This past summer I began the alpha and omega of television drama, more commonly known as The Wire. My friends and I had been talking about it endlessly, so I decided to give it a go. And it was incredible. Within two months I watched the first four seasons of the show. I was blown away. Then, right as I was beginning season five, something terrible happened: the lease on my apartment was up and I moved back home. Trivial at first glance, this move was devastating to my foaming inner-Wire fan. I didn't own the series. It belonged to my roommate, who I wasn't going to see. The result? I was Wireless until now.
*Just gonna put a potential spoiler warning here. Not that I think I really spoil anything, but if there is one show I don't want to be blamed for ruining, it's The Wire.*
I started watching season 5 again last night and about half way through the first episode, I realized something: I had completely forgot what happened in the show. This isn't very surprising. Anyone who watches the show knows how dense it is with characters, story, exposition and everything else. So falling off the wagon becomes deadly to memory. Some shows, like Entourage, you can get away with not watching for while. Hell, you can get away with not watching an entire season of Entourage and be alright.
But with The Wire you need to pay attention to every single detail. That's why when I began watching SE5 from the start, I realized the danger of marathoning a show. TV, right now, is arguably the best its ever been. There are a countless amount of amazing shows flooding Netflix queues, torrent sites and DVD racks. With that, though, comes this impending need to watch as many of these shows as humanly possible as quickly as humanly possible.
Within the past year or so I've marathoned the following shows: Battlestar Galactica, The Wire, Venture Brothers, Breaking Bad, Entourage, Community, V, Lost, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and so on. And while I may watch more shows than the average person, there is no doubt trying retain that much information within such a sped up time has had effects. I can't remember episodes at all sometimes. I'll be talking about a show with someone and they'll mention an event I know happened, but I can't remember seeing.
And with The Wire, that is just disingenuous. If you watch that show, you really need to WATCH that show. It's rare to have a scene in any episode without some deeper meaning. For example, with episode one of season five, the audience is introduced to the fast-paced world of the Baltimore Sun. The episode, named "Less with More", revolves around truth and lies. One character at the beginning even says in an omniscient way, "The bigger the lie, the more they believe." Not only does this quote reflect the message of the episode, it reflects the message of the entire season. When I first watched it, I didn't even catch that. It's not like the show made it hard to see either. There are several other hints throughout the episode ("You believe everything you read?"). I just didn't notice them the first time through.
I was too preoccupied with wanting knowing what happens with the entire show, not the specific episode. I was more concerned about seeing the finish line when I should have been appreciating each mile I ran. Catching up on shows, or just watching them ad nauseum, will only thin-out the experience of that show. It's a damn shame too, because when all those other Wire fans keep raving about why it's amazing show, I'll only have a shallow opinion to offer.