During the lockdown, I watched quite a bit of TV. What I watched most were TV series. This is something I rarely do because I find the investment of time required to be excessive. Further, while I often find myself bored, with time hanging heavy on my head, I resent having to discipline myself and block out a fixed time just to watch TV. And finally, there are so many new shows coming up, so many other means to consume entertainment, especially the snippets on Youtube and other social media, that I feel I am not missing much by not watching series. However, I usually know what is popular at the moment. And there are some series that I have been wanting to watch because a cousin, who is a bit of an aficionado, talks about them with reverence. The one he praised the most is The Wire which aired between 2002 and 2008. It is a wonderful show about how fucked up work and life are, described succinctly here. I loved it and I will probably watch it again. Reading up about it afterwards, I was surprised that it had poor Nielsen Ratings. What surprised me even further is that in rankings of the greatest ever shows, it came second. Behind The Sopranos.
I also watched The Sopranos. And frankly, I was disappointed in it. I did not like how the protagonist had his problems usually solved by deux ex machinae. People die conveniently. What I liked about this show though was its portrayal of how seedy criminality is. Even though The Wire was gritty and realistic, it still portrayed the criminals with some sort of glamour. The Sopranos did not do that.
The Sopranos has been praised as the greatest show ever. But I would give it to The Wire. I think it was a better story, with better acting and it was more realistic. Its ending was also much more satisfying than that of The Sopranos.
Meanwhile, the cousin used his time better. He went running every day for 2 months and shed quite a bit of weight. He looks like how he did about 20 years ago. I don’t think it is an improvement because he has sharp facial features and being thin makes them more prominent. When he was chubby, he looked rather genial. Now, he looks a bit like Mr. Burns.