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Reviews
Fear the Walking Dead: Captive (2016)
Pretty Dumb
Producers - please spend more of the budget on writers. The characters in this show are generally unpalatable, faceless, trite, and boring. I don't care about any of them except for Nick. Nick is actually somewhat believable and compelling, probably because the writers for this show has some experience with drug addiction, which explains why just Nick succeeds as a protagonist while the other characters come off as impossible and woefully unappealing.
The dialogue seems to have gotten worse in this show. There are a lot of awkward scenes, appeals to platitudes and flat character stereotypes, and forced tension and interhuman conflict. The downfall of humans just happened, and human personalities are not going to change this much overnight. The zero-sum conflicts here should be more subtle, and more natural - be creative. I expect to see humans wanting to survive AND wanting to help each other, but some at the last minute deciding self is paramount and doing "unnatural" things to the end of self preservation. The hostilities and wanton violence we've seen so far this season is unconvincing.
The Wire (2002)
Brilliant Writing, Unforgettable Characters
My friend Dolu convinced me I needed to watch The Wire, and I asked for the boxed set for Christmas this past year. It took a while to build and for me to understand the show, but that investment was worthwhile. I've just finished season 3, and I have to say I've never been this impressed with a TV show before, period.
The Wire succeeds on several levels due to quality in production value. HBO is head-and-shoulders above the networks here. It helps they have hour-long blocks and don't depend on mid-episode crescendos to cater to advertisers. The acting is phenomenal (e.g. Rawls).
The main credit, however, goes to the writers in my opinion. The screenplay is brilliant and merges together a patchwork of parallel story lines into a coherent whole. The characters are strong, authentic, and memorable. Most impressive is how realistic the show feels - this creates an immersive experience of the streets of Baltimore. It has to be difficult to write lines for politicians, detectives, and gangsters and to make all of them seem convincing, but that is what The Wire has mastered.
The show is not easy to watch. Not that there is much violence... there's some. There is a LOT of crude language, some nudity/sex, racism/homophobia/sexism... the show does not back down or censor itself. You get the raw experience. While the language is coarse, the show is mostly difficult to watch because of the heaviness of its themes and the personal investment required before it starts paying dividends - you need to watch several episodes before you 'get' the show, and you have to finish several seasons before seeing maximum returns.
"Crime drama" is normally a genre I shun, but The Wire transcends the genre and achieves greatness as a general (dark) drama. There is great commentary here on the intractable issues facing modern cities and societies. The themes run deep and hit home. The characters are unforgettable. 5/5 stars... And I'm also finally signing up for HBO.