The Wire

[poliphilo]

I've been reading that The Wire is the greatest TV show ever and I got a chance to watch the first episode last night so I did. 

OK-  it's gritty, OK-  it treats the crims with sympathy (which may be new to TV but isn't new to literature or cinema) but otherwise we get the usual testosterone-heavy shit with a pretty-looking white guy (in a sea of black faces) playing the maverick cop we're supposed to identify with and no women in starring roles except for the token lesbian cop who is so tough she's effectively a man.  (Phew, that was a long sentence!). So- and nobody I've read has noticed this which makes it even sadder-  it comes with racism and misogyny built in. Maybe if I stick with it I'll change my mind, but right now I'm thinking same old, same old.

Comments

[manfalling.livejournal.com]

I know a few people who love this TV show. I watched it- thought it was OK, but yeah- the blurring of the lines of documentary and fiction kind of lost my interest.

If I'm going to watch a documentary, I want it to be real. If it's fiction, I want it to have a wild conceit, like LOST, or at least be a bit closer to something I'm interested in. Fiction and documentary? Hmm. I feel like it the same as I feel about Neil Stephenson's massive System of the World trilogy. If I'm going to read history, I'd rather read REAL history than half-real.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I feel rather the same. I'm not sure I want to spend on those hours on the projects in Baltimore.

But I'll watch a few more episodes before I make up my mind.