The Wire

I don't like bandwagons. I refused to vote for New Labour (and I was right). I refused to get into Oasis when all around me were losing their heads (and I was right). Everyone started going on about the Sopranos. I just couldn't be bothered. I don't like gangster films and as far as I was concerned this was just a cheap rip off for TV. Incidentally I saw Goodfellas for the first time a few weeks ago and I loved it even though it felt like a feature length special of the Sopranos set in the 1960s. Anyway I was wrong about the Sopranos. My wife and I spent nearly a year picking through it (there must be over a hundred episodes) and avoiding spoilers that would just spring up without warning in newspapers and magazines.

With spoiler avoidance in mind we decided to try out season one of the Wire. The weight of good reviews, starting off with Charlie Brooker on Screenwipe, broke the dam. From all of this positive press we knew to expect a realistic show that treats the viewers like adults with a brain and that there would be no good guys and bad guys. It was all this and more. More than any other TV show it moved me to another world. I just forgot who I was each time I watched it because I was totally immersed. I was standing next to the guys on the roof taking pictures. I was laughing as McNulty got his kids to do surveillance of drug dealers and egging Omar on as he robbed drug dealers (the best character in season 1 for me). I was nervously looking around and hoping no-one was going to get Wallace so he had a chance to go back to school and get his life together. Wallace deserved this because he looked after all the drug orphan kids in the neighbourhood and seeing that guy with the hole in his eye broke his brain. That was his only crime. Being too sensitive. And they still... Now I'm doing it. Spoiling it for anyone who hasn't seen it. I used the past the tense about Wallace there.

Spoilers are now my enemy and yours too if you're also catching up. Before I saw the end of The Wire series one I was looking at some box sets in Sainsburys and right there on the cover of season 4 was a picture that told me the outcome of season 1. I said 'bastard' out loud and a middle aged lady with a suit scowled at me but nuts to her because the season finale was ruined. What idiot put that image on the front of the box? The DVDs are silly too. To play an episode you have to go via a menu that tells you what happens in that episode. Duh. The synopsis is written in the same font as the 'play episode' text. Silly.

Why didn't I just start watching The Sopranos and The Wire and Battlestar Galactica when they first came out? Good telly, give it a go. First answer - Lost. Gave it a try and very quickly realised they were just making it up as they went along. Second answer - 24. Third answer - Heroes. I'm lying on that last one. I watched one episode and spotted the upcoming bullshit straight off. Some shows are worth the effort for at least a season or two. Like My Name is Earl which didn't jump the shark until season 3. The Big Bang Theory is still awesome and might even make it to my DVD collection. South Park is weird in that it gets better with age like wine unlike The Simpsons whose ass has turned to vinegar. Honestly that show is dead to me now. My latest experiment is East Bound and Down. Seen episode 1 and it was very funny. So I'll take the gamble and be ready to abandon ship if I see it starts to sink. I might be investing my time in a flop but this is a gamble worth taking because by being up to date I'll avoid those dreaded spoilers.