It's been almost two years since I finished my first viewing of The Wire, a.k.a, The Greatest Show On Television, Ever™.
A couple of days later, I was asking where the hell I go from there. Watching The Wire pretty much ruined television for me. Since then, I've found exactly two series that came even close: Mad Men and Breaking Bad. I refer to Breaking Bad as The Greatest Show On Television Next To The Wire™.
Over the Xmas holidays, I dove back into The Wire. I'm almost done season two. It's just as good the second time around, even knowing exactly what's going to happen. It's like going back to life school, as you can easily map the political bullshit oozing from the Baltimore police department and corners to your own cubical jungle. My 2011 was The Wire without the guns and drugs, but you won't read about that in the archives.
Attention fellow Wire fans. This insight is courtesy of NYMAG.com.
Last night was the premiere of season two of Treme, stocked once again with its wealth of alumni from David Simon's last series, The Wire. But seeing all these welcome familiar faces is hardly a freak occurrence on television these days: Ever since The Wire went off the air in 2008, many dramas have been plundering its credits to cast their shows, whether for full-time roles or guest spots. But, we wondered, which series has used the most Wire actors? We decided to find out, with two rules: We only noted roles cast since The Wire finished its run, and only counted shows that have used at least five alums — sorry, CSI:NY (3) and In Plain Sight (4) — in order to focus on those series that exhibit true respect. Which show do you think has the highest tally? Watch on to see.
If you managed to get passed that ridiculous cheese ad, you learnt that Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and The Good Wife tied with 11 Wire actors each. Here's the final standings:
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The Pogues - Body of an American I've been watching The Corner on HBO Canada. The Corner originally aired in 2000 and was a pre-cursor of sorts to The Wire, The Greatest Show On Television, Ever™. Naturally, when watching The Corner, I think a lot about The Wire.
David Mills was 48. He was the award-winning TV writer and producer whose credits included celebrated series such as The Wire, Homicide: Life on the Street and ER.
I will be eternally grateful for his collaborations with David Simon, especially The Wire, The Greatest Show On Television, Ever™.
It's pretty rare these days that I get excited about a new television series. Sure, I'm up for tonight's premiere of The Pacific, but that's not the show I'm most heavily anticipating in 2010. The show I'm most stoked about is Treme.
I stand by my claim that The Wire is The Greatest Show On Television, Ever™. I've opined openly on the subject at http://www.torontomike.com/the_wire/. Treme is from the makers of The Wire, and here's the description from Wikipedia.
Treme is an upcoming American drama television series created by David Simon and Eric Overmyer. The series takes place three months after Hurricane Katrina where the residents of New Orleans, including musicians, chefs, Mardi Gras Indians and ordinary New Orleanian try to rebuild their lives, their homes and their unique culture in the aftermath of the 2005 hurricane. The series is scheduled to premiere April 11, 2010, on HBO. The first season will consist of 10 episodes, including an 80-minute pilot episode.
Note: I originally embedded the trailer below, but it was inexplicably pulled from YouTube. Instead, here's the less exciting teaser.
Welcome back, Bunk! I'll be watching on HBO Canada... there's no way I'd miss this.
The Greatest Show On Television, Ever™ a.k.a. The Wire is never far from my mind. Thanks to all who have sent me links to the 100 Greatest Quotes from The Wire on YouTube. I tweeted about it in November, but I never gave it the spotlight it deserves.
There's actually a sequel now, so we have the 200 Greatest Quotes from The Wire. I must warn you, there will be some spoilers in these quotes, so don't watch unless you've already enjoyed the 60 episodes of The Greatest Show On Television, Ever™. And if you haven't, what the hell are you waiting for?
One of the great benefits of cable, in addition to freedom from the network limitations of content and ratings-driven advertising, is its ability to embrace and nurture shows of unusually high quality and relatively limited audience appeal. The Wire is the most extreme example, the best show on television nobody was watching.
The interwoven stories and characters, with an entirely different focus for each of its brilliant, all-too-brief five seasons, were ripped from the pages of the Baltimore Sun and the work of former crime reporter David Simon. His non-fiction bestseller, Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, was adapted as a similarly titled network series, which he also wrote and produced.
Inevitably frustrated by the constraints of network prime time, he pitched a tougher, even more downbeat version to a reluctant HBO, and then spent the next half-decade labouring in obscurity, beloved by critics and ignored by viewers. The final season, bemoaning the fall of print journalism, featured Toronto actor/director Clark Johnson, who also directed key episodes.
Unappreciated as it may have been, The Wire outlasted other prestige buried treasures that were to follow, such as Deadwood (three seasons), In Treatment (just renewed – barely – for a third) Carnivàle and Rome (two each). And there's always DVD.
Rob Salem
The Wire, or The Greatest Show On Television, Ever™ as I like to call it, has been on my mind a lot lately. I'm ready to revisit all 60 spectacular episodes. If you haven't seen it, here's a taste of what you've missed. This is my favourite character, Omar Little, and his confrontation with Brother Mouzone.
This list was inspired by "Andrew with a capital A" who now goes by the name McNulty. He emailed me a list of his ten favourite characters on The Wire, The Greatest Show On Television, Ever™.
His list was very good, but my list is just a little different. Here are my ten favourite characters from The Wire, The Greatest Show On Television, Ever™.
It's been almost two years since I finished my first viewing of The Wire, a.k.a, The Greatest Show On Television, Ever™.
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Felicia “Snoop” Pearson from The Wire was 
I share an MP3 from 
The Pogues - Body of an American
David Mills was 48. He was the award-winning TV writer and producer whose credits included celebrated series such as The Wire, Homicide: Life on the Street and ER.