Stringer Bell is back

[vinceayre]

I bought the box set of The Wire to watch when my family went on holiday for the two weeks over Halloween half term and I was here working. I have never been so addicted to a tv show. Brilliant writing, brilliant acting and absolutely compulsive. I watched it back to back and got totally immersed in it. In a way it has ruined cop shows for me because nothing compares to it now.

I shall watch Luther to see if it comes up to scratch.

[mockney piers]

Watch it with some popcorn and enjoy. Dont expect it for a second to come up to scratch.

[njc97]

Vince - have you watched Generation Kill? Same writers as Wire, but set in invasion in Iraq (based on book by a journalist who was based with a group of US soldiers as they went in). Short series, so doesn't have the depth of characters/plot of the Wire but still v good.

[Keef]

New series from Wire writers.

[ImpetuousVrouw]

http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ksp03vRh561qz7m5io1_500.jpg

Yum Yum!!

[edcam]

He's a sexy man but blimey, Luther was APPALLING! Some good actors being terrible, lousy dialogue, awful direction and editing. One of the worst dramas there's been on TV for a while.

[ImpetuousVrouw]

I beg to differ, it was the dogs bollox.

[edcam]

ImpetuousVrouw Wrote:

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> I beg to differ, it was the dogs bollox.

Remove the words "the dogs" and you're getting there!

[RosieH]

Hahaha Impetuous, nice shot - I practically licked the screen

[SeanMacGabhann]

Finally watched ep 1 last night - he was good enough in it but even allowing for bunkum/enjoyable popcorn telly it was pretty poor. Having a villain as woo as that in the opening episode was all wrong

Cracker did this sort of thing much better 20 odd years ago. C-

[ImpetuousVrouw]

Episodes 2 & 3 are much better, honest. It's getting warmed up now.

[RosieH]

Yeah, I struggle with the quality (or lack thereof) of the dialogue - and am I mad, or is Saskia Reeves normally a better actress than that?

That said, last night willing suspension of disbelief kicked in - it's enjoyable hokum (but I'm not enjoying his hair).

[georgia]

Hey who cares about the acting or the storylines, I don't watch it for either of those ;-)

[SeanMacGabhann]

It's not so much the dialogue (although it is an issue) but the even-by-hokum-standards leaps in guesswork

When he was given the gun in episode one and then with a single "why am I finkin abaht...." he managed to deduce the whole dog/gun/cremation thing

But I'll give it another go

[Keef]

I think it's quite fun, and the opening scene last night was really creepy!

[ImpetuousVrouw]

I'm in love with the self-destructive Luther character.

The rest are all a bit 2 dimentional though.

[RosieH]

SeanMacGabhann Wrote:

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> When he was given the gun in episode one and then

> with a single "why am I finkin abaht...." he

> managed to deduce the whole dog/gun/cremation

> thing

Ah, but you mentioned Cracker - do you remember the one where Cracker deduced from something like the tone of his voice that the rapist was of mixed race and had issues with his skin colour and wanted to be like his white mum so used to sit in a bath of bleach and that's why he was raping women?

Or the time when, I think it was a monk, had amnesia and said "my not remembering" about someone being shot on a train, and Cracker immediately knew it wasn't him because he used the possessive with the gerund (I do have a slightly freakishly detailed recollection of this)

plus ca change...

[woofmarkthedog]

Yes....

"Well, put it this way....

Mrs W**F slid off the sofa a number of times last night

* chops plug off T.V *

W**F

[HonaloochieB]

I've watched the Luthers and no, thread title Stringer Bell is not back.

There was a nuanced subtle unpredictable character where the viewer was not quite sure he'd end up (at least until the end of series 3 of course).

Luther, is the cliched cop with problems-estranged-wife-rumpled-suit-on-the-edge-mumbly-but-still-attractive part written for an actor rather than a character.

I think I'll give this a swerve from now on, that hour on a Tuesday could be better burying myself in an improving book, something by Spinoza, perhaps, even a vintage Viz annual would be better.

[ImpetuousVrouw]

Well you clearly don't have ovaries!

[mockney piers]

3 episodes in and it's not really growing into itself. It's merely proving itself to be utterly cliche ridden, two-dimensional nonsense.

Pity, waste of a terrific cast and, judging by the quality of the photography and just how many helicopters they must have hired, lots of money.

Ditto re Saskia Reeves and the Viz annual.

[copleston_charlie]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the fact that the scenes in his wife's rather nice Georgian house were all shot on Camberwell Grove? Or does the fact this is miles away from East Dulwich render this information as superfluous?

[Keef]

Didn't realise it was Camberwell Grove, Mrs Keef thought it looked like a square near Walworth Road that her parents lived at when she was tiny.

[mockney piers]

Marginally better this week. At least it vaguely felt like a police drama this week. And great ending too, I always knew Ruth had it in her. And Nicola Walker, she even looks great gobbing in slow mo'.

[RosieH]

Ooh, the hammer scene. Brilliant - and yes, I think Nicola Walker upped the quality acting quotient tenfold. (I seem to remember a time when Paul McGann was, like, hot shit and not worst supporting actor).