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Woo, go rewatch thread! I started a rewatch around 3-4 weeks ago and am now on Season 5 but I'll stick strictly to first season talk for now. The thing that really stands out for me in the pilot (and all throughout Season 1) is how often we see the action through other cameras. Seriously, there's a ton of scene-opening shots (whatever you call them) where we're looking through a security camera on both the streets and the police. I guess it just signifies that everyone is being watched all the time and there's no escape. It also reminds me of one of the show's key themes throughout its run: everyone's trapped. In one way or another the system you are in is always watching, waiting for you to gently caress up and as a result chew you out like there's no tomorrow. Unlike the other seasons (to clarify my ranking is: 3, 4, 2, 1, 5) this is the one that gives me huge nostalgia vibes. Maybe it's the (relative) simplicity or that it was merely the first season and I have rose-tinted glasses because this was my first exposure to The Wire. However, I really think these vibes come from the Pit group of D, Bodie, Poot and Wallace. That whole setting just brings it all back: them talking poo poo on the orange couch, D teaching the young ones about the game as well as learning about himself along the way, the McNugget story and the chess scene. All of that added up to form, at least to me, the heart of the show.
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Dec 12, 2012 00:57
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escape artist posted:I seriously devoured every Wire blog/recap/etc. that I could find during and after my runs through, years ago. I'm not sure if it was mentioned in a thread here previously, but it is certainly intentional and I can't take credit for the observation. It was definitely mentioned in the thread at one point. I'm also pretty sure it's in the dvd commentary for the episode.
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Dec 12, 2012 01:11
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MrBling posted:Does anyone in The Wire actually pronounce it "Ballmer" ? I'm fairly sure I've caught McNutty saying it on occasion, depending on who he's talking to and why.
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Dec 14, 2012 00:39
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I'm pretty sure Simon himself voted for Obama at least once. He mentioned it in an interview, saying he was (paraphrasing) "very disappointed in some of Obama's policies but happy with others". However I think it may have been an interview that Simon was unhappy with due to editing reasons so take it all with a pinch of salt I guess.
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Dec 17, 2012 00:45
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Plus that's the only time Omar swears. At least as far as I can recall.
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Jan 13, 2013 21:34
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escape artist posted:What episode has Slim Charles deriding the hitters for breaking the Sunday truce by shooting at Omar's grandmother in church? I just gotta hear that "bonafide colored lady" speech. 3.9 - Slapstick
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Jan 16, 2013 10:56
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Unzip and Attack posted:3.9 "Slapstick" Be a little slow... be a little late...
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Jan 16, 2013 20:45
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I dunno, it's hard to picture anyone as being truly evil to the core but if I could Walker would certainly be up there. The great thing about The Wire is it makes you think about the way institutions, culture and upbringing shape a person into who they are and why they take a particular path in life. You learn not to judge based on impression alone but to really get the background of a character so that you can make an informed, objective opinion on where they stand and how they got there. So even if you loathe a character for who they are or what they do, you can still understand why they are like that since the show takes its time to build a world which has true consequence for everyone on every level. I mean how many times have you watched a TV show where this character is clearly "THE BIG BAD GUY" with no clear basis in reality and whose motivations are arbitrary at best. Sure, you may get some lines of dialogue explaining some part of their past but it often has nothing to do with anything and doesn't tie into any of the show's main themes. It's actually somewhat refreshing to see more shows that lay some solid groundwork for a character's motivation to "do evil" since you can in some way relate to them. After all, they're only human. Walter White of Breaking Bad is a great example, where you can see why he "broke bad" and piece together various tidbits of information to envision a solid timeline of events and relationships that led him down his twisted path. The Wire is special in this regard in that you are given a solid background picture of a vast array of characters that, while fascinating in itself, brings life to a setting and ties in with all the main themes the show has going. Also I finally got my boxset back from my friend who loved it start to finish. Time to get the rewatch on once more  Edit: Holy poo poo just watching some old 30 Rock episode and god drat Waylon of all people is singing a charity song to help replace an old man's kidney 
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Feb 28, 2013 01:15
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Zwabu posted:Which season is the one where Bubbles shows the one detective how he needs to dress if he's going to pass as a junkie? One of my favorite Bubbles moments. Season 1, Episode 3: The Buys
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Feb 28, 2013 22:12
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MrBling posted:You sound oddly like Doug Stanhope when he talks about AA, are you as angry as him too? "My name is Doug Stanhope, and that's why I drink." Ziggy's a great character. Every time I watch season 2 I keep thinking to myself "just stop being a loving idiot! You can turn it around Zig- oop the duck's dead." He seems designed to be frustrating to watch almost every time he's on screen. Then you get that moment when he finally snaps and it all becomes clear. It's heart wrenching to watch because you know what it's going to be like for him in prison for a crime that could so easily have been avoided. I'd put the end of his ark right up there with Wallace as one of the saddest, most depressing moments of the show.
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Feb 28, 2013 22:33
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Basebf555 posted:Between this scene and the following one with Frank and Ziggy in prison I really don't understand how some people can be so down on Season 2. I mean at first I totally get that the switch to the docks can be jarring, but by the end how can you not be invested in these two characters? Those two scenes are two of the most powerful in the whole series, I'm having a hard time thinking of any others that affected me as much as those scenes. Not even Wallace. Most people just don't like such a big change up. It's not that people are dumb or anything, but having a show change suddenly can put a lot of people off for a fair number of episodes even if it's of the highest quality. Simon and Burns had to start teaching audiences that their way was different from the very first episode; you'd have to keep up because it's never going to slow down. That's my reasoning for why people sometimes don't like season 2 the first go round but on rewatch it's appreciated because you know what's coming. Plus The Wire is a very unique show in that it changes things up every season. It's hard to think of another show that changes it's themes every time it comes back on air. In five seasons you've got the high level drug game and how the cops deal with it, the death of industry in America, the fall of a drug empire (and the rise of a new one), an analysis of America's school system and an insight into political campaigning as well as print media and what it's like to be the mayor of a broke-rear end city. This is a gross simplification of course as I didn't even touch on the themes of institutions, bureaucracy and class since they're a constant thread throughout the series. It's a lot to take in on first run through and should come as no surprise that some viewers are put off by it because there so used to traditional TV dramas.
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Mar 1, 2013 16:54
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Gaunab posted:I started watching this about two weeks back and I've got to say it lives up to the hype. I've only got about three or four episodes until I've finished it. I like most of the seasons but as I watching it felt that season 2 was the weakest until I got to season five but both are still good. Season 2 just suffered from moving away from the high rises since they were more interest but I know they had to with Avon in jail. The characters introduced weren't as memorable but it was solid. Taking place during Baltimore winter on the docks also made the season seem more depressing if that makes sense. Season five just seems to be suffering from taking place after two really great seasons. McNulty's fall back to his old self was disappointing but in line with his character. The newspaper arc isn't my favorite but it shows how the different sections of the city work against each other and brings home how the city turns a blind eye to the drug trade. Great series though. Probably going to finish it tomorrow. When you do a rewatch (it's inescapable) come back and tell us what you thought of season 2 the next time around. I can't even count the number of times people in this thread and the old one had season 2 as the worst season viewing it for the first time but elevated it to the top couple on rewatch.
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Mar 1, 2013 22:36
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cletepurcel posted:Re: Bird getting high - I interpret that as something Avon didn't know about. In season 3, one of the first things he does after getting home is kicking the two idiot enforcers out of his party after he can tell they are high. I would also say Avon didn't know about it and anything like that was kept pretty hush-hush. He probably had his suspicions though, considering how careful he was with everything else. Throughout season 1 we see - on both sides of the law - rules being bent or broken for whatever reason. With the cops it's far more apparent because we as an audience live within the same societal constraints imposed by an institution and can spot when a rule is being broken eg: a timesheet being forged, drunk on the job, cheating on paperwork to forward a case etc. On the side of the dealers it's a far more blurry picture because they live outside these constraints. However, they still have their own rules which are imposed by an institution (the Barksdale crew and other drug organizations) that have to be followed in order for the institution to have control and thrive. This includes not getting high on the supply, the Sunday morning truce, acts of parle etc. The show brilliantly mirrors how, no matter what side of the law you're on, there will be individuals who break the rules of the society they are a part of in order to either advance into greater power or indulge in areas of pleasure they're not supposed to. It also further hammers home one of the over-arching themes of The Wire in how institutions, for better or for worse, hinder the individual through crushing bureaucracy and dominance from those at the top of the establishment.
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Mar 12, 2013 12:03
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Redundant posted:I think I am enjoying my second viewing more than my first one. This was my experience too. I went through seasons one to five at a fair clip and never really took time to contemplate exactly what was going on and, even though I thoroughly enjoyed it, didn't fully appreciate everything that was happening. Second time through I know who everyone is and as a result could devote more brainpower to noticing bigger themes and little subtleties. It also helped that after my first watch I read various reviews and the threads on this site which really opened my eyes to how complex this show is.
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Mar 14, 2013 21:08
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Redundant posted:I'm a bit sad that I got ahead of the write ups in this thread because I don't want to miss some of the smaller details. I don't suppose anyone has any good resources they could link me to so I can keep on learning do they? I tried googling it but holy balls there's a lot, I tried to filter through them all to find good ones but Here's Alan Sepinwall dissecting every (I think) episode: Link.
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Mar 14, 2013 22:45
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That scene makes me look away every time. It's so hard to watch especially when you know it's coming. I never noticed that it was Randy who made that comment, just makes season 4 even more depressing since that's him in a couple years  Re: The rat in the "Come at the King" scene - It's just pure coincidence as far as I can remember. I think they remarked on it in the commentary for that episode that it was a real rat that had nothing to do with the filming and they just got a lucky shot. Lugaloco fucked around with this message at 20:48 on Mar 15, 2013 |
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Mar 15, 2013 20:38
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That bit also mirrors the "Come at the King" scene quite nicely and shows how easily things can go wrong for someone like Omar. Instead of Omar opening up and killing someone, he opens up and misses. Instead of injuring Wee Bey, Wee Bey injures him. In the "Come at the King" scene it's Bey scrambling for cover behind a car but this time around it's Omar. Wee Bey is the one that has the last word this time instead of Omar. The show really likes to do parallel scenes like this. Like, a lot.
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Mar 18, 2013 17:49
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nwin posted:Couple questions about season 2 that I still can't wrap my head around, even though I'm on my fourth or fifth rewatch. 1) I think that was a Columbian cartel container, or at least made up to be... I think. It's been a while since I've seen season 2. Presumably The Greek provides information about possible terrorist threats/cartel shenanigans in exchange for protection as it's the highest of the FBI's priorities since 9/11. 2) It makes sense if you just take it at face value. Stringer and Avon are effectively fighting over running the Barksdale Organization. Stringer thinks Avon's "name called out in the streets and holding onto a bunch of territory" approach just isn't feasible anymore with an inferior product whilst Avon thinks Stringer's approach of trying to "legitimize" bits and pieces will weaken the organization. We've seen the pair slowly drift apart over three seasons and this is the culmination of that. It just so happens that the East side is caught in the middle.
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Mar 25, 2013 23:59
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nwin posted:Ah ok, that all makes a lot more sense. Thanks. Still doesn't make sense why Prop Joe didn't seem a little more pissed off about his nephew getting shot though. Even though, a few episodes earlier, I recall him saying family is a pain in the rear end to deal with, so maybe he just saw it as ends justifying the means. Yeah, Prop Joe doesn't strike me as a guy who'd get mad and want "revenge" for his family, especially going up against Mouzone and Cheese wasn't even killed. I always took it as Joe just laying back, waiting for the information to come to him instead of potentially stepping on someone's toes and drawing more unwanted attention to his dealings. He's gotta keep it boring. Dead fuckin' boring.
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Mar 26, 2013 00:30
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I've been a little slow in my rewatch and just finished Season 1 last night. If the show was cancelled then and there it would've been a great loss, but I can't help but feel that those 13 episodes told a brilliant self-contained story. At the end of "Sentencing" no side really wins (only loses more slowly...) and as a viewer you are felt deliberately unsatisfied. Avon's only doing 7 years, Stringer's walking free, D'Angelo (one of if not the most sympathetic character on the side of the dealers) got a full 20 years, McNulty's on the boat, we don't know if Greggs will be the same again and Daniels has effectively been shitcanned. I can't help but feel that Simon et al purposefully concluded the arc of Season 1 this way in order to teach us that the system's hosed and you're never going to get a satisfying conclusion due to the very nature of The Game on both sides. If there was no Season 2 you could still take away a lot of the major points the series makes as a whole and feel satisfied with those points whilst craving for more that would never come. I guess that's why a lot of people were thrown by Season 2. We were specifically trained as viewers to look at both sides of the law through a different, more critical lens and were expecting more of that the next time around. To an extent we got that, but I'm not sure anyone was really ready for the sheer scope the show was about to undertake over the next four seasons. If you asked someone in September 2002 (jesus it's been that long) where the show would go in the upcoming seasons I don't think anyone would have said "Well we're going to see how the fall of industry in America has affected the working class, also we're going to delve deeper into the political side of things by seeing how a mayoral campaign is run and what happens once you get to be mayor. Oh yeah we're also going to explore the rotting carcass that is the inner city school system and the decline of print newspapers/media as we know it". The only things I can see anyone guessing would be the fall of a drug empire and the rise of a new one. I've tried explaining the scope of the show to friends who are interested in it without sounding like it's too much and the best I've been able to say is "Don't really think of it as a cop/drug dealer show, just think about it as the story of a single American city."
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Apr 16, 2013 11:00
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Speaking of McNulty and Nick, it's only just clicked to me that the person showing Nick and his family around his old aunt's place is Jimmy's ex-wife. How the in the flying gently caress did I not notice that before.
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Apr 18, 2013 21:38
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Another great write-up. I've moved onto "Storm Warnings" and just realised something I thought was pretty funny. So Valchek goes to the FBI to bring in Frank Sobotka. The FBI then roll out to meet up with Daniels in his HQ in the middle of bumfuck nowhere. Daniels, not knowing they were coming, must have thought that they were there to ask about the money from his Eastern District days since Burrell revealed it last season and might've let slip to Valchek. Cue a look of pants-making GBS threads terror from Daniels, not knowing that it has nothing to do with the money whatsoever. I might've misread that little scene, but I like to think it was intentional. 
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Apr 21, 2013 22:42
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It also reinforces The Wire's heavy inspiration from the Greek Tragedies. Same poo poo, different name 
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Apr 30, 2013 09:51
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chesh posted:and Michael K Williams will always be Omar. I dunno man, have you seen him in Boardwalk Empire? He's god drat amazing in that, made me forget he was ever Omar while watching. He plays being utterly terrifying really well which shows good range from the wildcard, honor-bound rogue of Omar.
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May 29, 2013 23:54
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cletepurcel posted:
They didn't reunite anyone on "The No-Brainer" episode of Fringe either; which had Daniels, Frank Sobotka and Chris all in the same episode in entirely separate scenes.
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Jun 16, 2013 01:25
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Minrad posted:
Maybe he doesn't end up in the papers, but he goes down as a legend on the streets. As we saw in Marlo's last scene, Omar's death is played up to ridiculous proportions and he goes out like it's the last stand at the Alamo to a lot of people who heard it second/third hand. Not to mention all of the stories of his previous adventures that already made his name ring out (not that he ever really cared if it did). This, of course, is what Marlo wanted. For his name to ring out. But Omar destroyed that and as evidenced in Marlo's last scene the two corner boys don't give a poo poo who he is. In death Omar won.
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Jun 17, 2013 15:32
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I would've partly thought it was because Daniels got himself in the basement in the first place too. Rawls would've seen it as someone who doesn't know how to maintain their career, but with this he's started to see otherwise. Also probably because Rawls is a casual racist, a mix of stuff really.
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Jul 25, 2013 22:31
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<--- Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuugggggggggh  The ending with Stringer is honestly one of the best if not my number one favourite TV scene of all time. As has been said a few times in this thread and probably many times in the previous one, this final scene is a masterpiece in terms of sheer  , visual metaphor and resolution. There's so many little things that make it great, I could go on forever about it. They really, really nailed it in giving Stringer a hell of a send off and boy did they need to. The guy was arguably more important to the show than Avon and for the most part was the face of the drug dealers on this show. You needed to have some sort of twisted sympathy for the guy (kind of hard because Wallace, D'Angelo ) in order to really feel the impact of his death and they delivered. He was squeezed between the sides just like Colvin and instead of getting fired he got got. "They gently caress up, they get beat. We gently caress up, they give us pensions." - Season 1, Ep 13. Speaking of being squeezed between the sides, let's quickly bring up some of the metaphors at play here since now would be the most appropriate time. In the end, Stringer was literally squeezed into an unwinnable and inescapable situation. Omar, torchbearer for the streets, coming at him from from below; and Mouzone, torchbearer for the social strata Stringer was trying to break into, crushing him from on high. Both meet in the middle and Stringer is squeezed out and erased from existence as a result. This can be a huge allegory for end-game capitalism in general and this is enhanced by the massive B & B billboard in the final shot of the episode. And of course there's the sound of a drat train. Fast train comin' String
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Jul 27, 2013 21:53
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Fargo Fukes posted:
The actor is Irish. He's also on Game of Thrones and has earned a reputation on that show for his wildly varying accent.
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Aug 10, 2013 19:53
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Herc is playing one of Al Capone's brothers in the new season of Boardwalk Empire. As if I needed another reason to be mega hyped for its return.
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Aug 31, 2013 18:14
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geeves posted:I need to catch up on Boardwalk Empire. I watched the first few episodes and never kept up with it for some unknown reason. I didn't know that Michael K Williams was in it. And this season they're adding Jeffrey Wright? He's one of my favorites. Yep, Jeffrey Wright is going to be a big player in Season 4. You really should give Boardwalk another chance, the thing you have to bear in mind starting out is that Season 1 is very much a prologue to Season 2. Lots of pieces being set up and deals taking place that don't pay off until the next season. The first season is still great but it's from Season 2 onwards that Boardwalk really comes into its own. Plus Michael K Williams is fantastic in it. He really shows his range with the character of Chalky White, especially in comparison to Omar.
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Sep 1, 2013 12:34
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Michael's movin' on up.
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Sep 4, 2013 21:36
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Alan Sepinwall and Dan Feinberg talk about The Wire's pilot episode in their latest podcast: Link Skip to 01:03:40 to avoid breaking Bad spoilers. Says on the page but just to be sure. It's a pretty good conversation and if I could sum their views up in one sentence it would be "the show throws you into the deep in with cement shoes".
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Sep 9, 2013 23:10
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Jerusalem posted:
I always thought of Donnelly as a person who knew the system, decided to work within the system and make the best out of a very, very bad situation. I think she is right in a sense to tell Prez not to get too attached, he'll burn out and not be able to do his job; a job I have no doubt isn't exactly the most desirable. She clearly sees potential in Prez as a force for good in the school but him getting too invested in individual cases (and as a result having a good chance of packing it all in out of disgust for the system) would end up curtailing that overall good and hurting the school in the long run, at least in her eyes. It seems to be a classic example of "Macro" vs "Micro" that pops up in this show. Whether she's right or wrong I really have no answer to, but I believe she is a good person trying to make change from within which, unfortunately, seems futile. In the end I think she was cold but very fair.
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Oct 13, 2013 12:30
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Capntastic posted:I don't normally post in the thread, and I know I saw it mentioned somewhere on SA before, but I'd really like someone to dissect Bodie's last scene. I don't have access to the DVDs, but I recall someone mentioning that Bodie moves diagonally like a pawn attacking, while those that do him in move like knights. Is that accurate? I would say that's fairly accurate, the whole chess metaphor has been a running theme of Bodie's character since the beginning of Season 1. Bodie only shoots diagonally at Chris and Snoop like a pawn would, standing his ground as Jerusalem says: "On the one little square that is his". I'd say Chris and Snoop are more like bishops (the high ranking lieutenants of the chessboard I guess?), moving as much as they want on a diagonal axis. It's only O-Dog, the knight, who moves in the L-Shape which Bodie is blindsided by since Bodie as a pawn can only attack diagonally. It's all a little nebulous but I think it works to a degree and is fitting for the demise of one of the greatest characters the show had. Some would also say that this shot symbolises Bodie and McNulty as pawns on a chessboard (with the statue as a king overlooking? I dunno) which makes sense in a way:  Also here's his final scene in its entirety: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFkWPNJAy14
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Oct 23, 2013 11:41
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I feel I can easily forgive those Season 1 scenes because they're trying to establish something that's incredibly complicated in only 13 episodes. Without that foundation I can't imagine how lost I'd be (more than I already was) on a first time viewing. To take the chess scene as an example, I was mostly taking Bodie's line of thought that if you make it to the end of the board then you'd win when I first saw it. But D'Angelo makes the unbelievably important point (which permeates throughout the entire show) that even if you do make it to the end there's not much there, and that's if you're not "capped quick" by that point. To put it a little clearer, sometimes those scenes are necessary in order to keep the audience on the right track, even in shows like The Wire where you're thrown in at the deep end with lead boots on. I agree that those scenes can be a little on the nose, but they are very, very well done for what they are.
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Oct 27, 2013 14:06
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A nice little touch in the "My Name Is My Name" scene: when Marlo erupts there is literally no other noise. It's dead quiet until he finishes his rant and only then does the background noise of phones ringing and general office work come back to the fore. A really nice touch to emphasise an already powerful moment.
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Jan 15, 2014 21:53
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Just jumping in to ask a question. Other than Prez, does a cop ever actually fire a shot on duty and for its intended purpose in this show? I can't remember any off-hand other than Bunk shooting a mouse or whatever but that doesn't count. Prez fires his weapon when he, Herc and Carver go do some "field interviews". He also fires his weapon in the office while showing the trigger pull. Of course finally he kills someone who turned out to be an undercover cop. I might be forgetting something but I swear it's only Prez who actually fires his weapon on the job.
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Aug 18, 2014 17:10
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If there is a Blu Ray release, will it still be in 4:3? I might be showing my ignorance here because I'm not well-versed on stuff like the filming process.
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Aug 28, 2014 22:07
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I remember reading that 4:3 was very important in the filming in the show though, that anything else would make it look "too flashy" and like a movie.
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Aug 28, 2014 22:27
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