Friday, October 27, 2006

Ah, the eremitic life

I had tentative plans to join Waitress T and her boyfriend at a rock show, and K called to see what I was up to, but I thought I'd rather stay in and watch the third season of "The Wire." I think I made the right choice. The third season is the best one, and the show is the smartest on television, no question. Forget "the Shield," "NYPD Blue" in its prime, or "The Sopranos" --- "The Wire" is the grittiest, deepest, most thoughtful, most realistic, most biting crime show, bar none. It's not even about crime so much as the human (or at least urban) condition. It shows how everyone --- cop, crook, politician, family man, wife, drug addict, laborer --- becomes trapped in a specific system and falls prey to that system's rules and pressures. If everything on TV were even half this ambitious and clever, I'd own a TV.

2 comments:

NYC Educator said...

Did you have to steal a TV to watch "The Wire?" If you choose not to return it, you might watch Bill Maher, who is the sharpest political comedian around these days.

Chance said...

Heh. I watch shows on DVD on my computer.

However, I am not a total TV troglodyte --- I have seen a few shows, including Bill Maher's, at my parents' house on occasion. I don't find him the funniest guy in the world, but I appreciate his desire to push political and comical boundaries, and he knows how to set up a good panel.