The Wire: The Rewatch... and all the pieces matter.

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > The Wire: The Rewatch... and all the pieces matter.

Barry Foster: Dec 24, 2007; What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)

I enjoy Narcos but it's really, really pulpy - not really comparable to The Wire, they're very different things.

# ¿ Dec 22, 2018 20:12

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# ¿ May 12, 2024 08:17

Barry Foster: Dec 24, 2007; What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)

Groovelord Neato posted:

i enjoy narcos but it's the game of thrones version of the wire.

That's a really good way of describing it, I'm stealing that.

God drat The Wire is so good. Except the serial killer plot

# ¿ Dec 22, 2018 23:27

Barry Foster: Dec 24, 2007; What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)

Kemper Boyd posted:

Mainly that he's far too centrist for 2018. He's the guy who's telling you today Carcetti is the only realistic option.

For a man whose best known work is literally about how the system is fundamentally, irredeemably broken, that is extremely disappointing to hear.

# ¿ Dec 30, 2018 19:19

Barry Foster: Dec 24, 2007; What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)

I can't think of a single po-lice in The Wire who isn't hosed up in one way or another.

# ¿ Jul 6, 2019 22:52

Barry Foster: Dec 24, 2007; What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)

Orange Devil posted:

And the only thing either of them can think when reflecting on their long downward spiral is "the gently caress did I do?".

Last night I watched the episode where McNulty drinks 14 shots and winds up at Rhonda's and she asks him what they are together and he blows her off and seems genuinely confused why she's asking and I winced hard, because I've been that arsehole more than once in my life

# ¿ Jul 24, 2019 18:18

Barry Foster: Dec 24, 2007; What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)

banned from Starbucks posted:

Holy poo poo lol

That's a Snoop level murder

# ¿ Jul 30, 2019 15:06

Barry Foster: Dec 24, 2007; What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)

Re-watching with my gf (for me, anyway, her first time) and got up to season 5.

Here are my thoughts on rewatch:

1) Bug in his Batman mask is the most unbearably adorable thing ever
2) Gus is so smart and clever and wise and funny and cool. I wish I was just like him

# ¿ Aug 31, 2019 22:24

Barry Foster: Dec 24, 2007; What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)

Bubs does some bad stuff at points but I think one of the high points of The Wire is that it portrays a drug addict as one of the vanishingly few people in the whole show who're actually thoroughly decent

# ¿ Apr 10, 2020 10:49

Barry Foster: Dec 24, 2007; What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)

Ginette Reno posted:

He does also say rest in peace or something in Polish after he learns that Frank died.

He's a piece of poo poo but as with pretty much every character on the Wire he's not totally irredeemable.

I dunno, I reckon Marlo is pretty irredeemable. I can't remember him doing anything genuinely good or decent.

EDIT - I get that's why you put 'pretty much', though

# ¿ Oct 26, 2020 14:06

Barry Foster: Dec 24, 2007; What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)

Eat This Glob posted:

Learning that john c reilly auditioned to play mcnulty

# ¿ Dec 10, 2020 12:07

Barry Foster: Dec 24, 2007; What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)

General Battuta posted:

It's not as good as Sopranos.

It's so much better you can't even compare the two

e: Sopranos is a great show about a guy's psychology, with great characters stuck in an endless cycle of keeping each other lovely. The Wire is an exploration of an entire city and the collapse of America. They're both great TV but the Wire is just something else.

de verdad

# ¿ Feb 24, 2021 12:34

Barry Foster: Dec 24, 2007; What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)

Vichan posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWmryAVUoL8

There's always the musical. (Spoilers)

How have I not seen this til now?!

# ¿ Feb 24, 2021 14:30

Barry Foster: Dec 24, 2007; What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)

Early Sopranos is pretty much the prototype of 'premium' TV and definitely feels/is a bit dated. The really strong stuff comes later. It is really good, but yeah, for my money The Wire beats it hands down.

General consensus is that The Sopranos is a character piece while The Wire is a more synoptic essay on capitalism and its decay.

Edit oh also The Sopranos is very, very funny. It's funnier than a lot of comedies, frankly

# ¿ Mar 6, 2021 17:44

Barry Foster: Dec 24, 2007; What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)

th3t00t posted:

Just finished my 4th re-watch and I've got to say season 5 didn't feel quite as bad as it has previously. I think Hampsterdam was a way more unrealistic storyline than the Red Ribbon serial killer.

Unrealistic, you say?

# ¿ Mar 26, 2021 21:35

Barry Foster: Dec 24, 2007; What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)

werdnam posted:

Just got to season 5 on my first watch. After episode 2 , all I can say is, what the gently caress, Jimmy?

I really enjoyed McNulty's arc up to this season and was happy to see him settle down with Beadie. I even thought he'd learned something and be able to keep his poo poo together in major crimes. No, now he's loving it all up again. I don't think I've ever been so angry at a TV character.

People like that rarely change, and when they refuse to even recognise they're loving up and try and fix their behaviour 'rarely' turns to 'never'. It's sad but true, and I was impressed by The Wire getting it right

# ¿ Aug 5, 2021 13:23

Barry Foster: Dec 24, 2007; What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)

Orange Devil posted:

Serious question though, how does one become a person like that in the first place?

Childhood trauma usually

# ¿ Aug 5, 2021 15:35

Barry Foster: Dec 24, 2007; What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)

God, that's awful

# ¿ Sep 6, 2021 21:50

Barry Foster: Dec 24, 2007; What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)

Jerusalem posted:

But man, being reminded that Michael K. Williams is dead is a gutpunch all over again

I honestly think I've never been hit by a celebrity death harder

# ¿ Feb 3, 2022 02:10

Barry Foster: Dec 24, 2007; What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)

Those strippers absolutely own

# ¿ Apr 21, 2022 10:08

Barry Foster: Dec 24, 2007; What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)

The Greek is a bigger cog in the Drug War Machine but he is almost certainly as replaceable as anyone else; so long as prohibition exists, the machine will keep grinding away interminably and the violence will continue. I'm sure there'd be plenty of cut throat gangster capitalists ready to pounce on his market at the drop of a hat.

# ¿ Jun 20, 2022 12:27

Barry Foster: Dec 24, 2007; What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)

Aces High posted:

Yet every time a cop beats somebody they get put on paid leave pending investigation, or they get back pay if their suspension is reversed, or they don't see any consequences period. All that and the majority of the time when they ask for a budget increase from a municipality, they go the mafia route and smash windows to get their "protection money". Where did this even start and how do you switch this around so that people that actually DO serve the public interest actually get the support and resources they need?

Every empire needs its janissaries or its praetorians

And they're usually destroyed by them too

# ¿ Aug 10, 2022 22:35

Barry Foster: Dec 24, 2007; What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)

What the gently caress

That loving sucks :smith:

# ¿ Mar 17, 2023 20:05

Barry Foster: Dec 24, 2007; What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)

The Wire is a landscape and The Sopranos is a portrait - neither is "better" than the other, IMO, they're just doing different things

Both are far and away better than Breaking Bad, though, there's no comparison. Better Call Saul is a lot closer to their level of quality. Mad Men is about on par - or slightly better than - The Sopranos.

These are my entirely subjective but also completely objectively correct rankings

# ¿ Mar 30, 2023 15:37

Barry Foster: Dec 24, 2007; What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)

Jerusalem posted:

"Whatever it is in you that lets you do the thing you do.... it ain't in me anymore."

Cutty getting out was amazing, and leads into that great scene where he goes to Avon to ask for a donation (and ignores his protest and ends up putting up a big poster celebrating him in the gym!)

"He was a man in his day"
"He a man today."

# ¿ Apr 3, 2023 11:36

Barry Foster: Dec 24, 2007; What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)

BiggerBoat posted:

So this is weird

Isiah Whitlock Jr., who plays Clay Davis, plays a DEA in Spike Lee's 25th Hour and does a full on "sheeeee-iiiiit" when he busts Ed Norton

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIQhDXgIWn0

He said it was something an older family member (I think grandpa?) used to say, and he adopted it. It's not a The Wire thing, basically - it's an Isiah Whitlock Jr. thing

# ¿ Apr 3, 2023 13:47

Barry Foster: Dec 24, 2007; What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)

POWELL CURES KIDS posted:

Motherfucking season 4.

# ¿ Apr 6, 2023 07:05

Barry Foster: Dec 24, 2007; What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)

Frank Sobotka was valiantly fighting a desperate/doomed rearguard battle against the overwhelming force of capital, on behalf of his family both blood and union

He may not have been perfect, but he didn't have to be to be a genuine working class hero

# ¿ Jun 24, 2023 22:34

Barry Foster: Dec 24, 2007; What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)

Mu Zeta posted:

Frank is the same as the people protecting the coal industry. Better to move on or get left behind.

Easy for you to say!

# ¿ Jun 25, 2023 00:47

Barry Foster: Dec 24, 2007; What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)

Tampa Bae posted:

I've been pretty slow about watching season 3 but lol McNulty is going to fall in love with Greggs because he's a dumb self-destructive horndog isn't he

weirdly, actually nah. He knows she's gay and he's cool with it

# ¿ Sep 9, 2023 15:59

Barry Foster: Dec 24, 2007; What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)

Count Roland posted:

I... also haven't seen the news?

Shane MacGowan died.

# ¿ Dec 1, 2023 15:14

Barry Foster: Dec 24, 2007; What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)

pokeyman posted:

Definitely worth watching. It's not campy but they're clearly having some fun with the premise, if that makes sense?

Maybe it's just that I'm not American, but if it's not quite campy it's certainly pretty cheesy. Love the concept, but I only watched the first three or four episodes before the lip quivery 'murca speeches turned me off.

It's very...Ronald D Moore

# ¿ Feb 10, 2024 09:08

Barry Foster: Dec 24, 2007; What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)

PriorMarcus posted:

For me I think the order would be 2, 4, 1, 3 and 5.

I agree, although I flip back and forth between 2 and 4 being the best

# ¿ Mar 1, 2024 14:48

Barry Foster: Dec 24, 2007; What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)

Hell yeah, looks like it

https://twitter.com/realchrisbauer/status/1653264475896844288?s=20

# ¿ Mar 1, 2024 16:06

Barry Foster: Dec 24, 2007; What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)

christmas boots posted:

I think Avon is also one of those people who knows who he is, where he stands, and what he wants. And that he recognizes and respects those qualities in others. Cutty knows what he wants and who he is, Stringer thinks he does but has one foot in each world because he doesn't.

Yeah, this is my read too.

EDIT Avon respects people who are being real. It doesn't matter if that means you're in the game or not.

# ¿ Mar 29, 2024 02:19

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# ¿ May 12, 2024 08:17

Barry Foster: Dec 24, 2007; What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)

No-one identified Marlo for what he was until it was too late. You either kill dudes like that early in the game or you will get killed by them eventually

# ¿ Mar 31, 2024 15:51

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > The Wire: The Rewatch... and all the pieces matter.