How many Awards should the Wire have won?

[sully1410]

So...it's pretty easy for me to say...well...all of them but let's take an honest look at the nominees and winners for the five years that the Wire was on TV.

Emmy''s

2003 (because it wasn't eligible for the previous year)

Best Drama Series

Winner: The West Wing

Nominees: 24, The Sopranos, 6 feet Under, CSI

Best Actor

Winner: James Gandolfini, The Sopranos

Noms: Martin Sheen (The West Wing), Michael Chikilis (The Shield), Keifer Sutherland (24), Peter Krause (six feet under)

Best Actress

Winner: Edie Falco, The Sopranos

Noms: Jennifer Garner (Alias), Frances Conroy (Six Feet Under), Marg Helgenberger (CSI), Allison Janney(The West Wing)

Best Supporting Actor

Winner: Joe Pantoliano, The Sopranos

Noms: Michael Imperioli (The Sopranos), John Spencer (The West Wing), Bradley Whitford (The West Wing), Victor Garber( Alias).

Best Supporting Actress

Winner: Tyne Daly (Judging Amy)

Noms: Lauren Ambrose (Six feet Under), Stockard Channing(The West Wing), Rachel Griffiths (Six Feet Under), Leña Olin (Alias)


So for me...the obvious omissions are basically anything to do with CSI. So that leaves an opening on Best drama and best actress right off the bat.

Obviously, The Wire would take its spot in outstanding Drama but would Sonja Sohn be a suitable candidate for Best Actress?

I would probably drop Victor Garber in favour for Michael K Williams as Omar Little. This category is tough, because it is STACKED. You could also argue that John Doman or André Royo (Bubbles) would make as good of a candidate here.

I donthink think there is any room in the best actor category, so Dominic West gets nothing. The only exception is Michael Chikilis.

I've never seen Judging Amy or Alias so I can't really comment on the best supporting Actress Category, but outside of Kima there is very few female characters. I suppose that Deirdre Lovejoy could get a nod for Rhonda Pearlman but I don't know how great those other actresses were in those roles.

You could also argue that Kima Greggs is more of a supporting character in any event.

So by my analysis, The Wire would get three Emmy Nominations, but zero wins for its first season.

And Discuss. I can do the Globes tomorrow or someone else can take a cracked at it, I'm not to fussed.

Click to read more...

 

[beowulf]

Curious as to why you would just remove CSI out of hand like that? Especially back then when it was actually a good show.

 

[What the Faulk]

All of them.

 

[sully1410]

Curious as to why you would just remove CSI out of hand like that? Especially back then when it was actually a good show.

O don't think it was actually anything spectacular. In terms of precedurals, I thought it was inferior to Law and Orders in almost every single way. It didn't help that my dad (who is police) used to laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of it.

Th Wire is far superior.

 

[Soliloquy of a Dogge]

All of them.

Although a good argument can be put forth that Six Feet Under was also robbed of a couple wins as well.

 

[FLYLine27*]

Zero because its overrated.

 

[Muzzinga]

When people talk about the greatness of the wire, the acting, or a particular performance are never mentioned. The show was elite, but the acting was secondary to everything else

 

[Soliloquy of a Dogge]

When people talk about the greatness of the wire, the acting, or a particular performance are never mentioned. The show was elite, but the acting was secondary to everything else

Well that's because the writing and exploration of the societal themes it explored were exceptionally executed and somewhat overshadowed a very strong cast that were all very good actors. Still, Michael Williams portrayal of Omar and Idris Elba's portrayal of Stringer, as well as Andre Royo, Lawrence Gilliard too, I would say, do get mentioned in particular quite a bit in terms of standout portrayals of their characters on the show.

 

[Ensane]

Well that's because the writing and exploration of the societal themes it explored were exceptionally executed and somewhat overshadowed a very strong cast that were all very good actors. Still, Michael Williams portrayal of Omar and Idris Elba's portrayal of Stringer, as well as Andre Royo, Lawrence Gilliard too, I would say, do get mentioned in particular quite a bit in terms of standout portrayals of their characters on the show.

Agreed. Lack of starpower and an ensemble cast also factored into this overshadowing.

I don't know that I'd make the argument that any particular actors deserve to bump any of the individual award winners or nominees of years past, but there were multiple amazing and notable performances during the run of the show that went a far way to establish careers.

 

[Shareefruck]

Zero because its overrated.

I would sooner argue that the whole of television is overrated with The Wire being one of the few sole exceptions.

 

[sully1410]

I thought Dominic West was quite fantastic.

 

[Shareefruck]

I've never bought into the "greater than the sum of its parts-- no single great performance" thing-- There are several performances on The Wire that I think are every bit as great if not better than Tyrion Lannister or Walter White.

McNulty, Bell, Omar, Bunk, Bodie, and Avon were absolute top of the line performances, for my money.

I think if anything, the "no single standout performance but all working towards a whole" thing applies more to something like Six Feet Under or Mad Men.

 

[Muzzinga]

People get caught up in the character of Omar and overrate the acting. The character was elite, but like anyone on the show could have played that role well, he didn't need a whole lot of acting. Some characters are just written so well that an actor just has to turn up. That's not to say the acting wasn't great, just not award worthy.

Its the same with Stringer, can you highlight a scene with him where you go, wow, that was some terrific award worthy acting?

I got McNulty and Bodie as the 2 best performances in the show. Bodie's was more a full body of work for the full show though than individually strong series, so tough to give that an award. McNulty probably deserved a nom though during the middle series

 

[aleshemsky83]

I wasn't a fan of the guy who played mcnulty

There was one scene where he started yelling and he was yelling in a full on British accent. They just left it in.

Idris Elba did this too, but he's my guy

 

[ArGarBarGar]

I've never bought into the "greater than the sum of its parts-- no single great performance" thing-- There are several performances on The Wire that I think are every bit as great if not better than Tyrion Lannister or Walter White.

McNulty, Bell, Omar, Bunk, Bodie, and Avon were absolute top of the line performances, for my money.

I think if anything, the "no single standout performance but all working towards a whole" thing applies more to something like Six Feet Under or Mad Men.

I would argue with so many good to great performances they overshadowed each other to an extent.

If anyone deserved an award for at least season one I think I would choose John Doman (Deputy Rawls) for supporting actor. His speech to McNulty after Kima was shot with the perfect mix of disdain for him and support for a fellow officer was brilliant. J.D. Williams (Bodie) was also incredible as a supporting actor.

Others who I think could have won awards for the first season alone were Wood Harris (Avon Barksdale) and Larry Gilliard (D'angelo Barksdale) who despite being the "villains" of the season had their actors really humanize them.

 

[What the Faulk]

Bodie's story was easily my favorite. It sucked to see him go out the way he did. But that's what makes The Wire great

 

[DeYarmond Edison]

Zero because its overrated.

*has never watched the wire*

 

[Fordy]

damn, those were some quality shows all at the same time. hard to pick between the sopranos six feet under and the wire. and then the west wing too...

... and then inexplicably a bunch of garbage that was handed awards/noms over all of them

 

[FLYLine27*]

*has never watched the wire*

Watched the first 2 eps and it was boring as crap. Literally put me to sleep.

 

[BonMorrison]

Because 2/60 episodes is enough to formulate an opinion worth sharing in a thread dedicated to its entire body of work.

 

[ArGarBarGar]

Watched the first 2 eps and it was boring as crap. Literally put me to sleep.

I feel sorry for you. You are missing out.

 

[FLYLine27*]

If it doesn't hook me, then why should I keep wasting my time?

A good show knows how to hook the audience from the first episode. They were lucky i even watched the 2nd one.

 

[ArGarBarGar]

If it doesn't hook me, then why should I keep wasting my time?

A good show knows how to hook the audience from the first episode. They were lucky i even watched the 2nd one.

Well objectively it is a good show. I'm not sure what exactly you need to hook your interest in a crime/political drama.

 

[Shareefruck]

To be fair, who gives a **** about what it objectively is.

If it doesn't hook me, then why should I keep wasting my time?

A good show knows how to hook the audience from the first episode. They were lucky i even watched the 2nd one.

I'm sure they're losing sleep over your viewship.

If you don't want to watch it, that's your perogative, but it's stupid to have an unqualified opinion of something from two episodes alone. At least mention that when you comment on it! I took you seriously when you said it, but now it's like "pffwwat, so basically you didn't even watch it."

Two episodes isn't even enough for me to feel convinced that the show's not for YOU, specifically

Personally (and this goes for music/tv/films in general), my feeling is that having the "if it doesn't hook me, why should I keep wasting my time/how can it be any good?" attitude makes it very difficult to ever experience anything legitimately good. Because quite honestly, I think the ability for something to be catchy/addictive/hook me is actually completely worthless with regards to how good something really is. It only really affects accessibility-- how easy something goes down. It's like the candy in candy coated medicine. It's made for children who won't take it without it, but it doesn't really affect the outcome. If anything, too much emphasis on catchiness/hooking the viewer can ruin the final result, to a degree.

The best and most holy satisfying things in the world are uncompromising and make you come to it rather than go out of its way to cater to you, somewhat ruining its own product in the process. That's how I've always felt (and probably why I seem to have a bias against overly popular things-- With a few exceptions, in my opinion, they tend to only exist as a result of hindering heir own experience by wh*ring themselves out too hard).

That second part is just my opinion and I'm not intending to convince you of it.

 

[Soliloquy of a Dogge]

Watched the first 2 eps and it was boring as crap. Literally put me to sleep.

Says more about you, then it does about the show.