"The Wire" on HBO

I love how high a level they're working on: this is a TV show where they don't have to condescend to the audience and where every single facet - the cast, the story, the locations, the care they put into every detail from the smallest local custom to the largest political issues - is uncompromising.

The DVD may come out next summer - HBO is notoriously slow about releasing those. They're usually two seasons behind, compared to Fox, who put out the 24 DVDs for one season right before the next one starts.

How'd people feel about the finale? Not as tight as last year's (since it was setting up Season 3), but I loved it.

Anyway, the first season - yeah, that all centered on the Barksdale case, which didn't exactly take a backseat this season but was... less pronounced. Omar has always stood out on the show, which is usually a little more reserved about its characters - he's the superbadass gay stick-up kid whose boyfriend Brandon was brutally cut to pieces by Barksdale's crew in retaliation to Omar's unrelenting attacks on their stashes. Haha i was gonna continue but to try and recap all the ties and Byzantine dealings between the characters would take a few hours so uh yeah... wait for the DVD. :/ I was lucky enough to start catching the show earlier this year when they reran the first season in prep for the second.

Oh man, there's so much about this show that just gets me giddy though. The final sequence of shots, set to that song, were very fitting; building up and building up, the tension and dynamics of two huge cases built upon each other that still aren't really finished and all the people crammed into the power dynamic of it, and it all collides right on top of that last shot of Nicky Sobotka, completely trapped under the weight of human wreckage. Most of the show is about, and is most sympathetic to, some very deeply damaged human beings, but there's always compassion for them. This show loves its characters and loves its actors (the guy who played Frank Sobotka was brilliant), and I think that's probably one of the things that comes through best in all the episodes (along with the writing, which never misses a single damn beat...)

apparently Richard Price is gonna be writing for them next season too. oh mama.

also, lord, the usage of music is great on here. McNulty driving drunk to "Transmetropolitan" was a highlight; don't really buy Nicky being a Palace Music (!) fan, though..

aaaah someone shut me up already

I loved this show the instant I tuned in and saw somebody from the Annapolis HC scene in a small credited role -- since he's gained more weight than I have since that time, I declare the Wire a classic.

I was a little disappointed by the book, I have to say. Most of the episode guides (which is to say most of the book) is just plot summary; now that whole seasons of TV series are coming out on DVD, I don't see a lot of use for such info.

God I love this show.

So how long 'til the next season?

One can never underestimate the human importance of the aesthetic contributions to television narrative that HBO continues to make. One easily recognizes the impetus for the late-night trash that it presents as a neon sop of barely soft-core pornography for the masses, but that would not explain all of the other things that this adventurous station offers. In aesthetic terms, I think this is especially true of The Wire, a dramatic series with much wider scope than The Sopranos, an unprecedented classic.

The human importance of The Wire is that it avoids the caricatures that we are too often given of black people in rap's pervasive minstrelsy and the other fast-food ethnic images of mass media. The Wire is the best crime show since Hill Street Blues, Law & Order, and NYPD Blue. Like its predecessors, the show has a breadth of human vision that moves us far beyond the stereotype and does the best that it can with the mysteries of human personality.

The Wire is set in Baltimore and does not back away from the monstrous elements of the black drug trade in American cities, but it also gives great variety to the criminal characters, from extremely stupid to extremely clever. Even more impressive than that already impressive achievement is the range of black people in law enforcement and the complex rendering of urban politics as played out along racial, sexual, and class lines. For one long stretch its focus was white ethnic crime on the Baltimore docks, and the series was as successful in creating complex scenarios, providing the viewer with maddening, flawed, corrupt, heroic, and tragic characters. Within the limits of its form (which seem to be no more than the width of the screen, since cable television is not, for good and for bad, held in check by censorship), The Wire is a masterpiece and will continue to be as long as it can maintain the depth of the standards it has set for itself.

yes. yes i do know. even though I missed most of this last season :[[[[ After not catching a bunch of eps in a row I basically gave up and decided to wait for the reruns, but the beginning of the third run wasn't quite as arresting as what came before, one had the sense that the show had found a groove and was settling into it (i think by tackling so many Big Ideas™ in the second season they ended up neutering themselves in terms of how far they could expand the scope of the story) (not necessarily a bad thing) but there was still quite a bit of interesting stuff going on. and I had no idea that Stringer bell was one of those rappin' limeys!! They should get Dizzee on there.

Here's my review of Season One in City Pages:

THE WIRE: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON
HBO Home Video

Only some of The Wire's greatness can be measured by how thoroughly it demolishes the "realism" of other TV public dick shows and gangsta soaps. Every trick of television verisimilitude has a freshness date, and makes way for a new set of clichés (think of the shaky camerawork in the now rote Law & Order franchise). Even FX's The Shield, once the cutting edge of morally ambiguous cop heroes, demonstrates the diminishing returns of constantly defying viewer expectations. In the end, its extremism is about nothing but other cop shows.

HBO's The Wire, however, is about work. And the genre it subverts isn't just the crime one, but the nameless category of TV and film that might be labeled "people who are great at their jobs and work like maniacs." Most characters in this emergent genre of the overworked '90s and '00s are judged by how well they serve their institutions. Yet in The Wire, it's the institutions that are the problem--including the illegal ones. Running a housing project in West Baltimore like a death squad might run a food court, local gang members adhere to a demeaning organizational hierarchy. There's no Bonnie and Clyde fantasy of freedom to this murderous pecking order, which exists only to perpetuate itself. (In one poetic touch, the kingpin's right-hand man takes macroeconomics at the community college. At the core, he's a company man.)

The narcotics detectives have their own parts to play, and it doesn't seem remotely heroic when they buck authority. McNulty, the romantic lead among cops (he carries a liquor bottle and spits when he talks), admits at one point that he's pursuing the gang as an ego trip. If characters find dignity anywhere in the Sisyphean drug war, it's in their duties to each other, and in their craft.

Created by a former Baltimore Sun reporter (David Simon, who also gave us Homicide: Life on the Streets) and a former Baltimore Police detective (Ed Burns), The Wire is clearly a work of journalism. But it never pretends that the truth can set you free. --Peter S. Scholtes

http://www.citypages.com/databank/25/1253/article12754.asp

Amateurist, The Wire is the most naturalistic show I've ever seen on television. Yeah, some shaky camera etc but only when it suits the scene. It's not very stylized, most of the technical filmmaking stuff is pretty subtle.

It allows itself occasional flashy touches (like Bunk and McNulty's great "Fuck" scene, where the dialogue consists entirely of "Fuck" said with a dozen or more different inflections), but those come as sort of welcome bonuses -- easter eggs for dedicated viewers or something.

Agreed. After I devoured the season one DVD set I picked up a stack of Pelecanos novels and fell in love with his work pretty much immediately. A Firing Offense, his first one, is pretty stiff, but King Suckerman and The Sweet Forever are genius -- lots of great music references and layered characters and observations about race. His work on The Wire is starting to inform his writing pretty obviously; I just finished an advance of his next book, Drama City, and it has a very Wire-y structure. There's less music stuff, but it's still good stuff. (Comes out in March.)

but what makes the wire so great is that it never gauchely strikes out at the status quo (see: everything bad about michael moore); instead it accepts that it is reality and shows how people work within it: what they bend, what they break, how they cope, how they don't. and so all of the action that we are presented with are people bristling and bumping up against the limitations of life itself. that's where you get the hyper-realism. there are no master criminals or puppetmasters or cops. i mean, jimmy mcnulty is don quixote with a drinking problem and that's that. he's not special; he's smart and he's well trained.

and nick i'm with you that frank sobotka (he's currently on the espn poker show tilt) was a great character. i really can't think of a character that i didn't like. even prez gets his moments!

I don't know, regardless of the societal reasons that lead people to do awful things, I have a hard time forgiving extreme cruelty, violence, and murder. It's easier for me to feel bad for guys like D'Angelo Barksdale, but not so much for powerful puppet masters like Stringer and Avon.

and matthew i'm psyched to hear that! that's great.

if anyone's interested in a cheap copy of s2 ($60!), i may end up having two copies of it on dvd shortly. i bought it when it came out but i think i'm getting another copy from hbo cuz i reviewed it for blender. if it does arrive (i never count on these things) i'll post notice here.

I think one of the many things that's great about the series is that it shows rather than tells in making its case. We hear about dumb Pollocks, then notice some of them being smarter than the characters using that phrase. Stringer and his boys call Omar a cocksucker and a faggot, but we see him having more heart (in every sense) than any of them. In season two, one of the young dock workers talks about project niggers, but ends up doing essentially the same business as them, but with less smarts.

Now, you could make the argument that there is "honor" in Stringer's taking an Econ class and attempting to invest drug money in "legitimate" stocks and other businesses, schooling his employees in the realities of capitalism that have to be faced before a gun is drawn. You can definitely make the argument that he's a great character, and the show's writers love him.

But to me, he's the essence of a soulless rational maximizer. He takes what he can get. He kills characters I like, because they might hurt him down the road as informants. Once you extend the idea of "honor" to self-preservation at all costs, you have adopted Michael Corleone's morality, my friend.

Plus, he doesn't like go-go music!

Life itself? I think if you don't see a radical critique of the various systems on display in front of us, you're trying not to see it. Check out this interview with the show's creator:

http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=3336

At a review of crime statistics last week at the police headquarters, computerized maps flashed onto screens as ranking officers sharply questioned precinct commanders on crime trends. Forests of blue icons pinpointed drug-dealing hot spots, many accompanied by red X's to denote homicides.

Yet as the maps showed killings increasing in some places, they also showed that other reported crimes, including rape, robbery, aggravated assault and burglary, were down in most precincts.

"As I ride down the street, I'd have to say the city is safer," Acting Police Commissioner Leonard D. Hamm said.

Not everyone is so sure. Some criminologists have questioned the statistics, arguing that some precinct commanders may be downgrading serious crimes to lesser categories to make their districts look better.

And then there's this, which Simon's gotta be kicking himself for not thinking of first:

"Baltimore is actually a very safe city if you are not involved in the drug trade," Health Commissioner Peter Beilenson said.

And look at the photo -- it's Carcetti and Burrell!

I've been telling lots of people that Season 1 was the best season of TV I have ever seen, and after giving that a lot of thought, I'm pretty sure I agree with myself. I think it's aided somewhat by being only 12 episodes, so there are no duds, but still. If you love THE NOVEL, you'll love The Wire. Season 1 is not only the best TV shows ever, it's also one of the best novels I've ever, uh, witnessed.

But do we really need any more of these evil, conspiratorial, slimy, and yes, JEWISH defense lawyers who seem to LOOOOOOOVE crime and misery? This "Maury Levy" (UGH) is the only real full on caruacature on the show. Give me a fucking break already with the smirking and the evil-ness.

Still the best show ever, though.

Also, I would recommend all of Price's books. Wasn't that Richard Price as the literature teacher in the prison class in Season 2?

i'm guessing that if season four of the wire happens with its supposed public school-focus, i bet some of the themes of samaritan figure in prominently.

http://www.hbo.com/thewire/cast/actors/clarke_peters.shtml

I KNEW McNulty was an English guy putting on an American accent as soon as he opened his mouth.

YES YES YES

Graduated from Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1995.

I don't read the Netflix slipcases. This was no exception.

In a lot of ways I prefer the grand operatic story of The Sopranos, and I sure as hell think that everything from season 3 onward on that show is pretty much as good as it gets, but The Wire is so tight. There's no such thing as a weak episode in this show. Not a moment is wasted.

My personal favorite season of SFU is season 3, actually.

I don't think 6FU or the Sopranos really match up to the Wire at all. 6FU was really great starting out, but this last season turned into some bizarro homoerotic grand guignol. Which isn't HALF as awesome as it sounds. Sopranos was always wildly uneven, and for the last couple years the only good eps have been the ones in which important characters are killed. The cardboard hatefulness of the Sopranos pisses me off too, esp. in comparison to The Wire - even the sympathetic characters are monsters. which, yeah, is obviously the point, but it makes it hard to remain invested in the show when everyone drips venality and cruelty. The uneven writing makes it even harder, obv. Things definately did improve last season, but after all the meandering it's difficult to care about how things will conclude. (and for a show in which character comes first [wtf does that mean anyway], the people in it sure are fucking static)

The only kinda gratuitous tv-watching that I can remember from the last two seasons was that bit in "Cold Cuts" when Tony is getting all freaked out by that 60 Minutes report on how easily terrorists could get stuff into US docks.

I guess the only way I can refute this is by going back and looking at those eps, which sounds like a pain in the ass. I know that WHAT they're watching usually has some kind of thematic relevence, but I never felt like it enriched the narrative or contributed much? It also frequently came off as self-parody to me. I guess I just prefer more to be HAPPENING in my tv (cf. the Wire), and this particular trope always felt emblematic of the show's slothfulness.

(and yeah, not unrealistic, but it's hardly a documentary etc blah blah)

The Sopranos seasons: 3 > 5 > 4 > 1 > 2

1 > 2 > 5 > 3 > 4

(Not seen Five):

But 1 > 2 > 4 > 3.

Alex In SF, I can't believe that you really believe that "Proshai, Livushka" is the worst episode of the series. I'd easily place that one in the top ten or top fifteen. If you really think that duds like "Commendatori," "D-Girl," and "A Hit Is A Hit" are better, then hey, whatever. We're not going to see eye to eye on this!

Also "D-Girl" is great. The other two are just okay though.

Well, what else were they supposed to do? Pretend the character never existed? Please be even a little bit realistic or sympathetic about this. That one scene isn't that big of a deal, but the rest of the episode is VERY strong. It was a great send off for that character, who had run her course either way.

Ralph Cifaretto > all other similar antagonist characters on the show combined, and has the best death episode of anyone in the five seasons to date.

I'm not that sour about Jackie Jr, but I do agree that it's not one of the best subplots in the series. A lot of the reason that I love season 3 is the stuff with Tony and Carmella, the introduction of Ralph, "Pine Barrens," and the Gloria Trillo storyline. I have a certain fondness for season 3 because it's the season where the show really comes together. Season 1 and season 2 are good, but there's some flailing in season 2 that makes me suspect that the writers weren't 100% sure where they were going with it, and were still reeling from the massive success of the first season.

I saw that Wire episode with "I Walk The Line" at the start of it (it's called "Storm Warnings") for the first time yesterday. I agree, it's exceptional. It's hard to pick stand-out episodes in the Wire because it's all so consistent, but yeah, that's on the shortlist for me.

Yes, the "Jar Jar" Livia is the same episode as her wake. The wake is the majority of the episode, and that one scene with her is no more than two minutes.

There are two or three really great individual episodes in Season Three (Pine Barrens is amazing, so is the first one--Mr Ruggiero's Neighborhood--with the FBI, also all the bits with Janice and the one legged lady are brilliant) but it's got a lot of the weakest subplots too (Charles S Dutton, Melfi's rape, I don't rate the Gloria subplot at all, and of course almost all of the Jackie Jr stuff.)

http://p076.ezboard.com/fpoliticalpalacefrm34.showPrevMessage?topicID=1332.topic

From MTV news:
http://www.mtv.com/bands/m/mixtape_monday/092704/

Meeting Idris Elba is a straight bug-out. He's been in videos by Fat Joe and most recently Angie Stone, but he's best known as kingpin Russell "Stringer" Bell on HBO's "The Wire." So imagine how ill it is to holla at him for the first time and discover that he has a thick British accent and he's a DJ. "I've been collecting records since I was like 10," said Elba, who grew up in London. The actor, whose DJ name is Big Dris, began spinning around the age of 14. "I started out with my uncle," he remembered. "He had a sound system called Sound International back in London. He basically did weddings. I was the speaker boy. ... By the time I was 15, me and my men from around the way started our own little sound that was called the Social Affair Sound [and] we started doing local parties." Dris, who began putting it down behind the turntables in clubs by the time he was 19, has been living part-time in NYC for the last six years and actually started earning his living by spinning in the East Village and Alphabet City before landing a guest appearance on "Law and Order" in 2001. His stint on "The Wire" began in 2002. Dris said things are going to get ugly this season for his character, but in real life, Elba is straight. He's already put out a series of street CDs called Foot Fetish, and he's linking up with other DJs to put out collaborations. "I consider myself a blend DJ more than anything," he said. "Like my mixtapes, the way I want to see them grow, I basically want to see if I can get my mixtapes to showcase new talent. I can't compete with the big boys on getting the freestyles and all that, because I don't have the connects yet. Eventually, I'd like to get the new freestyles, but at the same time, I want to see the new cats that's coming up."

Hey Cabbie! by Thaddeus Logan

http://www.citypaper.com/bob/story.asp?id=174

that is so cool.

omar is pretty SIC-WID-IT though.

I guess a lot of it happens in the pre credit sequence.

Actually, I find the softcore pretty distracting and not (usually) revelatory of any character or plot stuff, so I have a theory it's all just part of HBO's attempt to keep a minimum tits per hour average on their original shows.

Any time sex on the Wire borders on gratuitous, it's always McNulty. And it's usually funny.

And yeah, there's a lot of wit in The Wire. Just not a lot of slapstick.

And it's essential they find a way to add Omar to the storyline for next season.

mcnulty might be the most cliched thing to you, gypsy, but he's also one of the most reality-based characters on the show! he's ed burns.

Personally, I hope they find some way to keep Cutty in the mix - that guy is fascinating. I'd like to see Zig and Nick and Horseface and the Greek and other guys from the docks come back, too, but I guess they've been pretty well dropped.

The cops, on the other hand, have never seemed too serious to me. They've never had a scene like that. Sure, there have been steely-eyed threats, hurled recriminations, long friendships put at risk, but the "game" is something the cops can dip out of -- to the extent that they turn off their cell phones -- any time they want. Even to the most "natural police," as the show puts it, their jobs, and the relationships in their jobs, matter, but only so much. Which probably reflects reality, to an extent. Bayliss and Pembleton cared so much they almost drove themselves off the deep end; these police seem a little more balanced. But less interesting.

You're giving pretty short shrift to a McNulty who recruits his own kids for subject surveillance!

xpost haha yeah, but McNulty caught hell for it, cause he's an outrageous dick.

and prez. poor poor prez.

I'd like to see a City Hall show written by someone who knows City Hall as well as Simon knows cops and robbers. But maybe I'd be the only one who watched it.

xpost to jamz -- yeah! The black councilman is running for mayor on an education platform, and the white councilman is running on crime, right? The white councilman is a great character, you never quite know where he's coming from. He seems like he's got real decency under there, but there are ominous signs... the moral triage of politics comes a little too naturally to him, and his vanity is well-documented. The revelation of Hamsterdam was a moment of moral choice for him and he wrestles with it -- use it to his campaign's advantage, or follow his conscience? He's told: "You've been dealt a winning hand and it's like you forgot how to play!" but he remembers how to play at the end, and I wonder if it's the first step down a long, venal road.

The other big indicator that 4 will be all about the money, or at least the politics, as that Clay Davis remains unconscionably un-comeuppanced.

Lance Reddick rules. He ruled on Oz too.

I saw him running at the dog park a few weeks back. Intimidating! But sporting the tall man's tell-tale knee braces.

And, in the hidden indicators department, he's done time in Rochester. Eastman School on his resume.

Secondly, last week thanks to the transit strike and me spending Christmas in New York, I rewatched the first season and am mid-way through the second. Just so so good. So many things I had forgotten, and some little tidbits in the early going that showed the uncertainty that it began with. Things like:

1) Omar curses in the first episode
2) Stringer SMOKING in the first episode (no way would he ever smoke)
3) McNulty's British accent is sooooo apparent in the earlygoing

Anyway, I'm just convinced more and more everyday how genius this show is/was.

Also, has anyone else seen Cutty in those Cheerios commercials? And last night I saw D'Angelo's mom in an episode of West Wing!

This sentence is true of me as well. Yancey, are you me?

On the second viewing, I found myself more impressed by the skillful long-arc structuring, but slightly more annoyed by the couple of actors for whom I can't quite suspend disbelief. Frank Sobotka in particular makes me picture the script, and the camera, and the audition, and generally the actor trotting around the Upper West Side with a latte and a copy of Backstage.

"YOU MOTHERFUCKERS GAVE ME BAD ADVICE!"

Hey you guys are me wtf cut it out I'm me

Yeah, season 4 is debuting in the fall of 06.

HBO for 06:

March - May: The Sopranos / Big Love

July - September: Deadwood / Entourage

September - November: The Wire

My favorite is Bunk.

1. it woulda been cool if d'angelo's mom was introduced a little bit earlier, but oh well.
2. beginning of last episode - scene with lt. daniels and mcnulty in the hospital is, aside from daniels' closing lines, pretty terrible.

starting season 2 next week!

For all the seriousness, this show gets hilarious in a "jokes between friends" sort of a way. See Omar and McNutty clothes shopping. "Well...It's a look." "No it ain't."

I don't really have anything to add to what everyone else has said except OOOH. I had no idea Dominic West was English, but I knew Idris was. I've seen him on the telly. He was great in that show with Miles (Jack Davenport, I mean) that was about vampires except it wasn't.

Oh, inDEED. I am desperate to get season 3, having only watched the first two. I'm downloading it, but only at speeds I haven't witnessed since the 90s.

This show makes me want to drink. Always.

pretty much the same for me, i caught the first few eps and then missed one or two, which was enough for me to write it off until i could see the whole thing at once. which still hasn't happened.

also it really embarasses me whenever this thread is bumped :'(

I started watching this show about a month ago on DVD and picked up season 3 on bittorrent. Now I've watched all three seasons over the course of the month.

I really didn't like the first six episodes or so of season 1. The dialogue seemed like forced, hardboiled verite bullshit. But the last half of season 1 and then season 2 and 3 were so goddamned brilliant. I'm really glad I stuck through it because I personally believe this is one of the best shows in the history of television.

I mean, all you can really ask of art is that it change the way you think a bit and make you reconsider your perspective on the shape of the world, and it might sound corny but this show has been a big deal for me.

Nyagh.

I think this series has a lot to say about what's going on in Iraq, especially Season 3.

I'm going to leave my computer on for a month if I have to.

"I wiped them shits down" "I need to hear them shits" "nah, fuck those shits"

It's just so much funnier in plural.

I'm about 5 eps in, but I love the storyline involving that old dude that just got out of jail. I have no idea where this is heading, but fuckin' superb. Councilman Carcetti is also a great addition.

I had trouble with Carcetti, because I kept thinking he'd just slip back in to being the dude from Queer Is Folk, like it was a secret he was hiding. Ha.

Knowing the next series is about the school system, it's interesting to see (what I think might be) them setting up characters I imagine will be involved in that (Cutty and the boxing gym, very young kids in seemingly prominent positions on Marlos crew, the kid with Bubbs at the end?). I know there's been those sorts of characters throughout, but I kept thinking these were the main angles that would be taken for that next season. I wouldn't be surprised if I was completely wrong, though.

Is there ever going to be a season that doesn't end with a montage of pictures being removed from the pinboard?

I saw Peter Geraty (the judge) in "The Lieutenant of Inishmore" on Sunday night at the Atlantic Theater, playing a roaring bastard of an alcoholic father.

you done good zig.

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http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=11846

The other day I rode the bus that cuts up north on Gay St. and goes by that American Brewery Bldg and marveled at how insane that building is, it's really beautiful. Had no idea that was the sniper location in Homicide

(as a sidenote, the bus I was on had Blood and Crip graffiti, like "6 poppin 5 droppin" and "Crips 4 Life" and that was all x'd out with Blood stuff and B with an arrow up and C with an arrow down and "5 poppin 6 droppin." The strangest one was a five-pointed star with B-L-O-O-D at each point, and there was also a six-pointed star with a 6 in the middle. I guess Bloods are 5 and Crips are 6? Looked like weird occult stuff almost.)

-- Scott CE (sceldre...), April 21st, 2006 11:55 AM. (Scott CE)

^^^^^^^???!!!

I would like to reiterate this question, though I would like to add a "the fuck" after "when" and a "motherfucking" after "is."

in answer to dk, if not having the foggiest idea what those lyrics are from = not a rap listener, then guilty as charged

and it was mr 3-2, not z-ro! z-ro is nominally a crip, mostly out of affil with s.l.a.b. and all the old s.u.c. dudes.

totally bizarre, ro claiming 5-2 hoover and everyhting but being famous for rollin one deep/can't trust nobody/i'm my own gang raps!

damn

http://thepiratebay.org/details.php?id=3323309

i knew it! i guess season 4 airs soon after, is that why they are waiting? otherwise wtffffff

also this is worth linking to:

Darkroom Productions Takes Baltimore Hip-Hop From Hamsterdam To Hollywood

http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=10233

(are these going to be mpeg files or what? probably some format that can't play on my comp.)

http://www.videolan.org/vlc

I'm currently watching the re-runs of season three on FX and I'm two episodes away from the end. Fuck knows what I'm going to do without it! I love the way that even the smallest, most peripheral characters (Butchie, Landsman, Clay Davis) are so well fleshed out and even though you know very little about them, their motivations are so clear and believable.

Each scene is a work of genius (maybe I'm piling on the hyperbole, but hey, fuck it), but if I had to pick a favourite, it's Omar in court in season two ("I shot the boy Mike-Mike in his hindparts") when he completely turns the cross-examination on Levy. Priceless. Also, in season three when Cutty is telling Avon that he's leaving the game brought a lump to my throat.

Just wanted to get that off my chest.

I also love the aftermath of that scene.

McNulty: "You really see Bird shoot that man?"

Omar: "You really asking?"

http://www.nndb.com/people/191/000057020/lance_reddick_sized.jpg

I'm gonna go re-read Savage Inequalities and get myself pumped up for this season. I think it might just piss me off as much as it entertains me.

I just want to be sure that Bodie is back. I see Herc is now on Entourage, so I guess he isn't.

is this true? someone should really leak those episodes right now.

I don't know about Bodie but Herc is supposedly seen in the Season 4 teaser

that said, best show on tv.

we were petitioning my boss for a while to buy the orange couch in a charity auction but he wouldnt go for it.

Perpetua, are you referring to the episode list? I knicked it off IMDB, and it says 2006, when they're meant to be airing (the ones they have dates for).

but plenty of the scenes and set-ups are totally contrived, the acting can be hammy, there's more speechifying than ever goes on in real life, and whoever upthread was way on the money when they said there was a certain "no chief, YOU'RE out of order" quality about mcnulty.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgiGVhhXLak

Music director? So who is doing "Way Down in the Hole" this year?

I have no speakers AND THAT WAS FUNNY!

???

Except for the Omar part. That was hilarious. And so dead-on and perceptive. It was almost like they'd actually encountered one of those mythical "homosensuals" at one point or another.

with much more Q&A about 'The Wire' here:
http://blogs.citypages.com/pscholtes/2006/07/george_pelecano.asp

i find his real guy stance a little off-putting, like i'm the one who shows people what they need to see, that's why they hate me so. but i guess that's how he motivates himself to make such delightful things. or at least the wire is delightfull. which of his books is good?

pls tell me they kill off carcetti in 1st ep. of season 4, that guy sux

By the way, I bought the DVD for the first two seasons of Homicide, and so many things in it remind me of The Wire. The Baltimore-specific language, the themes relating to ethnicity, the multi-episode case arcs,... it's just terrific. I remember liking the show, but I like it much more the second time around. If you're hankering for more Wire, it's a great salve.

http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=24077

Not too spoilery, though, at least until you get about halfway in, and they start summarizing the first four episodes. I stopped reading when I saw that.

i love this cover:

http://ec3.images-amazon.com/images/P/B000FTCLSU.01._SS500_SCLZZZZZZZ_V64948018_.jpg

(okay, one spoiler: you will see omar go out to buy cereal in his pajamas.)

http://www.nj.com/columns/ledger/sepinwall/index.ssf?/base/columns-0/1154887068280380.xml&coll=1&thispage=1

wait, season 4 might be the last, wtf?

It was originally conceived as a five season show, so I hope it works out.

We're just not going to agree on this.

-- Euai Kapaui (tracerhan...) (webmail), August 6th, 2006 11:30 AM. (tracerhand)

i know of at least one that sells beer but locks it at midnight (and sundays of course)

xpost - simon reveals it in that interview i thought. local choir kids?

All of the boys are from Baltimore and Tony Small, who directs a boys choir locally, found them for us.

yup. now whats the deal with on-demand? specifically how much is it?

I believe it's two weeks from right this very minute!

LEAK IT U FUCKS

(please)

one complaint: TOO MUCH SCREEN TIME GIVEN TO CARCETTI, FUCK THSAT GUY

haha get used to that

yeah, o'malley showed up in nyc recently on a local npr panel about "what have we learned from sept. 11." the only reason i could figure for him being here was to raise his profile for future endeavors.

carcetti might be too pretty. otoh, here's the o'malley clan:

[img src="http://www.martinomalley.com/images/71.jpg"]

http://www.martinomalley.com/images/71.jpg

where is that interview mentioned a little way upthread?

my beef isn't with carcetti the character, but the actor playing him. the 4 kids are cast perfectly, so i can tell this season is gonna be good, if not great. chris from marlowe's gang is genuinely pretty scary to watch in his calm cold-bloodedness.

i love how former bmore mayor kurt schmoke made a cameo in season 3 during the legalization debating scene at the mayors office, as he actually did bring that up during his term in office and caught all kinds of hell for it.

She's actually the worst actor of the bunch actually. Carcetti is just poorly directed IMO.

I wish I had HBO. I can tell waiting for this to come out on dvd is just going to be murder.

I WANT MCNULTY ON HIS KNEES DOWN BY THE DOCKS AT... SAY, 10ISH 2NITE!!!

http://static.flickr.com/92/241674397_a69b4d22de_o.jpg

"You're just having a laugh, aren't you, Bunny? You got the real stats and projections somewhere else. Someone's just outside the door with them, right? A stripper, maybe? That would be nice. He comes in, flashes a little nut, gives us a whiff of that ass and delivers my fucking stat sheets with a reduction that matches just what we promised the Mayor. That would be beautiful. That would be creme fucking brulee."

xpost

linked to from freedarko, likely the same people more or less - which sounds kinda... i'm not sure.

first weeks numbers must've been good too

that doesn't take into account the weekly repeats on various hbo channels, or more importantly, On Demand. I'm surprised they renewed it so early.

they've still got Big Love, and David Milch's surf detective thing, something about vampires, and one more drama in the works for next year. i can't imagine any of those being breakout hits, though.

In episode 4, he moves up to a small town in New Hampshire and meets a charming coffee shop owner who is also a volunteer fireman.

deadwood was supposed to be about rome but hbo was all we already got one of those so the deadwood guy goes well i could put it in the old west or something

It was renewed, but only for one more season. The second season will be its last.

In episode 4, he moves up to a small town in New Hampshire and meets a charming coffee shop owner who is also a volunteer fireman.

-- The Ultimate Conclusion (lokar2...) (webmail), September 13th, 2006 12:49 PM. (lokar)

season 5 crossover w/ Six Feet Under

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk_Y4AKSP20

http://www.slate.com/id/2149566

so OTM, a lot of the dialogue is well written but not really realistic at all, the "thin line 'tween heaven and here" type highfalutin Shakespeare lines and chess metaphors always make me roll my eyes. and I already ranted on my blog last week about how scarcely Baltimore accents are represented on the show. other than that though super psyched about season 4 so far and the news of renewal. also OTM about D'Agostino's hotness and her unexplained plumpness this season, her first scene in episode 1 i kept waiting for some reference to her being pregnant or something.

mcnulty's is laughable but since having recently heard him interviewed in his heavy brit accent i give him credit for whatever american accent he's managed thus far.

been up since thurs - dude claims he's gonna post 4.3 today.

is there some sort of registration required for this site for later use? e-mail me if so.

I plead combination of Deadwood hangover, start of football season, and 6-day workweeks.

Thank the lord for HBO on demand...

- cool Lester Smooth
- Prez still using Ring of Fire as his "getting shit done song".
- Cutty! Positive and popular (as he deserves)
- Platinum club! Ha. Good one Avon.
- Wee Bay's spoilt son!

I know there was more.

yeah, this is a funny riff that also gets at, you know, "deeper underlying issues" (the dearth of eligible black men of a certain age in inner-city neighborhoods). that's when the show's at its best i think, wrapping social observations in offhanded moments.

I'm especially fond of the Cutty thing, because he plays it so well too. He seems so innocent and almost unaware, and you can totally see why all the ladies love him. And it's a nice turnaround from last season where I always felt he was getting hard done by. So it's all going to go wrong, right?

I always think I really like Bodie, then I'm all "But you killed Wallace in a really mean way! Poor Wallace." but then Bodie has a funny scene with Carver and I'm all "awww, you guys!".

yeah they're totally fucking w/us.

Yeah, I def have the feeling bad things are going to happen. sad

- MAYORAL BONER (WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF)
- TARGET PRACTICE
- MICHAEL

- clay davis' twice uttered shhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiit (especially the 1st time).

OTM

- what's up w/marlo losing his composure at a little kid?

That was odd at first but i thought it became apparent that he was just trying to get a rise out of Michael. When he makes that face, Marlo kinda laughs and lets him go on his way.

i don't think ignoring the situation would've made marlo look weak - everyone knows he's deadly already. if anything it was lame to show that he cared at all - seems like he has a lot to learn about wearing the crown.

michael - john
namond - paul
dukie - george
randy - paul

LINK MOTHERFUCKER LINK!

I did kinda feel like they leaned a little hard on the 'mirror' thing this week - Clay and Randy both saying "I don't care where the money is from as long as it's free" and Bubs and Cutty's boss both talking about doubling territory.

-- PARTYMAN (wt...) (webmail), August 6th, 2006 8:05 AM. (dubplatestyle)

and I thought this was a joke

It's so nice to see all the characters I missed in 4.1, finally weaving their way back into the plot.

The look between Pryz and Bubbles slayed me.

"I was a police, in the city."

"And why did you quit that."

"I was fired for killing a co-worker. Oh, and one time I beat a kid's eye out cause I was drunk and he sassed me."

Yeah, this isn't going to end well...

http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/466936/4651332/
-- 100% CHAMPS with a Yes! Attitude. (austin.swinbur...), September 20th, 2006.

see you did it all by yr self!

A club girl who took up years earlier with Wee-Bey, fathering his son and taking his name, Delonda soon found herself one of many in Wee-Bey's stable of molls. And it had been years since Bey had lived with anyone save for his tropical fish. But in the wake of his life imprisonment, she has shown her loyalty, visiting on weekends and bringing Namond to the visiting room to be schooled by his father. In return, Delonda's loyalty is rewarded with financial security that accrues from Wee-Beys standing in what is left of the Barksdale organization.

hbo.com has info not provided on the show (at least not yet). i was wondering if that basement aquarium that weebay took d'angelo to was in delonda house.

and

http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/9360/harblyp6.jpg

and also possib;y that I'm about to be banned from imageshack

girl getting cut was maybe the most painful scene yet, although it did allow an opening for dukie to show himself a bodhisattva roaming the animal realms. wonder if we'll discover the origins of the beef. the antagonism starts ordinarily enough then almost immediately escalates to assault w/a deadly weapon - they're telling us something here.

omar in it for the sport roffle

gotta think the other shoe's gonna drop with the suponas and give carcietti the election.

rawls acknowleging lester's brilliance was kinda tender.

marlo eyeing michael - creepy.

this is best season so far by a long shot says me (altho/and the actual "wire" part of the show feels vestigial/outgrown/underloved whereas it was the whole game before; i guess i'm saying it would be nice to see a little more policework but that may come - and i also may be stubbornly clinging to a mode the show's moved on from)

The Slate reviewer (Weisberg?) has a bizarro article on the show talking about difficult the slang is to penetrate - he apparently took three or four episodes to come to terms with "yo" and "feel me."

where is ep. 4444?$$??$??$#

marlo eyeing michael - creepy.

heh there's a couple shots of cutty grinning and staring at michael throwing punches that were kinda creepy, esp. when a chick is trying to talk to him

I want my AVI!

milo hm OK, i guess i wasn't paying attention