Al Swearingen is a Mount Rushmore TV character. McShane stole every scene he was in and was amazing. I can’t believe HBO prematurely cut it off. What a huge mistake.
Movies, books, tv
- Thread starter zeke4ahs
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anon_6hv78pr714xta
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The Wire’s greatness rests in its ultra-realism. I have a friend who has been a ASA in Cook County for 25 years. His dad was a police detective for 30. He says the Wire is so realistic, and it got the inner workings of the criminal justice system, politicians etc so on the nose many in Chicago (the show is set in Baltimore) thought their stories had been stolen.
I think season 4 focuses on inner city schools. Absolutely heartbreaking.
That season was a gut punch. The kids’ stories were all just so tough. I think Simon did try to make it as real as possible. That’s his city.
I believe the show is set in the neighborhood where the 68 riots occurred. Baltimore and Stl are similar with crime and are the only two major cities in America that don't have a county. The counties are separate.
I've started the wire twice and stopped.
Yeah I’m responding to my own post. My TV Mount Rushmore:
1. Al Swearingen
2. Tyrion Lannister
3. Walter White
4. Omar Little
Ian McShane uses “c$cksucker” like Van Gogh used canvas. Just a true master of his craft.
I'm still trying to decipher what's going on in this post
In no particular order
Saul Goodman
Omar
Tyrion
Jimmy McNulty/Stringer Bell/Jax Teller
Gameday decision on the last one. So I guess there is an order
Concur on Breaking Bad, Sopranos, GOT. I really enjoyed Mad Men too back in the day. And I put Peaky Blinders up there now. There's a scene, and I can't remember which season it's from, where Saul is taking appointed cases and he's arguing one right after another and you are watching him make his arguments from the vantage point of the judge, that's one of my all time favorite scenes in a show. Just absolutely hilarious. They do a brilliant job of walking that line. Just like Breaking Bad did.
Yellowstone Season 4, Ozark Season 4, Karate Kid Season 4 - all disappointing.
Dammit. Mad Men to me must be like the Wire for you. I've started it a few times. And it is great but some reason I just lose interest.
Peaky Blinders (based on just the first episode) feels like it's going to be awesome. I do love a good period piece.
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anon_6hv78pr714xta
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I had the same experience. Even when I watched it, I found it tough going. Some episodes and seasons are much better than others. But if you find the zone, it is very rewarding. And it's so nuanced, sometimes I don't want that. I might have to go back and watch it again.
It's not one of my favorite shows, or one of my most enjoyable. But it is one of the best. I'd love to see more hyper-realism like that--but shows like that have to be restricted viewing (see discussion of Holocaust teaching to kids, for example) and many won't want to watch because it's challenging. Also, it's very, very difficult to even do, to see things from so many perspectives.
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anon_6hv78pr714xta
Guest
Mad Men is amazingly good and Don Draper is on my TV Mt. Rushmore. He might be #1.
Roger Sterling is one of the greatest supporting characters of all-time, with some of the greatest lines in TV history. This might be my all-time favorite:
"You don't know how to drink. Your whole generation, you drink for the wrong reasons. My generation, we drink because it's good, because it feels better than unbuttoning your collar, because we deserve it. We drink because it's what men do."
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This might be the most compelling part for me in re the Wire.
Nobody in the show is inherently good or bad. They just are. Living in the situation of west Baltimore in the 90's. Thought they did a great job of representing the reality of that landscape.
Nobody in the show is inherently good or bad. They just are. Living in the situation of west Baltimore in the 90's. Thought they did a great job of representing the reality of that landscape.
Peaky Blinders is incredible. So many great characters, and I love the historical aspects as well. Last episode of season 4 is mind blowing. Hurry up and watch so you can get to it.
Love Mad Men, and Don Draper is indeed in the pantheon of film and TC characters. One of my all-time favorite shows. However, my one (very soft) critique of Mad Men is that many of the other characters are underdeveloped and often seem to be there just to fill space (or, in some instances, cardboard cutouts of well-used stereotypes). Yes, you need to have characters like that in any series. But I guess in Mad Men Don Draper often took up too much of the air in the room.
But again, it's still one of the best TV shows ever. I absolutely loved how hard they tried to portray the time periods realistically, and I was always amused when they did something that seems crazy by today's standards but that I remember from my own youth.
For example, the scene where they're eating KFC in a park, and they just leave their trash on the ground with Don even chucking an empty can into the woods. Or, things like the Kodak Carousel slide projector. Anyone under the age of 40 would think it absolutely bizarre to invite your friends over for a Saturday night cookout then, after dinner, turn down the lights and have a slide show of your recent vacation.
I think they also had a scene where someone came to the Draper's house and Sally gave them a tour. Anyone old enough to remember doing that whenever someone new came to your home? About 10 years ago we went to a friend's house for a cookout and the dad asked their 10 year old son to give us a tour of their house. Ordinary suburban, middle class house - nice, but just a normal, run-of-the-mill home. I think it had been 40 years since I experienced the home tour, but it was very nostalgic to me.
Christina Hendricks = NOT underdeveloped
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anon_6hv78pr714xta
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I thought Mad Men did a good job developing Pete, Roger, Don, and the two female leads whose character names I’m blanking on right now. The Englishman was good too.
Peaky Blinders irritated me after a while. Their accents are so inaccurate -- the main characters didn't have a hint of the brummie accents at all.
Its like listening to Michale Caine trying to speak posh.
Oh, I like this game. I'll agree with your first two, but I'm not sure about the last two. Both contenders, but I'd broaden the pool a bit and consider: Charlie Young, Bender, Gaius Baltar, Silvio Dante, Titus Pullo, Archie Bunker, Coach Pantuso, Debra Morgan, John Locke.
Odd list, but no Jim Ignatowski?
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anon_6hv78pr714xta
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The Reverend Jim and Latka are two of the most unexpected and amazing characters ever created!
I pulled up the clip with Jim the other day when he ate a pot brownie. I loved his interactions with his dad too.
If I see a guy wearing a short sleeved dress shirt and a tie I call them Sipowicz.
