Media Bitchfest

Join The Chorus!

September 11th, 2006 by Justin

Or, as Gawker points out, maybe it’s more just the New York Times that is obsessed with HBO’s The Wire to the point of name checking it almost obsessively.

But wait! There is also clamoring from another of our favorite fountains of fortune: Ain’t It Cool News. Herc of the Coaxil even points to stand-up comic Patton Oswald’s blog for praise of the Baltimore drama.

This, of course, is not enough for the AICN Talkbacks who demand a fuller list of critical lauding:

You can do better than that, Herc

by thevisitor

Seriously if Veronica Mars was getting half the tremendous praise this show is getting you would have posted an excerpt of every last positive review. Here’s how your critical samples should have looked like: “Brilliant, scathing, sprawling, [I]The Wire[/I] has turned our indifference to urban decay into a TV achievement of the highest order…. The show’s impact doesn’t always register fully in individual episodes, wonderful as most are. But taken as a whole - not just over this premiering fourth season but over the entire run of the series – The Wire triumphs both as art and indictment.” -ROBERT BIANCO, USA Today….. “It is the best drama in HBO history – all due respect to ‘The Sopranos’ and ‘Deadwood,’ ‘The Wire’ is deeper, tighter and more ambitious - and one of the finest works ever produced for American television.” -ALAN SEPINWALL, New Jersey Star-Ledger…… “…’The Wire’’ is more than just the best show on television. This sprawling, ferocious drama is one of the richest, most compelling pieces of entertainment created by anyone at any time in pop-culture history. And even that over-the-top endorsement feels like it comes up short somehow.” -KARLA PETERSON, San Diego Union Tribune…… “I am so blown away by this show that I will go out on a limb here to declare that these 13 episodes just might comprise the single finest piece of work ever produced for American TV.”-ADAM BUCKMAN, New York Post…… “This is TV as great modern literature, a shattering and heartbreaking urban epic about a city (Baltimore) rotting from within…. ‘The Wire’ reclaims its place in the top tier of American drama.” -MATT ROUSH, TV Guide….. ” ‘The Wire’ keeps getting better, and to my mind it has made the final jump from great TV to classic TV – put it right up there with ‘The Prisoner’ and the first three seasons of ‘The Sopranos’.” -STEPHEN KING…… “Second, the argument over whether ‘The Wire’ is the best show on television needs only two other participants — also from HBO — in the form of ‘The Sopranos’ and ‘Deadwood.’ Rather than split hairs, let’s just say that the breadth and ambition of ‘The Wire’ are unrivaled and that taken cumulatively over the course of a season — any season — it’s an astonishing display of writing, acting and storytelling that must be considered alongside the best literature and filmmaking in the modern era.” -TIM GOODMAN, San Francisco Gate…. “The best show on TV….This is muckraking TV, in so many ways more powerful than anything a network news division can produce.” -J. MAX ROBBINS, Broadcasting and Cable…. ” ‘The Wire’ is the best thing ever done on dramatic television. Frankly, it makes ‘The Sopranos’ look like a sitcom. It makes ‘Six Feet Under’ look like a sitcom on the WB.” -JAMES NOLD JR., Louisville Courier-Journal….. “They have done what many well-intentioned socially minded writers have tried and failed at: written a story that is about social systems, in all their complexity, yet made it human, funny and most important of all, rivetingly entertaining.” -JAMES PONIEWOZIK, Time…. ” This season of ‘The Wire’ will knock the breath out of you….’The Wire’ is a beautiful brave series. This is its best season yet.” VIRGINIA HEFFERNAN, New York Times…… “No television show has provided so much insight on politics and all the foibles, frustrations and sick sense of humor that come with it.” -NEAL JUSTIN, Minneapolis Star Tribune….. ” ‘The Wire’ isn’t just impressive TV, its impressive art, and it shows just how far the medium has come – and where, one hopes, it’s going…The best analogy might be the serialized 19th-century novel, the kind of thing that kept Dickens fans lined up at newsstands in anticipation of the next installment.” -MARY PARK, Seattle Times….. “If there ever was a series that makes HBO a necessity, ‘The Wire’ is it.” -MELANIE McFARLAND, Seattle Post-Intelligencer…… “Season 4 of HBO’s The Wire – the best series on TV, period – is brutal and brilliant.” -GILLIAN FLYNN, Entertainment Weekly…… “When television history is written, little else will rival ‘The Wire’, a series of such extraordinary depth and ambition that it is, perhaps inevitably, savored only by an appreciative few. Layering each season upon the previous ones, creator David Simon conveys the decaying infrastructure of his hometown Baltimore in searing and sobering fashion — constructing a show that’s surely as impenetrable to the uninitiated as it is intoxicating to the faithful. In its fourth year, the program adds the school system to cops, drugs, unions, the ailing middle class, and big-city politics. Prepare to be depressed and dazzled. -BRIAN LOWRY, Variety…… “If you have only one hour a week for television, give it to ‘The Wire.’” -MAUREEN RYAN, Chicago Tribune…… “There is absolutely nothing simple about ‘The Wire,’ and that’s what makes it the finest show on the current TV landscape.” -CHARLES McCOLLUM, Mercury News…… “It’s as uncompromising and challenging and troubling — but ultimately stirring, in its triumph as art — as anything on TV.” -DAVE WALKER, New Orleans Times Picayune…….

Oh, also, the show is really good.

Posted in Uncategorized, New York Times, Aint It Cool News, The Wire

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