Season Three is the longest of all The Shield's seasons at 15 Episodes. But, unlike many shows that have an increased episode count for a season it doesn't drop a single ball. Every episode remains as brutal, brilliant and ballsy as you'd expect from this seminal show. The action continues from the massive events of the previous season and continuity is observed closely, the long running plots of the season include dealing with the strike team's success in the previous season, a rapist who targets old women, Vic's continued domestic problems, Aceveda's political ambitions and more. Of the main characters it feels like Julien's stories takes something of a backseat in a lot of this season, but he's still present and accounted for.
There are also some incredible scenes in this season, it's one of the hardest to watch at times because of what's happening to the characters in it.



Despite being released (in the UK) several years after the first two seasons were, the packaging is a perfect match for the previous two seasons, it has it's own unique artwork and style, but overall it looks great on the shelf with the others. Consistency in style and small size are two things I value highly in DVD packaging. It looks great and matches up without being oversized, everything I could have asked for.



With Season three of The Shield, the extras have been a little better placed than the previous seasons, the deleted scenes are now located with the relevant episode. So you can watch the episode and then immediately watch the deleted scenes. Thumbs up for that change. Some of the commentaries are better than others, as always. But the single best extra is the "Making of" which is utterly brilliant and pushes it ahead of the previous two seasons.


Season three is now available for a very respectable £15, with it's additional episodes increasing the amount of action and viewing you're getting without sacrificing the quality this is nothing but good times. It works out as 572 minutes at 2.6p per minute. That's a superb deal for a superb show.


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I was going to go with sexiest woman, but it's not really the case. Instead of strictly the hottest women on TV it's the women I thought were most desirable, personally. Not to say these women aren't hot. They are, but it's not just the hotness of them that's made my decision. Maybe this is more of a reveal about my taste in women, but heck. Who cares?

OK, enough poor excuses. Here we go!

1. Jenna Fischer as Pam Beesley in The Office



2. Tina Fey as Liz Lemon in 30 Rock

Tina is a fantastic writer/comedienne/actress and her character in 30 Rock, Liz Lemon is just superb. Liz is attractive and smart but intensely geeky and insecure. She's a fantastic character in so many ways, despite being in a position of relative power (running her own show) she's still completely helpless and unable to get her personal life in proper order. Sound familiar? That's one of the things that makes her so attractive to me, she's not only beautiful and funny but she's also very human. With her own problems and insecurities.

I can't help but like someone like that.


3. Cobie Smulders as Robin Scherbatsky in How I Met Your Mother





4. Tara Summers as Katie Lloyd in Boston Legal



5. Jacqueline McKenzie as Diana Skouris in The 4400

It's varied from season to season how attractive I've found Jacqueline, very dependant on her haircut. (Don't ask!) But Diana has consistently remained a strong, powerful woman who's able to keep focused in a situation that's frankly a bit out of control.

I'm running out of time so I'll expand on this when I have time...







There may be more later, but right now you'll have to be content with these 5 lovely ladies as I have to dash!
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The out and out funniest moments I recall seeing on TV this year. Excluding repeats.

1. Barney Stinson - "How I met your mother"
Neil Patrick Harris is the reason I enjoy watching HIMYM. He's so brilliant in the show it's well... Just watch this and see.



Legendary, this is so going in my blog!

2. Denny Crane - "Boston Legal"
While William Shatner's role on Boston Legal has felt a little diminished so far this season he's still comedy gold when needed. The lines, the delivery, the look, the entire package is just brilliant. Denny Crane is Shatner's finest hour and the interactions between him and the rest of the cast are always enjoyable and funny. The man has no shame.

3. Michael Scott (Steve Carell), Jim (John K) and Dwight (Rainn W) - "The Office (USA)"
I've put these three together to save space and words. Much of the of comedy in The Office involves at least two of these three interacting with each other. Ranging from Michael and Dwight planning and Jim's aside looks to the camera when Michael explains his bright idea to
the antagonistic pranks that Jim pulls on Dwight. These three are the heart of the comedy in the show, they're also the source of many of the more touching moments in the show as well.

4. Larry David - "Curb Your Enthusiasm"
Season 6 of Curb was absolute masterpiece, but the honest truth is - what else could you expect it to be? Larry just understands what funny is, he's also brilliant at delivering cringeworthy performances as well, something so few people can do. Make you cringe, laugh and still like a character all at once. His performance this year was as on form as ever, the man just cranks out gold.

5. Jerry Seinfeld - "30 Rock" (Episode Seinvision)
It was only a single episode, but it was one of the best performances in comedy I've seen. Jerry was absolutely fantastic in the episode, including all the faux shots of him digitally added into the various shows. The scene between him and Alec Baldwin was particually good, both of them really put their all into it. It says a lot that Jerry's made it onto this list from a single episode guest star.

6. Darnell "Crabman" Turner - "My Name is Earl"
Eddie Steeples performance as Crabman is understated brilliance, while MNIS has sort of lost its way a little this season Steeples has not. He's remained consistently funny as the laidback, browbeaten, turtle loving, man with a past and hasn't lost his edge yet.

What category will I randomly decide to write about tomorrow?
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In this category I'm going to nominate the worst events to occur this year in the land of televisual entertainment. I will be excluding reality/voting TV shows from being nominated as if I did they'd just win. Instead I'm going to focus on crafted fiction.

1. The Writers Guild Strike
The criminal part of this is not the Writers striking, but the fact that they had to strike in the first place. It shortened so many shows, killed off others and delayed more. The viewers had to pay for the executives idiocy. It was an all round suck fest that should never have had to happen.

2. USA Characters Welcome (aka NBC) cancelling The 4400 and The Dead Zone.
While it sucked that two excellent shows got cancelled, the timing was the thing that really stank like fetid rats droppings. Both shows got canned after their season had finished, both shows had set up some really exciting cliff hanger events. Both shows could have wrapped up their story if they'd had another season. Instead they get dropped after filming has wrapped and leave the viewers left hanging from another John Doe... I straight up hate NBC for this. So much so that I'm not going to be supporting them by purchasing Burn Notice on DVD when it's released.

3. Heroes Season 2
Yeah, that's right. I'm putting it up here as one of the worst crimes against TV this year. What were they thinking? Even Tim Kring stepped up and apologised for being involved in such a pile of stink. Don't get me wrong, it had its good points (Kirsten Bell, Sylar, Adam) but it was a real let down after

4. Mandy Patkin walking out on Criminal Minds
Damn it Mandy, you really try my patience. What is it about successfull shows that make you walk out on them? 'Dead Like Me' Mandy, If you don't get your ass back into that show somehow I'm never going to forgive you for walking out on Criminal Minds and making it lame.

5. Jericho
It got canned again. This sucks, just when I'm planning to get into the series again it gets nailed. I would write more, but I don't want to go watching Jericho knowing that it doesn't end properly.

6. Fox Network
Fox, you just suck. Enough said.
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Now there's an unusual critera for best new show. It's not the best new show that's been released over the 2007/08 period but it's actually the best show that I watched for the first time during that period. This includes shows that may have been around for a time but I've never gotten around to watching.

1. Homicide: Life on the Street
Watching The Wire lead to a decision to watch Homicide. I'd previously seen Detective Munch on Law & Order, Arrested Development and most recently The Wire itself (great cameo). As I'd enjoyed his appearances and David Simon was involved in Homicide I decided to give it a try. Currently I'm at the end of season 4, waiting for season 5 to drop to a reasonable price before I push on. But I'm enjoying it no end, initially the show seemed to flounder a little and the second season seemed very short (was it hit by the previous writer strike?). But once I got used to the style it's been incredibly enjoyable. There's plenty to like in it if you already enjoyed The Wire and vice versa.

2. Invader Zim
I decided to watch this one because it made its way into the top 100 shows on tv.com and it had a very short run. This mades it very light to watch and simple to 'get through'. Not that it was a chore to watch, in fact it was a delight. One of the better kids programs I've seen, I'd hold it up alongside TMNT 2K3 and Justice League: Unlimited easily.

Plus Gir is the most ridiculously cute thing I've ever seen on TV ever. I'm not sure what it says about me that I find a retarded robot cute. But I do... how can you say no to that little cutie?


3. How I Met Your Mother
I can't recall what made me decide to watch How I Met Your Mother, I'm not that fussed on Buffy (Alyson Hannigan), Doogie Houser (Neil Patrick Harris) or Josh Raydor (Apparently he was in Six Feet Under, but I don't recall him). So I can't say why I started watching at all, it's not like anyone even recommended it to me... But I did start watching it and I really enjoy it. It's not genius comedy, but it is in a similar vein to Friends. But better imo. Neil Patrick Harris in particular is utterly fantastic as Barney Stillson...

4. Burn Notice
Burn Notice has a second mention here. It's also gotten a nomination in the badass category for Michael Western. But the show has so much more going for it than him. It has a wonderful setting (Miami) combined with a great concept, fun facts about various spy techniques and the worlds greatest actor. Bruce Campbell. I'm really looking forward to the summer, while I'll miss The 4400 and The Dead Zone (who got canned without finishing) Burn Notice will fill a small part of the void.

5. Life
This is Life's second nomination as well. It's just a fantastic and slick show, it looks good. It's great to watch and it's managed a good combination of the format 'crime of the week' along with 'metaplot'. Damien Lewis is immensely watchable as Charlie Crews and the supporting cast is also fantastic. I'm really looking foward to seeing where this goes, I just hope that the writers don't end up stringing out the 'mystery' too long as that's where Lost fell apart.
Regardless, right now it's looking strong and enjoyable.

Honorable mentions go to Bones and Jeeves & Wooster. While I enjoyed both shows, they're not as good as the ones above.
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We continue in my DVD reviews with the second season of The Shield. The first season is reviewed here and as such this one will be in comparison to the first season.

The second season picks up immediately after the end of the first season, jumping straight back into the grim world of Farmington L.A. without even giving the viewer a chance to breathe. Continuity continues to be observed exceptionally well, both in the metaplot, cases and individual personal lives. The threads of the show continue to look at Julien's personal life, Dutch's development, Vic's personal/home life alongside the continued cases, strike team actions, bureaucracy, politics and much more. The second season of The Shield continues the high standard of the first one, keeping in touch with minor characters and guest stars by returning them. All of this keeps a high level of consistency and helps keep the world they live in feeling real. Only one show "The Wire" has a higher degree of realism in it's story telling.

The only quibble I have is that the second season isn't as explosive as the first one, while it's still amazing it just feels a smidge weaker than the first. Of course this means it's still better than 99% of the things on television anyway.


The box is almost identical to the previous season, it has changed art but that's it. This means it keeps consistency of style, font and the like when put on the shelf. The only complaint I'd have is one that holds up over most DVDs. The age certificate label always seems to move up and down from one season to the next. Maybe I'm just a little obsessive about this, but it annoys me. See the season one review for more details



Season 2 contains commentary on every episode from a variety of people involved in the show, from the writers to the actors. This means that it can vary somewhat in quality depending on the people involved. Personally I prefer commentary that comes mainly from the actors. I find most writers are rather... dry when they do commentary. Anyway, this means the commentary remains fresh, but varies in quality.

The other extras included are deleted scenes, featurettes on editing, sound and the like. I skimmed through them a bit but the only one that grabbed me was about the choices made in the construction of the Barn set. I'd say the extras are about average, maybe a little worse than season one's.

The second season can be had for £17 atm, not as cheap as the first season sadly. Some shops occasionally have it for £15. Still it's a bargain at 613 minutes, which is 2.8p per minute. Very respectable as it's under the 3p per minute mark.


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Because the Emmys and Golden Globes are frankly bull I've decided that every year on the 26th of March I will nominate my own 'bests' of TV (one per day) and then name the winners seperately. I would go with nominations from others, but I have no readership. Woo! So it's just me.

Here's the first category and nominations:

Biggest badass on screen

1. Michael C. Hall as Dexter ( Dexter - Season 2)
Dexter has just gone from strength to strength as a character. He's not afraid to kill and he's not even afraid of being caught. In fact he looks on his capture as inevitable, but that doesn't bother him. He keeps doing his thang.

2. Michael Chiklis as Vic Mackey (The Shield - Season 6)
Michael Chiklis just has being a bad ass right down. Vic Mackey was out of control in season 6, and for good reason. Vic on full tilt is something that has to be seen to believe

3. Jamie Hector as Marlo Stanfield (The Wire - Season 5)
Marlo is a cold customer, he has no problem ordering people to get dropped. And while he doesn't pull the trigger himself, it's clear that he would if he thought it was needed. Also, Marlo in a rage is biblical - like DeNiro's Capone with a baseball bat.

4. Jeffery Donovan as Michael Western (Burn Notice - Season 1)
Michael Western is a spy, he's not afraid to get the job done and has the know how to do it. While Burn Notice doesn't have much of a body count as it's a lighter show overall, he's still got 'it' when he needs it. In spades.

5. David Tennant as The Tenth Doctor (Doctor Who - 2007 series)
For the most part the tenth Doctor is a pretty bubbly and friendly chap. But Human Nature and Family of Blood showed us just how hard and badass he could be. As the show is essentially a kids show it tends to be light and keep the Doctor as a friendly character, but the scenes as he turned towards 'The Family' and the individual, eternal punishments that he inflicted on each member showed just how deep his wrath can go. It's so effective because most of the time he's willing to forgive, but once you cross the line his anger knows no bounds.

6. Edward James Olmos as Commander Adama (BSG - Season 3)
Season three of BSG was a very spotty one, it had moments of sheer brilliance followed by episodes that were just all kinds of suck. Consistent throughout all of it was the power and edge that Commander Adama held. He's the uncompromising knife point at the front of the fleet, willing to do what it takes for humanity to survive, even if he loses his own in the first place.

7. Damien Lewis as Charlies Crews (Life - Season 1)
Crews has spent a long time in prison, he was a cop before he went into prison as well. It's well known that cops in prison have a rough time of it. Crews did what he needed to survive, he came out of it in a very peculiar manner. He's clearly a very hard individual, driven and determined. But he's tempered himself by following zen buddist principles, or at least trying to do so. But when push comes to shove he will set those aside and do what must. Life is a fantastic show to watch and Damien Lewis's performance is the reason for this.

Seven nominations and while I thought I knew who'd win going into this I'm not so sure now I've written about each of them. I will need time to think about this.
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I'm watching through The Shield again right now, so each season is going to get it's own review followed by an overall rating.

The Shield is one of 'The Big Three' as far as I'm concerned, one of the few shows that has raised its game so far ahead of the pack that it's premier league material. Currently there are only three drama shows that I've allowed into the premier league, others are close - but I've only let in "The Wire", "The Shield" and "Dexter" so far.

The Shield is in essense a cop show with a twist, it depicts a darker tone than most cop shows out there. Willing to show cops as being corrupt and performing actions which break the law themselves. While the police in "The Wire" are willing to step over the line at times, The Shield's strike team permanently live in the shadow. Still they're not cartoonish villains by any stretch of the imagination. They're portrayed as having both good and bad sides quite well.

Watching the first season again (I'm halfway through it now) I'm reminded just how good this show is. While I often tout it's brilliance to people I know, rewatching it has reminded me that it's better than I remember. Able to balance a mix of 'case of the week' and metaplot so perfectly that at times it just doesn't feel like a traditional cop show at all. "The Wire" is 'a case a season' and CSI is 'a case per episode' but "The Shield" is such a wonderful mix that it actually feels natural. The main plot threads of this season happily wind their way through fantastic scenes, both in home and in 'The Barn' (as the station is called). It's no wonder that this season was nominated for the highest number of Emmys in a single year ever and Michael Chikilis won one. It's close to perfect, if a little hard for the average TV watcher to stomach. But we have nothing but scorn for the average TV drone don't we?


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Same drill as the previous. Red = Watched/Watching, Yellow = Don't want to watch, White = Want to watch and Green = Watched but gave up on.

From tv.com's list of highest rated shows, which I feel is a better indicator than their most popular ones.

1. House
2. Heroes
3. Avatar: The Last Airbender
4. Firefly
5. Prison Break
6. Supernatural
7. Scrubs
8. Dexter
9. Stargate SG-1
10. Friends
11. 24
12. Battlestar Galactica (2003)
13. Futurama
14. The Simpsons
15. Arrested Development
16. The Looney Tunes Show
17. The Office
18. Lost
19. Star Wars: The Clone Wars
20. Burn Notice
21. Top Gear (UK)
22. CSI
23. Seinfeld
24. How I Met Your Mother
25. Veronica Mars
26. Pushing Daisies - I really tried to like this, I did!
27. Bleach
28. Pocket Monsters
29. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
30. Life
31. Band of Brothers
32. FullMetal Alchemist
33. MythBusters
34. Batman: The Animated Series
35. Doctor Who (2005)
36. The X-Files
37. Rome
38. Family Guy
39. South Park
40. Stargate Atlantis
41. Gossip Girl
42. NCIS
43. Tom and Jerry
44. Star Trek: The Next Generation
45. Naruto (Decided I don't like the way anime tells its stories, the pacing doesn't suit me.)
46. One Tree Hill
47. Gilmore Girls
48. Whose Line Is It Anyway?
49. Grey's Anatomy
50. Skins
51. Farscape
52. X-Men
53. Greek (Not sure why I gave up on this, should give it another try)
54. Dragon Ball Z (Uncut)
55. Psych
56. The Daily Show
57. Entourage
58. Dragonball Z
59. The Wire
60. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
61. Justice League Unlimited
62. The West Wing
63. Angel
64. Six Feet Under
65. The Spectacular Spider-Man
66. Traveler
67. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
68. Death Note
69. Cowboy Bebop
70. Chappelle's Show
71. The Colbert Report
72. The Shield
73. Sailor Moon
74. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
75. The Sopranos
76. Babylon 5
77. Invader ZIM
78. Boy Meets World
79. Inuyasha
80. Wildfire
81. Monk
82. Boston Legal
83. Boston Legal (I know it's good, but why is it in this list twice?)
84. Dead Like Me
85. Rescue Me (I'm thinking about it)
86. Transformers Animated
87. M*A*S*H
88. Late Night with Conan O'Brien
89. Married ... with Children - When it's on I'll watch it, kind of fancy Katey Segal anyway
90. SportsCenter
91. I Love Lucy
92. Superman
93. Twin Peaks
94. Oz
95. That '70s Show
96. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
97. Yu Yu Hakusho
98. Curb Your Enthusiasm
99. Cardcaptor Sakura
100. The Soup

61/99 Ignoring that Boston legal is in there twice that's not bad. Most of the ones I haven't watched are anime and I'm not keen on the anime style so that's fine.
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A short break from DVDs in review to do two things.

First of all I'd like to salute David Simon for creating The Wire and raising the bar for televisual excellence everywhere. The show has solidly set itself as the top of the premiere TV league. David, I doubt you'll ever read this but I want to thank you here for bringing so much joy into my life. I already miss The Wire and it's only been finished a short time.

Second part is I'm working through lists of shows and seeing which ones I've seen. Here's the list of the Top 100 Best TV Shows as listed by Time

I've marked in red the ones I've seen, White the ones I really want to see, yellow the ones I never want to see and I've commented here and there in itallics.

* The Abbott and Costello Show
* ABC's Wide World of Sports
* Alfred Hitchcock Presents
* All in the Family
* An American Family
* American Idol
* Arrested Development
* Battlestar Galactica
* The Beavis and Butt-Head Show
* The Bob Newhart Show
* Brideshead Revisited
* Buffalo Bill
* Buffy the Vampire Slayer
* The Carol Burnett Show
* The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite
* A Charlie Brown Christmas
* Cheers
* The Cosby Show
* The Daily Show
* Dallas
* The Day After
* Deadwood
* The Dick Van Dyke Show
* Dragnet (I watched the film, does that count? NO!)
* The Ed Sullivan Show
* The Ernie Kovacs Show
* Felicity
* Freaks and Geeks
* The French Chef
* Friends
* General Hospital
* The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show
* Gilmore Girls
* Gunsmoke
* Hill Street Blues
* Homicide: Life on the Street
* The Honeymooners
* I, Claudius
* I Love Lucy
* King of the Hill
* The Larry Sanders Show
* Late Night with David Letterman (NBC) (I want to see this live)
* Leave It to Beaver
* Lost (And now it sucks!)
* Married... With Children
* Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman
* The Mary Tyler Moore Show
* M*A*S*H
* The Monkees
* Monty Python's Flying Circus
* Moonlighting
* MTV 1981-1992
* My So-Called Life
* Mystery Science Theater 3000
* The Odd Couple
* The Office [American]
* The Office [British]
* The Oprah Winfrey Show (Really not fussed on her tbh)
* Pee Wee's Playhouse
* Playhouse 90
* The Price Is Right (I have watched the UK Version though)
* Prime Suspect
* The Prisoner
* The Real World
* Rocky and His Friends
* Roots
* Roseanne
* Sanford and Son
* Saturday Night Live
* Second City Television
* See It Now
* Seinfeld
* Sesame Street
* Sex and the City
* The Shield
* The Simpsons
* The Singing Detective
* Six Feet Under
* 60 Minutes
* Soap
* The Sopranos
* South Park
* SpongeBob SquarePants
* SportsCenter
* Star Trek
* St. Elsewhere
* The Super Bowl (and the Ads)
* Survivor
* Taxi
* The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
* 24 (Really not impressed with anything from Season 3 onwards, Once I heard Tony died I stopped bothering)
* The Twilight Zone
* Twin Peaks
* The West Wing
* What's My Line?
* WKRP in Cincinnati
* The Wire (Of course)
* Wiseguy
* The X-Files
* Your Show of Shows

Not bad, a lot of these shows are exceptionally American or quite old, so there are difficulties in watching them. But I haven't done too badly there - 36/100.

Sometime I'll do the tv.com one.
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Today it's the turn of a British Cult Classic Comedy.


(I've decided to move the Show section to the front, as that makes more sense.)

Spaced is one of those shows that just screams cult classic. It's witty, innovative, has masses of affection for pop culture and it launched Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright and Nick Frost into the movie Block buster stars that they've become. You can see much of the work that later influenced their movies, in particular there is a scene which directly spawned 'Shaun of the Dead'.

Spaced is essentially a plotless examination of modern life, it's somewhat meaningless and it goes nowhere. But that simply doesn't matter, it's brilliantly written comedy that turns the mundane into something special. Without Spaced we wouldn't have gotten The Green Wing.



The Complete series comes in a simple 3 page fold out book. Each series is placed on one of the DVDs and the third DVD contains some extra material, including a documentry about the show that kind of provides closure for the devoted viewer. It has some excellent art, the box cover can be seen above (an excellent spoof of Star Wars)

It does everything you'd want it too, looks nice and doesn't take up much space on the shelf. The only way it could be better is if it was the same height as a CD case. But that's just the weird convention that DVD makers have decided to use.


Spaced has a lot of extras, there are extras on each DVD. Including Out-takes, commentaries, deleted scenes, raw footage, photo galleries, 'Spaced Jam' (just watch it and cast & crew biographies.

But the real star is the 'Homage-O-meter' setting, which puts a series of captions at the bottom of the show everytime something pop culture is referenced. Including what it is referencing and where it is from. This brought about the a particually amusing drinking game here - where you drink everytime the Homage-O-Meter references something. Due to the quantity of references in some scence this can be a complete killer.




Spaced - The 3 Disc Collectors' Edition will set you back, well... not a lot. You can get it for between £10 and £20. Play.com right now have it up for only £9.99! You get 343 minutes - which about 5h and 45 mins. Short I know, but that's what happens when you have a British show that's only about 20min per episode. Of course because it's so cheap this really works out well for the show. It works out at just under 3p per minute. Not bad at all.



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Arrested Development is the best comedy show to ever get cancelled. Probably the best comedy show of the past ten years. Time for it's DVDs to get assessed..

Arrested Development's packaging isn't really anything that special, the first two seasons come with a cardboard dust sleeve and inside the main box is plastic with the middle cd flip thing so it can hold all 4 DVDs. The first season's box has a decent sized booklet that contains all the episodes and also has a nice large backdrop image on the reverse side of the slip. The second season has less of this and it's clear that Fox decided to spend less, quell surprise there eh?
The Third season is even worse off, the season was cut short so it fits onto just two DVDs and the packaging is really skimped on. It's almost suprising that Fox bothered to release the DVD at all.


Happily the features section of each DVD is not so badly treated. This is where the creators and cast had the opportunity to take control and the quality starts to shine. We're treated to an extended pilot episode, selected episodes with audio commentaries, behind the scenes featurettes, bloopers, Ron Howard's inside look, deleted scenes, original songs and the featurette showing the last day of on location filming.
The commentary isn't bad. It's not up to the standard that Futurama set, but it's still interesting enough to warrant a listen.


Arrested Development is one of those shows. What do I mean by that? It's one of the best shows you've probably never seen (Along with gems like The Wire). I still don't quite understand how it failed and why it was so badly treated by Fox. It's one of the premium examples of quality comedy, I'd hold it up alongside Fawlty Towers at times - it's that damn good. It's simply the funniest thing I've watched ever. But yet hardly anyone has watched it and people still haven't twigged about how good it is.
I find it incredibly frustrating to constantly find people looking blank when I talk about the show. I can understand why not everyone watches The Wire, it's a hard show to get into and it's a little too real and intelligent for many people who want asinine rubbish like CSI drip-fed into their brains instead. But Arrested Development is accessable to all while remaining intelligent enough that you can still be discovering new jokes on the 3rd or 4th watching of it all. The sheer quantity of call-backs and even better call-forwards that this show uses is incredible, it has incredible continuity and subtle jokes are all over the place.

Plus, how can you not love a show that has a character who uses this as his business card to advertise his training as a therapist and an analysist?

Yes, that's right. It does indeed have this card shown in the show.

The show is so good I'm giving it a bonus point for being that brilliant. Specifically for the Season 2 jokes involving Buster, his mother and an animal (avoiding spoilers there as much as possible).


Sadly, it ain't cheap to get this show. Outside of dropped sale prices you're looking at £28 per season for a grand total of £86. You get 53 episodes for that price because once again Fox screwed over the show and shorted their second and third season run lengths. F***ing criminal.

The total running time is just over 19 hours which sadly works out at 7.5p per minute. Which is massive compared to the previous scores (5p, 5p and 2p). While every minute is total quality and it's worth paying this price, I can't score it higher than a seven and if I'm honest it deserves the following score...


The problem here is the show is amazing and well worth getting. But Fox have treated it like total s**t at every opportunity. Even when producing the DVDs they still feel a need to stiff the loyal viewer and try and screw them over.
I wish HBO had aired Arrested Development, they understand quality programming.


Note: It's not the fault of the creators of this fine show that it's scored only 77.5%, it's Fox that have managed to drive the score down. Maybe they'll wise up and release a nice smart "Complete Series" box for about £60 and then I can revisit the scores for Price + Packaging and give this show the score it really deserves. Because I feel ashamed at myself for scoring this one so low.

In fact it leaves me feeling:

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My father twigged me onto Skins. He thinks it's utterly brilliant, while he has a strange dislike of American comedies (He'll watch American Sci-Fi no issues...) and as such won't watch Arrested Development... He does have good taste in television, so when I saw the complete series for $24 I thought "Why not?"

Skins comes in the plastic book form packaging. It's a two page book, with a pair of the DVDs on one side and the third one on the other, this comes in the now standard cardboard dust-sleeve. At first I was a little confused by the presence of three DVDs, but once I watched the 3rd DVD I understood why it had 3 instead of 2. It takes up a minimal amount of space on the shelf and is pretty nice to look at. The box art is functional and gives you a good idea of what to expect. Other shows should take note as this a very well put together piece of packaging.


On a side note, which is not related directly to Skins itself. I still don't understand why manufacturers of DVDs feel the need to use such long boxes. They really should switch to CD case sized boxes, especially for films which normally use a single dvd. This would decrease the amount of space a DVD takes up on a shelving unit and allow for more shelves to be used.

At first I wasn't that impressed with the special features on the Skins DVDs, the first two discs are lacking in any such things. They contain only the episodes and subtitles. But that's because the DVD designers decided to place all the special features onto the the third DVD. There are plenty of the usual options here, but the most impressive section is called Ancillary Stories and is essentially deleted scenes that have been edited up and put together then broadcast online. They fit into the main stories very well and if you pay attention to the main episodes you can see the points where they join up. Top stuff.


Skins is essentially a British comedy drama about teens in college. It stars Nicholas Hoult (from about a boy) as Tom, who's supposed to be the desirable & likeable but nasty lad. My first words when I saw him on screen were "Didn't he turn out ugly?" So that made it pretty difficult to swallow how he was supposed to be this heart throb. But I suspended disbelief and carried on.
Of course, the real star of the show is Mike Bailey in the role of Sid, who very much reminded me of Adrian Mole or the lead character in the TV version of "Teenage Health Freak" (whos name escapes me completely). He's very sympathetic, I guess more so for me because he reminds me of me (even if he looks and dresses like my brother).
The show is very much an Ensemble show in nature, with each episode focusing on the problems of one character in close detail. This brings a great deal of variety to the show and allows each cast member to shine in the spotlight.

The show is funny, clever and touching all at once. It reminds me of my times in late adolescence and is quite brilliant. If not as amazing as my Father makes out I still enjoyed it a lot. At some point I'll write a "Why you should watch" on this show. But this month is going to be about DVDs in review.


At £12 for the complete first series this comes out at £1.30 ish per episode, but you also get the Ancillary episodes which work out at around 1 extra episodes worth of viewing. So I'll call this £1.20 per episode which at 1 hour per episode is a very respectable 2p per minute.

That puts it as the current front runner for value (out of 3 shows so far :P) by a huge gap. As such I need to give this:




That's a pretty strong showing for this little British underdog show. The sheer value for money is a huge factor (other companies take note!). As such, I wish it much success and look forward to picking up the next season on DVD.
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The Seinfeld Seasons are identically set out between each season, the only differences being box art and the actual season featured. There are also two versions of the complete collection, one special version in a box that looks like Jerry's fridge and another more normal version. The special fridge version is nothing more than a cardboard box that looks like a fridge, it's rather disappointing tbh. But the fridge magnets that come with it are rather cool.



Each season comes in an outside sleeve, a second box slides out of this sleeve and then you slide out the dvd box out of that. Yeah, you read that right. These babies come double bagged (well boxed)! It seems a little excessive for the needs, just one of the external boxes would have done the job just fine. While it's not much extra packaging, it does mount up when spread over 7 boxes.
The internal DVD tray is quite nicely done, it includes a short pamphlet that tells you about each episode and the tray itself is a book style two page layout. So you only have to open it once to get access to each of the DVDs. This system works well for seasons that fit on 4 DVDs.
The box art is nothing spectacular (as you can see), but it does include a wide range of pictures with no duplications between seasons. It's also kept consistent between each season, there are no sudden changes in style and the only real difference between each season box is the colour of the outside border. This keeps it all looking tidy and a part of the whole.
7/10

The Seinfeld DVDs include the usual selection of features, the wonderful "Play All" button is here and the menus are rather pleasing to look at, consisting of scenes/places related to the show. Most of the usual suspects are present in the extra section, you have deleted scenes, outtakes, a smattering of commentary (but it's not as good as it could have been), featurettes and collections of Jerry's stand up work. There's literally hours of extras.

But the two stand out amazing extras are the Seinimations and the "Notes about Nothing". You can see the Seinimations in the link above, but it's the "Notes about Nothing" that are clever and unique to the Seinfeld DVDs (so far anyway). Notes about nothing are a collection of interesting facts placed like subtitles in each episode. They keep track of some statistics (like the number of relationships everyone has, how many times Kramer enters Jerry's apartment and the like), plus provide a whole range of facts about the show or related subjects linked to the show. It's like watching the show with the worlds biggest Seinfeld nerd telling you all about everything, but without being annoying. It's a brilliant feature and I often now watch the show with it turned on.
9/10 (It would be 10, but the commentary leaves a little to be desired - more people in each commentary and more episodes with commentary please!)


Seinfeld is a genuinely seminal show, it changed the face of sitcoms and altered viewer expectations. It remains a "love it or hate it" show, often provoking extreme reactions from people one way or the other. Which is a sign of how brilliant it is. Really I don't need to go on about how influencial this show is, so many parts of it have crept into popular culture and have influenced later shows.
10/10

While you can pick up the earlier seasons cheap when in sales the RPP tends to be between £28 and £35 per season. That's 7 boxes for lets say £30 each (but as I said you can get it for less), containing 180 episodes. Which works out at £1.17 per episode or 5p per minute. But, that is still comparable to Futurama and as such it's pretty reasonable. The complete collection represents an even larger saving, so it's worth taking this time.
8/10


Watching Seinfeld via the DVDs is better than watching it on television, add to it the sheer bulk of good extras and you have something that's must have for fans of the show. "Notes about Nothing" is one of the best extras on a DVD ever.

Packaging: 7
Features: 9
Show: 10
Price: 8
Overall: 85%

And to wrap up, here's one of my favourite exchanges in the show.

[Scene: Jerry has answered the phone to a telemarketer]
Jerry: This isn't a good time.
Telemarketer: When would be a good time to call back, sir?
Jerry: I have an idea, why don't you give me your home number and I'll call you back later?
Telemarketer: Umm, we're not allowed to do that.
Jerry: Oh, I guess because you don't want strangers calling you at home.
Telemarketer: Umm, no.
Jerry: Well, now you know how I feel.
[Hangs up phone]

And as a special bonus:
Here's a link to the Seinfeld Poster Challenge there are 38 images related to Seinfeld moments!
(Here are the answers for the impatient or lazy.)
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I thought I'd kick this off with a look at one of my favourite shows and as I'm watching it again right now this seems sensible.

Packaging:
Each of the four seasons of Futurama is packaged in their own season box, which consists of three or four seperate dvd cases. The whole thing comes in a cardboard box that keeps them all together tidy. Essentially you get all four individual season boxes and another box to keep them in. Really this isn't much better than buying them individually. But the Outside box has a lot of original artwork and is quite nice looking.

It's worth noting that the box is rather cumbersome, but that is mostly because I bought the older version of the Complete Collection. The newer one is considerably smaller and I find myself annoyed that they didn't use the smaller size in the first place. As such I have to keep my Futurama collection ontop of my DVD shelving rather than actually on one of the shelves.

Each individual season is a cardboard 3/4 box that the DVDs slide into, wrapped with a plastic sheath which is pretty robust. This means the season dvds can take the odd knock and do just fine when removed from the shelf/big box. Of course, individual dvd boxes, inside another box, inside a sheath and inside a box isn't the most practical way to have a complete collection. But there is original artwork on each of the boxes and the outside boxes so they are nice to look at.
8/10

Features:
Each season of Futurama has quite a lot of features to it. The first two seasons sadly are missing the "Play All" selection on the menu. This is quite an oversight, but seasons 3 + 4 do have "Play All" so it's possible later versions of Season 1 + 2 have corrected this error.

Other features include deleted scenes, draft copies, amusing single frame easter eggs (Season One are movie posters) and concept sketches. There's plenty to keep you occupied and interested if you want to look at it. The deleted scenes are quite nice.

But the crowning jewel in the features/extras section for Futurama are the commentaries. Every single episode has commentary on it including the writers, animators, composers, creators and voice actors. There are plenty of appearances from John DeMaggio and Billy West plus a few from others like Tress MacNeille, Maurice LaMarche, Phill LaMarr and even Dan Castallaneta. All of the commentaries are infomative, interesting and quite often funny. The highlights of the commentary often come from the voice artists, my favourites include "Dueling Professors" and "Dr. John Zoidberg Comments". It's some of the most enthralling commentary and it adds a whole new layer to watching the show.
9/10 (I'd give it 10 but the easter eggs aren't that interesting, where's my easter egg version of the game Fry plays in the first episode?)

Show:
Futurama is a classic show already, it remains fresh even to this day and hasn't had a truely poor moment yet. I can only identify two episodes that I'm not that keen on "A Fishfull of Dollars" and "That's Lobstertainment", but even those episodes have their great moments and remain watchable. The score I give this show is pretty much predictable. It's perfection.
10/10

Price:
Sadly you make no extra saving for purchasing the seasons together. £80 for the complete season or £20 per season. There's no benefit to grabbing the entire collection these days. You get 72 episodes for this price, each episode is approximately 20mins so you end up paying about 5p per minute of watching - just under a pound per episode. Factor in the fact that every episode has excellent commentary and the Futurama seasons are exceptional value for money. The only problem is, the complete collection doesn't really represent any additional value beyond buying each season seperately.
8/10
Overall:
If you're a fan of the show, the DVDs are must haves. The only problem with the Complete Collection is it's not really an improvement over owning the seasons seperately. The box takes up slightly more space and is impractical for atypical DVD shelving. So it's better to purchase each season seperately.

Packaging: 8 Features: 9 Show: 10 Price: 8 Overall: 87.5%
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Well I promised myself I'd come up with something to get me posting again. The TV industry certainly isn't providing much worth talking about, I would write about "The Wire" but I'm happier waiting until it finishes before I look back on the whole thing in reflection.

Instead I'm going to be reviewing the various TV DVDs that I can get my hands on. I shan't go that deeply into the shows as I'm going to be concentrating more on what you get for your money. Each DVD will be rated on the following:

Packaging:
The key points I'll be looking at are the artwork, elegance of use, robustness,

Features:
I'll be noting any extras added, commentary, easter eggs, deleted scenes and the like. Stuff that you don't really need to enjoy the DVD but sometimes it's nice to have.

Show:
The Show itself will get a short review, most of the time I'm going to be talking about shows I like so for the most part these will rate well.

Price:
Very simply I'll look at the recommended retail price and work out how much you pay per episode and minute. Then I'll use some complex equations to factor in how enjoyable the show is and it will result in a number between 1 and 10. (10 being best value possible per minute).

Then I'll put down an overall average score out of 10.
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I haven't really felt like posting recently, mostly because there has been precious little new television to watch (Torchwood, Boston Legal and the Wire) and I've also gotten behind with a few shows I like to watch - Nip/Tuck and Psych most of all.

Not really any good excuses, instead I'm going to fill the time by reviewing DVD boxed sets. I'll try and be as comprehensive as possible. Starting either tonight or tomorrow.

Until then, I just want to register my aprehension about the final few episodes of "The Wire". I don't think it ends on a happy note, I'm rather worried something very bad is going to happen to one of my favourite characters in it. We'll see, 2 weeks and it'll be over.
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I got carried away and watched all the way up to Ep 7 of the Wire (damn you internet leaks) and as such I now no longer remember which parts occured in which episodes. I must go back and watch them again so I can break each one apart and assess. But I won't do that until just before the final two episodes air.

I can say I really enjoyed Munch's cameo, that was ace. But I've enjoyed all of the cameos this season (characters from previous seasons). Fingers crossed that Bunny and Prez turn up, I've missed them both.
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I've been just thinking about some of the very best moments in television I've seen. Those moments which just hit you with the perfection of the story. Sometimes they are up, sometimes down. But always when you see one, you realise that the show has moved from just TV to something more personally important.

I'm going to list a few here:

As a major warning, there will be heavy spoilers to the following shows:
The Shield, The Wire,
Do not read on if you want to experience these moments without having the shock or joy of a fresh moment in them.




Big gap here as these are spoiler-riffic.









1. The Shield - Season 5, Final episode.

This is the single most heartbreaking moment I've ever seen on television. Even now, nearly 2 years after the events of this episode I feel saddened by them. Lem has been hounded all season and is at breaking point. But so far he hasn't turned on Vic and the Strike Team.
Shane meets him out alone, walks up to give him a sandwich and chats a little. Before dropping a grenade in the back of the car and walking off. It detonates and Lem lives just long enough to see Shane breakdown in the realisation of what he's done.

Vic's reaction on discovering Lem's death is iconic, but it's clear that nothing will be the same again and that this signifies the beginning of the end for Vic.




2. The Wire - Season 2 - Frank Sobotka's death at the hands of 'The Greeks'

Over the course of the season Sobotka grew on me greatly; he had a strong sense of personal honour and wasn't a criminal for his own ends, but to help his fellow Union members. He spent the entire season being fucked by the police all because he pipped a Captain over a stained glass window.
Eventually he begins to turn on the Greeks, but changes his mind and decides to go talk to them instead. Unbeknownst to him, the Greeks have a mole inside the police force. One who notices that Sobotka was talking to the police - despite the fact that Frank didn't actually tell them anything and had changed his mind.

Frank walks alone towards them, having told his nephew to stay back. His body washes up in the harbor later, without its head.

The Union honour his memory by declaring him head of the union for another year. "Sobotka for union president" posters crop up in later seasons.

3. Dead Zone - 205 - Precipitate

I talk about this episode here.

4. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003

This show has several fantastic moments. The decapitation of Shredder, the tengu Shredder, Bishop's first appearance and many more.

But the one I'm going to pick is "The Big Brawl" series from the end of the second season. It's a wonderful four parter that has the Turtles and Splinter involved in an ultimate contest of champions. It's high action, immense fun and you'll be suprised at the winner.

5. Boston Legal - Guantanamo by the bay - Cold Opening

This is probably Boston Legal's finest moment. Pretty much shattering the 4th wall in an ironic fashion. Jerry Espenson explains to Shirley Schmidt that he'd love to return to firm and thinking about it makes him want to sing out this happy song. Shirley asks him to hum a few bars of it and he breaks out into the theme song. I love the Boston Legal theme song, the Denny Crane kazoo version was fantastic, but this one is beyond all that. It's funny, enjoyable and just plain cool.

6. Arrested Development - Who is Mr. F?

Arrested Development is so brilliant in it's forshadowing that other shows should take note, the Lucile/Buster/Hand pun of season two was brilliant. But it's season three's Bond-like Mr. F sting that cracks me up repeatedly. Mr. F turns out to have two meanings, but it is the second one that's funniest. A mysterious pimp named Mr. F starts threatening Michael Bluth over a woman who Michael thinks is his sister, but is really a prostitute. Mr F. Turns out to be Franklin, G.O.B.'s offensive hand puppet. Then the Mr F. Sting plays over the top of the moment and it just becomes hysterical.

7. Futurama - The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings (Season 4 final episode) - The final notes.

This episode has it all, it's bittersweet. Has a fantastic musical number and is just sublime. For a long time I'd always feel choked up when watching this episode. The open and hopefull ending showed a real gift for open ended story telling. It could have been the perfect moment to end on, I'm glad it wasn't...
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The first season of Torchwood was a fun and entertaining idea that got mired down in exceedingly poor writing. The show alternated between being some juvenile swingers love-fest and a very poor episode of Scooby-Doo with swearing in it.

One or two episodes were quite good, but for the most part it was trite.

Still, I very much enjoyed watching it. Partly because it was so retardedly stupid at times that I was left speechless that the BBC tolerated such piss-poor programming and partially because I know Cardiff and enjoyed seeing places that I recognised on TV.

By the end of the series I was sick of the various references to "Jack being like Jesus" especially the finale. That made me really angry, and I vowed not to watch it again.

Then I heard that James Marsters would be making an appearance as a rogue Time Agent and I was intrieged. James was the one actor in Buffy and Angel that I quite enjoyed watching, he was consistently entertaining and a fantastic villain come anti-hero.

So I decided; against my better judgement, to give the first episode of season 2 a go. And blow me if it wasn't half bad. In fact it was quite good.

James Marsters was simply brilliant, I really enjoyed him smacking the heck out of John Barrowman and making the entire Torchwood team look like the bunch of idiots they are. While it wasn't the most intelligent of plots, it was a jolly cracking ride.

Sadly, John Barrowman proved to still be a one dimensional and exceptionally wooden actor. I used to enjoy his performance as Captain Jack until I realised it wasn't a performance. It was from the "Sean Connery school of acting" and not even a very good version at that.
Additionally Torchwood still seems to be almost full of almost pointless sexual plotlines, Captain Jack randomly swings more than a saloon door in a badly made western. Maybe I should watch the Children's edit as that will hopefully remove the parts of the show I find pointless. I don't care about Jack being bi and snogging men, that's not the issue. I'm just tired of him bouncing around from person to person like some kind of sexual pinball in a sleezy game. I guess if it was just Captain Jack who did it, I could tolerate it. But it seems the entire cast is totally unable to control their hormones. They are like a bunch of randy drunk teenagers at their school prom. Could at least one or two of them show some ability to get on with the job without lusting after the next quickie? Please?

But, griping about how terrible Barrowman is on screen and the sexual *ahem* "tension" aside. The episode was good enough that I'll watch next weeks. In particular the teaser section at the end indicated that Masters would be returning for at least one more episode. I hope he doesn't get killed off and is instead bumped up to a guest slot in Doctor Who. He was that damn good.

Better than last season for sure. But that wasn't hard.
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Last weeks season opened was solid, but slower than usual (and The Wire is a slow show to start anyway). So I pushed back watching the second episode till today.

I'm only just past the cold opening and credits and I'm already feeling compelled to write about it. The cold opening is a simple piece about Bubbles at an Addicts Anonymous meeting, it opens with a young ish woman talking about her experiences as an addict. The degrading things she did to chase her next high are not explicitly mentioned. But they are hinted at, which makes it all the more disturbing. Bubbles himself doesn't directly talk about his experiences (many of which the viewer has also experienced) instead he attempts to make light of it with amusing metaphors and jokes. But it's clear that things are wearing on him as he keeps it short before sitting down crushed.

Such a powerfull opening scene is part of what makes The Wire so great. We have only two characters talking a lot, one of which is only a bit part. But the writing and acting is so strong that the desperation and decay that is creeping through Baltimore permiates everything.

Then we're onto the season 5 cover of Tom Waits's "Way Down in the Hole". It's really grown on me this past week, I might like it more than The Blind Boys of Alabama's rendition. It has such a wonderful downbeat drive to it.

It seems that lies are a major part of this episode and even season. Both the media and McNulty are creating stories where there are none. McNulty in particular has lost the plot, as his tampering of evidence in a death to make it appear like strangulation (to match earlier post mortem neck damage on another body) is a new low even for Jimmy. Right now I can't really figure out why he's acting out this way, before Jimmy's motives have been clear if a little twisted but now... I don't know, he's gone way beyond his usual levels of bad behaviour into something that could end up with him being tarred as a 'bad guy'. As I said in the previous review, I think he's in for a major fall.

In the other fronts Marlo is pushing out again after the Major Crimes Unit relax their vigilance (having been essentially disbanded last episode) and he strikes out against people who offended him. Omar is on that list, but hasn't appeared yet. It's going to be legendary when Marlo goes up against Omar. Hopefully Snoop catches a bullet in the process.
I'm also hoping that Marlo's conversations with Avon and the "Russian" (Really Ukrainian) result in a return of "The Greek" I loved that guy in season 2 and I'd like to see the return of that organisation as it would tie S2 in nicely before the end.

The media section of the story still remains the weakest, Clark Johnson is fantastic again this episode. But on the whole it doesn't seem to have as much punch as any of the other parts of this story.

But the action is back and the ball is already rolling. Things are looking bleak in Baltimore and that means good television.
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[Spoiler Heavy]
First Appearances:
Major returning characters from previous seasons: McNulty, Bunk, Carver, Marlo, Freamon, Carcetti, "Beadie" Russell, Kima, Daniels, Sydnor, Snoop, Prop Joe, Carver, Rhonda Pearlman, Jay Landsman.
New Characters of note: Editor: Gus Haynes (Clark Johnson)

The Wire is easily one of the best shows that America (and possibly humanity) has ever produced. It's a pinnacle of storytelling that is for the most part unrivaled in the media. Only Dexter, The Shield and Six Feet Under come close to touching it for sheer perfection.

Sadly, this year will be The Wire's final season. This landmark television show that is hardly watched by the public will one day be discovered and held up for what it is. Seminal. But until then I'm going to mark the passing of the first of "The Trio" (The Trio is the nickname for the three best shows in the media right now, Dexter and The Shield are the other two) by reviewing , rating and commenting on every single episode this season. I'll duplicate these over at tv.com because I aim to review every episode of The Wire there (eventually).

Episode One - More With Less

The episode opens on one of my favourite characters; "Bunk" Moreland, interviewing a suspect. A section of the interviewing technique employed is one that first made it's TV debut in Homicide: Life on the Street (and additionally appeared in the book of the same title). While the scene is still funny even here, for myself some of the impact was lost because honestly - Homicide did it better. I feel a little dirty for even writing that; don't get me wrong Homicide is an amazing show, but The Wire is normally perfection. I guess that having seen the Homicide version last year, the humour just wasn't fresh. If you haven't seen it before elsewhere I'm sure it was more entertaining. For the record, I believe it originated from an actual incident at a police station - but don't quote me on that, I could be wrong.

Still as Bunk himself says "The bigger the lie, the more they believe."

I love that each season of The Wire has a new rendition of Tom Waits's "Way Down in the Hole". While it is still the First Season rendition by "Way Down in the Hole" The Blind Boys of Alabama that I love the most, this season's cover by Steve Earle is fantastic. It's got a real laid back feel to it that is simultaneously downbeat and lifting. It sets the tone for the show wonderfully and the title credits make it clear that the media is an important subject for this season (as previously indicated in various interviews).

The episode opens after the credits with McNulty and the rest in surveillance of Marlo's crew. Marlo is bright enough not to do anything in public and is even aware that the detail are keeping close tabs on him. Snoop continues to be one of the most unpleasant and detestable female villain characters in television history. I'm hoping she catches a nasty end this season, it would make putting up with her horrible voice and crimes all worthwhile. She's fantastic in this role as she's brought such a viseral response from me, I'd like to beat her (character's) head flat against the curb.

Meanwhile, Carver's promotion has proven to be a double edged sword. It is clear that his men have a lack of respect for him as their Sergant, but also they are in an exceedingly foul mood over the lack of overtime. Conversation hinted at in the previous scene becomes a hard reality as it becomes clear that the police department's moral is at an all time low. Considering some of the previous seasons, this is an achievement. The odds of being able to cover all of the police departments back pay AND future pay seem slim. Also, is Carver really wearing an official Baltimore Sergant's uniform? Cause I laughed every time I saw his hat badge. Regardless, it is clear the city and the police force are in serious trouble.

At Mayor Carcetti's office financial issues are clearly a massive problem for the city of Baltimore. Carcetti's response is to continue to cut and gouge the Police budget without providing any compensation for the force. It becomes clear that the major crimes unit is going to be disbanded in an attempt to save a few dollars. The FBI are also unwilling to get involved and help out unless Carcetti will release Clay Davies for federal prosecution.

The Baltimore Sun is a new arena for The Wire to tackle, it is where the issues concerning media will most likely be played out and it also gives us our first experience of Clark Johnson's character Gus. The same financial theme continues even here, with the staff concerned about layoffs. Clark's perfomance is immediately magnetic, if very similar to his perfomance in Homicide (but that is not a problem imo).

While the police force is struggling, life is continuing as usual on the street. Prop Joe and his co-op continue to go from strength to strength. But Marlo is clearly a disruptive element in this unit. He attempts to drive a wedge between Prop Joe and his Lieutenants. Something that may flare up later this season.
Also on the street, Bubbles is trying to get his life back on track. But previous mistakes and misdeeds mean it's hard for him to escape and move on. He is physically trapped in the desperation that many of the other characters feel. He makes ends meet by shifting papers on the street.

McNulty has discovered that Marlo's man Chris Partlow is interested in Sergei Malatov (a Ukrainian enforcer for the Greek from season 2). Does this show have a deep tapestry that reaches back into it's own history or what? I'm consistently impressed with touches like that (The Frank Sobotka posters are another such touch. I'd love to own one of those.)
In his private life he is still living with the lovely Beadie Russell, but various problems (including guilt over Bodies death) have caused him to return to previous form. He's drinking heavily and cheating on her. The shift back to homicide (where he started in this show) causes him to lash out. More than any other character McNulty has fallen since the previous season and if he continues then he's got a lot further to fall.

Herc has gotten out of the police force and is now working for Maury Levy as an investigator for the defense attorney. He's now sort of on the side of the criminals (helping defending them in court at least) and this could bring him (or his cop buddies) into serious trouble or conflict.

We end with McNulty back where he started, at his desk in homicide. Looking as fed up and depressed as many of the other characters must feel.

This season opener is less of a shocker - many shows like to open with a shock first episode - and instead it is in the traditional slow burn style of The Wire. Many potential conflicts and issues are groomed, it's hard to tell which ones will flare up and which will fizzle. That's part of the magic in The Wire, it's happy to tell a realistic story with human characters. People make mistakes, get frustrated, move on.

8.5/10 - Room for improvement in the pacing front. But that's to be expected in this show. A solid (if slow) start to what looks like an incredible season.

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