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Yeah Marlo is just Avon taken to a more logical conclusion. Avon cared about things like the Sunday truce. Marlo would never because those kind of things got in the way of extracting value. For the private equity vultures descending on newspapers, that was money. For Marlo and Avon, it was about name recognition/legacy.
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Feb 19, 2024 10:18
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Although the interesting difference between the two comes up at the end of the series. Season 5 spoilers Marlo essentially gets away with everything, and gets to keep his money. But the last thing we see of him is him picking a fight with some street dealers because they were talking about Omar. It's pretty clear that unlike Avon, Marlo is not going to go quietly and is almost certainly going to either get himself killed or go back to jail.
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Feb 19, 2024 13:06
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Yeah, it's ironic and poo poo. Marlo gets exactly what Stringer Bell wanted. But it isn't what Marlo wants so he's going to piss it all away in his quest for notoriety.
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Feb 19, 2024 19:17
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you can try to run a dignified business but eventually someone who is willing to do what you won't to get ahead will push you out. You can try to make it about honor and respect but eventually someone who is all about the game will come along and beat you at it.
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Feb 19, 2024 20:00
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OK, starting up Season 4 with the first three episodes: - Opener song rankings: 3 > 1 > 4 > 2 - It took about two minutes to realize that Duke is gonna break my heart. - The Carcetti storyline is still underwhelming to me. I don't care about him or the other characters in his orbit, outside of maybe the campaign manager and deputy campaign manager since they've got a lot of interiority. I work in a field adjacent to electoral politics, though, so a lot of this stuff just feels trite to me, like a joke you've heard a thousand times before. Yeah, fundraising sucks, we get it. I like the political angle more when it's centered on the wheeling-and-dealing of officeholders. - I did enjoy the Battleship scene. - Given how successful and unpredictable the major crimes unit has been, it's kind of surprising that their new lieutenant would be an empty suit. Thank god he's gone quick in favor of TOM HAMMERSCHMIDT, who... well, he's pretty lame. - I'm extremely curious to see how Prez develops as a teacher. This storyline felt like it had big cornball potential, but the classroom face-slashing to close out episode three moved us out of Freedom Writers territory. - "Lester's up on a wire???" Good surprised-Pikachu from McNulty. - I don't know why, but I got major Breaking Bad vibes from the first episode. I think it was the tone of the cold opener and waiting for the other shoe to drop on that. - Also, Herc kind of seems like the embryonic version of Hank, doesn't he? - Look at Carver out there, trying his best to take Bunny's advice! Pretty stiff for the moment, but he'll get better. - Don't love the new street label being pandemic. - Good thing we've got enough room in the juggling act this season to keep up with every woman in the neighborhood wanting to gently caress Dennis. - I'm not gonna complain about getting more Bodie this season. - Seems like the idea is that if Stringer was the sophisticated criminal and Avon was the hot-blooded criminal, Marlo is the cold-blooded criminal. He's still not really clicking for me as a character though. I'm just reminded of the line from an earlier season when one of the characters criticizes the regular refrain that the next generation is always worse than the last one. - I laughed when the kids brought out the box-on-a-string, but I cackled when they were running around with that loving net. - gently caress days to go! - Wonder if the showrunners regretted shipping off Wee-Bey to prison so early. Glad the fish are shown to be OK. - "Did he do the thing where he looks at you over his reading glasses?" <-- that little scene between Pearlman and Cedric immediately vaulted into my top 10 favorites for the whole series - Clay Davis is fun but also feels like he's acting on a completely different register from everyone else. Not better or worse, just different. - Bubbles cleans up so nicely. - The house dropping its stash to an unsuspecting Omar was great. - Of course Omar was the one to finally notice cops in cars taking pictures. - Can't wait to see how McNulty ruins Beadie's life. - Her kids calling him McNulty is a good touch though. Keep him at arm's length, kids! - Couldn't tell for the life of me what that was on the back of Beadie's blouse. A vine? Japanese writing? - This mayoral race has to end with Tony Gray winning, right? I feel like that's the obvious foreshadowing.
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Feb 20, 2024 05:07
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Nice, my favorite season! I love how when Prez shows up the other teachers are like,"Well, this dude's doomed," and then he mentions he used to be police and suddenly they're all,"Oh poo poo maybe he's got something to him!" while any of the actual police would probably be like,"Nope, dude is doomed!"
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Feb 20, 2024 08:59
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Jerusalem posted:Nice, my favorite season! I can never decide between two and four for my favorite's, but I can't wait to watch/read as Surf Rock experiences this.
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Feb 20, 2024 09:40
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Yeah, 4 is my favorite but 2 is real close. And that doesn't discount 1 and 3 at all which are absolutely incredible seasons. Plus for all the talk that season 5 is the weakest, that still makes it one of the best seasons of television ever made! Spoiled for very general chat about other seasons, just to err on the side of caution.
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Feb 20, 2024 18:11
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This is a less unanimous opinion but I also really like season 4’s theme song
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Feb 20, 2024 18:18
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Ainsley McTree posted:This is a less unanimous opinion but I also really like season 4’s theme song It's my favorite! Season 4 was the most perfect season of television I'd ever seen in my life until David Lynch decided to make Twin Peaks: The Return.
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Feb 20, 2024 18:42
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Just chiming in to say Season 4 is also my favorite season. 4 > 3 > 2 > 1 > 5 escape artist fucked around with this message at 01:48 on Feb 22, 2024 |
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Feb 21, 2024 02:31
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3 is my favorite just because of so many memorable and quotable moments, but 4 is the best. If I'm bored and throwing on a random episode, it'll probably be from 3.
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Feb 21, 2024 03:07
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I think season 4 is very good, but for whatever reason I have no desire to rewatch it. I get an episode or two in, and lose interest.
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Feb 21, 2024 17:23
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For me it’s 3 > 4 > 2 > 1 > 5
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Feb 22, 2024 00:51
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i don't really have a ranking but while i think 4 is the apex of the series in terms of - 'here is the city of baltimore and all it's machinations', there are other seasons which are more fun to watch because of their focus. first time through, 4 is going to be a trip because it's just so vast and lands almost every plotline. on rewatches, you want to dive into specific zones of the story and 1,2 3 and even 5 are better for that. 4 just has all of it happening.
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Feb 22, 2024 01:52
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For me either 3 or 4 is the best
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Feb 22, 2024 03:17
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roomtone posted:i don't really have a ranking but while i think 4 is the apex of the series in terms of - 'here is the city of baltimore and all it's machinations', there are other seasons which are more fun to watch because of their focus.
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Feb 22, 2024 03:43
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Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:I do wish we got that "mayoral election miniseries" because season 4 really does cram everything in. I imagine without also covering the election it would have felt just as focused as the other seasons. *primary, I like when they joke about whoever the Republican running in November is.
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Feb 22, 2024 03:48
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it is kind of calming that there is no credible republican candidate but then you realise, they're all republican candidates. the campaigns are being run on those terms.
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Feb 22, 2024 03:55
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In my slow ongoing rewatch of the show something jumped out at me: in Season 1 particularly, the cops often use the word “mope” to refer to people; you get lines like “these project mopes” in reference to the guys at the low rises. I don’t think I’ve heard “mope” used like that outside of the show, is it a real Baltimore term or is it a way for the writers to pen semi-realistic dialogue while avoiding having white cops use the N-word too much?
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Feb 22, 2024 11:21
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Pirate Radar posted:In my slow ongoing rewatch of the show something jumped out at me: in Season 1 particularly, the cops often use the word “mope” to refer to people; you get lines like “these project mopes” in reference to the guys at the low rises. I don’t think I’ve heard “mope” used like that outside of the show, is it a real Baltimore term or is it a way for the writers to pen semi-realistic dialogue while avoiding having white cops use the N-word too much? I can't imagine this affected the show much (although I guess Dominic West is British) but mope was a pretty common slang term for idiots in Britain. It's kind of fallen out of use now but I remember older people still using it in the 2000's.
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Feb 22, 2024 11:29
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It's been a while since I've seen it, but I think it was also saw some use in "Bop Gun", an early episode of Homicide that David Simon did write.
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Feb 22, 2024 11:34
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Gargamel Gibson posted:Yeah, it's ironic and poo poo. Marlo gets exactly what Stringer Bell wanted. But it isn't what Marlo wants so he's going to piss it all away in his quest for notoriety. Sort of. Stringer wanted to be the person buying up influence and getting favors in his pocket but Clay just milked him for money until Stringer wised up. Instead, Levy was using Marlo's money to enrich himself in terms of influence and connections. Weirdly enough, now that i think about it, Frank Sobotka actually had more of what Stringer wanted -- influence and connections. Frank's lobbyist even noted that legislators owed Frank some favors and a few votes next legislative term.
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Feb 22, 2024 13:21
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roomtone posted:it is kind of calming that there is no credible republican candidate but then you realise, they're all republican candidates. the campaigns are being run on those terms. How do you figure?
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Feb 22, 2024 15:26
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The way I remember, Stringer wanted to be a true capitalist, a powerful and respectful business man. He wanted to ascend to the real upper classes While Marlo, he above all wanted to be feared and respected, seen as a crime king, the most badass of all ever And Avon, he was kinda happy with what he already had and was, and just wanted to make is money and have his fun, and he at least had cared the community a bit and respected his rivals
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Feb 22, 2024 16:38
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Elias_Maluco posted:The way I remember, Stringer wanted to be a true capitalist, a powerful and respectful business man. He wanted to ascend to the real upper classes Yeah, Avon was the most humane. A couple of season one scenes I particularly like are when he's talking to D on the stairs then invites him to go eat the ribs, and when they're over the hospital bed. Seeing that person compared to the general he wanted to be in the turf war with Marlo was a painful change to watch.
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Feb 22, 2024 17:28
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I like the scene where Cutty goes to him to try and get money for his gym, he spends like 2 minutes trying to avoid giving him a number, and when he finally does, Avon just laughs and says to give Cutty like an extra $5K on top of the ask
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Feb 22, 2024 17:33
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FlamingLiberal posted:I like the scene where Cutty goes to him to try and get money for his gym, he spends like 2 minutes trying to avoid giving him a number, and when he finally does, Avon just laughs and says to give Cutty like an extra $5K on top of the ask One of my favorite scenes from the show. It also shows Avon getting into it, really liking discussing boxing before he realizes he has a rep to maintain and backing off.
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Feb 22, 2024 17:44
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Elias_Maluco posted:The way I remember, Stringer wanted to be a true capitalist, a powerful and respectful business man. He wanted to ascend to the real upper classes This was largely my read on things also. Stringer had noble but very naive ambitions on how to modernize the operation and eliminate a lot of the violence that brings so much heat but it's not a really good fit. He's trying to run it like a business meeting but folks can't even take notes and, while legit businesses, tons of politicians and cops certainly get up to illegal and shady poo poo, the vast majority of them are going to stop short of dealing with a drug empire or laundering their money. Avon just seemed to have a fundamental understanding of the game, even if Stringer looked at it as too old school and needed to change. I think that instinctively and logistically, Avon knew it wouldn't work in practice. And, yeah, Marlo just wants the crown. Like most CEO's and millionaires, he could have enough money to retire 20x over but, thing is, it's never enough. At a certain point, none of it is even about the money; for Marlo or Jeff Bezos.
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Feb 23, 2024 01:29
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His name is his name. String didn't get that about Marlo or Avon
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Feb 23, 2024 01:43
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BiggerBoat posted:
I think you can see for Avon about how his drug empire isn't totally his - you see Brianna and D (and D has that big speech at the end of season 1 about how who his grandfather was) and how people get supported through it or are a part of it. The Barksdale org is fun like a family business in many ways - like when Avon tells Marlo to give money to his sister to get access to Sergei in S5. Avon would really feel the obligation to keep going in order to keep that support network alive, at least for his direct family. It took...two-ish years after the Barksdale org died for Wee Bay's family to be cut off? It isn't a full pension, but that is alot of dedication for someone not earning anything.
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Feb 23, 2024 02:28
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GoutPatrol posted:I think you can see for Avon about how his drug empire isn't totally his - you see Brianna and D (and D has that big speech at the end of season 1 about how who his grandfather was) and how people get supported through it or are a part of it. The Barksdale org is fun like a family business in many ways - like when Avon tells Marlo to give money to his sister to get access to Sergei in S5. Avon would really feel the obligation to keep going in order to keep that support network alive, at least for his direct family. It took...two-ish years after the Barksdale org died for Wee Bay's family to be cut off? It isn't a full pension, but that is alot of dedication for someone not earning anything.
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Feb 23, 2024 03:52
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GoutPatrol posted:It isn't a full pension, but that is alot of dedication for someone not earning anything. Worth noting too that Brianna points out to De'Londa that while they are cutting off the regular payments that were being made, what HAS been paid should be more than enough to cover her and Namond to live a comfortable life for a few more years at least, or at least long enough for De'Londa to find work or some other source of income. Except De'Londa of course has just been spending the money like water assuming it would just keep coming forever or at least long enough to Namond to replace Wee-Bey as the primary earner. Or, ideally, to supplement the money already coming in, given she already had him out on a corner "earning" even while the "pension" was coming in. Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 06:21 on Feb 23, 2024 |
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Feb 23, 2024 05:07
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This makes me want to go back now and evaluate if there's a difference in reaction to Omar robbing them between Avon and Stringer. IIRC Stringer doesn't take it well at all, which makes sense because Omar is touching the thing he holds most dear: his money. And obviously when Omar starts directly calling out Marlo on his name everyone knows to keep that away from him because of how he would take it and react. But I don't remember how Avon takes Omar's robberies in season 1.
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Feb 23, 2024 10:34
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Orange Devil posted:This makes me want to go back now and evaluate if there's a difference in reaction to Omar robbing them between Avon and Stringer. Not well. He has Omar's boyfriend tortured to death and displayed as a message then puts out a contract on Omar. Once Omar tries to kill Avon the two make a fragile peace that is obviously a trap and a wounded Omar leaves town rather than risk being killed.
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Feb 23, 2024 12:37
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De’Londa is the show’s greatest villain
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Feb 23, 2024 12:40
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BiggerBoat posted:This was largely my read on things also. Yeah Avon is my favorite cause he is the most sensible of them 3 He knows Stringer "serious business" innovations wont work and, irrc, is also skeptical of Stringer's dealings with Clay Davis And unlike Marlo, he understands he needs stability and some community goodwill to operate, and for keeping that brutality and terror alone are not enough (even though he can be brutal too) Elias_Maluco fucked around with this message at 13:07 on Feb 23, 2024 |
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Feb 23, 2024 13:03
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Orange Devil posted:This makes me want to go back now and evaluate if there's a difference in reaction to Omar robbing them between Avon and Stringer. He was furious about it, but it was all from the perspective of reputation and how they can't allow somebody to do what Omar did without coming back on them hard. Like Marlo, he knew that in the rules of the "game", doing nothing would make him look weak. But while you get the sense for Marlo that he took those things very personal, for Avon I got the sense that he knew it was just part of the game and he was playing his role.
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Feb 23, 2024 13:23
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As an aside, I always wondered how Wee Bay took the news that his family were being cut off. Him and Avon were right there beside each other in prison after all.
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Feb 23, 2024 13:25
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The simple fact was that there wasn't any more money. Bodie and the other Barksdale people were getting their package from Marlo or Joe, they had no reason to pay Avon a cut. I'm sure he had some money put away and he had various fronts that may have been paying him a small amount, but it wasn't enough to keep paying DeLonda as he had been.
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Feb 23, 2024 20:51
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