The Wire on DVD, The Office, 30 Rock, Scrubs, and a little bit of other stuff
For about the last year, I’ve heard rave review, one after the other, for HBO’s The Wire, which ran from 2002-2008. I’ve never had so many different people tell me I need to watch a certain show. Jason finally lent me his complete series on DVD, and Lauren and I dug in and watched all 13 episodes of the first season the past three nights.
I must agree, The Wire is an outstanding show! It is very difficult to stop watching once you start, since every episode ends in a critical spot and the next begins right where it left off. If it weren’t for me being so tired, we just might have watched them all in succession. But we broke it up over three nights.
Apparently, every season focuses on a different area of Baltimore crime. The first season was the drug ring. We get to see the case from both points of view—the criminals and the cops. Of course you’re rooting for the cops to get these guys behind bars, but they make some of the bad guys likable too. I had to read ahead just a little on Wikipedia to see that the second season deals with the ports.
We also keep up with what’s left of NBC’s Thursday night lineup—The Office and 30 Rock. The Office has gotten a bit weird lately with Michael Scott leaving to form his own paper company, but I think it’s still funny and fresh material. However, the show has gone from believable to conceivable to unrealistic fairly quickly. I think Dwight is what holds the show together now. Jim and Pam are together so that’s old news. And they don’t seem to be focusing on the lesser characters much anymore. The Wire’s Idris Elba is guest-starring as Charles, the new manager of Dunder-Mifflin. We’ve seen lots of him lately.
I think 30 Rock has probably moved ahead of the pack for the funniest show on TV. Like The Office, the events that take place on 30 Rock aren’t very plausible, but at least that’s how the show has always been and that’s what we’ve come to expect. Tina Fey really makes herself out to be quite the loser on the show. Tracy has the best quotes every week, including one of my all-time favorites, “Are we in Horseville? Because I’m surrounded by naysayers!”
Scrubs… eh… that whole janitor wedding in the Bahamas really made Scrubs feel, for the first time ever, like any other old sitcom. Remember when Full House went to Disney World, or when Saved by the Bell went to Hawaii? It had that kinda feel in the two-part episode. Still funny, and I can’t wait to see how they wrap up the season (or series, perhaps), but it’s a much different show on ABC than it was on NBC. The main characters apparently each are written out of two episodes apiece, leaving awkward gaps. And the interns in many episodes are the main characters, maybe with producers’ hopes of continuing the series with a new cast? I say it’s time to end, but it’s still enjoyable and one of the best shows ever made.
And that’s really it. I have caught bits and pieces of Idol and even a few minutes of Biggest Loser lately, but that’s all I tune into regularly until Dexter and Always Sunny return. Plus, the Twins are on almost every night (except for when it rains in Boston!) and we are still trying to keep up with our Best Picture project, though that likely will take a back seat until we finish The Wire.
Ryan Glanzer Blog 
If you want to get hooked on another series, try “Friday Night Lights”…I have the first season on DVD if you want to see it. This is the third season and I had to wait until January for the new episodes because, for some odd reason, they first broadcast them on Direct TV, then ran them on prime time on NBC. It doesn’t hurt that the star, Eric Taylor on the show, I can’t think of his real name, is pretty hot. At least to older women like myself. I dare you not to get caught up in it. Alex has…you could too!