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Elias_Maluco
Aug 23, 2007
I need to sleep

Eason the Fifth posted:

Also House of Cards (though I'd argue it's great through Season 2), and The Crown, and Boardwalk Empire. Prestige TV overstays its welcome unless it's brave enough or smart enough to improve on the premise every season, like The Wire and Breaking Bad.

Boardwalk Empire is amazing up to the end of season 2, than it becomes just good (though the last season might be a little bellow)

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Pirate Radar
Apr 18, 2008

You're not my Ruthie!
You're not my Debbie!
You're not my Sherry!

Lid posted:

Isn't that the rule for Legion and True Detective too?

I heard True Detective S3 was good but I haven’t seen it yet. I mean, sure, similarly, Westworld S3 is better than S2 strictly speaking but that still isn’t saying much.

StashAugustine
Mar 24, 2013

Do not trust in hope- it will betray you! Only faith and hatred sustain.

True Detective is a little different since its an anthology and so the lesser later seasons don't detract from the original, while Westworld was clearly setting up for something and then fell on its face

Xiahou Dun
Jul 16, 2009

We shall dive down through black abysses... and in that lair of the Deep Ones we shall dwell amidst wonder and glory forever.



Pirate Radar posted:

I heard True Detective S3 was good but I haven’t seen it yet. I mean, sure, similarly, Westworld S3 is better than S2 strictly speaking but that still isn’t saying much.

3 is very good. 2 is actually pretty good in places but it came after season 1 so it’s not allowed to just be a B- for a lot of people.

awesmoe
Nov 30, 2005

Pillbug

Xiahou Dun posted:

3 is very good. 2 is actually pretty good in places but it came after season 1 so it’s not allowed to just be a B- for a lot of people.

TD season 2 was also really, really bad in places. The highs were pretty good and the lows were embarrassing.

Anyway I can sort of understand contemporaneous reviews saying early episodes of The Wire were complicated and dull - it was, compared to almost anything, and they had no reason really to give it the benefit of the doubt and assume everything would come together. Unfortunately for them and fortunately for us it did, and now their takes get to be preserved forever in the 'look how wrong you were' hall of fame.

Count Roland
Oct 6, 2013

I remember reading a piece about S1. Several of the actors were relating a sort of launch party, where a few of them got together to watch the show as it was first aired. When they saw how it had been cut they basically said "well that's it we won't be back for s2" because it was such a slow burn. They just assumed it wouldn't be popular enough to be brought back. Then the season progressed and their opinions changed.

Ainsley McTree
Feb 19, 2004


Pirate Radar posted:

I heard True Detective S3 was good but I haven’t seen it yet.

It's ok. I liked it, but it didn't have the "hmm, i'm watching something special" quality that s1 had.

scoot mcnairy was really good in it

HootTheOwl
May 13, 2012

Hootin and shootin

Lid posted:

Isn't that the rule for Legion

Counterpoint, season two ended with this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frf0HepcB7w
And season 3 had this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIO7svIZzyI

E:
TD was a great s1
An ok S2 that needed to be a handful of fewer episodes
A good again S3 that was almost there.
We'll see how s4 shakes out.

Lid
Feb 18, 2005
I will both scold you for not being progressive enough in the pro-wrestling sub and will scold you for not swallowing hasbara lies

HootTheOwl posted:

Counterpoint, season two ended with this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frf0HepcB7w
And season 3 had this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIO7svIZzyI

E:
TD was a great s1
An ok S2 that needed to be a handful of fewer episodes
A good again S3 that was almost there.
We'll see how s4 shakes out.

It also had every single character, bar the twins, becoming repugnant people with a very contradictory and unsympathetic view of rape double standards so that there was no one left to care about. The surrealism couldn't offset that it's writing, plot and characters became so awful there was no one to care about along with everyone acting as the plot demanded rather than previously established characters identity.

Jerusalem
May 20, 2004

Would you be my new best friends?

Yeah, both the scenes posted above I loved, but they were among the very few highlights of Legion season 2 and 3 which couldn't overcome some really dumb (and sometimes extraordinarily distasteful) plots, subplots and character beats.

HootTheOwl
May 13, 2012

Hootin and shootin
The only parts of legion I understood were the singing and dancing and everything you're talking about happened during talky time so it went completely over my head

escape artist
Sep 24, 2005

Slow train coming

Xiahou Dun posted:

3 is very good. 2 is actually pretty good in places but it came after season 1 so it’s not allowed to just be a B- for a lot of people.

I did think that the resolution of 3 was so goddamn dull though. Mahershala Ali was loving incredible though.



Dexter, was always a B tier show to me. Showtime was a B tier network to me [TP:TR not withstanding]. Weeds was decent for a couple seasons but never brilliant. Dexter was a step up over Weeds. Having just watched Six Feet Under before Dexter originally aired, I was 100% behind whatever the hell Michael C. Hall was doing.

RARE, VINTAGE SCIENCE FICTION AND HORROR BOOKS! Help me recover from back surgery! :banjo:

escape artist fucked around with this message at 01:50 on Oct 28, 2023

GoutPatrol
Oct 17, 2009

*Stupid Babby*

Dexter would have been fine if they just ended after 2. I know everyone likes the Lithgow season but...eh.

escape artist
Sep 24, 2005

Slow train coming

GoutPatrol posted:

Dexter would have been fine if they just ended after 2. I know everyone likes the Lithgow season but...eh.
I thought the Lithgow season was brilliant. Season 2 was boring as hell because we all knew Dexter was gonna get away with it and Lila was an awful villain. Plus the way they wrote Doakes off was lame.

MarcusSA
Sep 23, 2007

We did get the Surprise Motherfucker line though

Hasselblad
Dec 13, 2017

My dumbass opinions are only outweighed by my racism.

No one forgot that I exist to defend violent cops, champion chaining down immigrants, and have trash opinions on cooking.

Lid posted:

Isn't that the rule for Legion and True Detective too?

Whatever happened to Legion?

Ithle01
May 28, 2013

Hasselblad posted:

Whatever happened to Legion?

It got three seasons and came to it's conclusion. Personally, I liked it even though it definitely had some issues and I can see why some people bounced off hard at the end of season 2. Third season was...weird and had some good parts and some bad. I only watched it once so I might rewatch it.

roomtone
Jul 1, 2021

by Fluffdaddy
been watching top boy this week and at least in season 1 it bears a lot of resemblance to the wire s1+3. not just in the the subject matter but the schematics of the main conflict are basically the barkdales vs marlo. it even has a snoop.

MarcusSA
Sep 23, 2007

roomtone posted:

been watching top boy this week and at least in season 1 it bears a lot of resemblance to the wire s1+3. not just in the the subject matter but the schematics of the main conflict are basically the barkdales vs marlo. it even has a snoop.

That’s been on my list to watch for a while. I need to just watch it already

Jerusalem
May 20, 2004

Would you be my new best friends?

Ithle01 posted:

It got three seasons and came to it's conclusion. Personally, I liked it even though it definitely had some issues and I can see why some people bounced off hard at the end of season 2. Third season was...weird and had some good parts and some bad. I only watched it once so I might rewatch it.

The ending of season 2 REALLY soured me on that show. Season 3 was an improvement in some areas and a regression in others, but the thing that really irritated me is that the season starts with the main character saying,"This is my plan, this is what I intend to do" and another character very correctly saying,"This isn't a solution, this is just you running away from your problems so you don't have to face up to the responsibility of admitting what you've done" and then the resolution of the season is the main character doing the thing he said he was going to do and everybody treating it like it was the right and good thing to do.

I can't understand why they would have that conversation in the first episode unless it was an act of self-sabotage by the writers for a resolution they weren't happy with, but I have no idea if that was the case or it was just bad/inconsistent writing. The latter is sadly probably far more likely.

Lid
Feb 18, 2005
I will both scold you for not being progressive enough in the pro-wrestling sub and will scold you for not swallowing hasbara lies
I didnt even make it to the end of season two. Once the episode inside of Sydmey's mind happened I noped the gently caress out because I could see the writing on the wall.

Alhazred
Feb 16, 2011




Tony Phillips posted:

The first time my wife and I tried to watch The Wire we got through the first episode and just weren't up for it. I had read way too much about the show to give up on it, but we were just so drat confused about what was going on and who was who.

Ended up stopping and since she hadn't seen it at the time - we binged through the first four seasons of Dexter instead. (I still think the Lithgow season is great, drat it.)

Restarted The Wire after that and accepted that we might not know WTF for a few episodes. Knowing that going in made a world of difference. Enjoyed the Hell out of it, of course.

I think it's an accepted rule that the Wire only clicks with the majority of viewers after the "gently caress" scene.

Count Roland
Oct 6, 2013

Alhazred posted:

I think it's an accepted rule that the Wire only clicks with the majority of viewers after the "gently caress" scene.

hah. Yeah that's probably true isn't it.

Might as well link it, for fun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5ksTY6Dvf0

Lid
Feb 18, 2005
I will both scold you for not being progressive enough in the pro-wrestling sub and will scold you for not swallowing hasbara lies
It's episode 3 because that has Omar debut, the stash robbery scene, and the chess scene, which is the moment the show shows its meat on the bones.

Rollie Fingers
Jul 28, 2002

I watched The Wire three years ago and the moment the show felt ‘different’ and got me hooked is in one of the earlier episodes when white police are beating a black guy senseless. Kima sees what’s happening and then joins in on the police brutality.

It’s such a memorable and harrowingly accurate scene.

Lid
Feb 18, 2005
I will both scold you for not being progressive enough in the pro-wrestling sub and will scold you for not swallowing hasbara lies
That's also in episode 3

Ainsley McTree
Feb 19, 2004


Rollie Fingers posted:

I watched The Wire three years ago and the moment the show felt ‘different’ and got me hooked is in one of the earlier episodes when white police are beating a black guy senseless. Kima sees what’s happening and then joins in on the police brutality.

It’s such a memorable and harrowingly accurate scene.

It's so well done too, if I'm remembering it right, she runs from across the other side of a field, with an urgency that makes you think she's running to try and stop it, but she's really just pumped about being able to beat on someone.

I think the inciting incident is that one of the hump cops was trying to push Bodie around and Bodie punched him back, or maybe just pushed him; it was a wound that a fitter cop would have likely easily endured

roomtone
Jul 1, 2021

by Fluffdaddy
is there anything more pathetic than a violent police officer

withak
Jan 15, 2003


Fun Shoe
I think the guy everyone was beating on was the guy who shoved Pogue or Mahone into disability.

Count Roland
Oct 6, 2013

Rollie Fingers posted:

I watched The Wire three years ago and the moment the show felt ‘different’ and got me hooked is in one of the earlier episodes when white police are beating a black guy senseless. Kima sees what’s happening and then joins in on the police brutality.

It’s such a memorable and harrowingly accurate scene.

Here comes Kima! She's smart, she'll get those knuckle heads to stop!

Oh- ohhhhh

Ithle01
May 28, 2013

Count Roland posted:

Here comes Kima! She's smart, she'll get those knuckle heads to stop!

Oh- ohhhhh

It's a great reversal of what you expect from tv shows. Definitely a scene that shows how The Wire is a lot different than what you would expect from a 'cop show' and also why it has aged better than other cop shows over the years.

escape artist
Sep 24, 2005

Slow train coming

withak posted:

I think the guy everyone was beating on was the guy who shoved Pogue or Mahone into disability.

Are the cops names really Pogue and Mahone? :lol:

"Pogue mahone" is the phonetic spelling of the Irish phrase póg mo thóin, which means "kiss my rear end"

Tony Phillips
Feb 9, 2006

escape artist posted:

Are the cops names really Pogue and Mahone? :lol:

"Pogue mahone" is the phonetic spelling of the Irish phrase póg mo thóin, which means "kiss my rear end"

Was never into them but huh. Today I learned something about The Pogues.

withak
Jan 15, 2003


Fun Shoe
Update: Apparently it is Polk and Mahone, but I feel like they would have been ok with the mistake. I always figured it was an unsubtle joke from the writers.

deoju
Jul 11, 2004

All the pieces matter.
Nap Ghost
Edit: gently caress, beaten.

Mahon is the one Body clocks. Polk is the other one who ends up Evidence Control in season 5.

escape artist
Sep 24, 2005

Slow train coming

Tony Phillips posted:

Was never into them but huh. Today I learned something about The Pogues.

They're loving great. One of my favorite bands ever. And yes, I discovered them via The Wire.

Get into them now before Shane MacGowan dies and everybody jumps on the bandwagon.

Xiahou Dun
Jul 16, 2009

We shall dive down through black abysses... and in that lair of the Deep Ones we shall dwell amidst wonder and glory forever.



Start with Rum, Sodomy and the Lash. People will quibble about the best album, but that one is a good on ramp.

I loving love The Pogues.

V-Men
Aug 15, 2001

Don't it make your dick bust concrete to be in the same room with two noble, selfless public servants.

Count Roland posted:

Here comes Kima! She's smart, she'll get those knuckle heads to stop!

Oh- ohhhhh

The scene with Bird's interrogation is so brutal. Especially when all three walk in and Daniels tears up the photo.

Count Roland
Oct 6, 2013

Is McNulty the only cop that isn't shown using violence?

Even Lester hits Bird with the bottle when arresting him.

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Ainsley McTree
Feb 19, 2004


The only person McNulty is out to destroy...is himself :smith:

He is at least a little heartless though. When Wallace dies his first reaction is "gently caress, now we have to get another source" and even Daniels gives him a little "are you kidding?" side glance

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