The Wire

Seasoned: Matt Reviews THE WIRE – Season 4

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: May 23rd, 2012 at 7:45 pm

Up until the past 15 years or so, television series were firmly episodic.  Serialized TV (outside of mini-series) risked alienating viewers since it stopped anyone from coming in mid-season.  However, with the rise of DVDs, OnDemand, and digital downloads, serialized TV series have become firmly established.  Some shows still retain an episodic nature, but some series—particularly dramas—have been built around telling one long story over the course of an entire season.  Our new feature, Seasoned, will review a TV series by season rather than by episode.

Hit the jump for my review of the fourth season of The Wire.  Click on the corresponding links for my reviews of Season 1, Season 2, and Season 3.

Seasoned: Matt Reviews THE WIRE – Season 3

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: May 4th, 2012 at 11:29 am

Up until the past 15 years or so, television series were firmly episodic.  Serialized TV (outside of mini-series) risked alienating viewers since it stopped anyone from coming in mid-season.  However, with the rise of DVDs, OnDemand, and digital downloads, serialized TV series have become firmly established.  Some shows still retain an episodic nature, but some series—particularly dramas—have been built around telling one long story over the course of an entire season.  Our new feature, Seasoned, will review a TV series by season rather than by episode.

Hit the jump for my review of the third season of The Wire; here are my reviews for season one and season two.

Seasoned: Matt Reviews THE WIRE – Season 2

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: April 25th, 2012 at 2:56 pm

Up until the past 15 years or so, television series were firmly episodic.  Serialized TV (outside of mini-series) risked alienating viewers since it stopped anyone from coming in mid-season.  However, with the rise of DVDs, OnDemand, and digital downloads, serialized TV series have become firmly established.  Some shows still retain an episodic nature, but some series—particularly dramas—have been built around telling one long story over the course of an entire season.  Our new feature, Seasoned, will review a TV series by season rather than by episode.

Hit the jump for my review of the second season of The Wire, and click here for my review of season one.

Seasoned: Matt Reviews THE WIRE – Season 1

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: April 18th, 2012 at 3:01 pm

Up until the past 15 years or so, television series were firmly episodic.  Serialized TV (outside of mini-series) risked alienating viewers since it stopped anyone from coming in mid-season.  However, with the rise of DVDs, OnDemand, and digital downloads, serialized TV series have become firmly established.  Some shows still retain an episodic nature, but some series—particularly dramas—have been built around telling one long story over the course of an entire season.  Our new feature, Seasoned, will review a TV series by season rather than by episode.

And we couldn’t think of a better kick-off to this feature than HBO’s The Wire.  Hit the jump for my review of the groundbreaking drama’s first season.

Dominic West Talks JOHN CARTER, THE WIRE, STAR WARS: EPISODE 1, His Favorite Movie, Director and Actor, and More

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: March 6th, 2012 at 10:09 am

While Dominic West has been acting for two decades, I’ll admit that he only got on my radar when I started watching HBO’s amazing series, The Wire.  Over the course of the series, West did an amazing job portraying the complicated life of detective James ‘Jimmy’ McNulty.  While the show was never a ratings bonanza for HBO, it will go down as one of the best TV shows ever produced, and it provided a launching pad for its excellent cast to take bigger projects.  For West, that bigger project is John Carter.  In Andrew Stanton‘s film, West plays the leader of an alien race who is obsessed with taking over Barsoom (Mars).

The other week, Disney held a big press junket in Arizona, and I landed an exclusive video interview with West.  During our extended conversation we talked about how he got involved in John Carter, the challenges of the production and working with green screen, his reaction to the finished film, the reshoots, how he might do an upcoming HBO series, and more.  In addition, as a huge fan of The Wire, I made sure to ask about his work on the show and how it opened the door to other things.  Finally, we talked about West’s little-known but crucial part in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.  Hit the jump to watch the interview.

Director Anthony Hemingway Talks RED TAILS, TREME, and THE WIRE

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: January 20th, 2012 at 11:39 am

Opening today is director Anthony Hemingway‘s World War II action-drama Red Tails.  Produced by George Lucas and Rick McCallum, the movie is based on the real-life story of the first all African-American squadron and their fight to defend our country.  They were given second-hand planes and the most dangerous missions, and it makes their story all the more incredible. Red Tails stars Terrence Howard, Cuba Gooding Jr., Bryan Cranston, Brandon T. Jackson, Nate Parker, David Oyelowo, Ne-Yo, Elijah Kelly, Tristan Wilds, Cliff Smith, Rick Otto, Daniela Ruah, and Michael B. Jordan.

Last week I did an exclusive phone interview with Hemingway. During our wide ranging conversation we talked about how he got involved in Red Tails, what it was like to meet and collaborate with Lucas, how much of the film was “Hollywoodized,” the boot camp for the actors, deleted scenes, test screening, and if they ever think about releasing the film in 3D.  In addition, with Hemingway having worked on The Wire and Treme, we talked about both of those series and what it’s like to direct TV.  Hit the jump to either read or listen to the interview.

Chevy Chase Talks VACATION Reboot and FLETCH, Says He’s Written a Script for New VACATION

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: August 24th, 2011 at 6:13 pm

Earlier today I was lucky enough to be able to visit the set of one of my favorite shows on any channel: NBC’s Community.  I got to visit the set in anticipation of the season two DVD, which hits stores September 6^th, and season three, which premieres on Thursday September 22^nd at 8/7c.  While I’ll have a lot of video interviews with the entire cast very soon, I spoke with Chevy Chase about the upcoming Vacation reboot and a new Fletch movie and wanted to bring you what he said as soon as possible.

A reboot of the Vacation franchise is currently in development at Warner Bros., and when I spoke with producer David Dobkin last month, he said that the new film would tell son Rusty’s story and have him encountering the same hijinks that his father did. Dobkin played coy about Chase making an appearance in the film, but Chase’s answer today about a Vacation reboot came as a bit of a shock.  He said he’s written a different script for a new Vacation film with co-star Beverly D’Angelo.  He said:

“I’ve written an idea that would be basically like a “Swiss Family Griswold.” There’s a cruise, there’s a fire on the ship, we think the whole ship’s on fire and we jump—it’s just a little fire—and we end up on an island where we meet Randy somewhere who’s been left there from an old Survivor series.”

Hit the jump for more.

DVD Deal: THE WIRE: THE COMPLETE SERIES

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: August 24th, 2011 at 7:13 am

Amazon’s Gold Box Deal of the Day is HBO’s The Wire: The Complete Series for $72.49 (64% off the regular $199 price).  By now you must have heard the buzz on The Wire, as most critics think it’s one of the best series to ever air on any channel.  I’m of the same opinion.  If you’ve never seen The Wire, do yourself a favor and pick up this box set.  You’ll absolutely be blown away by the quality of the writing, acting, and scope of the series.  It’s a 10 out of 10.  An A+.  The Wire is brilliant.  Like all Gold Box Deals, it’s only good for today.  Here’s what Amazon has on the series:

All 60 episodes of this acclaimed HBO series are available on a 23-disc set, which also includes three prequels, audio commentaries, and other bonus features. The places and faces have changed, but the game remains the same.

THE WIRE Creator Responds to Attorney General’s Request for Another Season, Tells U.S. Government to Do Their Job

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: June 10th, 2011 at 3:44 pm

I’ve yet to see an episode of HBO’s The Wire. I know, I know, I’m a morally reprehensible human being. It’s high on my Netflix queue and I keep promising myself I’m going to start it soon. This is because The Wire‘s five season run on HBO has consistently been called the greatest television series ever made. That the Emmys have failed to award the show even once speaks volumes about their relevance (that, and they consider Entourage and Two And a Half Men to be comedies). Last week, Attorney General Eric Holder, a fan of the show, directed comments at the show’s creators saying “Do another season of The Wire…I want another season or a movie.” Well, creator David Simon’s response may surprise you. Hit the jump to see what he said.

DVD Deal: THE WIRE: THE COMPLETE SERIES

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: December 23rd, 2010 at 11:23 am

Amazon’s Gold Box Deal of the Day is HBO’s The Wire: The Complete Series for $74.99 (63% off the regular $199 price).  By now you must have heard the buzz on The Wire as most critics think it’s one of the best series to ever air on any channel.  I’m of the same opinion.  If you’ve never seen The Wire, do yourself a favor and pick up this box set.  You’ll absolutely be blown away by the quality of the writing, acting, and scope of the series.  It’s a 10 out of 10.  An A+.  The Wire is brilliant.  Like all Gold Box Deals, it’s only good for today.

Here’s a few other deals today on Amazon. Up first are the DVD deals:

• Exit Through the Gift Shop DVD 11.99 (60%)
• Red Dwarf: The Complete Collection $80.99 (60%)
• The West Wing: The Complete Series Collection $144.49 (52%)
• Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip – The Complete Series $17.99 (70% off)
• V: The Complete Series $14.99 (63% off)
• The Flash: The Complete Series $16.99 (72% off)
• That ’70s Show: The Complete Series DVD $79.99 (60%)
• The Larry Sanders Show: The Complete Series DVD $59.99 (60%)
• Deadwood: The Complete Series DVD $73.49 (51%)
• The Greatest American Hero: The Complete Series $11.99
• Back to the Future: 25th Anniversary Trilogy (DVD + Digital Copy)$27.49 45%)
• Band of Brothers DVD $31.49 (61%)
• Arrested Development – The Complete Series (Seasons 1, 2, 3) $43.99 (51%)
• M*A*S*H – Martinis and Medicine The Complete Collection 70.99 (65%)
• Breaking Bad – The Complete First Season DVD $14.49 (52%)

Blu-ray Deals:

• Superbad (2-Disc Unrated Extended Edition) [Blu-ray] $6.99 (65%)
• The Departed [Blu-ray] $10.49 (58%)
• Back to the Future: 25th Anniversary Trilogy (+ Digital Copy) [Blu-ray] $38.99 (51%)
• Toy Story (Two-Disc Special Edition Blu-ray/DVD Combo w/ Blu-ray Packaging) $11.99 (70% off)
• Inception (Three-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy) 17.99 (50% off)
• District 9 [Blu-ray] 8.99
• The Last Starfighter (25th Anniversary Edition) [Blu-ray] 9.99
• Watchmen (Director’s Cut + BD-Live) [Blu-ray] $8.99
• Let the Right One In [Blu-ray] $8.99 (64%)
• Band of Brothers [Blu-ray] $36.49 (64%)
• Breaking Bad: The Complete First Season [Blu-ray] 13.99  (65%)
• The Ultimate Matrix Collection [Blu-ray] $44.99 (65%)
• Alien Anthology [Blu-ray] $69.99 (50%)

Exclusive: Lance Reddick on FRINGE and THE WIRE

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: June 30th, 2010 at 10:56 pm

While I’m extremely fortunate as I get to interview a lot of actors, that doesn’t mean I’m a huge fan of everyone I speak with.  Sometimes you talk to people because it’s your job.  But when I saw Lance Reddick walking down the red carpet at last week’s Saturn Awards, my reporter hat got put away and I spoke to him as a fanboy.  If you’ve ever seen his work on David Simon’s amazing show The Wire, I’m sure you feel like I do about his awesome work on the show.

Of course with Reddick currently on one of my favorite shows, Fringe, we spent most of the time talking about what happened last season and what’s coming up this season.  He also told me he’s coming to Comic-Con for the first time next month and how he has a music CD coming out soon.  Hit the jump to watch the interview and make sure to buy The Wire if you’ve never seen it as it’s one of the best TV shows I’ve ever seen.

Geek Gifts: THE WIRE The Complete Series $89.99

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: June 3rd, 2010 at 7:03 am

Amazon’s Gold Box deal today is the amazing HBO series The Wire: The Complete Series for $89.99 – which is 64% off the regular $249.99 price.  I never watched the show when it originally aired, but I’ve recently watched the entire run so I can tell you it’s one of the best shows I’ve ever seen on any network.  Trust me, there is a reason people worship at the alter of David Simon due to what he accomplished with this show.  If you’ve never seen it but have heard all the buzz, today’s the day to buy it as this deal is only for today.  Here are the show details:

Set in the grim slums of Baltimore, HBO’s acclaimed police procedural “The Wire” not only tells the story of detectives trying to shut down a drug syndicate, but depicts the complex lives of the drug dealers and addicts as well. The complete series includes all 60 episodes on 23 discs plus bonus features from all five seasons, including audio commentaries by cast and crew.

Dennis Lehane Exclusive Interview – The Great Crime-Novelist Talks SHUTTER ISLAND, ANIMAL RESCUE, THE GIVEN DAY, More!

by Ti Alan Chase    Posted: May 28th, 2010 at 8:53 am

With Martin Scorsese’s adaption of his novel Shutter Island being released on DVD and Blu-ray next week, I had the chance to interview author Dennis Lehane by phone yesterday.  Lehane is the best-selling author of 10 novels, including Gone, Baby, Gone and Mystic River.  He was also a staff writer on David Simon’s The Wire from seasons 3 to 5 and is currently working on adapting his short story Animal Rescue for Fox 2000.

Since Lehane’s direct involvement in bringing Shutter Island to the big screen was fairly limited, we spent a lot of time talking about other subjects, including:

• How THR erroneously reported last week that he was writing a script with Paul Tamasy (Air Bud)
• Why he doesn’t ever want to adapt his own novels for the screen
• His golden rule for dealing with Hollywood
• Which novel made him decide to become a writer
• Why he prefers TV to movies and what his favorite shows are
• Why we’ll never see the movie he wrote and directed in the 90s

All this and more after the jump!

David Simon Interview TREME

by Sara Wayland    Posted: April 9th, 2010 at 8:55 am

Treme is the new HBO drama series set in post-Katrina New Orleans. From executive producer David Simon (best known for his work on The Wire), the 10-episode first season follows musicians (Wendell Pierce), chefs (Kim Dickens), Mardi Gras Indians (Clark Peters) and ordinary New Orleanians (including Khandi Alexander, Steve Zahn, Melissa Leo and John Goodman), as they try to rebuild their lives, their homes and their unique culture in the aftermath of the 2005 hurricane and the levee failure that caused the near-death of an American city.

At its heart, Treme, named for the New Orleans neighborhood where jazz was invented, is a series about the people and the culture that survived and, at times, it is so authentic and raw that you forget you’re watching actors merely speaking from a script.

We recently spoke to show co-creator/writer David Simon, about his passion for the unique and eccentric city, how he sees it taking four or five years to tell the story of these characters on Treme and how he could never work in network television. Check out what he had to say after the jump:

New Trailer, Images, and Featurette for HBO’s TREME, the New Orleans Series from WIRE Creator David Simon

by Brendan Bettinger    Posted: March 15th, 2010 at 9:39 pm

Early in the new year we got our first look at the teaser trailer for Treme, the upcoming series from The Wire creator David Simon.  Consisting mostly of slow pans about New Orleans, it didn’t reveal much, though the scattering of various instruments hinted at the musical nature of the show.  HBO has released a new trailer that imparts all sorts of great imagery, though it still doesn’t reveal much about the narrative–we’ll let the logline do that: the show “explores the lives of several struggling musicians and other New Orleans locals in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina”.  The new trailer rather beautifully lingers on said musicians dancing and parading through the street amid the destruction, and gives us a look at cast members Steve Zahn, John Goodman, Wendell Pierce, Clarke Peters, Khandi Alexander, and Rob Brown (among others), plus an Elvis Costello cameo.  The 1:37 clip is often reminiscent of the mostly headless “Way Down in the Hole” montages that primed the viewer for each episode of The Wire.

The show’s debut date of April 11 is now less than a month away, so get excited.  Hit the jump to check out the trailer and the full plot synopsis.

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