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Streaming or currently airing TV shows (AKA Netflix thread) (12 Viewers)

re: The Wire, I missed the boat when it originally aired. Have always heard rave reviews about it, so about 10 years ago, the wife and I set out to watch it. We were incredibly bored through the first two episodes and ended up watching something else. I'm guessing I need to revisit since it is widely known as an all-time great. But for fans of the show, do you agree that the first couple episodes were very slow?

It is slow - I just last week tried to get my wife to watch it with me and it was too slow for her. It pays off in spades if you stick with it however.
 
re: The Wire, I missed the boat when it originally aired. Have always heard rave reviews about it, so about 10 years ago, the wife and I set out to watch it. We were incredibly bored through the first two episodes and ended up watching something else. I'm guessing I need to revisit since it is widely known as an all-time great. But for fans of the show, do you agree that the first couple episodes were very slow?
Yea it’s one of those shows that is universally acknowledged as starting slow.

I liked it but I found it more informative and necessary than entertaining. I don’t think it’s a top-5 show.
 
re: The Wire, I missed the boat when it originally aired. Have always heard rave reviews about it, so about 10 years ago, the wife and I set out to watch it. We were incredibly bored through the first two episodes and ended up watching something else. I'm guessing I need to revisit since it is widely known as an all-time great. But for fans of the show, do you agree that the first couple episodes were very slow?
I was in similar boat. My wife gave up early on. I kept going a little bit more without her, but I probably stopped somewhere in season 2 about five years ago and haven’t gone back to it. I should probably revisit for similar reasons, but if my evening choices are continuing a show that I wasn’t feeling, checking something else out, or reading a book, The Wire just hasn’t won that battle.
 
I continue to be shocked that people rank The Wire anywhere near their top 10 of shows all time.
Ok... I'll bite. List some of your top 10.

The Wire is firmly there for me.
Breaking Bad is clearly #1 for me. In no particular order Better Call Saul, Mad Men, Ozark, Sopranos, Succession, GOT are all great. Many, many more shows that are mentioned in this thread I found more enjoyable than The Wire, which I stopped watching in season 3.
Thanks... All solid to pantheon level shows for me (Ozark way off the list, imo, and I didn't like succession, but not for quality of tv reasons).

Given that list... To use your phrase- I'm shocked you don't also rate the Wire. But we don't all have to agree about everything. It would have made more sense if your list was all crappy...
 
re: The Wire, I missed the boat when it originally aired. Have always heard rave reviews about it, so about 10 years ago, the wife and I set out to watch it. We were incredibly bored through the first two episodes and ended up watching something else. I'm guessing I need to revisit since it is widely known as an all-time great. But for fans of the show, do you agree that the first couple episodes were very slow?
No, but I've heard non-fans share your criticism. Heck, I've had colleagues of mine that work in that "world" that I thought for sure would love the show come back and complain that it's way too slow for them.
 
I've long believed not many shows really carry a second season and almost no television shows deserve a 3rd. Sopranos ended well, but the writers were clearly bored with the show through several of the middle seasons. Great television, but at most that story was worthy of 3 seasons. Lasso is on my long list of shows that should have ridden into the sunset after one great season as the writers just didn't have the enthusiasm anymore to keep it fresh (I tapped out 3 eps or so into season 2.) Barry was the same for me - great idea and great first season then it just got old and uninteresting. I get that the producers will never end a cash cow like Lasso. The difference with The Wire is that they really did come up with almost completely new and different stories each season. Absolutely brilliant writers year after year.
 
re: The Wire, I missed the boat when it originally aired. Have always heard rave reviews about it, so about 10 years ago, the wife and I set out to watch it. We were incredibly bored through the first two episodes and ended up watching something else. I'm guessing I need to revisit since it is widely known as an all-time great. But for fans of the show, do you agree that the first couple episodes were very slow?
I do think The Wire takes a few episodes to get going. My recollection from the first time I watched it is that it doesn't really properly introduce any characters like other shows do. S1E1 feels like you're dropping into a show that's already in it's third season, and I found that a little off-putting.
 
I've long believed not many shows really carry a second season and almost no television shows deserve a 3rd. Sopranos ended well, but the writers were clearly bored with the show through several of the middle seasons. Great television, but at most that story was worthy of 3 seasons. Lasso is on my long list of shows that should have ridden into the sunset after one great season as the writers just didn't have the enthusiasm anymore to keep it fresh (I tapped out 3 eps or so into season 2.) Barry was the same for me - great idea and great first season then it just got old and uninteresting. I get that the producers will never end a cash cow like Lasso. The difference with The Wire is that they really did come up with almost completely new and different stories each season. Absolutely brilliant writers year after year.

While I definitely think a lot of shows overextend their welcome, I think this is a little harsh. Sure The Sopranos had a couple of lulls, but it was by far better than 99% of other things on at the time. I'm thankful we got the long saga we did and I wouldn't give any of it back (except maybe the episode with his dad's goomah). Same with Breaking Bad and even Better Call Saul. I don't know how less of a great thing is good and I'm glad these didn't end after three seasons. It really depends on the show. I do agree though that there are more shows that go too long than otherwise.

This is the downside of long serial shows. If they start to suck, it's hard to come back. Shows like 24 or Picard, which are serial but each season is self contained, have the advantage of being able to reset with a new serial story every season and potentially erase the suck.
 
re: The Wire, I missed the boat when it originally aired. Have always heard rave reviews about it, so about 10 years ago, the wife and I set out to watch it. We were incredibly bored through the first two episodes and ended up watching something else. I'm guessing I need to revisit since it is widely known as an all-time great. But for fans of the show, do you agree that the first couple episodes were very slow?
I do think The Wire takes a few episodes to get going. My recollection from the first time I watched it is that it doesn't really properly introduce any characters like other shows do. S1E1 feels like you're dropping into a show that's already in it's third season, and I found that a little off-putting.
Wow I generally have no idea where these comments arise from, though I recognize they're common. I found the opening scene of The Wire S1E1 (re: the death of "Snotboogie" and why they had to let him shoot dice) to be one of the greatest opening scenes of all time where we got immediate insight to the whole point of the show and into its arguable main character.

Personally, I don't understand how anybody could describe it as "slow" or not properly introducing characters. Though, again, I get these are common criticisms...
 
re: The Wire, I missed the boat when it originally aired. Have always heard rave reviews about it, so about 10 years ago, the wife and I set out to watch it. We were incredibly bored through the first two episodes and ended up watching something else. I'm guessing I need to revisit since it is widely known as an all-time great. But for fans of the show, do you agree that the first couple episodes were very slow?
I do think The Wire takes a few episodes to get going. My recollection from the first time I watched it is that it doesn't really properly introduce any characters like other shows do. S1E1 feels like you're dropping into a show that's already in it's third season, and I found that a little off-putting.
Wow I generally have no idea where these comments arise from, though I recognize they're common. I found the opening scene of The Wire S1E1 (re: the death of "Snotboogie" and why they had to let him shoot dice) to be one of the greatest opening scenes of all time where we got immediate insight to the whole point of the show and into its arguable main character.

Personally, I don't understand how anybody could describe it as "slow" or not properly introducing characters. Though, again, I get these are common criticisms...

I have no idea whether the criticisms are common. I just know that my wife and I were super bored through the first couple episodes. I think part of the boredom was due to listening to long extended dialogue that was hard to follow. But it was 10+ years ago so my memory is hazy.
 
re: The Wire, I missed the boat when it originally aired. Have always heard rave reviews about it, so about 10 years ago, the wife and I set out to watch it. We were incredibly bored through the first two episodes and ended up watching something else. I'm guessing I need to revisit since it is widely known as an all-time great. But for fans of the show, do you agree that the first couple episodes were very slow?
I do think The Wire takes a few episodes to get going. My recollection from the first time I watched it is that it doesn't really properly introduce any characters like other shows do. S1E1 feels like you're dropping into a show that's already in it's third season, and I found that a little off-putting.
Wow I generally have no idea where these comments arise from, though I recognize they're common. I found the opening scene of The Wire S1E1 (re: the death of "Snotboogie" and why they had to let him shoot dice) to be one of the greatest opening scenes of all time where we got immediate insight to the whole point of the show and into its arguable main character.

Personally, I don't understand how anybody could describe it as "slow" or not properly introducing characters. Though, again, I get these are common criticisms...
I started (and finished) The Wire within the last year. I thought it started slow and took some time to get invested in the characters and think @IvanKaramazov 's description was spot on for me. This show doesn't spoon feed you anything so you have to be invested to get into the ride. It's not something to have on while you are checking emails or surfing your phone. I really enjoyed the overall series but it took awhile to grab me completely. I plan to go back to the start of it now that I know the characters to see if that helps the start go faster and I think it will.
 
re: The Wire, I missed the boat when it originally aired. Have always heard rave reviews about it, so about 10 years ago, the wife and I set out to watch it. We were incredibly bored through the first two episodes and ended up watching something else. I'm guessing I need to revisit since it is widely known as an all-time great. But for fans of the show, do you agree that the first couple episodes were very slow?
I do think The Wire takes a few episodes to get going. My recollection from the first time I watched it is that it doesn't really properly introduce any characters like other shows do. S1E1 feels like you're dropping into a show that's already in it's third season, and I found that a little off-putting.
Wow I generally have no idea where these comments arise from, though I recognize they're common. I found the opening scene of The Wire S1E1 (re: the death of "Snotboogie" and why they had to let him shoot dice) to be one of the greatest opening scenes of all time where we got immediate insight to the whole point of the show and into its arguable main character.

Personally, I don't understand how anybody could describe it as "slow" or not properly introducing characters. Though, again, I get these are common criticisms...
I started (and finished) The Wire within the last year. I thought it started slow and took some time to get invested in the characters and think @IvanKaramazov 's description was spot on for me. This show doesn't spoon feed you anything so you have to be invested to get into the ride. It's not something to have on while you are checking emails or surfing your phone. I really enjoyed the overall series but it took awhile to grab me completely. I plan to go back to the start of it now that I know the characters to see if that helps the start go faster and I think it will.
Who knows maybe I've re-watched it too many times now (5x IIRC) that the character development aspect for me is just automatic because I go into each re-watch heavily invested in the characters already.

But I don't recall ever being bored or confused though on my first watch.
 
re: The Wire, I missed the boat when it originally aired. Have always heard rave reviews about it, so about 10 years ago, the wife and I set out to watch it. We were incredibly bored through the first two episodes and ended up watching something else. I'm guessing I need to revisit since it is widely known as an all-time great. But for fans of the show, do you agree that the first couple episodes were very slow?
I do think The Wire takes a few episodes to get going. My recollection from the first time I watched it is that it doesn't really properly introduce any characters like other shows do. S1E1 feels like you're dropping into a show that's already in it's third season, and I found that a little off-putting.
Off-putting. Whenever I see that phrase I think of the Jennifer Lawrence "burn" of Zach G on "Between 2 Ferns".

Sorry...back to Serious TV Talk.
 
But I don't recall ever being bored or confused though on my first watch.
I think "bored" and "confused" aren't quite the correct descriptors. But there was a time to get into the characters that needed to happen before I could fully into what was going on. It was kind of a situation where I was trying to figure out who was doing what and how they fit in. It wasn't bad just wasn't spoon fed like a lot of shows do today.
 
re: The Wire, I missed the boat when it originally aired. Have always heard rave reviews about it, so about 10 years ago, the wife and I set out to watch it. We were incredibly bored through the first two episodes and ended up watching something else. I'm guessing I need to revisit since it is widely known as an all-time great. But for fans of the show, do you agree that the first couple episodes were very slow?

I wouldn't say "slow" but it is a lot of setup, and you really have no idea initially where it is heading. It took me a while to figure out what the show was "about".
 
But I don't recall ever being bored or confused though on my first watch.
I think "bored" and "confused" aren't quite the correct descriptors. But there was a time to get into the characters that needed to happen before I could fully into what was going on. It was kind of a situation where I was trying to figure out who was doing what and how they fit in. It wasn't bad just wasn't spoon fed like a lot of shows do today.

Exactly.
 
I continue to be shocked that people rank The Wire anywhere near their top 10 of shows all time.
Everybody is entitled to their opinion, yours is just wrong :lmao:

Seriously, I get it. I loved the Wire and I love Lasso. Everybody has different tastes as is evident in this thread recently.
 
The Wire is unique in that it's so realistic that I feel it loses a bit of the entertainment factor that a lot of other shows have. Episodes don't ever really end on a cliffhanger. There's nothing that comes even close to jumping the shark. The only time I remember being surprised was a 3 second part of a scene involving a certain gay bar and a certain high ranking police official.

It's incredibly well written, acted and produced and it's brutally realistic, but you won't really be talking about it at the water cooler the next day.
 
Kind of over Ted Lasso. Watched the first one tonight and it’s just more of the same. I’ll watch the entire season but they are right to finish it.
The biggest fraud of a loved show I can remember in awhile. I watched about half of S1 and coudn't do it anymore. My wife and friends have watched and re-watched. I am not at all surprised to hear that S3 will be the last and that it's seen as garbage. It was always garbage.

Not sure you could be more wrong if you tried.
I will continue trying trust me
 
There's nothing that comes even close to jumping the shark. The only time I remember being surprised was a 3 second part of a scene involving a certain gay bar and a certain high ranking police official.

Season Five .....

When McNulty invented a serial killer and Lester went along with it ... I thought that was little tough to believe in the context of everything that had happened prior. Still loved the season though.
 
I wouldn't say "slow" but it is a lot of setup, and you really have no idea initially where it is heading. It took me a while to figure out what the show was "about".
And after it starts hitting its groove it throws a huge curve ball at you with season 2, introducing a totally new setting and characters. I think that is why many dislike season 2 initially. After finishing the series season 2's place in the Wire Universe makes sense, and upon rewatch season 2 tends to be much better received.
 
I wouldn't say "slow" but it is a lot of setup, and you really have no idea initially where it is heading. It took me a while to figure out what the show was "about".
And after it starts hitting its groove it throws a huge curve ball at you with season 2, introducing a totally new setting and characters. I think that is why many dislike season 2 initially. After finishing the series season 2's place in the Wire Universe makes sense, and upon rewatch season 2 tends to be much better received.

Agree here. I like season 2. It seems out of place at first, but there is a tie in that isn't clear until later. Generally, I think The Wire gets better as it progresses. In seasons 1-4, I feel like each season was better than the previous. Season 5 is the exception. It's still great, but I wouldn't say it's better than Season 4.
 
About half way through The Night Agent. Nothing really original here, but if you like thriller/action spy stuff with government conspiracies and constant twists, it scratches the itch.

A few "oh come on!!!" moments but I expect that with this genre.
We finished it, but yeah, there are plenty of eye rolls. Overall I thought it was decent but won't be waiting for S2. The casting seemed off to me as well. I feel the secondary actors were quite a bit better than the two leads.
 
I still think the Wire is the greatest show ever and it's not close. Band of Brothers is my second favorite, and it's only ten episodes total. I also enjoyed Homeland more than most fwiw.
 
I love The Wire but people forget how meh Season 5 was imo. I know HBO forced Simon to only do 10 episodes instead of the standard 12, so it felt rushed for a reason, but even if you give some leeway for that the McNulty storyline in that season was horrendous.
 
Silo is good so far. I read the initial self-published short story (Wool) about 10 years ago so much of it is familiar but I didn’t read the whole series and have forgotten a lot of it. Good actors, great sets and great action.
Question for those who have read these - is it resolved in a satisfactory manner? I tried reading some summaries (while trying to avoid spoilers) and I got the impression it’s still ongoing and we don’t know the ending yet. If the central mystery ends up being a dud I don’t want to get involved.
 
I love The Wire but people forget how meh Season 5 was imo. I know HBO forced Simon to only do 10 episodes instead of the standard 12, so it felt rushed for a reason, but even if you give some leeway for that the McNulty storyline in that season was horrendous.
I love season five. I didn't realize some didn't.
 
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I love The Wire but people forget how meh Season 5 was imo. I know HBO forced Simon to only do 10 episodes instead of the standard 12, so it felt rushed for a reason, but even if you give some leeway for that the McNulty storyline in that season was horrendous.
I love season five. I didn't realize some didn't.
Interesting. I found the McNulty storyline to be so implausible it soured the rest of it. Gus is a great character though.
 
Silo is good so far. I read the initial self-published short story (Wool) about 10 years ago so much of it is familiar but I didn’t read the whole series and have forgotten a lot of it. Good actors, great sets and great action.
Question for those who have read these - is it resolved in a satisfactory manner? I tried reading some summaries (while trying to avoid spoilers) and I got the impression it’s still ongoing and we don’t know the ending yet. If the central mystery ends up being a dud I don’t want to get involved.

I read the series and loved it. Can't remember how much is "resolved", but for me books are about the journey and not the destination, so YMMV.
 
Silo is good so far. I read the initial self-published short story (Wool) about 10 years ago so much of it is familiar but I didn’t read the whole series and have forgotten a lot of it. Good actors, great sets and great action.
Question for those who have read these - is it resolved in a satisfactory manner? I tried reading some summaries (while trying to avoid spoilers) and I got the impression it’s still ongoing and we don’t know the ending yet. If the central mystery ends up being a dud I don’t want to get involved.

I read the series and loved it. Can't remember how much is "resolved", but for me books are about the journey and not the destination, so YMMV.
I'm curious how much of the source material they are trying to get into this first season. If they are trying to do the entire first book they have some work to do in 5 remaining episodes.
 
I love The Wire but people forget how meh Season 5 was imo. I know HBO forced Simon to only do 10 episodes instead of the standard 12, so it felt rushed for a reason, but even if you give some leeway for that the McNulty storyline in that season was horrendous.
I love season five. I didn't realize some didn't.
Interesting. I found the McNulty storyline to be so implausible it soured the rest of it. Gus is a great character though.
Without getting into specifics (though can you really spoil a show that's over 20 years old?), I think that was kind of the point though - the system was so broken that the writers had to inject something seemingly implausible into it to drive home the series' ultimate point that the inner city war on drugs is a cyclical and ultimately useless endeavor. I enjoyed the fact that it was frankly so relatively easy for McNulty and Freamon to get away with it as long as they did, too. So, yeah, implausible hyperbole, but almost necessary for the final season IMO.

I do have Season 5 ranked as my least favorite but it's nowhere near "horrendous" and is still great television (as somebody else mentioned Gus was a good new character and I am generally content with how they wrapped up the storylines for most of the major players).
 
I love The Wire but people forget how meh Season 5 was imo. I know HBO forced Simon to only do 10 episodes instead of the standard 12, so it felt rushed for a reason, but even if you give some leeway for that the McNulty storyline in that season was horrendous.
I love season five. I didn't realize some didn't.
Interesting. I found the McNulty storyline to be so implausible it soured the rest of it. Gus is a great character though.
Without getting into specifics (though can you really spoil a show that's over 20 years old?), I think that was kind of the point though - the system was so broken that the writers had to inject something seemingly implausible into it to drive home the series' ultimate point that the inner city war on drugs is a cyclical and ultimately useless endeavor. I enjoyed the fact that it was frankly so relatively easy for McNulty and Freamon to get away with it as long as they did, too. So, yeah, implausible hyperbole, but almost necessary for the final season IMO.

I do have Season 5 ranked as my least favorite but it's nowhere near "horrendous" and is still great television (as somebody else mentioned Gus was a good new character and I am generally content with how they wrapped up the storylines for most of the major players).
I think there's a simpler explanation: The Wire was always a highly-political show that really wanted to pass along a particular message. It's hard to do that without being didactic and preachy. Season 5 is coded as a "bad" season (not bad objectively, but bad as in not as good as the first four seasons) because it's too heavy-handed. That's all it is.

It's a testament to how good The Wire is that it can devote entire seasons to the war on drugs, the decline of blue-collar work, inner city schools, urban politics, and the local news media while staying up at the Scientist level. But it does slip here and there. The whole storyline with McNulty creating a fictitious serial killer is the most glaring example, but it's not the only one. IMO, the "Hamsterdam" storyline is also below the normal standard of this show in terms of nuance, and I say that as somebody who is extremely sympathetic to the show's POV on that one. Both of those are just too forced and contrived compared to the stories involving Avon Barksdale or the Longshoremen.
 
I love The Wire but people forget how meh Season 5 was imo. I know HBO forced Simon to only do 10 episodes instead of the standard 12, so it felt rushed for a reason, but even if you give some leeway for that the McNulty storyline in that season was horrendous.
I love season five. I didn't realize some didn't.
Interesting. I found the McNulty storyline to be so implausible it soured the rest of it. Gus is a great character though.
Without getting into specifics (though can you really spoil a show that's over 20 years old?), I think that was kind of the point though - the system was so broken that the writers had to inject something seemingly implausible into it to drive home the series' ultimate point that the inner city war on drugs is a cyclical and ultimately useless endeavor. I enjoyed the fact that it was frankly so relatively easy for McNulty and Freamon to get away with it as long as they did, too. So, yeah, implausible hyperbole, but almost necessary for the final season IMO.

I do have Season 5 ranked as my least favorite but it's nowhere near "horrendous" and is still great television (as somebody else mentioned Gus was a good new character and I am generally content with how they wrapped up the storylines for most of the major players).

I really enjoyed the newspaper component to season 5 but agree that it got silly with regards to McNulty. It was my first introduction to David Costabile who was brilliant as Wags in "Billions" before that series got stupid.
 
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Without spoiling, did Succession end well? I read some reports it was headed into GOT territory with it's ending.

I watched the first three episodes and was intrigued but never went back, but I will if it's a really good complete package.
 
Without spoiling, did Succession end well? I read some reports it was headed into GOT territory with it's ending.

I watched the first three episodes and was intrigued but never went back, but I will if it's a really good complete package.
I haven't watched the finale yet. Please no spoilers. Tia
 

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