The Wire: The Complete Series $89.99 (was $99.99) w/FSSS

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The Wire, widely considered the finest television drama ever made, is now $89.99 at Amazon (was $99.99)

I've been watching the price on the complete series, and this is cheaper than it has been in quite a while. But in the experience of seasoned CAGs, is this box set likely to get even cheaper before the holiday season ends?

Either way, I just thought that a heads-up would be appreciated.
 
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[quote name='cupcakex1']Belongs in the DVD deals section. Also, you could get it for about 70ish on eBay.[/QUOTE]

Sorry about filing this thread incorrectly. Can I move it, or does someone more official have to do that?

As for it being cheaper on eBay, though, I know that some people prefer the speed and reliability of Amazon. eBay can be a bit of a customer service crap-shoot, in my personal experience.
 
Have to be careful about bootlegs on eBay as well. One of my old roomates ordered the complete set from eBay and it ended up being a bootleg. But the quality was ok so she didn't really care given it was like $30 or something. For $70 it's probably the real set though.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']Have to be careful about bootlegs on eBay as well. One of my old roomates ordered the complete set from eBay and it ended up being a bootleg. But the quality was ok so she didn't really care given it was like $30 or something. For $70 it's probably the real set though.[/QUOTE]

That "probably" matters to some folks, though--which is why I figured this deal was relevant.
 
This IS, IS, IS, IS (a thousand times IS) the best television show I've ever seen by a wide margin.

The reviews of the full series box set say it's cheaply made and the discs may fall out in shipment. I own the series as season sets, so I dunno what this is like.

But, for real, everyone should watch this show. There's nothing like it on TV, and there may never be again (though David Simon has a show called "Treme" (pronounced treh-may) starting on HBO in April 2010).
 
if you haven't seen this show, you need to change your christmas holiday plans and watch them all. Its ridiculously amazing. Best tv show ever on tv. Don't even like crime dramas but this is the best.
 
[quote name='Guerrilla']And now it's the best video game ever![/QUOTE]

Heh. Again, apologizes for accidentally posting this is the wrong forum. Rookie mistake. if it is within my power to move it, then just tell me how and I will do so immediately.
 
[quote name='mokmoof']Heh. Again, apologizes for accidentally posting this is the wrong forum. Rookie mistake. if it is within my power to move it, then just tell me how and I will do so immediately.[/QUOTE]



A mod has to move it.

No problem on the mistake!

This is super tempting...but I've already seen the whole thing and i really don't have $99 right now though. I'm sure we'll have a blu-ray version in a few years too.

Agreed with everyone-- it's the best show ever.

[quote name='mykevermin']This IS, IS, IS, IS (a thousand times IS) the best television show I've ever seen by a wide margin.

The reviews of the full series box set say it's cheaply made and the discs may fall out in shipment. I own the series as season sets, so I dunno what this is like.

But, for real, everyone should watch this show. There's nothing like it on TV, and there may never be again (though David Simon has a show called "Treme" (pronounced treh-may) starting on HBO in April 2010).[/QUOTE]


Did you see that William J Wilson is teaching a Wire class? to be a fly on the wall...
 
It should also be noted that there's no point in waiting for a Blu-ray version, because the show was filmed in 4:3 standard def.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']This IS, IS, IS, IS (a thousand times IS) the best television show I've ever seen by a wide margin.
[/QUOTE]
Absolutely agree. It's my favorite show of all time, although the last season was the weakest, IMO. Kind of like BSG in that way.

I own the box set, and it's not as bad as some of the reviews would have you believe.

And I'd totally buy the video game.
 
The game should be Wii exclusive. Use the wiimote to draw the trajectory of drunk McNulty's car to avoid crashing into the concrete column!
 
great show... paid about this price for seasons 1-4, and grabbed season 5 for $20 when circuit city was going under.

this cannot be stressed enough: even if you do not normally like cop shows, you will probably enjoy the hell out of this show. i can't stand law and order or csi, but i dig the shit out of the wire... probably seen the entire series 3 or 4 times now.
 
[quote name='rapsodist']It should also be noted that there's no point in waiting for a Blu-ray version, because the show was filmed in 4:3 standard def.[/QUOTE]

It could still get upgraded in some way. I have The Dirty Dozen on HDDVD and it looks great.

Granted, this series faces the same problems The Shield would face if it came to Blu-Ray. The camera and editing is done in such a special way that an HD release would probably clean it up to the point that it isn't as gritty as it is supposed to be.
 
It should also be noted that for the past three years all HBO DVDS have been 50% off the week after Christmas at Best Buy and bestbuy.com.

So

its 99.99 at Bestbuy.com now (it may be more in-store), if you hold out another 3 weeks you may be able to pick this up for 50 bucks.
 
[quote name='Porksta']It could still get upgraded in some way. I have The Dirty Dozen on HDDVD and it looks great.[/QUOTE]

I'm not going to get into an explanation of film (which is what your Dirty Dozen HDDVD is sourced from) vs. video (which The Wire was created and mastered on), but suffice to say... a Blu-ray of The Wire is unnecessary.
 
[quote name='zenintrude']I'm not going to get into an explanation of film (which is what your Dirty Dozen HDDVD is sourced from) vs. video (which The Wire was created and mastered on), but suffice to say... a Blu-ray of The Wire is unnecessary.[/QUOTE]

Very well. I am not really a videophile so I will take your word for it. :D
 
[quote name='ItsaMeMario']i'd be all over this if i didn't just spend $110 for Lost seasons 1-5 yesterday, lol[/QUOTE]
Return that shit. This is the best show ever.
 
It should also be noted that the packaging for the Wire Complete Series is utter shit. Packaging DVDs in cardboard sleeves? You will probably end up tranferring the discs to other cases if they aren't scratched upon arrival.
 
I guess they are pricematching Bestbuy. It was the same price in this week's ad. I picked up the last one in my store on Sunday. And yes, it is the best show ever.
 
[quote name='gareman']It should also be noted that for the past three years all HBO DVDS have been 50% off the week after Christmas at Best Buy and bestbuy.com.

So

its 99.99 at Bestbuy.com now (it may be more in-store), if you hold out another 3 weeks you may be able to pick this up for 50 bucks.[/QUOTE]

This is my favorite show of all time. I could watch these endless times. I recorded every episode off HBO on demand years ago, but I'd buy the complete set for $50. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

P.S. I watch an utter sh!tload of TV, so for me to say this is my favorite show means this is my favorite show out of probably 1,000 different shows.
 
[quote name='gareman']It should also be noted that for the past three years all HBO DVDS have been 50% off the week after Christmas at Best Buy and bestbuy.com.

So

its 99.99 at Bestbuy.com now (it may be more in-store), if you hold out another 3 weeks you may be able to pick this up for 50 bucks.[/QUOTE]

50% off the Regular Price, which I believe is $159.99, so it would be $80, just like last year when I bought it.

[quote name='ItsaMeMario']i'd be all over this if i didn't just spend $110 for Lost seasons 1-5 yesterday, lol[/QUOTE]

[quote name='Barnolde']Return that shit. This is the best show ever.[/QUOTE]

I've always stated that if Lost ends well there is nothing that can top it. However, if it doesn't, The Wire is the automatic #1 show of all time for me. I really want Lost to be that show, but there is a chance its The Wire.

And if you do not own this yet, buy it right now, seriously, YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT.
 
[quote name='badlieut']It should also be noted that the packaging for the Wire Complete Series is utter shit. Packaging DVDs in cardboard sleeves? You will probably end up tranferring the discs to other cases if they aren't scratched upon arrival.[/QUOTE]

QFT... if you can get them in the original packaging, not only are they better for their functional purpose (i.e. protecting the damn discs), but they're also more attractive on your shelf.
 
I never followed it that much (only saw a few episodes here and there) but for me, The Shield and LOST are two of the best ever.
 
I stand behind the previous comments about this show being the best ever. Honestly, I don't see how any other series could top this one. I really want to check out Homicide: Life on the Street I heard from many that if it was not for that series there wouldn't have been "The Wire".

Considered the most realistic cop drama ever aired, Homicide: Life on the Street gives viewers a unique cops'-eye view of one of the most challenging jobs imaginable.

Created by Writer/Director Tom Fontana (St. Elsewhere, OZ) and Executive Producer Barry Levinson (The Perfect Storm, Oz) and based on David Simon's (The Wire) book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, HOMICIDE features TV's most powerful ensemble cast, including Richard Belzer (Law and Order: Special Victims Unit), Emmy®-winner Andre Braugher (Thief, Frequency), Yaphet Kotto (Alien), and Ned Beatty (Deliverance) with guest appearances from James Earl Jones, Robin Williams, Steve Buscemi, Peter Gallagher, Chris Rock, Wilford Brimley, and other star actors.

HOMICIDE garnered two Emmy® Awards, three Peabody Awards, three Television Critics Awards, two Writers Guild Awards, and was named to TV Guide's "The Greatest Episodes in TV History" and "TV's Greatest Characters" lists.
 
[quote name='zenintrude']I'm not going to get into an explanation of film (which is what your Dirty Dozen HDDVD is sourced from) vs. video (which The Wire was created and mastered on), but suffice to say... a Blu-ray of The Wire is unnecessary.[/QUOTE]

Apart from stuff shot on consumer-grade handycams, video shot in the last 10 years can provide a better resolution than 480p, which is DVD's max resolution.

But that point is moot in this case because THE WIRE was shot on film:

http://magazine.creativecow.net/article/inside-hbos-the-wire -- The Wire is shot entirely with Panavision cameras. David Insley let us know that, "These later episodes of the show are shot Super 35, 3-perf, and that saves a lot of money because that means we're shooting about three quarters of the film we used to. But we're only using the 4 x 3 part, so we're losing the edges of the 16x 9, but it's less than we were using when it was 4-perf, so (the image is) somewhere between a Super 16 image and a standard 35 (mm) image."
Click to expand...

Even Super 16 should be better than 480p.

But here we're just talking the technical capacity of video media. The following comes from later in the same (very interesting) article:

And perhaps the final contrast to the rest of high-end episodic television, The Wire for each of its five seasons has been produced in good old fashioned 4 x 3 standard definition. DP Dave Insley recalled, "The reason the show has stayed 4x3 is because David Simon thinks that 4x3 feels more like real life and real television and not like a movie. The show's never been HD, even 4x3 HD and that (SD) is how it is on the DVDs. There is no 16x9 version anywhere." As a viewer with an HD set I will point out that like much of SD television that makes its way to HD channels, it appears that HBO utilizes state-of-the-art line doubling technology. It may still be standard definition, but line doubled it looks considerably better on a high definition set than it would on a standard definition set.
Click to expand...

So, David Simon agrees, just buy it on SD.
 
[quote name='EmpireWF']I never followed it that much (only saw a few episodes here and there)[/QUOTE]

Well there's your problem right there... you *cannot* watch The Wire this way.

[quote name='EmpireWF']but for me, The Shield and LOST are two of the best ever.[/QUOTE]

Yikes... don't even get me started on LOST, aka Backstory: The Show.
 
[quote name='zenintrude']Well there's your problem right there... you *cannot* watch The Wire this way.[/QUOTE]

Disco. Watching a few episodes here and there is akin to picking up a Dickens novel, reading through chapters 5 and 23, and then putting it down, saying it "couldn't hold your interest."
 
Is The Wire the show set in Baltimore where there's a black guy selling drugs and his mother is a crack head and only a few years older than he is? The only scene I remember was someone was stealing a refridgerator and the neighbor was sitting on the porch next door and saw them, but he said he wouldn't say anything if the robbers gave him some free stuff. I think it was directed by Charles Dutton.

Years ago when I had HBO I used to watch this show, but I could never remember what the name of it was.
 
[quote name='Haggar']Is The Wire the show set in Baltimore where there's a black guy selling drugs and his mother is a crack head and only a few years older than he is? The only scene I remember was someone was stealing a refridgerator and the neighbor was sitting on the porch next door and saw them, but he said he wouldn't say anything if the robbers gave him some free stuff. I think it was directed by Charles Dutton.

Years ago when I had HBO I used to watch this show, but I could never remember what the name of it was.[/QUOTE]

Or maybe you were just watching a documentary on Baltimore? :D

That could be it, for a while The Wire was the only show on with a dominant black cast. I've only seen the first season and that scene isn't from it so I couldn't tell you.
 
[quote name='Porksta']Or maybe you were just watching a documentary on Baltimore? :D

That could be it, for a while The Wire was the only show on with a dominant black cast. I've only seen the first season and that scene isn't from it so I couldn't tell you.[/QUOTE]

Damn. I *have* to find out what that show is. It's driving me crazy.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']Have to be careful about bootlegs on eBay as well. One of my old roomates ordered the complete set from eBay and it ended up being a bootleg. But the quality was ok so she didn't really care given it was like $30 or something. For $70 it's probably the real set though.[/QUOTE]

i once paid $150 on ebay for a full set of the sopranos and ended up with bootlegs that dont even work. even worse was that little bitch had a high number of positive feedback, but he quit his ebay account right after i paid and i couldn't find any other info about him so i'm stuck with $150 worth of bootleg coasters.
 
[quote name='dude2003']i once paid $150 on ebay for a full set of the sopranos and ended up with bootlegs that dont even work. even worse was that little bitch had a high number of positive feedback, but he quit his ebay account right after i paid and i couldn't find any other info about him so i'm stuck with $150 worth of bootleg coasters.[/QUOTE]

classic ebay.
 
[quote name='EmpireWF']I never followed it that much (only saw a few episodes here and there) but for me, The Shield and LOST are two of the best ever.[/QUOTE]

If you like The Shield, you'll definitely like The Wire. Those are without a doubt my two favorite shows. I like Lost also(and picked up the blu-ray set yesterday), but Lost doesn't touch either of these.

Like others have stated, you can not watch a few episodes and know what is going on. While each episode has its own theme, like The Shield, there is a bigger picture that you can only get by watching every episode.

I personally don't own any of the seasons yet, but plan on picking them up individually eventually. Don't need no cheap packaging ruining my discs. I have read that The Shield complete set is the same way.
 
[quote name='Haggar']Is The Wire the show set in Baltimore where there's a black guy selling drugs and his mother is a crack head and only a few years older than he is? The only scene I remember was someone was stealing a refridgerator and the neighbor was sitting on the porch next door and saw them, but he said he wouldn't say anything if the robbers gave him some free stuff. I think it was directed by Charles Dutton.

Years ago when I had HBO I used to watch this show, but I could never remember what the name of it was.[/QUOTE]

That was The Corner, which was sort of a precursor to The Wire.
 
[quote name='ItsaMeMario']i'd be all over this if i didn't just spend $110 for Lost seasons 1-5 yesterday, lol[/QUOTE]

Wow! My thoughts exactly! I've always loved this show, and was never able to see how it ended up (got rid of HBO in the middle of the show's run).

At this price, I can't believe I'm not going to buy it!
 
Lost - a show where a bunch of random crap happens and none of it means anything

the Wire - a show where a bunch of random crap happens, but it closely mimics reality

:D
 
[quote name='zenintrude']QFT... if you can get them in the original packaging, not only are they better for their functional purpose (i.e. protecting the damn discs), but they're also more attractive on your shelf.[/QUOTE]


You need to "QTF". Maybe you haven't seen the packaging for the complete series but it is utter shit. The dvd's are just in little slits in the cardboard season inserts. The whole packaging is about the season of a normal season of any other show. The discs come out somewhat scratched brand new. The packaging is horrid and you'd be very lucky if all of the discs come out scratch free and will play without skipping. I know mine skips some and I bought mine brand new. It's a really shitty package.
 
Good deal either way.

For anybody who hasn't seen the show though you just have no conceivable idea how good this show is. It lives up to the hype and then some.

As someone else said I do not care for crime dramas and it just doesn't matter.
 
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