My All Night Marathon
I am sucker for crime drama. I don’t know how my proclivity towards watch violent TV shows but I was a closet follower of Dexter way back when it started. I was embarrassed to tell my friends that I watched the show. It’s just that there is something to look forward to at the end of every episode and a bit of intrigue is always a plus. And I am not a one off specimen; I think the world is filled with people like me who would watch a cop procedural rather than a boring sitcom.
I didn't do any scientific polling but I feel pretty confident in saying that Crime Dramas of various sorts are the most popular thing going at the moment. We've got three CSI's, three Law & Orders and many, many other shows of this type on the airwaves. And I watch the crappiest of them, let me confess first. I used to watch CSI way back when it started but then got too bored. There is not much of a story line happening other than the case. I want to both drama and procedural wrapped together. It is tough to maintain that elusive balance. Many a show fell through because they couldn’t maintain this: Castle (let’s not talk about the stupid interrogations where all you have to do is raise your voice and shout and the witness would cower and give away within 2 minutes!), Bones (would they just get together and give it a rest already!). I can go on but let’s not go off track.
I was talking to N on Friday after a really long time. Our conversations generally go this way: loads off gossip which I gladly supply (I am not the collector, I just pass on :)), life altering decisions (on my side obviously none), job etc. But we finally settle down with a long discussion about all those bands/ tv series/ movies that we should try to listen/watch. I always have something new to do after every phone call. I like it because I can trust her taste implicitly. I don’t have to IMdB stuff and check out. I just go out and watch it, no questions asked.
In a very roundabout way of coming to the point, she suggested that I should check out The Wire. Now, obviously when you are as obsessed as I am about this shit, you would have heard about this show, almost always in the review section, comparing and criticizing every single single cop procedural show out there. Anyhoo, I had the first season for a long time but couldn’t get around to watching it.
I had a day off with no plans so I settled myself with my lunch and a bottle of wine and began the marathon. I completed watching it around 5 in the morning, had to get up at 8 to go to office but so not regretting the decision to finish the season. Man, I have no words. This was the kind of show I was looking for when I was criticizing all those crappy shows. Every single character is so beautifully built and acted out.
I think this was the best TV series marathon in a long time. It destroys those entire cop clichés out there. It is slow, sometimes confusing going early on, as they establish who's doing what. But once everybody's settled in the plot is thick but gripping, with some tremendously sharp dialogue moving the story forward. And there's proof that great dialogue needn't have a deep vocabulary; at the end of one episode McNulty and a fellow detective sort out a murder using only the word 'fuck.'
Bored at office, hence the rant, anyhoo you guys should totally try out the show.
I didn't do any scientific polling but I feel pretty confident in saying that Crime Dramas of various sorts are the most popular thing going at the moment. We've got three CSI's, three Law & Orders and many, many other shows of this type on the airwaves. And I watch the crappiest of them, let me confess first. I used to watch CSI way back when it started but then got too bored. There is not much of a story line happening other than the case. I want to both drama and procedural wrapped together. It is tough to maintain that elusive balance. Many a show fell through because they couldn’t maintain this: Castle (let’s not talk about the stupid interrogations where all you have to do is raise your voice and shout and the witness would cower and give away within 2 minutes!), Bones (would they just get together and give it a rest already!). I can go on but let’s not go off track.
I was talking to N on Friday after a really long time. Our conversations generally go this way: loads off gossip which I gladly supply (I am not the collector, I just pass on :)), life altering decisions (on my side obviously none), job etc. But we finally settle down with a long discussion about all those bands/ tv series/ movies that we should try to listen/watch. I always have something new to do after every phone call. I like it because I can trust her taste implicitly. I don’t have to IMdB stuff and check out. I just go out and watch it, no questions asked.
In a very roundabout way of coming to the point, she suggested that I should check out The Wire. Now, obviously when you are as obsessed as I am about this shit, you would have heard about this show, almost always in the review section, comparing and criticizing every single single cop procedural show out there. Anyhoo, I had the first season for a long time but couldn’t get around to watching it.
I had a day off with no plans so I settled myself with my lunch and a bottle of wine and began the marathon. I completed watching it around 5 in the morning, had to get up at 8 to go to office but so not regretting the decision to finish the season. Man, I have no words. This was the kind of show I was looking for when I was criticizing all those crappy shows. Every single character is so beautifully built and acted out.
I think this was the best TV series marathon in a long time. It destroys those entire cop clichés out there. It is slow, sometimes confusing going early on, as they establish who's doing what. But once everybody's settled in the plot is thick but gripping, with some tremendously sharp dialogue moving the story forward. And there's proof that great dialogue needn't have a deep vocabulary; at the end of one episode McNulty and a fellow detective sort out a murder using only the word 'fuck.'
Bored at office, hence the rant, anyhoo you guys should totally try out the show.
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