MovieChat Forums > The Corner (2000) Discussion > lacks drama

lacks drama

posted 12 years ago by davemoore3
11 replies | jump to latest

T.K. Carter as the tragic Gary, Khandi Alexander as the conniving Fran, Clarke Peters & Reg E. Cathey as old-time users make this worth watching. Other than their characterizations the portrayals in this series lack depth. The series lacks the drama and tension of The Wire or Oz, in which many of these actors have also appeared.
I realize this was a "mini-series", but other than Gary, who does the viewer really care about?
Charles S Dutton's semi-narration adds nothing but a sense of "staging."

[–] thethinman76 12 years ago

Maybe it lacked drama, but this is a true story unlike Oz and The Wire. It's not even "based on a true story" they didn't add anything for dramatic affect. In works like this, what is, is.

I don't know if they were asking you to care about anyone. Just showing a year long look at the lives of people that many people in the world know nothing about, and a little background of how they got to that point.

If I should fall asleep and death takes me away don't be surprised son, I wasn't put here to stay.

[–] marbleann 11 years ago

Oh God I love this much better then the Wire, which I felt did not run true. The people who think the The Wire is the Holy Grail of TV are people who know little about the real deal.

[–] thethinman76 11 years ago

I hear ya, I definiterly enjoyed this more than the Wire, but I do LOVE the Wire. LOL

If I should fall asleep and death takes me away don't be surprised son, I wasn't put here to stay.

[–] marbleann 11 years ago

Oh I liked the show, it was entertaining, But when you have a show and one of the main characters is a hope to die dope fiend named Bubbles and he is such a nice sharing type of guy who has taken this young boy under his wing, reality has slipped. There is a reason dope fiends are homeless and the only thing they share is dope.
And the cops are so nice they even mentor children. At least in the Corner the older cop states he knows the people there, but the young cops are not like him. so they really don't care about the people in the area. He admitted that people helped him in cases. My father was a cop and said the same thing. He was a NYPD Homicide Detective and said if it wasn't for the people who lived in the neighborhood a lot of his cases would never been solved.

In the Wire they stick to the stereotype. The people in these neighborhoods never help. In the Corner the cop said their a lots of good people living there. Not in the Wire. In the Wire the only good people were the cops, that dope fiend Bubbles and the guy who had the gym. That was it.
SO even though The Wire stuck to stereotypes it was entertaining. But I find The Corner more realistic.

[–] thethinman76 11 years ago

Oh I definitely understand that. When I was young, I read Homicide, and that book ruined every police procedural for me, the Wire too, partially.

I read the Corner before I saw the show. I was around while they were taping. It was taped in my old neighborhood. I even briefly worked with the real Tyreeka, so it was quite interesting. Even the show could not come close to the grittiness of the book.

If I should fall asleep and death takes me away don't be surprised son, I wasn't put here to stay.

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[–] The_Blu_Ray_Penguin 8 years ago

LOL. I know both sides of the real thing quite well being former po-po and former addict and The Wire did a fantastic job of being realistic yet also being consistently entertaining. Not all addicts or cops fit in a neat box, so some may find it not representing realism and others like me find it the closest thing by far on TV other than maybe a documentary. Some of the *beep* I saw on the job would make the police antics on the Wire seem tame though.

[–] savagebiscuits 10 years ago

I realize this was a "mini-series", but other than Gary, who does the viewer really care about?

I really cared about Fran's character and her attempt to pull herself up from the hole she fell into (and helped Gary into on the way). There were some other minor characters that I felt for, like Blue and Ella Thompson, who really were positive characters.

Even though I do prefer The Wire to this (mainly because it's got wider scope), I still feel this is a fantastic piece of television. It's a pity that it gets overshadowed, for it really deserves to be seen on a par with the best out there.

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