Film & TV The Wire vs The Shield vs Oz

[Tha_Wood]

which is your favorite?

these are my 3 favorite shows of all time so its a really hard choice

The Wire's characters are great, most notably stringer bell. its not as action packed as The Shield or Oz but i really like how it splits up the show by having the police, the gangs and the dock workers. i have only seen season 1 & 2 so i dont about any other groups.

The Shield is one of the most exciting shows on television, from the very first episode the boys in the strike team have been in shit, dealing with drug dealers and even killing another cop who was going to expose them.

Oz is set in a prison so thats pretty cool already. although i have only seen season 1, 5 & 6 its still very good. the characters are great, from the white supremest Vernon Schillinger to the huge intimidating Adabisi all the characters are awesome.

its pretty hard to pick a favourie out of these shows but i think im going to have to go with Oz, for the sole reason i have watched the season 1 dvd at least 9 times

 

[Preach]

saying that the wire splits between drug dealers, police and dock workers is probably one of the biggest misconceptions in the world.

as far as taste goes, anyone can have a perfectly delicious french salmon and then eat a burger afterwards and say they prefer the burger, but come on.

every writer on the wire team has lived in baltimore, the city where everything takes place, and they all have knowledge about one or more of the aspects of the city and drug trade covered in the series. they are not ex drug dealers, but they know the city. all the dialogue is geniuinely baltimore-ish, by the producers own account though. i don't know, i'm not from baltimore, but there's supposed to be a lot of nods to baltimorians throughout the series that only they would get.

first season is introduction. you learn about the drug dealers and the police. you see the harshness. you see how certain youngsters move up in the hiearchy. (sp?) it's been so long since i watched season 2 that i don't remember a lot of the stuff in it, but it's about the worker class. the dock workers are random. they are a bottle neck in the drug trade right, a lot passes through there. season 3 is about rivaling gangs. at the same time, the season also focuses on the major's office and the police chiefs. you get an insight into the politics behind the city and the police on a much more direct level than any of the previous seasons. season four, i won't say much about what it's ABOUT, but the theme is the school system and the "crazy new kids."

basically, when the show is done, it is supposed to be a painted picture of the problems related to drug trade in baltimore, the reasons why things are the way they are, and the reasons why things don't change. season 5 is gonna be about the mass media's role in the whole thing. the theme is homelessness. i hope barksdale returns. the show as a hole is about a LOT more than "police, gangs and dock workers". i just felt i had to point that out.

head over to ign.com and read the interview with david simon, the producer. it's pretty fucking dope.

 

[Preach]

that said, i', not trying to piss on oz. i don't know shit about it, so if there is some deeper connection to it that i don't know about i'd love to hear about it.

watching the first three episodes i almost think it's weird the show got picked up. that one prettyboy with the black hair who basically gets everyone killed, he's a fucking fag, i dislike him.

 

[Cooper]

The wire is fucking immense.

Basically I wanted to type what rizzle said, but am too lazy, and he already said it all, so i'll summarise with that comment.

 

[Preach]

The cool thing about it is I have watched it two times. Although I'll watch any Wire episode any time because they are all so fucking cool and I know the whole story thus far anyway. But I don't really feel a need to watch it. It's more like reading your science book in school. It's almost like knowledge and impressions that stay with you.

I'm not gonna say it depicts a super-realistic picture. I simply do not know. I have never set foot on American soil. But reading about the groundwork that was laid, coupled with the things that I DO know about the gang culture and drug problems of the US, I can't help but think the show gives people a pretty good perspective.

 

[ill-matic]

Look, if you havent seen season 2-4 in OZ, then you're missing out.

Seasons 5 and 6 are completely shit in comparison.. granted that i only started watching it from season 5 and was hooked immediately.. but after watching seasons 1-4 i see so many flaws in the remaining 2 seasons.

Firstly i have a few bones to pick with the way the plots unfolded in 5 and 6.

My main issue is the way they killed off Kareem Said. That was absolutely the worst piece of writing I had to witness in the history of any television show. Said was such a pivotal and important character to the show..He was just amazing - charismatic, respected, feared, envied, loathed, liked. He was essentially a big factor in what made the show what it was - great. And yet, the writers decided to bring in some random ass motherfucker, who eventually kills of Said in the most bullshit of ways, and for the most bullshit of reasons. Whjat shits me is how his death had nothing to do with his plot lines in previous seasons (such as the beef the Muslims and the Aryans had).. it was just completely spontaneous and done by someone who had nothing to do with anything throughout the entire series. It makes me wonder why they even BOTHERED to kill off Said in the first place when he was gonna be killed off in such a way.

Secondly the way Morales died. This guy was a big player in Em City.. leading the latino's El Norte gang. And how does he get killed off? By some creepy, psychotic old lady nurse. What the fuck is that? Dude was a ruthless cunt, and AGAIN it's a death committed by a random person who has absolutely no tie-in with plotlines surrounding morales in previous episodes and series'.

thirdly when Peter Schibetta threatens to use the Sicilian "evil eye" curse on O'Reilly's mother, which prompts O'Rielly to falsely inform Chucky Pancamo that Schibetta was planning to use the evil eye on him too. WTF? AS IF Pancamo would have blindly accepted what O'Rielly said as fact.. him and Peter were pretty much family but Chucky goes and kills Schibetta no questions asked. It was SO fucking obvious that ORielly had an alterior motive, but the writers made it so Pancamo just nods and accepts it as fact. I thought this just reeked of bullshit.

 

[ill-matic]

Also they tried to force the humanity aspect of the show down our throats to the point where it just became pretentious and lame. Bringing in Ryan's brother, Cyril, was ok... it explored that Ryan had a different side to him other than the ruthless Iago-like person we grew so used to in the previous seasons. Then they decided to bring in his mother which was just totally gay. Then toward the end they bring in his father.. so theyre all like one big happy fucking family. I thought that this was a bit of a joke...the writers were pushing too hard for the humane side of things to pop up.. but it really just ruined the whole feel and mood created by previous seasons.

 

[ill-matic]

And lastly.. we only really got an ending to the whole Beecher - Schillinger and Keller saga, which in my opinion was dealt with quite nicely. Except what fucked it up was the whole "killing off all the Aryans" thing when Keller gets a package containing some toxic shit which the Aryans inhale. No way. Not at all believable.

Bringing in new characters in the final few episodes was just stupid. Like that homosexual drug dealing dude with the glass eye who was obsessed with Alvarez. He would have been a cool character had he not been introduced in like the 3rd last episode. WTF was the point of introducing him?

 

[Preach]

i'm not gonna read through all that shit cause i'll actually watch it i think. so seasons 2-4 are best then, cool. there's only like six episodes or whatever in season one anyway so i'll get through it

 

[Pittsey]

I voted for Preach.

--------------------------------

EDIT: I removed what you said at the end of your post Pittsey. Tha_Wood still hasn't seen season 3. What you said basically is part of the end cliffhanger if one can use such a term for this show. It's also, by my account, one of the most highlighted moments of the whole series so far.

EDIT 2: Hey you faggot, you didn't vote for me, you voted for the shield

- Preach

 

[ill-matic]

I just remembered something else that was a stupid move by the writers...

I cant remember which season this happened in.. i think it was season 5.. But when they decided to stick those Chinese refugees in OZ whilst they were having their visa's etc processed..

WTF? I mean, this is just completely unrealistic. I realise this is hollywood, and they have to exaggerate certain shit to make it more dramatic.. but you can't have this at the expense of realism when it comes to drama's like this. AS IF the government would stick refugees amongst the populace of a MAXIMUM SECURITY prison. Murderers, rapists, arsonists, serial killers etc , and these poor refugees are made to mingle amongst them..

THAT was a major fuck up too.

 

[Pittsey]

I voted for Preach.

--------------------------------

EDIT: I removed what you said at the end of your post Pittsey. Tha_Wood still hasn't seen season 3. What you said basically is part of the end cliffhanger if one can use such a term for this show. It's also, by my account, one of the most highlighted moments of the whole series so far.

EDIT 2: Hey you faggot, you didn't vote for me, you voted for the shield

- Preach

LOL

I was being mean... I apologise to Tha_Wood. And it's part of the reason I have yet to watch season 4.

 

[linx]

I just remembered something else that was a stupid move by the writers...

I cant remember which season this happened in.. i think it was season 5.. But when they decided to stick those Chinese refugees in OZ whilst they were having their visa's etc processed..

WTF? I mean, this is just completely unrealistic. I realise this is hollywood, and they have to exaggerate certain shit to make it more dramatic.. but you can't have this at the expense of realism when it comes to drama's like this. AS IF the government would stick refugees amongst the populace of a MAXIMUM SECURITY prison. Murderers, rapists, arsonists, serial killers etc , and these poor refugees are made to mingle amongst them..

THAT was a major fuck up too.

Haha, yup. I've seen every season and episode of OZ. I first caught it in its first season and loved it. The show was dope. I was pretty pissed when they stopped it. I gotta buy the rest of the seasons man. I got like 3 of em.

 

[Tha_Wood]

i have now seen season 2 of Oz, pretty good i must say. looking froward to season 3 & 4.

i gotta agree with you ill-matic they way they killed of Kareem Said was pretty shit and the introduction of that homo night club owner was a bit stupid as well.

and thanks for removing The Wire spoilers, luckily i wasn't here to read them.