i wish i'd never watched the wire

[stainesmassif]

because now everything else is a bit shit.

the killing was almost good until the last couple of episodes.

chicago code is as formulaic as they come.

the shield is very good.

i watched the kenneth branagh wallander, that was just a little bit lacking.

there must be more good crime drama.

don't say csi....

We moved on to The West Wing and have The Sopranos queued up.

Oooh, i may have to get i claudius. Isn't it sad though that it's still one of the best series the bbc have put on. It's 40 years old.

I watched that john simm series recently on bbc1. So disappointing. It's like someone, somewhere has a good idea and then they take it to a room and bleed the life out of it before they put it on the telly. Anyway, please keep the suggestions coming.

I think 'the corner' was made by the same people as the wire.

You must watch the West Wing!

Homicide Life on The Streets, particularly the first few series
followed by The Corner bleak but interesting
predecessor to The Wire

BSG absolutely even if you don't like the genre
Shadow Line has been patchy but engaging imo

I like the original Wallander

Treme for the music

Yeah, we've got the corner, watched the first episode and i was devastated when the lead character went back onto drugs (apologies for spoiler). How pathetic am i!

The west wing

I loved The Wire, but The West Wing is up there. Don't be put off by the initial cheese though, it soon gets quite serious.

Oh, we also have battlestar galactica in the reject pile! I can watch drivel for hours and go on the ipad etc but if i have to actually watch something i've become ridiculously fussy. If only i was 14 again and watching the first episode of twin peaks...or 12 and watching v...

We've just finished season one of the Sopranos and it was great. The same kind of feeling than with the Wire- i.e. it's better than anything on TV at the moment. More accessible than the Wire but really built up. Looking forward to watching Season Two.

loved loved loved the wire. also tried luther for perving stringer bell, but couldn't cope with the horrible storylines.

we've watched first 3 eps of Treme but struggling to get into it as can't actually understand a word anyone says (i sound like my mother) though agree the music is brilliant

Mrsrav, I watched the wire with subtitles on: might that help you with treme?

hadn't even thought of that, great idea bigbadbarry!

one of my friends is on her third viewing of the sopranos - i've seen bits and loved it, especially the sequence where he's dreaming, i thought that was absolutely brilliant.

I hated the dream sequences. There's one where he and his cronies are on the boardwalk and there's a more extended one where he's something like a travelling salesman. There was a reason for the travelling salesman one but I still didn't like it. I couldn't see the point of the boardwalk one.

One of my favourite episodes is Janice at the soccer or little league match. And the one with Steve Buscemi and the snowy forest. Oh and where Christopher and the other bloke I've forgotten go to Hollywood with their dreadful screenplay and meet Ben Kingsley and Lauren Bacall.

I'm going to have to watch it again.

ah, only saw one episode with a dream sequence, not sure how i'd feel if they were doing it all the time. have seen snowy forest episode, but i think i may be mixing it up with fargo and miller's crossing.

i can see i'm going to be quite busy.

The snowy forest is an homage to Fargo (get me! At least, I thought it was). It's guest-directed by Buscemi.

The travelling salesman dream is possibly a tribute to something else but I didn't recognise it and got a bit bored.

Same problem here - might have to give up and just watch The Wire all over again.
You should try Spiral though - French crime drama, BBC4 did subtitles. Not as good as The Wire of course because nothing is, but good. EXCEPTIONALLY gory though.

yes, my mum's been watching spiral. she was watching it last week when i went home with dh and he ended up watching a fairly explicit sex scene on his own with her while i was putting ds to bed. comfortable.

I am watching Deadwood for the third time at the moment. It is my all time fav. - better than The Wire IMO. If you have trouble with the language watch the first couple of episodes with the subtitles on and you get it quicker.
I'm about to order Spiral 1 & 2 from Amazon. It's not as good as The Killing either but I've watched all the Wallanders before at least once and dh and I need something to watch on Sat night as it's the only time we get to watch TV.

This is so true.

www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/health/new-prostate-cancer-drug-not-as-good-as-'the-wire'--200807221112/

And it refers to Dexter, back on 17 June.

Just noticed that you were looking for excellent crime dramas.

Have you ever seen Blue Bloods?

It's shit, isn't it? But DH likes it.

yeah, tried a bit of dexter, but it's tripe, really isn't it. and that bloody 'english' woman he went out with for a bit made me want to smash the tv in. haven't watched blue bloods - is that the one with tom selleck? cause that's what i thought we were getting when we started downloading chicago code.

v funny article. dh goes around recommending the wire to everyone, but i've started advising them not to, watch, because after, what's the point? however, i really like made in chelsea!!!

please excuse overuse of commas. six month ds leaning on me.