I know the consensus is not to link to Amazon, but this is a public service announcement: today only, all five seasons of the best show in the history of television can be purchased for $82.
As of tomorrow, industry insiders tell me, everyone must be like the schmucks who dropped $50 per season to date and now contemplate buying the fifth season at the inflated rate because it’s $32 cheaper than the boxed set.
(So I feel like less of a shill: there are shills and then there are hilarious dissections of the most sublime shill ever. That is all.)
The Edge of the American West 
44 comments
January 22, 2009 at 2:26 pm
nick
Whatever you have to pay for it – pay it.
I did not watch the series as it played out. I randomly YouTubed onto the scene in which McNulty and Bunk solve a murder using only variations of the word “fuck,” and decided that I would check out the pilot on iTunes. I have no idea what it cost me, but within maybe 2 or 3 weeks, I had purchased and watched all five seasons.
While I am sure that there is noteworthy competition, I would absolutely agree with you – finest television series ever, front to end was just wonderful -writing, acting, production, musical selections – everything was just great, great great, excellent.
January 22, 2009 at 2:30 pm
SEK
I felt a little like a corporate shill writing this—Amazon sent me an email! Amazon thinks I should tell people about this sale! I must tell people about this sale!—but this is a product I can stand behind. I believe in this product. Every household needs this product. A house is not a home without one of this product.
January 22, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Vance
With it an abode of bliss.
January 22, 2009 at 2:49 pm
Blume
I should alert the people buying me wedding presents.
January 22, 2009 at 2:52 pm
kathy a.
blume: how many of these 5-season boxes do you need? because, just as an informational warning, every couple married in the mid-1980’s received a minimum of three (3) fondue pots, just because they once had a good time eating fondue. think about it.
January 22, 2009 at 2:58 pm
kathy a.
on the other hand, neither ebay nor craigslist existed at the time, so we all had to resort to regifting. which might account for the high rate of fondue pottage going on.
January 22, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Blume
The joys of the online registry, showing instantly when something has been purchased!
January 22, 2009 at 3:01 pm
Blume
At least you could use three fondue pots at once. (Cheese, meat, and chocolate fondue!) I guess we could watch The Wire on both of our computers at the same time, but it seems that you could also just watch different DVDs from the same box set at the same time. No multiples needed.
January 22, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Crazy Little Thing
sek: Thank you, thank you, thank you, for alerting us to this.
January 22, 2009 at 4:34 pm
grackle
“the best show in the history of television?” I gather you liked it.
January 22, 2009 at 5:22 pm
Jason B.
This is just one in a long list of shows I’ve never watched a second of for fear that it will further distract me. I don’t need more distractions, because I’m way too easily distracted. In fact–hey, is that the pope?
January 22, 2009 at 6:26 pm
Robert Halford
I love the Wire, but recently finished the German Heimat series, which I think beats the Wire for the “best TV show ever” prize.
January 22, 2009 at 6:31 pm
SEK
I love the Wire, but recently finished the German Heimat series, which I think beats the Wire for the “best TV show ever” prize.
You’ve piqued my curiosity.
This is just one in a long list of shows I’ve never watched a second of for fear that it will further distract me.
What you should really fear is that once you watch it, all other television seems inadequate. (Because it is.)
January 22, 2009 at 6:41 pm
Robert Halford
Here’s the Amazon link. The potted description gets things pretty much right. Less fun than the Wire, and some things are lost in translation, but more beautiful:
January 22, 2009 at 6:51 pm
ari
More beautiful than The Wire is not a very high bar to clear, is it?
January 22, 2009 at 6:55 pm
Robert Halford
I dunno. I thought parts of the Wire were very beautiful indeed, in a “glimmers of light against the darkness” kind of way, e.g., Naimond’s story, the moment at the end of Season 3 when McNulty realizes he wants to go back to being a street cop, and others. Obviously not kittens and rainbows beautiful, though.
January 22, 2009 at 7:49 pm
ari
Fair enough. I somehow thought you mean visually beautiful. And although The Wire was well shot, and certainly captured the feel of urban landscapes better than most shows I can think of, I hardly ever considered it lovely. But beauty has deeper meanings, which I see now was what you meant.
January 22, 2009 at 7:58 pm
michael holloway
I disagree, the best show ever was definitely Homicide Life on the Street; and as such I have not watched tv since; thus making me the centre of my very own small sub-cultural niche – where I never listen and am never wrong.
The writer of this “new tv show” is obviously less talented than the writer of THE show.
Don’t bother retorting.
Michael Holloway
January 22, 2009 at 8:53 pm
bitchphd
Cool, I keep waiting to see it.
Homicide was indeed awesome. I myself haven’t watched tv since Buffy, so this Wire thing better be good.
January 22, 2009 at 9:00 pm
Dance
Seriously, I just bought this because I’m incapable of passing up such a bargain, even though I have never watched the show and really don’t believe in being committed to TV and only have a vague idea that I might be able to gift it. And made it even cheaper by signing up for the Amazon rewards card. I think I’ve just had an evening of bad judgment.
I’m going to blame it on SEK being a shill. Or possibly on not really wanting to prepare for class.
January 22, 2009 at 9:05 pm
andrew
I couldn’t make it past somewhere in the third season of Homicide. I might try to pick it up again some time when I can watch more episodes in a row close together.
January 22, 2009 at 9:27 pm
Barry Freed
Your link must be broken as since I see no Farscape DVDs there.
January 22, 2009 at 10:13 pm
grackle
I agree that Homicide was gorgeous TV; as good as it gets in terms of story and ensemble. I’d believe that The Wire is also gorgeous TV, but can we stop with the “best ever” stuff? It’s so undignified, so low, so wrong. There has been quite a bit of perfect TV– <The Prisoner, Ernie Kovaks, some amount of Seinfeld, and others. But it is ridiculous to compare those things which are best appreciated for what they are and what they individually represent as if there were some galactic competition. There is no one best thing unless one narrows oneself and what one can accept to an unacceptable degree; I mean, when the muppets did Citizen Kane, it was perfect. What more can one ask? The muppets in Baltimore, I guess.
January 22, 2009 at 10:20 pm
tf smith
Um, they’re historians, not computer science majors…
January 22, 2009 at 10:27 pm
Josh
Homicide was indeed awesome.
The first few seasons of Homicide were awesome. It really went off the rails at the end (particularly what they did to Tim Bayliss). I think Melissa Leo leaving the show pretty much marked the end of the good Homicide.
January 22, 2009 at 11:26 pm
Gassalasca
I’ve only watched the first season of The Wire so far, and based on that, I’d say it’s probably the best recent TV show. But for me, it still doesn’t compare to the early Homicide.
And besides, the best TV show of all time is Blackadder.
January 22, 2009 at 11:43 pm
Hemlock
Nothing beats the first season of Homicide. Watched the first episode when I was a kid–I believe after the Dallas Cowboys won the Superbowl. Andre Braugher and Kyle Secor on the Adena Watson case…etched in my memory forever.
January 23, 2009 at 3:49 am
Jason B.
And besides, the best TV show of all time is Blackadder.
We have a winner.
January 23, 2009 at 4:13 am
Tom
I’ve only watched the first season of The Wire so far, and based on that, I’d say it’s probably the best recent TV show. But for me, it still doesn’t compare to the early Homicide.
Keep watching and wait for it. Sometime during season 3 you will likely change your mind. After season 4 you will understand completely.
January 23, 2009 at 5:24 am
Gassalasca
A friend of mine (the only true film buff I know :)) said the exact same thing.
Needless to say I’m intrigued. All I need to do now is provide me some free time… <_<
January 23, 2009 at 5:56 am
TR
Yes, Homicide was awesome.
But what many of you don’t seem to realize is that Homicide was David Simon’s first try at television, and he was hemmed in by the network constraints at NBC.
The Wire is by … David Simon. Same creator, a lot of the same writers, but airing on HBO, with no shackles on them for content, or language, or occasionally happy endings, or needing to cast nothing but beautiful, mostly white actors as they wound up doing at the end.
Homicide is good. The Wire is fucking amazing.
January 23, 2009 at 6:01 am
Jackson
Yeah, saying you liked “Homicide” and never watched “The Wire” is like saying you’re a huge Shakespeare fan but you don’t have any interest in reading this “Hamlet” thing people keep talking about.
January 23, 2009 at 6:12 am
KMK
It’s Obama’s favorite show, people. Do your patriotic duty!
January 23, 2009 at 6:20 am
Ahistoricality
like saying you’re a huge Shakespeare fan but you don’t have any interest in reading this “Hamlet” thing people keep talking about.
Loved Homicide, can’t afford HBO and fully expect to see and enjoy the Wire when it comes out on A&E (worked for the Sopranos, anyway) or some other network I can afford.
But, as much as I respect much of Shakespeare’s work, “Hamlet” is crap. The main character is poorly defined and unlikeable, the action deeply unlikely, the culture all about misogynistic aristocratic privilege without real responsibility. I’ve seen it staged, seen a movie version or two, and I’ve never enjoyed it. I’ve read it in school, and nobody’s ever really explained what’s so “great” about it with any clarity. “To be or not to be” is an OK speech, but really quite overwrought in context.
January 23, 2009 at 6:39 am
Gassalasca
rotflmao
January 23, 2009 at 6:49 am
Matt Lister
As someone with a few police officers in the family, I have to say that the best and most realistic police show is still _Barney Miller_.
January 23, 2009 at 8:28 am
Nathan Williams
Dang, I waffled on this last night and now it’s another $50. I think it may just have to live on in my memories from having watched it all via netflix.
(I should really just stop buying DVDs; I never seem to watch anything more than once)
January 23, 2009 at 8:36 am
Urk
alright, the forces intent on making me watch The Wire are now conspiring, from my colleagues to my family to the blogs I read. I’ve held out for a while because I. Just. Don’t. Like. Cop. Shows. So I’m not gonna drop $80 for it, but maybe pull a show down from Itunes and check it out. As a lowly grad student I’d have to giuve up my tuna and ramen ration to afford the cable upgrade (I”m only half kidding) so I don’t see doing that anytime soon.
any love for Mad Men out there? That’s the show that started really killing me when I discovered it, as usual, late.
January 23, 2009 at 10:04 am
SEK
Simon pulled numerous scenes from the book Homicide and used them in The Wire, so we don’t really have to make a choice here. (The first scene in the series, for example.) I will say this, however: this episode may’ve been the finest hour of television ever, and it’s a Homicide episode. Not only that, it’s from an otherwise terrible sixth season. (What is it with sixth seasons being terrible but containing just one gem? Buffy has “Once More With Feeling,” &c.)
January 23, 2009 at 10:55 am
KMK
I’ve held out for a while because I. Just. Don’t. Like. Cop. Shows.
It’s not really a cop show. The real focus is the American empire in decline. Successive seasons of the show give detailed portraits of different aspects of the modern American city — the justice system, labor and industry, politics, public schools and the media, in that order. The cops angle is just the narrative entry point to all those issues.
January 23, 2009 at 11:51 am
OMG. Y’all Suck. « PostBourgie
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January 23, 2009 at 3:05 pm
Hemlock
Homicide rethinking Marxism: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpQknof6SE8
January 26, 2009 at 12:04 pm
washerdreyer
But what many of you don’t seem to realize is that Homicide was David Simon’s first try at television, and he was hemmed in by the network constraints at NBC.
The Wire is by … David Simon. Same creator, a lot of the same writers, but airing on HBO, with no shackles on them for content, or language, or occasionally happy endings, or needing to cast nothing but beautiful, mostly white actors as they wound up doing at the end.
This is false, or at least implies teh false. That is, David Simon did not create Homicide. He wrote the book which inspired the show, and was a writer on the show, but Tom Fontana is to Homicide as David Simon is to The Wire.
January 26, 2009 at 12:08 pm
washerdreyer
Oh crap, I wrote the roman part italicized and the italic part roman.