VoK 21: The Wire (HBO series)

The best TV show ever made?

Join our four guest hosts for a spoiler-filled explicit discussion of HBO’s seminal TV series The Wire, as well as all things A Song Of Ice and Fire. Mordion aka Michael, Valkyrist aka Duncan, The Parsnip Knight aka Will and Bina007 aka Bina take a critical look at each of the five seasons in turn, before a more light-hearted after-show discussion.

Running order:

00:00 Introduction to the hosts, how we found the show, season ranking and favourite characters.

13:00 Season One – The pOlice start to investigate the Barksdale crew and we discuss how The Wire measures up to standard cop shows; the character development of Prezbo and Daniels; and the who we were rooting for.

26:00 Season Two – Union leader Frank Sobotka tries to keep the dockworkers in business by making a deal with “The Greek”. We also discuss how The Wire tackles female characters, equal opportunities for white drug dealers, and whether Ziggy or Herc is the biggest idiot.

46:40 Season Three – We discuss the pros and cons of Bunny Colvin’s Hamsterdam plan, the comedy of drug dealers recognising the chair in co-op debates, and the tragedy of the rivalry between Stringer Bell and Avon Barksdale.

1:10:40 Season Four – The Wire delves into the parlous state of public education in Baltimore as Prezbo becomes a teacher and we debate how far Chris is a “bad guy” and why The Wire didn’t achieve the commercial success of shows like Mad Men, let alone Game of Thrones.

1:38:40 Season Five – We discuss how plausible the McNutty storyline is, and whether the journalism story is too rushed for its own good.

1:50:00 Aftershow – In which we discuss who the biggest badass of the show is, who the biggest dumbass is, and whether Herc would be a gentle lover, Stringer Bell would cuddle, whether you can say “shiiiiiiiit!” in an English accent and which characters in The Wire resemble characters from A Song Of Ice and Fire.

Credits: Edited by Bina007 with music taken from the soundtrack album “…All the pieces matter – Five years of music from The Wire.”

Episode 21:

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Links:
The Aidan Gillan Game Of Thrones/Wire Mash-Up Video