The best TV show ever made?
Join our four guest hosts for a spoiler-filled explicit discussion of HBO’s seminal TV series The Wire, as well as all things A Song Of Ice and Fire. Mordion aka Michael, Valkyrist aka Duncan, The Parsnip Knight aka Will and Bina007 aka Bina take a critical look at each of the five seasons in turn, before a more light-hearted after-show discussion.
Running order:
00:00 Introduction to the hosts, how we found the show, season ranking and favourite characters.
13:00 Season One – The pOlice start to investigate the Barksdale crew and we discuss how The Wire measures up to standard cop shows; the character development of Prezbo and Daniels; and the who we were rooting for.
26:00 Season Two – Union leader Frank Sobotka tries to keep the dockworkers in business by making a deal with “The Greek”. We also discuss how The Wire tackles female characters, equal opportunities for white drug dealers, and whether Ziggy or Herc is the biggest idiot.
46:40 Season Three – We discuss the pros and cons of Bunny Colvin’s Hamsterdam plan, the comedy of drug dealers recognising the chair in co-op debates, and the tragedy of the rivalry between Stringer Bell and Avon Barksdale.
1:10:40 Season Four – The Wire delves into the parlous state of public education in Baltimore as Prezbo becomes a teacher and we debate how far Chris is a “bad guy” and why The Wire didn’t achieve the commercial success of shows like Mad Men, let alone Game of Thrones.
1:38:40 Season Five – We discuss how plausible the McNutty storyline is, and whether the journalism story is too rushed for its own good.
1:50:00 Aftershow – In which we discuss who the biggest badass of the show is, who the biggest dumbass is, and whether Herc would be a gentle lover, Stringer Bell would cuddle, whether you can say “shiiiiiiiit!” in an English accent and which characters in The Wire resemble characters from A Song Of Ice and Fire.
Credits: Edited by Bina007 with music taken from the soundtrack album “…All the pieces matter – Five years of music from The Wire.”
Episode 21:
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Links:
The Aidan Gillan Game Of Thrones/Wire Mash-Up Video
Vassals of Kingsgrave 
VoK 56: Amadeus [1984] (DVD Commentary)
The Vassals soak up some culture with an audio commentary for the 1984 period drama Amadeus (Director’s Cut). Join Bina (Bina007) and Duncan (Valkyrist) as they dissect the tragic rivalry between Antonio Salieri and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
The movie should be synced from 1:50 to 3:02:07, and the commentary itself will begin around 50 seconds into the movie. This was due to some slight audio wrinkles, which thankfully iron out after the first few minutes. Also, don’t forget to nominate this episode for the “Most Niche VoK” award 😉
Credits:
Edited by Valkyrist
Audio Clips owned by Warner Bros. Entertainment
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Posted in DVD Commentary, History, Movies, Music, Podcast
Tagged Bina007, Valkyrist