False. Only I have perfect taste that is free of prejudices. You have 181 posts and should know this by now.
I would say that's a bit too strong. I believe that the Wire is overrated because it occupies, with a certain substantial segment of television viewers, an unassailable position as the greatest television show of all time. I have been told that I "didn't get it" and that the show is so epic that it is "beyond traditional criticism." To my mind, both of those statements are patently ridiculous. I think of most of the good and unique things people write about the show are really only true for two seasons (Seasons three and four, which are admittedly excellent) and that the show is prone to long stretches where it twists in the wind. In the past I've described some of the seasons, particularly the first 80% of season one, as simply being a good police procedural. This characterization invariably infuriates the show's acolytes.
The Wire is a show that I would classify as good with two great seasons. Some people act like not hanging on David Simon's every word makes me functionally illiterate.
The three people I associate most strongly with loving Dexter are beantown, Archie, and my dad. That is the definition of tragically unhip. I love my father, but the dude likes Rob Schneider comedies and unironically enjoys albums by the Carpenters.
When would I know enough about it? I watched four or five hours of the thing. That's the equivalent of watching the Godfather Part II. How much of my life do I have to invest before I'm "allowed" to say it's not a good show?
Here's a test: If I give you four hours and you can't suck me in, you failed.
I see this argument all the time by defenders of television shows who want to discredit those who aren't as passionate as they are and gave up midstream. Tons of people tell me that I should have watched Parks and Recreation last season. Maybe they're right. But I watched a full season of that show and I know a few things to the core of my being: 1) that I HATE Aziz Ansari with a burning passion that cannot be put into words, 2) that everytime I see Rashida Jones I wonder why Maya Rudolph doesn't get all her parts and 3) that I gave that show a very long leash and it hung itself with it. So why does a show that I'm not enjoying deserve more time to impress me?
Personally, I think giving a show four hours is more than a fair shot. And in four hours there was literally nothing about Dexter that I found interesting or worthwhile.
I acknowledged it was true trash above. My point in bringing up Entourage (which is so lazy and horrible that I enjoy watching it for disaster pornography reasons while it flails in the wind and increasingly relies on cameos) is that I find it watchable precisely because it is so awful. I can stand up and go to the bathroom without pausing it or read e-mail and if I miss "key" plot points I'm not bothered in the slightest. It is empty noise that is occasionally punctuated by Johnny Drama saying something ridiculous or a gratuitous shot of breasts. I get 90% of the quality moments of the show without having to actively engage any part of me. Dexter is too demanding for that treatment, but not in the sample I saw of high enough quality to merit my actually devoting my attention to it. It fails both modes of my television watching as a result.
We will now fight to the death.
