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Have you guys heard of this show, The Wire?
whuppins
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hoping H/A is still as helpful as it was 4+ years ago when I last visited... 
My dad received the DVD box set of The Wire as a gift and I was trying to figure out if it would be appropriate to watch with various family members when we visit this holiday season. I haven't seen the show (OMG YOU HAVE TO WATCH IT IT'S THE BEST THING EVER) but I'm pretty sure my dad and I will like it. What I'm not sure about is which of my family members (of wildly varying ages, upbringings, and sensibilities) I should include. To that end, can someone give me an idea of the more 'mature' content in the series?
For example, this same group of people just went through an epic Breaking Bad binge, so the younger folks witnessed some grim shit going down and some PG-13-type language, but at the end of the day nobody's feathers were really ruffled. But I would say anything much worse than that would make me think twice.
So in general, how's the language? Violence? Sexual content? Everybody's values are different -- that's what makes this kind of tough -- so I'm not asking you to speculate how MY family would react... just let me know what kind of stuff we can expect to see, and I'll figure it out.
Thanks in advance.
P.S. I'm not particularly sensitive to spoilers so feel free to post specific details rather than vague references. Of course, for the benefit of others, I guess you should still <spoiler> stuff as appropriate.
My dad received the DVD box set of The Wire as a gift and I was trying to figure out if it would be appropriate to watch with various family members when we visit this holiday season. I haven't seen the show (OMG YOU HAVE TO WATCH IT IT'S THE BEST THING EVER) but I'm pretty sure my dad and I will like it. What I'm not sure about is which of my family members (of wildly varying ages, upbringings, and sensibilities) I should include. To that end, can someone give me an idea of the more 'mature' content in the series?
For example, this same group of people just went through an epic Breaking Bad binge, so the younger folks witnessed some grim shit going down and some PG-13-type language, but at the end of the day nobody's feathers were really ruffled. But I would say anything much worse than that would make me think twice.
So in general, how's the language? Violence? Sexual content? Everybody's values are different -- that's what makes this kind of tough -- so I'm not asking you to speculate how MY family would react... just let me know what kind of stuff we can expect to see, and I'll figure it out.
Thanks in advance.
P.S. I'm not particularly sensitive to spoilers so feel free to post specific details rather than vague references. Of course, for the benefit of others, I guess you should still <spoiler> stuff as appropriate.
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As an HBO show, The Wire has a bunch of nudity (strip clubs, sex scenes) and violence (gang/police stuff) and language (swearing and racial slurs) that probably weren't in Breaking Bad. Plus, there's a healthy amount of drug usage that's about as graphic as Breaking Bad.
Language - foul from all directions. Unrelenting and gratuitous. Funny, too, if there are any copycats in your group.
Drug use - tons. Obviously. Kid addicts, people shooting up, people going through absolutely shitty shit re: crack and heroin addictions, etc.
Nudity - maybe? I can't remember. Probably at least a bit.
Honestly, I'm not sure I'd recommend it for a sensitive crowd. For adults, hell yeah. It's as good as people say it is.
The real issue, beyond the obvious, is the constant tension. It's one of those shows where your favourite characters can and will die. I was terrified about one character's fate right up until the last frame of the last episode. If anyone's not going to deal well with that, it's not a good show for them.
There are definitely boobs.
I think this NSFW scene does a pretty good job of demonstrating the sort of content in the Wire. It's two of the characters examining a crime scene where they thought the initial investigation was botched.
Yeah, though. Series has quite a lot of nudity, explicit drug use, violence, graphic crime scenes, harsh language, and pretty much everything else that'd tick the boxes on a TV-MA rating.
I'll have to think about it... being a typical American family, we are much more comfortable with graphic violence than a naked tit or two
I do not think Breaking Bad is as intense as the Wire in terms of nudity and the graphic delivery of some of the messages could be upsetting to those with delicate sensibilities
it is definitely not appropriate for anyone younger than 16, imho, probably 18 to be more realistic
there are also two openly homosexual main characters; if anyone in your family has issues with that, it will not be for them
I agree with the previous poster in that the Wire is at times far more upsetting and harder hitting than Breaking Bad ever was.
While BB never really had a whole bunch of overt nudity (other than Walt in his tighty whities a few times), there was some pretty racy stuff, including Walt and Skyler having vigorous sex in the very first episode as well as ridiculous backseat-of-the-car sex/Walt getting handsy under the table later on in the same season.
The sexual stuff in The Wire seems comparable to me if my memory holds, although the nudity is definitely present. If you want, you can find one of those parental advisory sites that documents potentially offensive material in shows and movies and prescreen those episodes, and fast forward through the scenes with that content, summarizing the plot effects for your sensitive family members.
The Wire really is too good a show for people to miss.
Most of the raunchy stuff was good old-fashioned debauchery and fornication involving a man and a woman.
it's not really a family show for lots of reasons though; if you have to ask, they won't be with it
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat