Quote:
Originally Posted by razorbacker
I rank them 4,3,1,2,5. 4 is the clear number one for me and is the best season of anything I have watched. 3 and 1 are very close. On rewatch, I appreciated both seasons more and I think they are very close in quality to season 4. Season 2 was different. I was already warned about it and told to stick with it. It was a good season and even better the 2nd time around, but it wasn't what I expected. Season 5 had some great moments and episodes, but the serial killer plot drops it down a few notches.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RichGangi
I think this obsession with ranking seasons is completely stupid, so I'll just say that I think 2 is way underrated and 5 isn't as bad as most seem to think.
Easily the best character and arc imo:
Interview with Andre Royo
Also, put me in the camp that thinks TW is the clear GOAT. Just epic and eminently rewatchable.
I agree with most everything said in these two statements. I think the show is clear unquestionable GOAT and I'd probably rank the quality of seasons 4>3>1>2>5, but I think personally I just enjoy 5 more than 2. 2 almost operates as a spin off one off self-encapsulated season. It is great, but it is such a departure from the mood and feel of the rest of the seasons that for me it just sticks out when watching the show straight through. Ziggy is the worst, but I've grown to appreciate his character more with each watch. He is very well acted and represents a fringe character without a place in the crumbling blue collar working class. Nick, however, is the worst acted character with any decent screentime in The Wire.
I'd wager that I've seen The Wire through more than pretty much anyone outside of their editing studio and I feel like season 5 is very underrated. It was a bit rushed and a bit unhinged, but still great. The weakest part of the final season imo was the journalism Templeton storyline. Sure the serial killer storyline was a bit exaggerated, but not any more than Hamsterdam, which is a consensus top 2 season. I think the poignancy of S5 is even more apparent today than ever. The serial killer storyline basically showed that people care more about fabricated deaths than the lives or concerns of troubled inner city populations. Marlo WAS a serial killer; he was indiscriminate to whether they were civilians or street thugs (the security guard or any 'snitch') and they couldn't get the funding to run a case against him, but an easily fabricated fake serial killer created loads of funding and even got Carcetti elected Governor.
Favorite storylines:
Bubbles' redemption
Carcetti's failures
Every Bunny Colvin storyline (seriously, he is integral to the 2 biggest storylines on the show)
The Kids
Stringer/Avon's drifting apart
Cutty
Favorite characters:
Snoop
Bunk
Lester Smooth
Bubbles
Slim Charles
This is the only show that I can relate any facet of everyday life to a Wire saying or still find relevant political/socioeconomic points a decade later. The show can be fun or depressingly serious. I still claim that this is the best piece of modern fiction since Shakespeare.