Wired Thoughts --- Days 10/189, 190, 191,192

Walk: 1. Hood/Presidio  2. Hood/Presidio  3. Hood/Presidio 4. SFMOMA, West Portal

Distance: 1. 4 miles, yoga  2. 3.7 miles, yoga  3. 2 miles, yoga 4. 4.5 miles

So, Ciwt has an A#1 excuse for playing hooky from CIWT for so many days: The Wire!  

For a while she was feeling guilty, maybe even ashamed to be hooked on an 'ancient' TV show (2002-2008), but turns out she's right on schedule.  Or rather that any time is the right time to shamelessly watch or rewatch The Wire.  In fact, just this month 206 international critics who voted in BBC Culture's poll selected The Wire as the greatest TV series of the 21st Century.  In fact, it might be just about now that The Wire is really coming into its own since the subtitles are much better and the show was overlooked by many viewers when it first aired.  

Part of why it was overlooked was that The Wire demands a great deal of its viewers. There are a myriad of characters speaking their various street vernaculars and involved in elaborately plotted - but acutely authentic and largely unpredictable- activities.  

Watching The Wire is a prolonged event. First there is the initial viewing which is a challenge because your ears are straining to understand the lingo (nearly impossible) while your eyes are reading the streaming subtitle as well as watching the characters brought to life on the screen by uniformly brilliant actors. And, your emotions are all over the place as some beloved favorites are betrayed or endanger themselves or double cross other beloved favorites.

After the viewing, there comes the review reading.  One reviewer in particular is stunningly thorough with right on and long reviews.  Then you might read the readers' comments about the review.  All this while you are absorbing the often difficult and devastating action or chomping at the bit to get back to your screen. 

For the most part, The Wire's drug dealers, drug kingpins, dock workers, cops (renegade or straight arrow), politicians (as clean as possible or downright dirty), dock workers (U.S. or foreign) and other characters are far, far removed from people you (or at least Ciwt) know on a personal basis.  But when you watch The Wire, they become the people in your life, the ones you have passions about, the ones that make you feel like throwing something across the room or bring you to tears, breaking your heart in large and small ways.  (Rest in peace Michael K. Williams).

Okay, enough already on her excuse except to say Ciwt has two more seasons (26 episodes) to go .....