Είναι ίσως το καλύτερο αστυνομικό σίριαλ που έχω δει ποτέ. Επί συνόλου πέντε κύκλων, είχα την τύχη να απολαύσω τους τρεις πρώτους και αδημονώ να παρακολουθήσω τους απομένοντες δύο. Μία απόλυτα ρεαλιστική απεικόνιση της κοινωνίας της Βαλτιμόρης, ειδωμένη μέσα από τα μάτια των εκπροσώπων της έννομης τάξης αλλά και εκείνων που βρίσκονται στο στόχαστρό τους: των πρωταγωνιστών της εγληματικής σκηνής της αμερικανικής πόλης, όπου υπερτερεί το μαύρο στοιχείο. Η διττή αυτή ματιά ξεδιπλώνει όλες τις πτυχές της πολιτικο-οικονομικής διαπλοκής, εισδύει στην καρδιά των προβλημάτων, αναλύει πολυεπίπεδους ανθρώπινους χαρακτήρες - δημιουργεί δεκάδες ιστοριούλες ' οργανικά δεμένες με την κύρια ιστορία και εξίσου ενδιαφέρουσες με αυτήν.Σίριαλ εγκεφαλικό, με χιούμορ υποδόρειο που συχνά γίνεται μαύρο, δε βασίζεται σε εφέ, σε κερδίζει επεισόδιο με το επεισόδιο για να καταλήξεις φανατικός θεατής.
Αρκεί να επισημάνω ότι ο μη συγχρονισμός των ελληνικών υπότιτλων -προϊόν ερασιτεχνικής συνεισφοράς χρηστών του διαδικτύου- σε κάποια επεισόδια δε με αποθάρρυναν στο ελάχιστο από το να το παρακολουθήσω με ιερή προσήλωση.
Παραθέτω την κριτική που δημοσιεύτηκε στην εφημερίδα USA TODAY εξ αφορμής της προβολής του 5ου κύκλου της σειράς.
Παραθέτω την κριτική που δημοσιεύτηκε στην εφημερίδα USA TODAY εξ αφορμής της προβολής του 5ου κύκλου της σειράς.
'The Wire': Final season grounded in genius
By Robert Bianco, USA TODAY
Will more people finally show up now that we're down to The Wire?
You'd like to think so. Entering its fifth and final season, David Simon's sprawling epic of urban decay is as good as this startlingly brilliant show has ever been — and it has always been among TV's best. Yet when it comes to ratings and Emmys, The Wire has also always been on the outside looking in.
In some ways, The Wire's failure to break through is puzzling. Its actors are uniformly superb, and its verisimilitude — its feel for the details and nuances of urban life — is unparalleled. As for the oft-heard complaint that it's "difficult," the show's plotlines are no more tangled than those on 24 and Lost and the characters are no less sympathetic than those on The Sopranos. Pay just a moderate amount of attention Sunday and you'll have no trouble following the show, even if you've never seen it before.
Yet there is one barrier to mass appeal The Wire shares with much of great art: It confronts us rather than comforts us. Simon and his staff of writers tackle some of our most intractable problems: the drug war; the economic struggles of the lower and working classes; the corruption and inefficiency of local government; the collapse of our inner-city schools. And these complex social problems are not simply background color for a crime-show mystery; they're front and center, with no easy solutions or weekly resolutions. The Wire is intense in a medium that depends upon the casual; dense in a culture that increasingly leans toward the superficial.
This year, the problem prism through which the stories are viewed is the failure of the news media to live up to their social responsibilities, represented by a fictionalized version of Simon's former employer, The (Baltimore) Sun. The setting allows Simon to ridicule the ineptitude that marks much of modern journalism while using the paper's journalists to address and summarize Baltimore's problems.
At the root of those problems this season is money: too little for the police, schools and investigative reporting; too much for drug dealers, politicians and make-work projects. Losing his major crime unit to budget cuts, Detective Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West) invents a plan to refocus resources on crime, one that links him to an ambitious young reporter looking for a story that can "go national."
With each passing year, The Wire's air of exhaustion and resignation has deepened. Yet the show is not without hope or heroes, joined this season by an old-school editor (Homicide's Clark Johnson). There's humanity in its victims and dark humor in the goal-oriented drive of its villains.
With or without a strike, this is a show to treasure. Don't let it leave without you.
(Εξ αφορμής του 4ου κύκλου):
By Robert Bianco, USA TODAY
Will more people finally show up now that we're down to The Wire?
You'd like to think so. Entering its fifth and final season, David Simon's sprawling epic of urban decay is as good as this startlingly brilliant show has ever been — and it has always been among TV's best. Yet when it comes to ratings and Emmys, The Wire has also always been on the outside looking in.
In some ways, The Wire's failure to break through is puzzling. Its actors are uniformly superb, and its verisimilitude — its feel for the details and nuances of urban life — is unparalleled. As for the oft-heard complaint that it's "difficult," the show's plotlines are no more tangled than those on 24 and Lost and the characters are no less sympathetic than those on The Sopranos. Pay just a moderate amount of attention Sunday and you'll have no trouble following the show, even if you've never seen it before.
Yet there is one barrier to mass appeal The Wire shares with much of great art: It confronts us rather than comforts us. Simon and his staff of writers tackle some of our most intractable problems: the drug war; the economic struggles of the lower and working classes; the corruption and inefficiency of local government; the collapse of our inner-city schools. And these complex social problems are not simply background color for a crime-show mystery; they're front and center, with no easy solutions or weekly resolutions. The Wire is intense in a medium that depends upon the casual; dense in a culture that increasingly leans toward the superficial.
This year, the problem prism through which the stories are viewed is the failure of the news media to live up to their social responsibilities, represented by a fictionalized version of Simon's former employer, The (Baltimore) Sun. The setting allows Simon to ridicule the ineptitude that marks much of modern journalism while using the paper's journalists to address and summarize Baltimore's problems.
At the root of those problems this season is money: too little for the police, schools and investigative reporting; too much for drug dealers, politicians and make-work projects. Losing his major crime unit to budget cuts, Detective Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West) invents a plan to refocus resources on crime, one that links him to an ambitious young reporter looking for a story that can "go national."
With each passing year, The Wire's air of exhaustion and resignation has deepened. Yet the show is not without hope or heroes, joined this season by an old-school editor (Homicide's Clark Johnson). There's humanity in its victims and dark humor in the goal-oriented drive of its villains.
With or without a strike, this is a show to treasure. Don't let it leave without you.
(Εξ αφορμής του 4ου κύκλου):
USA Today, Robert Bianco
Brilliant, scathing, sprawling, The Wire has turned our indifference to urban decay into a TV achievement of the highest order.
New York Post, Adam Buckman
One of the finest TV shows ever made
Brilliant, scathing, sprawling, The Wire has turned our indifference to urban decay into a TV achievement of the highest order.
New York Post, Adam Buckman
One of the finest TV shows ever made
Las Ramblas, γνωστός δρόμος στο κέντρο της Βαρκελώνης
