Somehow, I’ve started to feel like less of a TV critic by virtue of the fact that I’ve never seen The Wire. Now, The Wire, for those who love the show, is the greatest thing that has ever been shown on any tellybox ever. A mate of mine, who I was on holiday with recently, has been banned by his girlfriend from talking about it. By his own admission, he fears that he’s “becoming a bore” as he keeps raving about it. He’s not the only one. Other mates have pretty much foamed at the mouth when spitting out the praise. So why then, did a paltry 38,000 tune in for the new series on FX this week?
The show has been getting an amazing amount of column inches both in print and online, so getting a mere 1% (it’s actually less than 1%) of the multichannel audience in its 10pm slot is quite surprising. Those column inches have rarely said a bad thing about the show, with pretty much everyone falling down to heap all kinds of props. However, has the hype turned people off?
Like many shows, The Wire could be a victim of its own success. When Lost hit our screens, everyone went mental. Such was the hype that people who didn’t tune in began to hate it without watching a single second of it. I know. I was one of them. Having reappraised the show, I’m pleased to find that it isn’t for me. Is The Wire falling the same fate?
Of course, it doesn’t help that it’s on FX. FX haven’t done anything wrong, but it’s not a terrestrial channel. If a show wants to make the great leap from ‘cred’ to big hitter, you’ve gotta appear on the channels that everyone owns. Perhaps if the show was picked up by BBC Two or Channel 4, then we’d see even more people ranting about this supposedly great show. Until then, it’s the periphery for The Wire.
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Well I can think of one reason – although it’s an absolutely brilliant show, it’s not one you can really jump into at the start of Season 5 and expect to have a clue what is going on.
The BBC did devote a fair chuck of The Culture Show last week to The Wire though, one wonders if maybe they’ve bought the rights to show the whole thing, we can but hope.
The Wire is not a victim of its own hype, but of the fact it does not pander to the lowest common denominator. It is not something you can easily dip into occasionally or watch while calculating your taxes.
It is very demanding of its audience, you do not watch it but become immersed in it. Which may sound like pretentious nonsense, but if and when you start watching the series you will instantly understand. The programme does not tell simple stories but simply creates a world – the scope of which is amazing – and lets it speak for itself. It is in some ways the ultimate reality television.
Sadly it is the type of programme that will never demand a large audience, and the ratings last night are of little surprise to me. It is certainly not a victim of its own success when it has never been one for FX. At least not in terms of audience. It has though given the channel a lot of publicity and cachet.
But the DVD chart on Amazon.co.uk is quite revealing though:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/bestsellers/dvd/
As I post this the four DVD box sets of The Wire currently available occupy the top three and sixth position in their chart. So the amount that has been written about the programme appears justified.
Either it is very popular, just on DVD rather than linear TV, or it has made people want to watch, only by starting at the beginning rather than starting with the final season, which is what is being shown on FX.
Not that popularity is a reliable indicator or quality anyway. The TV world is full of terrible programmes that are watched by millions, and excellent ones that only attracted small audiences.
I don’t think people have been turned off by the praise for the Wire. The hype might not have translated into great viewing figures but if you look at the bestselling dvds on Amazon right now its…
1. The Wire season 1
2. The Wire season 2
3. The Wire season 3
…7. The Wire season 4
This is such a terrible argument. The Wire is indeed one of those shows that bears repeat viewing because there is just so much going on – DVD boxsets is pretty much the perfect format to drink it all in.
Sounds like you’re just fed up with some bloke, and admittedly a lot of other people, going on about it because you’ve never seen it and can’t bear the fact that you’ve somehow missed the boat.
at lamisil
If you’ve never seen the Wire then you aren’t a TV critic.
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