HBO Drama: The Wire

[Colonel Panic]

1st season: Excellent.
2nd season: Even better.
3rd season: Not so great, but still better than about 90% of all dramas on TV.
4th season: Not quite as good as seasons 1 & 2, but still very, very good.

Overall: NOT CRAP by a long shot.

[bogusaurus]

Questions.

1. Favourite season.

2. Favourite Scene(s).

3. Favourite quote(s).

4. Favourite character.

1. Seasons ranked: 3, 1, 4, 2, 5
2. Chess scene, S1
3. "My name is my name!"
4. 1. Bodie 2. Barksdale 3. Cool Lester Smooth

[j_harvey]

Questions.

1. Favourite season.

2. Favourite Scene(s).

3. Favourite quote(s).

4. Favourite character.

1. If I have to pick just one, then season 1.

2. Stinger Bell talking to the crew about the 40 degree day.

3. There are just too many, but this one from the first episode is great.

McNulty: I got to ask you. If every time Snotboogie would grab the money and run away, why'd you even let him in the game?
Witness: What?
McNulty: If Snotboogie always stole the money, why'd you let him play?
Witness: You got to, this America, man.

4. Omar or Lestor

[Rotten Tanx]

Snoop arrested in drug raid.

[iembalm]

Snoop at a hardware store.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxBGzUhT-TM

[BClark]

Snoop arrested in drug raid.

ah thats too bad. goddamn drug war. i think in cities like baltimore or my hometown of newark, there is a case to be made that the state has become illegitimate (like a Colombia type thing) due to the glaring lack of social investment and its obviously visible consequences; and us residents should be able to call out said illegitimacy and say hey, we don't accept the state's authority to continue drug raids and what not until they actually do something to turn around the problem with real social investment.

i tell ya, for all the likeable cop characters in the wire, i still walk away from it with the utmost contempt for the police, the criminal justice system, and the politicains behind the drug war. i mean, the wire's portrayal of them is unflattering, and reality tends to be even worse, since all those likeable cop characters like McNulty don't exist in real life, and in their place are rabid roidheads best typified by Herc or Colicchio, not a single one with a Lester Freamon IQ.

[cmay]

Drugs on the table.

(not crap. except for the Mcnulty scenes in Season 5)

[EmpireStateTroopers]

Snoop arrested in drug raid.

ah thats too bad. goddamn drug war.

i tell ya, for all the likeable cop characters in the wire, i still walk away from it with the utmost contempt for the police, the criminal justice system, and the politicains behind the drug war. i mean, the wire's portrayal of them is unflattering, and reality tends to be even worse, since all those likeable cop characters like McNulty don't exist in real life, and in their place are rabid roidheads best typified by Herc or Colicchio, not a single one with a Lester Freamon IQ.

Yeah- the characters I ended up absolutely despising the most in the end were Carcetti and Templeton. Absolute opportunistic scum. At least with Clay Davis it was no secret. Man, even Marlo had me charmed by the end.
Snoop was fascinating.

[Rotten Tanx]

David Simon's reaction to Snoop's arrest.

[iembalm]

[quote="BClark"I think in cities like baltimore or my hometown of newark, there is a case to be made that the state has become illegitimate (like a Colombia type thing) due to the glaring lack of social investment and its obviously visible consequences; and us residents should be able to call out said illegitimacy and say hey, we don't accept the state's authority to continue drug raids and what not until they actually do something to turn around the problem with real social investment.[/quote]
That is really very well said.

[BClark]

First off I realize the second comment in my earlier post comes off as pretty prejudiced against cops, and that I made a pretty sweeping generalization; I stand by my belief that the Wire populates the "police" set of characters with many more like-able types than one would realistically find in a police station, but I do realize that there are many different stripes of cops and that I shouldn't carry such a harsh bias.

David Simon's reaction to Snoop's arrest.

man what a sensible guy.

[T]he war on drugs has devolved into a war on the underclass... if asked to serve on any jury considering a non-violent drug offense, we would move to nullify that jury's verdict and vote to acquit. Regardless of the defendant, I still believe such a course of action would be just in any case in which drug offenses—absent proof of violent acts—are alleged.

agreed.

and also, like he says, it really is too bad that so many of the good acting performances in the wire haven't been recognized in the larger film industry, as only a few actors have gone on to really commercially notable acting careers. i mean while i've seen idris elba (stringer) and michael k williams (omar) in a few big films (though admittedly not many good ones), a few of the other strong actors of the show, such as andre royo (bubbles), have been MIA from the visible film industry. it is good at least that the actors playing bunk and freamon have shown up in treme -- i like that show a lot, and look forward to the new season 2 episodes in april.

[sparky]

For your consumption, "click" this magic button to be rewarded with a delightful consideration of Messrs. Horatio Bucksley Ogden and Baxter “Bubz” Black's episodic novel, that lost Victorian masterpiece, The Wire.



S'alright, a bit of a jolly.



This observation is not new in itself, but I like the way it is phrased, as well as its tacit acknowledgement that whilst the work has greater pretensions to realism, it is still very much its own world:

Lastly, one might stand back from a pointillist work; whereas physically there is no other way to consume The Wire than piece by piece. To experience the story in its entirety, without breaks between sections, would be exhausting; one would perhaps miss the essence of what makes it great: the slow build of detail, the gradual and yet inevitable churning of this massive beast of a world.

[i am the smud]

So uh yeah I realize I am a few years late on this, but this show ranks miles and miles and miles and miles above any other TV show ever made. Fuck Law and Order, that shit is childish compared to The Wire.

I am on the 2nd season right now, and let me tell you.

Never crap

[whattheyallsay]

Just wait for seasons 3 and 4. I can't decide which one is the best. 4 clearly has the best theme music of all of them.

[robert thefamilyghost]

Just wait for seasons 3 and 4. I can't decide which one is the best. 4 clearly has the best theme music of all of them.

4 is probably my favorite (as evidenced by my current avatar; it hit home for some pretty personal reasons aside from it being objectively great), but seasons 1 and 2 are up there as well.

[i am the smud]

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

I am not too crazy about the new character they introduced towards the end of the 2nd season, the nation of islam lookin dude. He is just a bit too ridiculous for my tastes, kind of takes away from the general realism of the show.
























I almost started crying when Frank died

[ghosting]

SPOILERS...
I almost started crying when Frank died

God me too. That was one of the hardest scenes to watch for me, probably only threatened by Wallace in Season 1.

This show!

[tmidgett]

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

I am not too crazy about the new character they introduced towards the end of the 2nd season, the nation of islam lookin dude. He is just a bit too ridiculous for my tastes, kind of takes away from the general realism of the show.

Oh just wait.

[SixthBoroughM.V.West]

i know that people here have mentioned The Corner by Simon and Burns, authors and screenwriters for The Wire, but the emphasis has been on the TV series, and I want to plug the book here for a sec

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

[deep.BTUz]

I've lived in NYC for 13 years but I am a Ravens fan so I have DIRECTV. They have their own channel that's actually pretty good, and hves been showing The Wire unedited one episode at a time every Sunday night at 9PM EST for a while now. Luckily I stumbled on it early and have been watching since Episode 1 straight down the line. They're into about Episode 4-5 of Season 4 right now. I've watched it before but I couldn't think of a better way to re-watch it. I'm attracted to the discipline of partitioning it out slowly. I don't cheat. It's one episode a week.

Watching the show is different to me than most TV. I grew up in Baltimore. My parent's parents grew up in Baltimore. I've been to every location of every scene. My parent's have 70+ years of experience teaching in West Baltimore Middle Schools. I know people in DS's family. People in my family worked on the show. Bunk's baby's momma lives on the street I grew up on. It's weird.

Simon for the most part did a good job. Really to call him out on anything would be picking at threads. I do disagree with the general ideas he stated about Snoop's arrest, but to type out some formal rebuke seems like too much work at the moment.

What this second viewing has handed down to me is an obsession with the character Marlo Stanfield. That dude stole the show for me and I do think about him from time to time. I like to see the way it plays out in the world (this discussion is ok: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgr ... -stanfield). I don't know if it is a bad thing or not that I identify with the character. Sometimes I can't help but to look at the entirety of the narrative and think that him and The Greek are really the only two people that had any vision.