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[surexit]

Question: people who like The Wire and people who like Generation Kill - are the two groups likely to overlap? Present-hunting for aged parents who lovelovelove The WireETA, after Skyping with my dad: ugh, ugh, I need good answers for this because they need a good joint birthday present because they've just offered to transform my overdraft into

Comments

[tibididim]

yes, GK and Wire fans overlap! - my dad's a fan of both, he & I have spent the past year or so working through them pretty gradually. I also very much like Treme, the other series made by the same people - set in New Orleans several months after Katrina - but my dad can't get into it, finds it too slow. Treme is much more sprawling than GK and I suppose the storyline isn't so immediately dramatic - no wars, no shooting. But lots of music - several characters are musicians, the music is particularly important - and lots of food. Anyway it's a slow builder but then The Wire was like that initially for me too.

tl;dr YES overlap with GK and The Wire, they are pretty similar in their aims/style of going about things

and Luther is pretty decent! but in style pretty different to The Wire, more normal, in that there are crimes and the cops solve them - Luther isn't the portrait of a city or a community the way The Wire and GK and Treme are.

[tibididim]

also: Ziggy Sobotka from s2 of The Wire is Ray Person in GK! and there are lots of Wire alumni in Treme too.

[surexit]

OH GOD I HAVE BEEN AVOIDING THE WIRE BECAUSE IT LOOKS TOO HARDCORE, BUUUUT. RAY'S FACE. I WOULD LIKE TO SEE MORE OF IT, EVEN AS A NOT-RAY-PERSON CHARACTER. *WIBBLES*

[sying]

HELLO, ARE YOU ME? It's been on my to-watch list, and on my mediaplayer even, for about at least 6 months now for that reason. James Ransone and great reviews but: hardcore.

[surexit]

HE'S SO BEAUTIFUL. BUT ON THE OTHER HAND, GRIMDARKHARDCORE.

[sying]

ALL THIS. I couldn't even make it a full 2 seasons of Sons of Anarchy which is an excellent show but also grim and violent. THERE NEEDS TO BE A 'SOFTIES WHO WANT TO WATCH HARDCORE SHOWS BUT NEED HAIRPATS AND THEIR HANDS HELD' SUPPORT GROUP!

[surexit]

I was literally working up to watching GK for like a year.

Someday we should have a support group for The Wire watching. :D

[tibididim]

you know how people say The Wire is the greatest tv show literally ever and/or the justification for the tv being invented at all? WELL THEY ARE RIGHT

[tibididim]

*apart from various bits of series 4 which is the one about kids/schools

I can talk about the wire for a lonnnnngggg time

also please please don't go straight to s2 if you do decide to watch it, go from the beginning

[tibididim]

also have you ever watched Queer As Folk (the original UK one)? because AIDEN GILLEN is in The Wire from series 3 on and he is really good in it. Ray-Ray is obviously excellent but he is in just that one series.

hello I can talk about the Wire for far too long hello

what other enticements? Oh yes! They have a handful of semi-regular female directors - out of 60 episodes, 9 were directed by women, and one co-directed by a husband-and-wife team. idk but I appreciate that.

[surexit]

OKAY LOOK, WHEN I AM BACK IN ENGLAND CAN WE MEET UP SO THAT I CAN WATCH THE FIRST EPISODE OF THE WIRE THROUGH MY HANDS AND YOU CAN PAT MY HEAD AND TELL ME TO PERSON UP? BECAUSE THAT IS THE ONLY WAY THIS WILL HAPPEN, AND YOU ARE BEING VERY ENTICING.

[tibididim]

if it's any consolation the main reason I and my dad got through it was because we became a sort of two-person Wire-watchers support group - so he and I could talk about things that were confusing or rewatch bits or yes try to deal with the difficult parts. I CAN'T PROMISE YOU THE SAME I'm afraid because there is a lot of this show but FINE for the first episode this can probably happen ok sure

And the thing is - it's SO character focused, it's not violence focused, it's not trying to thrill you.

[surexit]

My parents watch it together, they're probably doing the support group thing. But they couldn't adequately support me, I don't think, because we'd get freaked out about different things.

[sying]

*takes notes*

[tibididim]

excellenttttttt my plans are succeeding

[surexit]

Also thank you for the reassurance re: overlap. They may not like it, but at least it won't be a hideously wrong-headed present.