It's great, but it's also slow. I feel like asking someone to stick with it through 18 hours to get to the "good part" is at best inconsiderate of their time.
Much like GOT, either it grabs you enough to continue in the first few episodes or it doesn't. It's not like it changes the speed of exposition and character development. Unlike GOT it doesn't get worse with time.
I disagree with this, but I know where you're coming from.
I don't think it's slow necessarily, but it's very disorientating (especially at first). Because of this, the whole first season can fail to make any sense, and so feel slow. You miss out on a lot of the value that the characters bring because you don't know WTF is going on.
I tried 2 or 3 times at least to get into it, always failing a few episodes into series one. It took a further watch with the mindset of "I'm going to watch regardless, and trust the recommendations that brought me to it". By the end of the first series, I understood the slang/characters/plot well enough to be rewarding by the rich characters and relationships and loved it. From there all the way to the end of the final series it was plain sailing.
I don't think there's many other series that I've had that experience with, and I really wholeheartedly recommend struggling through the first series (and with subtitles is a great idea), as the whole thing is my favourite TV show of all time.
I think you're right that it doesn't have any big explosive events necessarily, but the story is so great that I don't think it needs the artificial cliffhanger-ness that other 'faster' series may have.
Do you really find it slow? Compared to the Sopranos or the West Wing (which were the two other main shows on around the time I think?), I always found the Wire to be more accessible. Each season has a pretty strong driving plot.
Compared to some of the really slow Sopranos seasons (I remember the Carmela-Furio season that just dragged on and on) it’s practically 24 :)
It's not like there's a lot of action going on most of the time--it's mostly people talking. Which is fine! But not everybody likes that kind of show. It also doesn't have the same addictive amount of leaving each episode on a cliffhanger the way more recent shows are written.
I never watched the Sopranos or West Wing, so I can't speak to them. I enjoyed The Wire (bought the box set!), but it's still a slow-paced drama. If that's your jam, it's fantastic. If it's not, it's still worth a shot (it's that good), but it's not "try it for 18 hours if you don't like the genre" good. All IMO of course. And full disclosure: I'm not a big fan of dramas, but The Wire still grabbed me. Hence my caution that it's somewhat slow compared to other fare.
I should watch it again, it's been a long time and it is worth it.
Despite being similarly slow, The West Wing was highly accessible to its intended audience because the setting was easily digestible, because the dialogue was a continual sugar hit of witty banter, and because starry-eyed optimism / moral certainty tends to be comforting.
I don't think it's slow but it doesn't explain itself. When you see an event or character interaction without much context, it seems irrelevant and doesn't register so it might feel like nothing is happening. When I rewatch it now, I find it fast pace with no filler. I can watch McNulty play with tide tables gurgling with joy at the delicious payoff to come but if you don't know the payoff, it no doubt just feels like a dude with some paper.
As a Brit, I have no wish for subtitles. I found no difficulty with the slang or accent. There are many parts of the UK that are much more indecipherable!
I've been enjoying the podcast Way Down In The Hole as an episode by episode recap having already watched it through a few times. Stacked with extra trivia and the insight of two black hosts adds things I didn't see.
One thing is when The Wire and The Sopranos originally aired it was weekly and if there were any hanging plot threads the viewers would just have to stew in their own theories about what ifs, I remember lots of times wondering about the fate of characters and waiting weeks or years (Drea while the FBI was using her or that Russian in Jersey Pine Barrens? or who was the serial killer? in the projects in The Wire) for resolution and this was prior to when websites covered shows or when I was aware of internet groups/discussions dedicated to the shows, also on Sunday night before the Sopranos was Sex and the City and also airing on HBO was Six Feet Under (I think after The Sopranos when both were live) - so even just consuming one episode a week of these shows was compelling at the time to me for a weeks worth of scheduled TV viewing.
> Much like GOT, either it grabs you enough to continue in the first few episodes or it doesn't.
I stopped after the first episode. It seemed neat but it was just displaced by other stuff. Then around the third or fourth or so season was being aired, my coworkers were talking about it and I dove back in.
Now after reading this thread I'm thinking I should dive into The Wire next.
honestly I disagree. I found the show pretty boring at first, but I stuck with it on the advice of a friend and due to the universal acclaim. I've now watched it at least five times, and I still enjoyed it as much the last time as almost any other show. some of the subtler details may be hard to appreciate if you aren't really familiar with baltimore.
Much like GOT, either it grabs you enough to continue in the first few episodes or it doesn't. It's not like it changes the speed of exposition and character development. Unlike GOT it doesn't get worse with time.
Watching it with subtitles is good advice.