"The Wire" on HBO

Enrique OTM re: Season 2. S1 is a little shaky: there's a lot more television-y exposition and they hadn't quite figured out the show's visual style--remember all those awkward surveillance cam shots?

I like the surveillance cam shots, not to mention that they establish one of the primary themes of the show.

the funny thing is that city-sanctioned surveillance, particularly the "blue light" cameras, really became way more pervasive after The Wire's first couple seasons when they actually addressed/included those things more. I hope the new season touches on developments in that are a little more.

I didn't know about the real life Baltimore context for it, which could certainly be used interestingly. As for S1, sure they "establish a primary theme", but it's an inelegant, white elephant-y way of going about it. (And actually, is surveillance itself really a primary theme of the show? I mean it's obviously an issue that's impossible to ignore, but it's certainly not something that keeps me occupied when I'm thinking about the show).

The show is called "the wire," of course surveillance was, at the outset, a primary theme. How much it's strayed from that theme since season 1 doesn't really change that.

I just want to say that the part in Season 2 (I think?) when McNutty gets drunk and crashes his car into a pillar, and then goes to a diner and nails the waitress was one of the best things ever.

agreed

Surveillance is still big in Season 2 with the detail operation, the cloned computer, the high-end bug that gets crushed in the tennis ball, etc.

i love how he crashes once then does drunken hand reenactment of crash the crashes again

Yeah, and as an investigative issue it remains important. But as a thematic element, it pretty much is a non starter. I haven't seen anything on the Wire that made me think Simon had any feelings one way or another about living in a panoptikon-style state of perpetual observation.

x-ie post-ie

I don't think he has a didactic point to make about it, but I do think he's trying to show that surveillance is already much more a part of the fabric of our lives than we realize

Er, actually I guess that would be kind of a didactic point to make.

> I do think he's trying to show that surveillance is already much more a part of the fabric of our lives than we realize

If so, the best scene is definitely the McNulty kids front-and-following Stringer at the market.

yeah that is a great scene.

if anything the show is *pro*-surveillance. it often pits herc & carver's instinct against "we make this case with a voice on a phone". the federales have all the great technology but it's the purpose they're put to that the show criticizes -- terrorism and union-busting -- rather than the fact of this stuff and the police's right to use it in itself. the fact they have to prove "exhaustion" in order to get up on a wire, and that they have to observe the suspect using the phone is treated as a chore.

but it isn't a big theme -- maybe it isn't pro-surveillance so much as pragmatically, "look, it takes this much effort to stay on people we know to look at, no government organization could process private communications even if it wanted to."

A++:
Prez cold cocking Valcheck
Brother Mouzon bitching out his henchman for forgetting the new issue of Harpers

also the scene where product has dried up, low rise projects actually look cleaner and happier - kids running around playing, etc., and Bodie: "Shit is fucked up!"

they're having the s5 wrap-up party right now at eden's lounge. i can see the spotlights from my bldg. overheard some guy at the liquor store talking about it, apparently lots of ravens are there mixing it up with cast/crew

oh yeah, i heard about that when i was at eden's lounge a week or two back, but forgot it was tonight.

hope Ray Lewis doesn't get pissed and have his crew stab Prop Joe.

Down to 'The Wire': It's a Wrap for Gritty TV Series

Link doesn't work for me.

it requires a login. daria can you c&p please?

thirded

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/02/AR2007090201454.html

didn't need to log in for this

do you?

Nope, ta.

workin' fine, thanks.

thx! that's weird, usually the new stories don't require login. sorry abt that.

I enjoyed the end of S2 and S3 seems to be a return to form. The Carcetti plot is looking like it's going to be great, and I like what I've seen of Marlo and the new meaner streets.

I'm a little confused about the police rank situation:

- Did Rawls move up when Burrell became acting commissioner?
- What happened to Daniels, exactly, in terms of rank, and what's the deal with it relating to his wife's campaign?
- What's the title/rank of the concerned, about-to-retire Eastern District guy, the one who gives the *paper bag* speech?

Did Rawls move up when Burrell became acting commissioner?

yeah he became deputy ops, replacing burrell

What happened to Daniels, exactly, in terms of rank, and what's the deal with it relating to his wife's campaign?

he was a lieutenant in narcotics, but now has his own major case unit. maybe still as a lieutenant, but it puts him in line to be a major. it looks good for his wife, being a cop, which is exactly why the mayor (royce) doesn't want to promote him. his wife is running against one of the mayor's friends (jeanetta perkins).

What's the title/rank of the concerned, about-to-retire Eastern District guy, the one who gives the *paper bag* speech?

major colvin, commander -- of the western, i think.

rawls is deputy ops like burrell was
think daniels is still lt at your point because the mayor thinks his wife might challenge one of his pals?
major colvin

crosspost

awes:

Question: How did you and Melvin Williams become friends?

David Simon:
This is amazing. True story:

In December 1984, Melvin Williams - a lgendary player in the Baltimore drug trade -- was arrested by Det. Edward Burns as a result of an investigation of more than a year that included cloned pagers, wiretaps, undercover reverse buys of drugs, etc. Because of Little Melvin's long history, I was assigned to write a longer piece on his life, a profile so to speak. Over two years, I gathered string on Melvin -- meeting and getting to know Detective Burns in the process -- and ultimately, I wrote a long, five-part series about Melvin that ran in January 1987. During the reporting for that series, I was able to talk at length with Melvin at Lewisburg Penitentiary.

Less than a year ago, after winning his release from federal custody on a parole, Melvin Williams, Ed Burns, myself and Norris Davis (who plays Vinson on the show and has a lot of street history of his own, I must say) met for lunch in Little Italy, enjoying each others company, reflecting on things past and possible futures. It was a remarkable lunch, one of the strangest and improbable gatherings to which I have ever been a party.

At one point, Melvin handed me a business card with his cell number and Ed, dry as dirt, looked up from his salad just long enough to say, "What I wouldn't have given for that twenty years ago." Melvin smiled at that, and later, he gave Ed -- the man who had run the wiretap that finally caught him talking furtively at city payphones, who had brought about his last conviction and longest incarceration -- a little tease back. Professing that he was now retired from the game, Melvin declared that he was grateful that he was now free, that he had some good years left and that he still had a little money to spend.
"We didn't find much of the money, did we?" said Ed.
"No," said Melvin, smiling slightly. "You didn't."
I genuinely admired the way these two guys handled that lunch. Like professionals. Nothing personal, just two men with a lot of shared history accepting each other on present terms.

Melvin is now very active in Bethel A.M.E. church and outspoken against the drug culture. It seemed perversely appropriate to cast him therefore as the Deacon. He seems real and credible to me in the role. Having paid his debt and served his sentence, I wish him well and look forward to getting an expensive lesson in billiards from him.

Ah ok - the competition between his wife and the mayor's friend did get mentioned in season 2, and it slipped my mind. Now I see it.

I think I got confused about Colvin b/c they refer to him as a commander but he's a major - I guess I thought commander was a rank. Duh.

So Colvin is the major in charge of Eastern, Valchek is in charge of Southeastern, Rawls was in charge of Western but got promoted, and I don't think at my point we've seen Rawls's replacement or who commands any other districts, right?

xpost NO WAI!

So Colvin is the major in charge of Eastern, Valchek is in charge of Southeastern, Rawls was in charge of Western but got promoted, and I don't think at my point we've seen Rawls's replacement or who commands any other districts, right?

-- Hurting 2, Wednesday, September 5, 2007 2:21 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

nuh, rawls was head of homicide. colvin is head of the western. he was mcnulty's boss when mcnulty was a beat cop.

the commander of the eastern is the guy rawls roasts at comstat meetings and replaces. i don't think he figures much in this series.

and hurley actually owns locke's company.

I wish the HBO site would keep more past season cast profiles up on its site - Colvin's not even there anymore.

Just finished catching up fully. Season 4 totally devastated me and my share ratio!!!

Simon called the show a 66-hour movie. Since we've already had 50 episodes, does that mean next season is going to be 16?~ Stoked!

Actually, it's been trimmed back to 10, from what I hear.

I'm okay with it. Trim the fat!

"I'm okay with it."

Haha, as if my opinion matters.

there is no fat on this show.

landsmansbutt.jpg

That Williams story is 0_o

> there is no fat on this show.

I love The Wire as much as anyone, but I don't see how you can say we needed to see another of Bubs' sidekicks self destruct.

I don't see how you can say we needed to see another of Bubs' sidekicks self destruct.

Does it really happen again in S4? Shit.

http://www.citypaper.com/bob/story.asp?id=14532

12/4: http://www.amazon.com/Wire-Complete-Fourth-Season/dp/B000QXDJLI

u beat me to it

profile of the show in nyer

Once, a man pressed a package of heroin into the hands of Andre Royo, the actor who plays the sympathetic junkie and police informant Bubbles, saying, “Man, you need a fix more than I do.” Royo refers to that moment as his “street Oscar.”