun clip" is a proper classic.

What next...?

CHRISB50

Generation Kill is great, although it's quite short.

It's a look at the invasion of Iraq in 2003 through the eyes of a Rolling Stone reporter, embedded with a group of Recon Marines. It was adapted from Evan Wright's book by David Simon and Ed Burns.

It's well done and I enjoyed it a lot. It's only a miniseries though so in no way as immersive as The Wire or similar.

Would make a good stopgap while you find something longer to watch.

guitars4you

The Wire - so good and somewhat complex that 1/2 way through I went back to the beginning - awesome - might do it all over again

Not seen the Shield so will give it ago - just acquired Sopranos so that to go through first

Just picked up on Deep State - currently on Fox