Does this make me a Bad Fan?

[liz_marcs]

Confession #1:

I'm approximately 1 gazillion times more excited about Mama Mia! opening today than I am about The Dark Knight, despite the fact that I can see The Dark Knight at no less than 2 IMAX theaters within easy driving distance.



Confession #2:

It appears that I will buy anything David Simon does because, as it turns out, he's my favorite author (for television) ever. I own the book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, all 7 seasons plus television movie of Homicide: Life on the Street, the book The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood, the HBO series The Corner, and the first 4 seasons of The Wire (with Season 5 on order for immediate shipping when it's available next month).

I am counting down to when Generation Kill will be available on DVD (I don't get HBO) so I can get my hands on it.

In short, you know how people will buy anything Joss Whedon does (even when it's total crap) and call him a genius for it (even though it's a case of the emperor walking around completely starkers)?

This is apparently how I treat productions involving David Simon, Ed Burns, and partners.

How can I put this...long before I let any of David Simon's stuff out of my hands, I will sell both my Angel and Buffy box sets.

The hell with that. I will burn my Angel and Buffy box sets before I give up any of David Simon's stuff.

(Seriously, those of you who kept looking for meaning in the "numbered shirts" of Buffy Season 6 that actually didn't have any meaning beyond, "We found a bunch of these for cheap in thrift shops?" Try The Wire, which actually has twice the meaning and twice the mythic elements of any Angel and Buffy episode without requiring you to fanwank. Best of all? The Wire actually has continuity that puts most book series to shame. No. I'm not kidding.)

Comments

[0x.livejournal.com]

I tried watching two episodes of The Wire and I didn't get the magic. Why is it so popular?

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

It simply may not be your cuppa. I have a friend who has approximately zero desire to see The Wire because she doesn't like true crime or shows that are so completely morally ambiguous (and The Wire is utterly without a a moral compass in many ways). That's a completely all right, by the way. The show is not to the taste of everyone.

However, the reason why the show is so wildly popular is because each season "reads" (or watches) as it it's a self-contained true crime novel. The entire show is produced and filmed in Baltimore by Baltimorians. Many of the second- and third-tier cast are either former cops or former drug dealers with a felony record for murder (and don't be so sure that those felons actually play felons...because they don't).

In addition, all of the situations shown in the series are based on real-life situations that the writers (which are either former reporters, former cops, or former teachers that have worked in Baltimore) have had to tangle with.

The essential reality behind the fiction is what people are responding to.

[0x.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. I read the wiki entry and it does appear to have a great amount depth, but when I was watching it...Meh, it didn't come across as anything more than another gritty cop show. Too bad, since I hear a lot about it.