Shows you wish to enjoy again for 1st time

[Data]

There are some television shows and movies I enjoyed in a way that I could only wish I never seen it before.  That way I could watch it again for the fist time. 

One such television shows was The Wire witch aired on HBO between 2002 - 2008.  The entire series has about 62 hours shared between 5 seasons.  The series is loosely based on a true story about the heroin problem in Baltimore Maryland, the City Police, the schools and families who live in the middle of it and the politics that are interwoven throughout everything.

Each season has something unique to offer as the characters develop and the story unfolds.

Season 1  The story focuses on corner drug dealers in an overwhelmingly African American community and the daily grind routine of trying to stay one step ahead of the police.

Season 2 The focus changes from the African American gang to the downfall of the Maryland Blue Collar worker and the everyday working man in America along with their own demons.  This season is the most under appreciated when compared to the rest of the series but it holds better than anything else on television.

Season 3 Back on the street of Baltimore.  This season has a lot of politics between territorial gangs, police, the mayor and the state.

Season 4 Mostly revolving around one school in Baltimore which focuses on the social problems in the community and at home.  The kids struggle to survive in school and at home with drug dealers on the corner parents with substance abuse problems.

Season 5 This season was the downfall of an empire and the rise of a new generation of drug gangs.  By this point the viewer feels emotional attachment to the characters despite the fact that we should know this entire situation is such an obvious problem in their community.  The worst part of this season is saying goodbye to many characters.

Here are some characters which contributed a great deal to this epic story.

Snoop

Brother Mouzone

Omar Little

 

What are you're "special" shows?

[Areala]

I'll see your "The Wire" and raise you "The Shield". To me, "The Wire" was an exercise in boredom. Entire shows go by where nothing happens except people talking. Virtually every main character in the first season is a complete asshole, and those who aren't either wind up dead or being complete assholes by the time season 2 rolls around. There's literally no one to root for, no one to identify with, and nobody whose death or injury affected me. I get that it's reality, that this is what real police work looks and feels like, but if I wanted to see real police work, I'd join the academy. Television is supposed to be entertainment, and "The Wire" failed in every sense of the word to be 'entertaining' to me. I gave up around four episodes into Season 2 when I realized nothing was going to change.

"The Shield" on the other hand is everything "The Wire" wishes it could have been: a strong police drama set in a real-world location with three-dimensional main characters, some of whom are assholes, some of whom are good people, and all of them trying to do an impossible and thankless job.

The biggest contrast, for me, is in the main character. "The Wire" gives us Jimmy McNulty, a womanizing Alpha-male jerk of a detective who doesn't give a shit about his family. It tells the audience, "He's an asshole. You're going to hate him." And so we do. "The Shield" on the other hand gives us Vic Mackey, a womanizing Alpha-male jerk of a detective who would give up everything and do anything to protect his family. It tells the audience, "He's an asshole. You're going to love him." And so we do. When McNulty is an asshole (which happens frequently), we groan. That's ordinary writing. When Mackey is an asshole (which happens frequently), we cheer. That's extraordinary writing. That's "The Shield" in a nutshell: seven seasons of extraordinary writing culminating in one of the best final seasons and show-ending finales of all time. I'd give anything to be able to experience it all over again.

*huggles*
Areala

[kitsunebi]

We normally see eye to eye on things, but I've got to disagree with Areala here.  Just last year, I watched all 5 seasons of The Wire straight through for the first time, and it was outstanding.  I only saw the first 2 seasons of The Shield back in the day, and it wasn't bad, but to me the difference between the two is the difference between "a book" and "literature."  The Wire isn't as flashy, but I felt it was written at levels above the other.

Btw, this is neither here nor there, but the assumption that Jimmy McNulty is the main character goes away quickly after the first season.  There are seasons where he barely appears at all.

[Areala]

*LOL* This really is one of those discussions where no one can win. I've yet to meet anyone who loves both "The Wire" and "The Shield", and I'm totally willing to agree to disagree with everybody who doesn't share my opinion.

*huggles*
Areala

[Data]

On 2/3/2017 at 11:49 AM, Areala said:

"The Shield" on the other hand is everything "The Wire" wishes it could have been: a strong police drama set in a real-world location with three-dimensional main characters, some of whom are assholes, some of whom are good people, and all of them trying to do an impossible and thankless job.

The biggest contrast, for me, is in the main character. "The Wire" gives us Jimmy McNulty, a womanizing Alpha-male jerk of a detective who doesn't give a shit about his family. It tells the audience, "He's an asshole. You're going to hate him." And so we do. "The Shield" on the other hand gives us Vic Mackey, a womanizing Alpha-male jerk of a detective who would give up everything and do anything to protect his family. It tells the audience, "He's an asshole. You're going to love him." And so we do. When McNulty is an asshole (which happens frequently), we groan. That's ordinary writing. When Mackey is an asshole (which happens frequently), we cheer. That's extraordinary writing. That's "The Shield" in a nutshell: seven seasons of extraordinary writing culminating in one of the best final seasons and show-ending finales of all time. I'd give anything to be able to experience it all over again.

*huggles*
Areala

I never thought to compare the two shows because they are so completely different.  The Shield is about a police force that covers a new case every week with some recurring roles.  The star of the Shield Michael Chiklis has all the charisma of a wet towel.  It was like the writers of The Shield watched CSI Las Vegas and then decided to re-write their own series using different actors but instead of leaving in the good parts like realism, forensics, a fantastic cast and even better stories, they cut all that out.  It really looks like The Shield was written from the perspective of an imbecilic 20 year old Hollywood school liberal arts major cinematography who shot the entire series on his dad's handycam. 

You got bored with The Wire but I am truly surprised that FX didn't cancel this show after it's second failed season.

[kitsunebi]

Yikes, no need to get ugly, guys!

I think we can all at least agree that Chiklis is FANTASTIC in one of my favorite films of all time.  Such a classic.

[te72]

I occasionally rewatch Cowboy Bebop. No matter how many times I've seen it, it still feels fresh, the characters and their motives are always a pleasure to watch them play out.

 

I rather enjoyed The Shield, in the same way that one enjoys watching a train wreck. You know it's all going to end in tears, but you're almost powerless to stop it. I still think it peaked around season 5, with Glenn Close, she was fantastic in that role. Also, The Shield seems to have paved the way for Sons of Anarchy, which is basically Macbeth on two wheels, but it was a lot of fun too.

 

Lately we've been watching The Blacklist. Highly recommend it, weird as this might sound, it's almost like someone thought to combine Scooby Doo and Silence of the Lambs. Fans of The X-Files will enjoy it, if you liked the aspects of the show that weren't the sci-fi focus.

 

Either way folks, what a time we live in, that we can watch whole seasons of a show, at our leisure, without having to buy a crate full of VHS tapes or insanely priced DVD's!

[Data]

20 hours ago, te72 said:

The Shield seems to have paved the way for Sons of Anarchy, which is basically Macbeth on two wheels, but it was a lot of fun too.

Macbeth lol, that triggered a memory from Blackadder III.  Skip to 1 minute.

 

[te72]

Heh, nice man... I can see why people enjoy Blackadder. Was mentioned fairly frequently by Croshaw on his non-Zero Punctuation videos.

[MGS]

I wanna Watch Battlestar Galactica 2004, again...

Oh, and Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood.

[vice350z]

I'm weird...I watch Seinfeld or King of Queens every single day lol. Either I watch it or its on as background as I'm cooking or computing. Have each show ripped to my hard drive in HD

Breaking Bad was my first binge show experience. LOVED it. I think I finished the 5 seasons in about 2 weeks.

[Data]

On 5/4/2017 at 3:51 AM, MGS said:

I wanna Watch Battlestar Galactica 2004, again...

Oh, and Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood.

I was meaning to watch Battlestar Galactica.  Almost finished the 2nd season and really enjoying the story to it. 

On 6/28/2017 at 5:37 PM, vice350z said:

I'm weird...I watch Seinfeld or King of Queens every single day lol. Either I watch it or its on as background as I'm cooking or computing. Have each show ripped to my hard drive in HD

Breaking Bad was my first binge show experience. LOVED it. I think I finished the 5 seasons in about 2 weeks.

I never like Seinfeld too much.  Everyone in school would be talking about it and some were rather obsessed but I never connected with it.

Jerry Seinfeld - I get his style of humor and understand why people enjoy it but it seemed as if I was watching a stand up comedy act.  Jerry seemed pretentious compared to any normal people I know.

Elaine - Promiscuous friend of the group.  Her role was to get phone numbers off other women.

Kramer - This parasite got through life by mooching off of people and especially Jerry. 

George - The only tolerable character in this show.  I and most people liked him because his failures seemed to out measure our own.

 

King of Queens could be challenged by Everybody Loves Raymond as the superior of the two and I wouldn't argue it although King of Queens is definitely the type of show you can relax and enjoy.

 

1999 was the era of DVD's, digital media and the reformation of the weekly television series.  Nobody blazed the trail like the fictional Italian mafia family Sopranos did.  The interactions between Tony's mafia family, his real family and all the relatives and associates made each 45 minute episode suspensful.  Sopranos was like watching a 45 minute movie every Sunday on HBO that all creators have tried to mimick.

[vice350z]

if i had to pick my least favorite character it would be George....watching him eat on the show absolutely disgusts me and triggers my Misophonia...i have to fast forward through parts of him eating.

[Data]

1 minute ago, vice350z said:

if i had to pick my least favorite character it would be George....watching him eat on the show absolutely disgusts me and triggers my Misophonia...i have to fast forward through parts of him eating.

To save everyone the trouble Misophonia is a phobia of the sound of food in someones mouth.

 

LOL.  You must have a severe case or I just never noticed.

[Data]

From the moment I watched the first episode of Black Mirror, I did not want to stop watching.  The episodes take a dark exaggerated and satirical look at ourselves in an alternate but not far-fetched present day reality and focus on our impulsive nature to use our technologies with unforeseen consequences.  The show has been cited as a modern day Twilight Zone where rules are bent all of the time and you are never quite sure if what you expect to happen will indeed be so.

This began as a British series in 2011 with 3 episodes for season 1. 3 episodes for a second season in 2013 and then Directv paid to have 12 more episodes made.   6 release in 2016 and 6 more for late 2017.

In the most recent season there is an episode called San Junipero.  In my opinion it is the only story so far that turns out to have a  happy ending, sort of.

The story builds on the romance between 2 young women, one an awkward nerdy type and the other a socially outward type.  As the romance builds we quickly realize that something does not seem quite right in San Junipero, which by season 3 of Black Mirror isn't all that strange.  The week begins all over again with the first women not being able to find her friend.  We soon realize that these women are in some type of virtual reality and so they decide to meet in real life.  The circumstance which unfold in the second half of this story are gut wrenching as we learn the real life state of these women and how their future relationship is in peril. 

 

[vice350z]

On 6/30/2017 at 3:41 PM, Data said:

To save everyone the trouble Misophonia is a phobia of the sound of food in someones mouth.

 

LOL.  You must have a severe case or I just never noticed.

thanks...i forget most people dont know what Misophonia is. Yeah it can get pretty bad for me. I don't go to theaters often because the sound of people crunching on popcorn the whole movie drives me crazy. I recently just asked a local theater if they have any wireless sound solution that works with headphones. Was so happy to hear most theaters do for hearing impaired folks but also works with folks like me.

Sounds of people kissing in shows/movies gets me annoyed too. 

Had this for the longest time..as a kid I always tried to make sure a radio/tv was on while eating dinner with the family...silence with just forks off teeth, swallowing and lip smacking were too much for me to deal with.

Weird thing is all these sounds don't bother me if I'm making them.....or a hot chick making mouth sounds lol.

[te72]

On 6/28/2017 at 5:37 PM, vice350z said:

I'm weird...I watch Seinfeld or King of Queens every single day lol. Either I watch it or its on as background as I'm cooking or computing. Have each show ripped to my hard drive in HD

Breaking Bad was my first binge show experience. LOVED it. I think I finished the 5 seasons in about 2 weeks.

We've been watching Better Call Saul recently, the first couple seasons are on Netflix. Starts off slow, like Breaking Bad did, but like it's predecessor (sequel, in this particular case), it pulls you in further and further.

 

On that note, I can only imagine trying to watch a show as good as BB over the course of five years. We watched all of Sons of Anarchy in a couple months, then had to wait a couple years for it to finish. I was not too happy with that, reminded me of The X-files in a sense. I tend to forget stuff in the off season... That's why we haven't started Game of Thrones either, don't wanna make that mistake again.

 

Seinfeld and the Sopranos, two shows I more or less missed when they originally aired. Seinfeld because I just didn't find it all that funny as a kid, and Sopranos mostly because I never had HBO back then. Will probably end up watching them at some point.