Fucking RIDICULOUS. Watched this because of its status as HBO's first show and laying the groundwork for The Sopranos & The Wire (which it shares certain elements with). It's a lot closer to macho soap operas like The Shield/SoA/Dexter with constant murders and characters double & triple crossing each other. Highlights are everyone's total lack of bedside manner in announcing relatives' deaths, multiple grizzled men yelling "where are my tits", and young Peter Dinklage being dropped off a roof.

Highly entertaining but so batshit over the top I couldn't go higher with the score. This prison would have been shut down and burnt to the ground with the amount of murders that occur in a year.

s1 like 70-75. s2 right away i wasnt feelin the new tone and direction and characters and shit. then it kinda kept devolving. especially by the next season or one after. and by the end with the drug bs storyline i couldnt believe the whole show seemed acclaimed at least on imdb ;P

Deeply disturbing, well acted, well written. This is neat if you want to watch HBO learning to be HBO. Simultaneously nightmare fuel and really compelling

Excellent

You will blow through this show in no time. Especxiallyearly on when its most captivating, that said seasons 5 then 6 show steady noticable drops but still worth it to the end.

1x01-2x03..

very nice series

Got three episodes in. I can see how this is influential on the far superior series that followed it. Writing is weak at times. The stylized narration made me feel nothing but second-hand embarrassment.

A few really great characters, but it's a slog to get through. The writing/plot gets more and more ridiculous the deeper you get. TONS of penises in this show.

I liked its experimental approach, even if it didn't always work, it was still far more interesting than many others

Rough around the edges but that's part of its charm. A crazy glorious taboo-breaking TV experiment. The end was a bit shit but it was a bloody good run.