Shows/films you thought you'd like

The Wire, saw about 5 minutes into the first episode of the first season and stopped it. Wasn't bothered to keep watching; I'm sure I'd like it but it's not the right time for me to see it I suppose.

Avatar, Pocahontas meets Dances with Wolves in space FFS. Too damn long, too damn cheesy, too damn neon blue, too damn many weird creatures that bothered my sight. I thought I'd like it cause I like James Cameron's stuff for the most part.

My friend from class made a new take just today on Avatar. He thought it was a critique of the virtual reality world but also a homage to crippled people.

ana, the wire is better than sex (most of the time)

sopranos. yes I know, the 2nd best show ever. But ive watched enough to know I don't really care what happens next.

the wire IS sex most of the time. i'm only on 2nd series but so far McNulty Stringer Bell Omar

This series was a lot slower than the first but I love that because now its all unravelling and all that seemingly unnecessary detail is coming out. amazing show.

Oh and for shows that you thought you'd like but don't, all my friends LOVE the mighty boosh and I hate it. If I want to be stoned and come up with batshit characters and stories that make no sense, I'll do it myself thank you, I don't need someone to do it (badly) for me.

100% agree with this. Never understood how it became so popular. It's fucking nonsense.

As for The Wire, I now have every episode in my possession so the time is nigh to start watching it. Finally.

the wire is just awe-inspiring. so intricate and lavishly plotted, each series is basically a super-long incredible movie. can't fault it, the concluding few hours of season 4 are perhaps the greatest thing i've ever seen on tv.

one thing about the wire though, as sallyc says the second series starts a lot slower than the fist and is such a change of scenery that it's quite jarring (especially as by the end of the first series you have probably just settled into the rhythm and setting of the show) and i've known lots of people say they don't like season 2 for that reason. just go in with an open mind when you hit that point, imo season 2 is even more satisfying than the first if you just let it take you.

anyway enough using series/season interchangeably.

on-topic, i was always hugely disappointed with family guy. it has its moments but 95% of the time it's awful imo and a pale imitation of the shows it aspires to stand alongside. american dad is even worse but i never expected to enjoy that so it doesn't count.

I was genuinely pissed off at the beginning of series 2. I had begun to get a real involvement with the characters and story and when it just changed completely I was offended and wanted to stop! It doesn't pick up for a while either then all of a sudden you're right in there again! I feel like now this series has really 'started' and I cannot wait to watch another 3 episodes tonight

But yeah, I'm blown away by it. The thing is its really complex like you said and at first I had to try really hard to keep up with what was going on (and the language was a bit of a barrier!) but now I don't struggle at all. Its heavily detailed and intertwined but not confusing which is a real strength.

Awesome stuff.

this, definitely. it's a sign of how well-written the show is, the detail and complexity comes from the fact that the stuff happening to all the characters is totally organic and as multi-layered as stuff tends to be in, you know, real life. rather than the show just throwing in a whole load of convoluted plot developments for the sake of having a complicated plot.

oh and i love how the opening episode of season 2 manages to feel at the time as though absolutely nothing happens but you look back and see so much important stuff, stuff that if it hadn't happened would've completely transformed things that happens afterwards (and into following seasons tbf). that's genius, that is.

the wire season 1, eps 1-5 or 6 :"erm i don't really get what's being said. some cool moments but this is incredibly overrated"

season 1, rest of season: "ok this is really quite gripping. understand whats being said quite regularly without even noticing, promising"

season 2: either "fucking hell, this is shit" or "fucking hell this is amazing"

season 3 to last episode of season 5: "best. drama. ever." all other tv/characters/plots/arcs will seem horribly simplistic and amateur.

I loved the wire season one, couldn't get through season two on first attempt. Years later I aquired all five seasons, and whilst unemployed I decided to rewatch everything. I didn't leave my bed for a week and god dammit, it is tied with the time I discovered UK big brother as the greatest (and most impressive) television binge of my life.

I thought I'd like southpark, but I find it very overrated and the praise it recieves kind of pisses me off.

I love a bit of the wire talk. Or rather, I love to read others opinion on it and digest it and just agree with every praise it gets. I think I'll start watching it all over again tonight.

Which seasons of South Park, grimes?

Started watching The Wire season 1 yesterday, on episode 9 already. So glad it has finally began.

yay! what do you think so far?

I've just started series three and so far Bunk is on top form so fucking funny

I shall watch the remainder of the episodes of season 1 and rate it as a whole in the rate the last film you watched thread soon. No doubt by the end of the day actually. It's dull and rank outside, it's prime time for a TV marathon.

The Wire is the closest* anyone has ever, or probably will ever, come to creating something with as much depth, complexity and intensity as a piece of classic literature or philosophical thesis, within the visual media format. If it were in a written format it would be Plato's 'Republic' or Dostoevsky's 'Crime & Punishment'.

*I think the Sopranos come's pretty damn close too

a thesis?

anyway, if you like the wire you'd like OZ too.

Yeah, I would say at its core, The Wire is a philosophical study on the moral decay and exploitation of the modern democratic society, and studies every aspect of the cycle that sustains it.

And yeah I've seen Oz, it actually does a similar thing to The Wire in its philosophical outlook, but uses a prison as the format and the fractions within represent different aspects of our society, like a magnified version almost. Very clever, hugely influential too, without it I don't think we would have had The Wire or Sopranos.

yeah, I understood what you meant by thesis, so i wrote a long edit about how "yada yada yada sally doing a thesis/full house/plato/wire" but opted to use the strike through instead. You see, I'm sitting here and writing an essay with a nose that's running more than Mahoney would of if Horizen spotted him at a gig, thus feeling a bit grumpy.

The Oz indeed is ground breaking. You should almost watch that before you watch any other HBO show. It's like those black blues guitarists.