the_beth•22d agoProlific Poster

That time a retired TV director told me to skip season 3 of The Wire

I was chatting with this older guy at a coffee shop in Portland, he mentioned he worked on network TV back in the 80s. He insisted I'd love The Wire but should absolutely skip season 3 because it 'loses the thread.' I binged seasons 1 and 2, loved them, then jumped to season 4. Later I went back and watched season 3 and honestly, he was dead wrong. Season 3 is amazing with the whole Hamsterdam storyline - has anyone else gotten bad advice from someone who claimed to be an expert?

2 comments

2 Comments

sarah_brown22d agoTop Commenter

Take that bad advice with a grain of salt, seriously. People who worked in old network TV sometimes have a narrow view of what makes a season work, especially with a show like The Wire that breaks all the rules. Hamsterdam is probably one of the best arcs in the whole series - it's not losing the thread, it's following a new thread that ties right back into the bigger picture about systems failing everyone. If you ask me, the guy was probably used to shows wrapping up neatly in 22 episodes, not letting a city experiment play out over a whole season. Next time someone tells you to skip a season of a prestige show like that, just nod politely and watch it anyway. You can always trust your own gut over some retired director's nostalgia.

jones.mason22d ago

Take that bad advice with a grain of salt, @sarah_brown, because people love to gatekeep stuff they barely understand (it's like when my uncle told me to skip the last half of Citizen Kane).