My neighbor Earl told me to skip the first season of The Wire and I wish I had listened

After three episodes of boredom I finally jumped to season two like he said and now I get why everyone calls it the greatest show ever, has anyone else found a series that only gets good after you skip the early episodes?

2 comments

2 Comments

henderson.oscar1mo ago

Nah man, I gotta disagree on this one. Season one of The Wire is perfect as a slow burn setup that makes everything else hit harder. Skipping it means you miss the whole foundation of why the Barksdale crew matters and how McNulty's obsession starts. Season two makes way less sense without knowing who Stringer and Avon are from the ground up. You're missing the context of the docks and how it all ties back to the street level stuff. Season one builds that world piece by piece, and jumping ahead makes the payoff feel hollow later.

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richard_anderson1mo ago

Ask you this though - if someone's already seen season two and loved it, what's the real payoff they'd get from going back to season one? I mean, yeah you'd know who Avon and Stringer are, but isn't it more about seeing how the whole game works from the ground up? The way they show the pawn shop piece with D'Angelo teaching the kids, that whole chess scene, that's the stuff that sticks with you. It lays out the rules of the street and the police work in a way that's pretty timeless. You can't really get that from just jumping in later, right?