There are a few times I’ve missed it, namely big sporting events such as Super Bowl XLIV, the gold medal Olympic hockey game or my beloved Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals.
Not having it has given me the opportunity to pick out highly respected TV shows from the last few years and start mowing them down such as “Weeds,” “Dexter” and “Six Feet Under.”
Recently, I have devoured HBO’s now-concluded show “The Wire” at the breakneck pace of about a season a week. That’s nearly two episodes a day for a month.
Considering that the first season aired during a 13-week period and I’m on pace to finish the entire series in less than half that time, that’s blinding speed.
This model of watching serialized dramas has ruined me. I have no patience for watching shows any other way anymore.
Lots of things change when you watch a TV show as it’s broadcast as opposed to on DVD or Blu-Ray. There’s less time to let the show’s events percolate in your mind when you move so quickly from one episode to the next. That cliffhanger at the end of episode eight? It doesn’t matter because I’m just a few pushes of the remote away from episode nine instead of seven days.
When you must wait the seven-day interval, the characters’ actions have a few days to stay with you. After a recent episode of AMC’s “Mad Men,” which is currently airing its fourth season, my thoughts in the successive days drifted to Don Draper (Jon Hamm), the show’s often dastardly but somehow sympathetic leading man.
That doesn’t happen as much with “The Wire” or “Weeds,” shows that I swallowed whole because the access to them was immediate. I even watched the fourth and fifth seasons of “Weeds” knowing they were considered weaker quality because I’d already invested plenty of time watching the show and the access to it was so easy.
This viewing style does change other things, too. Catching these shows years after the fact in some instances shades things differently, particular about the performers.
Seeing Idris Elba’s stunning turn as Russell “Stringer” Bell on “The Wire” is riveting, but it’s interesting to think most people now know him as “That Guy From ‘The Office.’ ” It doesn’t take anything away from his performance, but it makes me wonder if I would’ve looked at Stringer any differently had I been less familiar with the actor.
An aim of “The Wire” seemed to be to cast talented people who were unknown faces, a point lost on me if I’m coming along and going, “Hey, there’s that guy from ‘Chappelle’s Show’ as a legislative aide.” It pulls away from the action and reminds us that we are, indeed, watching a TV show.
Still, maybe “The Wire” is precisely the kind of show to be watched in this fashion. It’s a serial, but the episodes feel more like chapters from a book about Baltimore as opposed to 13 installments purposefully crafted to make sure the viewer comes back next week.
Underscoring the thematic unity of each season is how each one turns on a separate rendition of Tom Waits’ “Way Down in the Hole” as its theme song.
“The Wire” is a show that I know I will watch again. It’s rich and eloquent in a way few TV shows ever get a chance to be, which makes me wonder how it never so much as won even one Emmy.
As long as the opportunity to rapidly devour such quality programming exists, I see no need to return to an insulated cable.
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