Why does everyone call 'The Wire' a slow burn when it's actually perfect pacing?

I tried rewatching it last Tuesday with a buddy who said it was boring at first. We got through episode 4 and he was hooked, but I kept hearing people say you have to push through the first season like it's a chore. That makes zero sense to me, every scene sets up something important later. Has anyone else noticed that "slow burn" just means "I have no patience for character development"?

3 comments

3 Comments

blairj5529d ago

Yeah I gotta push back on that a little. I mean the first season of The Wire isn't slow at all if you're paying attention, it's just dense. There's a difference between slow pacing and having to actually work to follow the story. Every scene with Omar staking out the corner or McNulty talking to a judge is building the world. I think people just got used to shows where you can look at your phone for five minutes and still know what's happening. The Wire expects you to be there for all of it, and calling that a slow burn feels like a cop out to me.

noranguyen29d ago

The Wire is basically operating on novel logic instead of TV logic, which is funny because most people don't realize they're comparing apples to oranges when they talk about pacing. Isn't that the whole point of why it's so different from everything else?

graceprice29d ago

Slow burn implies it takes forever to get good, which just isn't true here. The Wire is dense from the first scene, every conversation is a puzzle piece. People confuse needing to pay attention with the show being too slow.