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Spoilers Below posted:You may have seen the film, which is way more cartoony, but the book is dead serious. It's definitely a product of its time (was written in 1965), but it's a quick read and worth it for the portrayal of gang culture, which honestly doesn't seem to have changed very much. The fashions are different, but the anger is the same. That and it gave us this gem  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRM2YcGpmxg
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Apr 30, 2013 19:30
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Jerusalem posted:Related links took me to a nice little example of effective policework/networking/relationship building and... Colicchio About 10 months ago when I was flipping channels I flipped to HBO and this episode was my first introduction to The Wire. Since I am a savvy internet person I had an idea what the show was about but I didn't realise I was watching the 4th season so I just watched the episode all the way through. This scene struck out to me as I was thinking "do cops really do that? Maybe they have history" and cue me about a month later after watching the first season going "holy poo poo  "Now cue me 9 months after that fact and here I am enjoying write-ups for episodes I have fresh in my memory 
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May 16, 2013 03:17
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Ainsley McTree posted:Or more than that, I prefer to think that it's just the beginning of McNulty and Bodie's tragic Bromance This brings up one of the couple things that I didn't "get" after finishing the series. I didn't full understand why Bodie did what he did at the end of the fourth season where he got released again and just went to his corner, threw a hissy fit, pulled a gun and got shot dead. Was he just tired of the Game and went out the only way he knew how? Did he have a plan and it just went to poo poo once he saw what had become of his crew? The only other thing I didn't get was what happened with the newspaper once we found out that the one guy had been lying the entire time and was outed to the bosses, the one lady got "re-assigned" and the editor got shut down to a lower office while the liar got a Pulitzer for lying for most of the stories he did through the season. Maybe it's a news-media thing that I don't get because I have a very  opinion of most news I hear as it is but just a couple things that didn't make a lot of sense to me
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May 16, 2013 06:26
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Rudager posted:I never understood how Prop Joe got to where he is, my only guess was he managed to get some top of the line connection and went from there. The implication I always got was that Prop Joe probably did some of that other stuff when he was younger and, like others have said, banked that cred and rode it for as long as he could. The bureaucrat analogy is another way to look at it but I think it's more accurate that Prop Joe is what Stringer wants to be, a shrewd businessman that owns his own (legitimate) businesses and also runs half of Baltimore's drug trade. What I think makes Prop Joe special is that he is basically the best traits of Avon and Stringer combined, he has all the street smarts to survive as long as he did and he also understands how the real world economy works, at least well enough to not get fleeced by "rain makers" and lovely contractors. Do they ever mention anywhere in the series how long Joe had been in the game? I got the feeling he had been around for a good 30 years or more and at least half of that as king pin of Eastside. On another topic since this is when Stringer first gets "rain made" did he never take a business class at that community college? I mean in season 1 they always made a HUGE deal about never talking or signing anything without a lawyer present whenever anyone was brought in for questioning so did Stringer just go full retard when he decided to become a "legitimate" businessman and forget that those same rules apply everywhere? I dunno, it was something that always bothered me that for someone so careful about keeping lawyers handy you'd think when meeting contractors and politicians you'd want to have a professional there to say "hey idiot you can file like 10 forms and get this done for nickles and not have to even SPEAK to this 'sheeeeeeiiiiiiit'y motherfucker."
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Jul 4, 2013 12:47
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cletepurcel posted:And really they might have gotten away with it if McNulty hadn't told Kima (though I think it's also made clear that Levy was going to tear the case to shreds in court even before that.) Simon has pointed out that Hamsterdam was actually far more implausible than the serial killer plot, because it required far more people to keep it quiet for that long, and the bit with postmortem strangle wounds being indistinguishable from premortem ones is based on something he actually heard one day in the morgue. Though one part always bothers me - when they set up the wiretap for the "serial killer", they agree that they're going to tap Marlo's number but use a bullshit number for the court paperwork. Yet when Daniels goes to confirm Kima's tip, he calls Marlo's cell from the serial killer paperwork and it matches. Is this a plot hole? Wrt the cell numbers I thought that Freamon had just used all of the phone numbers for the drug dealers and fudged the paperwork to make it look like they were tapping the serial killer. This makes sense because when they drop the serial killer and decide to go after Marlo and Freamon says that he has cracked the code Pearlman and Daniels kind of have a lightbulb "oh gently caress did he really? He really did, this is not going to go well" moment and the scene with Daniels calling the cell number confirms it for everyone that, yes, Freamon brought Marlo down with an illegal wiretap and if not for Pearlman somehow managing to convince Levy to not pursue it the whole thing would have been thrown out of court and everyone would have lost (except Marlo and crew because they would have just kept on trucking). Now if what you are suggesting is that they just should have used random numbers for the serial killer paperwork I think in order for a wiretap to actually come into effect it has to be a phone that is actually activated and in the network, which is why they had to keep renewing their wiretaps in season 3 because the phones were disposable and therefore wouldn't be on the network for very long. Of course I guess in a perfect world Freamon would've tried to drop the serial killer thing sooner to start on Marlo to make it seem like everything was more legit and airtight instead of his going "Oh hey we know where they are getting their supply from, let's hit them now and suffer the consequences later." One final thing that will probably get covered in Season 5 but kinda flew over my head, what happened to Clay Davis? One part of the episode he was making GBS threads his pants because he was going to have to stand before a Grand Jury and then next his lawyer is somehow spinning his embezzling as being for "the greater good" and he ended up walking? I mean I've watched a lot of Law and Order and other lawyer type things but I was just completely lost with that whole story.
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Aug 20, 2013 08:09
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I gotta say the first thing I thought of when Chris lays the beatdown was actually the scene in Fight Club when the narrator beats Angelface to a bloody pulp. The reasons for both smackdowns are different but like with the Driver scene it is something met with first cheers but it quickly turns everyone to a state of "oh god OH GOD  "
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Oct 1, 2013 20:45
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This court scene was always strange to me. Not as a court scene as I have watched similar circuses on political broadcasts but I mean it more as a work of fiction. See I come from the world of Dick Wolf and Jack McCoy, where Clay Davis putting on a show like this would raise the ire and Jack would deliver an equally rousing speech about how he IS guilty. Now maybe that is the problem, The Wire is supposed to be more realistic and that sometimes the criminal does get away even though they shouldn't and I just need to let it go. Of course speaking to other stuff in this episode, Gus is finally piecing together that Scott is lying on top of embellishing his stories yet when he confronts the bosses at the end of the season he and Alma are cast aside and Scott is shown as a beacon of hope for the failing newspaper because he won a Pulitzer and stuff. Now you mention at the closing of this write up that Gus would need some pretty damning evidence that Scott is lying and iirc he does have that evidence when he spills the beans but is it fair to say that because of his sheepish manner when confronting his bosses that they don't take his word for it? I mean, wouldn't Scott lose his Pulitzer and thus the paper would pretty much implode from the bad press that their star journalist was lying the whole time?
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Dec 21, 2013 11:24
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I just want to through in my thanks to this thread because even though I started watching the show before this thread started it was this thread that actually got me to get off my rear end and plow through the whole thing to join in on the conversation. It's been a good year and it has made me think more about this show. As to this current episode, with Marlo's "my name is my name" scene isn't that him coming to grips with the idea that Omar won? Marlo didn't have him killed and a bounty claimed, Omar got popped by a kid who didn't think Omar was a big deal and the legend went on. What does that leave Marlo with? It leaves him empty and if his name rings out in the street it would be as the new-king being punked by Omar, by a WEAKENED Omar no less.
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Jan 17, 2014 21:43
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Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:I need budget lines. That exchange is always interesting because I always hear it from other people out of context so I always think "wait a minute, if you phrase it that way then her grammar was correct" but then when you hear what she actually wrote and then you're like "huh, you gotta be a pedantic motherfucker to excel at that kind of job" and then I suppose that's what editors are for
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Jan 17, 2015 01:54
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I thought that was part of the "maturation" of Prez's character though? Like he is told time and again during season 4 to not get too attached to the kids because he will only know them for a year, maybe some of them he will know for more but hardly any. When Dukie approaches him Prez asks questions about what he wants the money for, he asks him if he needs a ride downtown so he can register, all the stuff that he should do, he even tells him that if he is using the money for drugs then he can't help him anymore, and when he sees confirmation of the path Dukie is going down he keeps his promise. I always felt the reason Prez did that wasn't because he didn't want to compromise his own lifestyle it was because he was finally in a place where he was happy and everyone who worked around him told him to not get too close with any of his students because it would wear him out and within a few years he'd be just as hosed up as the kids he's supposed to teach. This show has always been about showing you that the institutions destroy well-intentioned people and Prez is no different, but then that is probably because he is still IN the system. Bunny could adopt Naymond because he was out of the system, he'd already had his pension ruined when he retired and most of his jobs in retirement he kept leaving because he wouldn't compromise his character and he had the freedom to exercise that. Kima, Carver, Prez, they are all still young (relatively speaking) and can't take unnecessary risks with their lifestyles otherwise they will end up just as bad as the people they are trying to help. Out of the three I would say that it is Carver that does the least in his situation and that is a big reason why it is such a powerful scene when Randy chastises him asking "what are you going to do for me, Sgt. Carver?". Kima goes and sees Bubbles at the facility, she brings Walon and then leaves because she isn't really qualified to help Bubbles anymore because she admits that she doesn't know what to do anymore. Prez makes the case that Dukie should not go on to high school as he isn't emotionally ready for it and the administrator shuts him down saying that he can't help the kids, and if he does he will burn out and be useless within a few years.
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May 30, 2015 00:12
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I have had friends ask me to describe The Wire and all I have to say is "it's unlike any other show I have seen and trying to compare it to other shows is disingenuous, however if you're into Game of Thrones Littlefinger becomes mayor" However I still like watching trashy tv, which is why I still watch Arrow and Grimm. Although I will say that watching Netflix shows leaves something to be desired, like Orange Is the New Black.
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Jun 25, 2015 07:06
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maybe that's what I should ask for Christmas, box set of The Wire
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Jul 14, 2016 18:32
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Don't forget he and Idris are great buds in Finding Dory
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Jul 27, 2016 16:27
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I can't remember, do we see where Randy ends up? I don't mean after the fire and stuff I mean at the end of The Wire. We know where Dukie is, he's basically going to be the next Bubbles, Namond got out completely, Micheal is the new Omar but what happened to Randy? Is that ultimately the point? He gets forgotten like so many other people by the system that we don't get some idea of where his life will end up?
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Jan 10, 2017 03:26
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Bubs having Walon as a sponsor was telegraphed from season 1, they spend a lot of time together and he talks all about rock bottoms. Bubbles' story is kind of interesting to look at in the wake of recent shows showing addiction such as BoJack Horseman. Throughout The Wire we see Bubs doing what we're all told in school happens when you get addicted, you lose your humanity, you rip off dealers and hopefully don't get caught, you steal from anyone who trusts you so you can get another hit. Bubs tries to clean up several times but through various circumstances he winds up back at it again. Sure the BPD did him no favors in season 1 because Kima didn't exactly leave a letter in her desk explaining that one of her CIs was trying to get clean and shouldn't be tasked with buying drugs to scope out dealers, but he still chose to get back on that horse. He eventually takes the personal responsibility after he sees what his life has cost him as his friend dies from a scheme that was going to kill somebody just by design. Bubs has a happy ending because he took personal accountability and still had some relationships that he hadn't irreparably damaged. Compare that to the conclusion of BoJack's story where he has basically no personal relationships with the people we watched for 6 seasons. BoJack pulled similar stunts as Bubbles but whenever pressed he always deferred the responsibility on someone else and even after 2 years in prison he still hasn't changed. What are some other shows that have similar arcs to that? Those 2 feel like something you would see in real life, not something churned out in Hollywoo(d) for cheap sentimentality
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Apr 10, 2020 21:03
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sure but how many shows go out of their way to have their main character end up where BoJack does at the conclusion of the show? I don't discount that it's a wacky cartoon but it's also a cartoon that isn't afraid to go places that things like Breaking Bad won't go BB maybe isn't a great example but it's what immediately came to my mind
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Apr 11, 2020 04:16
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We could make a thing in the something awful discord!
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Apr 12, 2020 20:52
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I started watching Banshee recently (mostly because of recommendations from The Boys thread) and the first thing I said when Frankie Faison was on the screen was "man, Burrell took getting fired HARD"
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May 8, 2020 05:07
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aren't they still together at the conclusion of the show?
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May 23, 2020 06:16
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Generation Kill is a good watch if you're interested in seeing an alternate universe where Ziggy left Baltimore and joined the Marine Corps
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Aug 16, 2021 00:49
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Eason the Fifth posted:Not the OP, but I was in the Marine Corps 2001-2007 as an infantry mortarman, and was a part of the invasion of Iraq (deployed March - Oct 2003). GK nails what being an infantry marine was like back then and what a stupid goddamn war that was. The attention to detail (like some of the cast wearing the jungle boots with the soles you could only get done at Saigon Sam's down in jacksonville) is absolutely astonishing. I would be down for a "let's rewatch Generation Kill" thread, I found out about the show through this thread
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Sep 2, 2021 06:20
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as someone who isn't American is there a tl;dr explanation for why the Marines are even doing what they do in GK? Actually, I'm sure there's no short way to answer that since I'm sure it has a long history but I have never quite understood why the Marine Corps is effectively a 4th branch as opposed to the land- fighting branch of the Navy like it is in basically every other country that has a marine force of some kind
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Sep 15, 2021 21:07
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reminds me of the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan, where we see two (Polish) Nazi soldiers surrendering on D-Day and the American soldiers open up on them and then joke about what they were saying. Although I'm not sure what the intention was with that scene, was showing a war crime supposed to be seen as funny?
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Sep 22, 2021 15:07
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Eason the Fifth posted:No, it wasn't supposed to be funny. There's nothing funny about the scene, with the cruel way they laugh and the flat look Miller gives them directly after. It's Spielberg doing the same thing he did in Band of Brothers with Spiers killing the POWs or taking the silver from the German houses -- showing that hey, actually, our guys could be vile shitheads, too. But neither SPR or BoB is a non-fiction exposé/indictment of a war the way Generation Kill is, so Spielberg didn't focus on it. Fair enough, I only mention it being played for laughs because the handful of times I've watched SPR with an audience, a not insignificant number of people laughed or chuckled at the disparaging remarks the one soldier makes. Suppose that says more about them than what the authorial intent is
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Sep 22, 2021 16:29
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wait, what? Holy poo poo I did not pick that up from the show at all, I figured the use of humvees was just some weird 21st century thing. Actually, saying that I can see that being the reason for it from the top of the chain but 1 month prep and they were just running around without essential stuff like batteries too? I understood when one of the soldiers talked about how things like crappy rations are how Marines keep their aggression but there's that and then there's asking your soldiers to drive into hostile territory without intel and ill-equipped to engage the op-for. Knowing that now, it definitely speaks to how well-trained they were that no one died
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Sep 24, 2021 06:53
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Speaking of other David Simon stuff, anyone in here watch The Plot Against America? I watched it a couple weeks ago and enjoyed it for what it was
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Nov 13, 2021 16:21
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I liked how everything was portrayed in Plot Against America when it came to stuff like the nazi infiltrators at the rally and the police just standing by while a riot breaks out, but the actual series ending left me very confused. I guess it makes slightly more sense in the book with Lindbergh's wife coming out but in the show she just pops up and things go slightly back to normal. That and I couldn't understand who was being set up to win the emergency election, I presume they were burning ballots from Roosevelt strongholds?
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Nov 14, 2021 01:58
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When you say Rawls do you mean the actor or the character?
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Jan 1, 2022 04:01
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Dang, the corner boys went to the darkside with Poot in a task force and Marlo in Homicide
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Apr 26, 2022 17:55
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I finished my rewatch over the weekend and in light of other Baltimore stories coming out that are actually true I am not as shocked by everything that happens in season 5. Well maybe shocked is the wrong word to use, I don't find the scenarios as farfetched? I mean, a police officer going to such extremes and dragging most of a section with him isn't at all shocking after what We Own This City showed with the GTTF. The newspaper stuff definitely still feels like Simon had an axe to grind, but after watching the film Shattered Glass about a year ago I can definitely see how a reporter like Templeton would get protected from within, especially since the only exposure to his lies and fabrications are from someone else lying. Maybe if there had been more heat from other organizations outside the sun it would feel a little more farfetched and  but all we have are people in the paper and as one dimensional as the bosses are shown they feel pretty real to me. Considering how many Whitings and Klebanows actually own the majority of newspapers (and have for the past couple hundred years) this season lands very differently in the 2020s than it did just as the WFC was coming to a head in 2008
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Aug 10, 2022 14:38
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again with both The Wire and WOTC I have to say that I wish other front line workers had what cops have. "Will you be giving me OT for chasing that car? If not gently caress you, my shift's over and I'm not doing anything else!" and then gently caress all happens the next time they clock in. I remember a little over a decade ago I worked retail and just as it was my time to clock out my section got really busy. I was assisting one customer and then when someone else came to ask for help I referred them to one of my coworkers and I said "my shift is over, once I'm done with this person, I'm going home". I didn't get written up or anything but everyone in my section gave me poo poo and the manager told me that was poor customer service and I shouldn't do that again. These days I hear on the news about how healthcare systems around the globe are on the verge of collapse thanks to burnout. I was hearing a nurses union rep talk about the state of their part of the country and how they keep bleeding staff from all sorts of stuff, denying vacations, forced OT that may or may not be paid for several years if they're lucky, no additional resources to help with stress and mental health. 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?
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Aug 10, 2022 16:31
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iirc Templeton is an amalgam of a few journalists that did similar things, but I think that Stephen Glass was probably the most recognized. If you want to see Hayden Christensen be a whiny journalist instead of a whiny Jedi, check out the biopic Shattered Glass
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Feb 11, 2023 09:59
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Watching True Detective last year, the 2nd season was a huge drag. It felt too much like a 2 hour cop film that got stretched out for 10 hours. I think it also didn't help that it was happening in real time, season 1 (and 3) bouncing back and forth between time periods really worked and they completely abandoned that for season 2. Kinda feel that it didn't help that we spent so much time with the antagonists. Season 3 pivoted back to a similar set up of season 1, and it looks like season 4 is sticking with some of that (especially with being set in an isolated area like Alaska) On The Wire, this show has gotten to the point where I can play it in the background and know exactly what's happening and when. However, I find myself fast-forwarding through most Ziggy scenes because they make me so sad 
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Apr 24, 2023 17:44
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He plays Sgt/Lt. Mello, right? I think he just didn't get a lot of time to shine, like Landsman. He's attached to Bunny for season 3, and in season 4, he's doing admin stuff and yelling at Carver to pawn Randy off to DCS. He's got the bureaucratic role down pat, and that's probably all they wanted for him in the show. Having fun imagining him talking to Rawls about masturbation
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May 9, 2023 23:05
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I think part of that has to do with the issue Nick struggles with as well, the family legacy. They both have grown up in the shadow of stevedore titans and felt that their life would be just as glorious. I imagine Nick and Ziggy are mid-20s, maybe late, and since this series is in 2004 or so, things probably didn't really start going to poo poo at the docks until just as they were getting be old enough to join the union. Also, while Ziggy is a goof and keeps loving things up when he's on the dock, he's a card-carrying member, so I don't think he was ever in danger of being fired. He's already at the low end for seniority, so they only have to tolerate his bullshit a handful of times a month or less. Could he be less of a gently caress-up at the things he does? Sure, I mean, we see that he is smart, but he doesn't have the charisma that Nick does, kind of like what we see later with Mike and Duke. There are just some people that get poo poo on just for having the audacity to exist
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May 10, 2023 21:04
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you think that surveillance van ever came back to Baltimore? Wonder how the discussion for replacing it went
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May 11, 2023 00:47
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Xiahou Dun posted:Remember when he went undercover meeting Bernard? Part of that was he showed he knew how to run a no poo poo con. That’s just a thing Lester happened to know. Is there a write-up out there that explains what it was Lester pitched? I had always thought he was just fast-talking, and Bernard buckled from Lester's smooth moves, and the girl continuing to nag him. I didn't realise what he was pitching was actually a thing people really do
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Jun 2, 2023 05:18
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surf rock posted:Season 3, episodes four through six: Reading this reminded me that I had heard it in context and understood who and what it was referring to, but I decided to go to Urban Dictionary to see what other people define it as. The only definition uses Carcetti as their example
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Feb 15, 2024 18:45
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HootTheOwl posted:Every boss is a human being except my boss who sucks and the up-and-coming kid who wants my job, specifically I still stand by the fact that the season 5 bosses get better on rewatch, same with how season 2 gets better on a rewatch. Now, I may also be saying this because time has shown that those media ghouls were just as soulless in real life as the show portrayed them. granted, the way Gus is shown does still feel a little at times, even though he misses the plot many times that season
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Feb 16, 2024 07:12
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surf rock posted:Episodes 7-10 of season 4: these two points are kind of intertwined, that and part of Dennis' own journey is that his actions have consequences, such as Spider and other boys leaving his gym because he almost immediately sleeps with their moms. He wants to be a good influence, but he doesn't realise that by doing what he's doing, he's upsetting his students. However, when it comes to Michael, you get a lot of not so subtle hints that Bug's dad did some very bad things. When the other boys talk about how much Dennis is sleeping around, Michael immediately cuts in that that doesn't mean he doesn't also like men or that he wouldn't go after kids (I don't think he SAYS that, but you definitely get that's what he means based off of the anger and venom in his delivery). When Dennis takes them to see a real fight and he is talking about the discipline that's required to get to that level, Michael still isn't buying what he's selling and Dennis doesn't pick up why Michael isn't pleased. Same when it comes to the "boy, I do love the ladies", I think part of that is Dennis having very little experience as a teacher (I mean, he'd been in prison for 20 years or something?), and realising in that moment that, yeah, it probably doesn't look good that the local gym owner sleeps with every woman that gives him a casserole. Dennis is very good at boxing and he gets really into it, that's fine for some kids, but for ones that have experiences like Michael, their armour hardens as soon as the authority figure starts taking special notice of them. The other issue is that Michael doesn't trust male authority figures that approach him the way Dennis does, you see the difference in how he talks with Chris and how he responds to Dennis. Chris doesn't hide who he is, and Dennis isn't either, but he's also doing all the wrong things (how would he know different?) to demonstrate to Michael that he's not trying to take advantage of him.
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Feb 28, 2024 07:15
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