The Wire: The Complete Series (Blu-ray) Available for Preorder (1 Viewer)

[Ruz-El]

Travis, thanks for posting this update, I really appreciate it. I'll be sure to hang on to my complete series, and will probably skip this one unless it hits an insane sale.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Right now, this BD release is selling for $59.99 at Amazon, I finally took the bait and bought it.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Robert,


That is an AMAZING price.


Have you seen the show before?


If not, you are in for a real treat. I spent an entire week's vacation binge watching all 4 or 5 seasons. Over 8 hours each day in a race to finish it all.


That's how attached I became to this series.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Robert,


That is an AMAZING price.


Have you seen the show before?


If not, you are in for a real treat. I spent an entire week's vacation binge watching all 4 or 5 seasons. Over 8 hours each day in a race to finish it all.


That's how attached I became to this series.

No, I haven't watched this show at all.

 

[Charles Smith]

I've been procrastinating on the BD release. Can't do so any longer at this price!

 

[Aaron Silverman]

For those watching too closely, HBO did drop a few features from the DVDs. Like most HBO Blu-ray releases, they drop all the Previously Ons and Next Ons. From the S3 DVD, they dropped the hour-long Q&A with the cast & crew and the 30 minute David Simon college talk. From the series set, they drop the gag reel.

Are the missing features available online?


Incidentally, is there an official HTF review of the BD set? I didn't see one in the search results.

 

[Charles Smith]

I don't remember what was missing.

I also don't recall an HTF review. But as one who was very much against HBO's insistence on "widescreening" this, I kept up with reports of it on a couple of sites, and am going on my gut feeling that it's going to be mostly okay. In fact, not only "okay", but an essential upgrade, especially in regard to the questionable quality of a couple of the seasons on DVD.

And that is my professional opinion.

 

[DaveF]

HBO is running a marathon of The Wire in HD from Dec 26 - 30.

I'm going to TiVo the series.


http://hbowatch.com/hbo-series-premiere-schedule/

 

[Charles Smith]

Mine was delivered this afternoon, and I just had myself a little welcoming ceremony for it. I can't commit to starting my re-watching project just yet (I suspect that will happen during the winter), but I did my usual thing -- looked over each individual case and disc for anything that might be amiss, and then I played the opening scene and main titles of the first episode of each season. And all I can say is:


Oh my god. It is stunningly beautiful.


I was, of course, ever mindful of the controversial reframing from 4x3 to 16x9, but I'd already decided to trust David Simon's guidance and oversight, and honestly, I'm so blown away by the beauty of these transfers that I'll quite possibly not think about it again. So, jumping the gun a bit -- could I go back to watching the DVDs to have the original framing? Not on your life. I will, before parting with them, review a few spots just for a last look. But I fully expect it to be just that. A last look.

 

[DaveF]

HBO is running a marathon of The Wire in HD from Dec 26 - 30.
I'm going to TiVo the series.

http://hbowatch.com/hbo-series-premiere-schedule/

This is wrong. That site is incorrectly referencing 2014's marathon schedule.

 

[The Drifter]

The Wire is nothing short of brilliant; IMHO, it's one of the top 5 TV shows of all time. I never saw it on it's original broadcast, but did catch the entire series on DVD several tims in the 200X's & early 20XX's. I liked that the series didn't try to solve the world's problems and/or wrap everything up in a neat bow at the end, but instead presented things realistically.

Each individual season was excellent in it's own way. Though most of the attention is paid to the first couple of seasons, the later seasons were solid as well. The season focusing on the school system was fantastic - it was a realistic, harsh look at the kids that were living in that environment. I also liked the one focusing on the newspaper; when this came out, it was very topical because print as a medium had already started dying to some extent - something that is happening even more so now. And, the magazines/newspapers that are left these days are sometimes a fraction of their former size.

Though each season was great, possibly my favorite individual episodes are 9 & 10 from Season 5. Especially the last 6-7 minutes of Episode 10....sheer poetry.

I grew up, went to college, and also worked in the Baltimore City area in the '80's & through the mid-'90's. And, The Wire truly captures the whole feel/vibe of this area, right down to the attitudes, accents, etc. Obviously the show is filmed in Baltimore & features a lot of locals as actors - which adds to the authenticity - but rarely have I watched a show and actually felt like I was right there when watching this.

Hell, even the guy who played McNulty - a British actor - is able to convincingly pull off a B-more accent; if I didn't know better I would think he was a local himself! Idris Elba (Stringer Bell) is also a UK actor, and he pulls off the Baltimore accent very well also.

I have had the Blu set since early 2016, but haven't seen much of this yet - other than S01, EP01. Wow! What an amazing experience - though the show was great before, watching it in WS is like seeing a completely different series - this format really opens up the picture, and makes everything much more "cinematic", for lack of a better term. Also, the PQ was a huge improvement over The Wire DVDs. The only thing I really noticed re: the "centering" issue (so far) was in the very beginning of the episode (before the opening theme song) when McNulty & that young guy were sitting on the stoop @ night - there was a far shot of them, and they were more to the right?! of the screen than the center - however, this didn't bother me at all since it actually emphasized the more realistic, documentary-like approach that the show took.

The theme song Way down in the Hole by Tom Waits was definitely one of the most iconic elements of the show. I enjoyed how each season had a different version of the same song - my favorite was probably the 5th season theme (sung by Steve Earle). The theme song(s) set the tone for each respective season, and gave each season it's own individual vibe. Here's a video of all five intros. back to back: