1: The Wire is hands down the best TV show ever. It's not necessarily a crime show, not in the Law & Order sense of the a crime show. But it's about the death of a great American city. I don't know if you've ever said where in MI you're from, but so much of what you see in The Wire could be applicable for Detroit. Like in season 2, swap out the docks for the auto industry and it works.
5: I have a love/hate relationship with true crime, and have moved away from consuming a lot of true crime media. A lot of it I just find it either too focused on the gory details and/or exploitative. Especially when you have the internet detectives involved interfering with investigations or accusing the wrong people, see the recent Idaho murders or the Boston bombing case. That's not to say you should trust the cops to always get it right, far from it. Also, a lot of crime is actually really boring. I was a defense lawyer for 5 years. The vast majority of my cases were run of the mill possession or dwi or other supremely uninteresting things. So I think a lot of podcasts just repeat the same serial killer stories over and over again.
All that to say, I do have a favorite. My go to true criminal suggestion is the book "Homicide" by David Simon. Before he created The Wire, Simon was a crime reporter for the Baltimore Sun. In the mid 1980's, he took a year and basically was an embedded reporter with the Baltimore PD homicide detectives. You'll see stories from book pop up in The Wire. The very opening scene where McNulty is taking to the kid about Snot Boogie getting killed is a true story. It was also the basis for the TV series by the same name, which I've never actually seen because it doesn't ever seem to show up on streaming. In the last few years, Simon has sort of distanced himself from the book, in that it's a little too deferential to the cops.
Loved the Margaret film. I began watching this with my 8 year old daughter but it started throwing up all sorts of difficult questions 😅 that I wasn't quite prepared to answer. I watched the last hour or so alone in the dead of night.
I loved the book ‘Are you there god it’s me Margaret’ and I took my girls (Cate and Em) to see the movie and was pleased with how they did the book justice. Also, I watched American Nightmare just the other day and was back and forth as well on what I thought happened…a truly crazy story!
My "The Wire" trajectory was almost the exact same. Watched an episode many years ago and only late last year decided to really give it a shot. You are going to love and love Omar the more you go. And like you i finally got the fuss. I also am the same with True Crime especially given how much crappy versions there are of it. But "American Nightmare" was A+ and not what I expected at all.
"You’re expected to keep up, and learn as you go."
This might be the show's superpower. It's a good show, but the way it almost forces you to pay attention makes it a great one.
1: The Wire is hands down the best TV show ever. It's not necessarily a crime show, not in the Law & Order sense of the a crime show. But it's about the death of a great American city. I don't know if you've ever said where in MI you're from, but so much of what you see in The Wire could be applicable for Detroit. Like in season 2, swap out the docks for the auto industry and it works.
5: I have a love/hate relationship with true crime, and have moved away from consuming a lot of true crime media. A lot of it I just find it either too focused on the gory details and/or exploitative. Especially when you have the internet detectives involved interfering with investigations or accusing the wrong people, see the recent Idaho murders or the Boston bombing case. That's not to say you should trust the cops to always get it right, far from it. Also, a lot of crime is actually really boring. I was a defense lawyer for 5 years. The vast majority of my cases were run of the mill possession or dwi or other supremely uninteresting things. So I think a lot of podcasts just repeat the same serial killer stories over and over again.
All that to say, I do have a favorite. My go to true criminal suggestion is the book "Homicide" by David Simon. Before he created The Wire, Simon was a crime reporter for the Baltimore Sun. In the mid 1980's, he took a year and basically was an embedded reporter with the Baltimore PD homicide detectives. You'll see stories from book pop up in The Wire. The very opening scene where McNulty is taking to the kid about Snot Boogie getting killed is a true story. It was also the basis for the TV series by the same name, which I've never actually seen because it doesn't ever seem to show up on streaming. In the last few years, Simon has sort of distanced himself from the book, in that it's a little too deferential to the cops.
Loved the Margaret film. I began watching this with my 8 year old daughter but it started throwing up all sorts of difficult questions 😅 that I wasn't quite prepared to answer. I watched the last hour or so alone in the dead of night.
I loved the book ‘Are you there god it’s me Margaret’ and I took my girls (Cate and Em) to see the movie and was pleased with how they did the book justice. Also, I watched American Nightmare just the other day and was back and forth as well on what I thought happened…a truly crazy story!
My "The Wire" trajectory was almost the exact same. Watched an episode many years ago and only late last year decided to really give it a shot. You are going to love and love Omar the more you go. And like you i finally got the fuss. I also am the same with True Crime especially given how much crappy versions there are of it. But "American Nightmare" was A+ and not what I expected at all.