Just One Episode, I Can Stop Any Time

January 25, 2015

Maybe a week or so ago, I started watching old episodes of The Wire online. Liz and I never really had a cable subscription prior to our current place, and we have a very bare bones package – basic cable, and HBO that was thrown in for free (for one year).

One perk is that we have access to a lot of streaming online, which includes all (all) episodes of The Wire. Considering that I first watched the show via DVDs, two at a time, six years ago… watching them on-demand is markedly more convenient.

Convenient for me, but also detrimental to my productivity. With a large iMac, I’ve got much more real estate on my screen… so I can have a few windows open at once. But for a large part of this weekend, despite my good intentions, I had The Wire playing in one corner… and it just kept playing, and playing, and playing.

I got through Season One in short order, as my favorite storyline really has to be the Barksdale one. But Season Two wasn’t too bad, with the stevedores and all. And the next thing I knew, I was starting up Season Three.

What began as a “Let’s just watch one old episode for fun” has now blossomed into me re-watching the entire series, start to finish. I did get some decent coding in this weekend, but boy… stopping watching this show was really difficult. Amazing that it’s still so compelling, given that it first aired nearly 13 years ago.

I’m amazed too that, once upon a time, I was patient enough to watch the whole series, two DVD’s at a time, bit by bit.