"The Wire" on HBO

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The Sopranos is just about a better subject: the subconscious. The Wire is about work, which is almost as great, but isn't going at you on as many levels...

― Pete Scholtes, Monday, 21 March 2005 03:35 (twenty-one years ago)

I think you're wrong about Dominic West's accent on the show. I never would have guessed he was a Brit. And though I haven't met tons of Baltimore white folks, many of them do have a weird accent that can sound British, Southern, and Bostonian all at the same time...

― Pete Scholtes, Monday, 21 March 2005 03:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Finished Pelecanos's Soul Circus not long ago, too. He's on an American book tour starting March 28, and any fans of The Wire should check it out:
http://www.twbookmark.com/features/georgepelecanos/tour.html

― Pete Scholtes, Monday, 21 March 2005 03:43 (twenty-one years ago)

I was surprised to learn that Dominic West was not an American, and double surprised to learn that Idris "Stringer Bell" Elba is from England.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Monday, 21 March 2005 05:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Spot-on accent or no, Elba's performance is just incredibly convincing. I don't think I paid as much attention to Stringer in the first season, but there's so much nuance in every scene he does in the second season. That scene with Brother Mouzone in the hospital and his last scene with Avon in episode 12 of season 2 really impressed me in particular.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Monday, 21 March 2005 05:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Davey D's article on Elba (who's from Hackney, London, and is a DJ):

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."

― Pete Scholtes, Monday, 21 March 2005 07:37 (twenty-one years ago)

I hope to track down this book, too:

Hey Cabbie! by Thaddeus Logan

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

― Pete Scholtes, Monday, 21 March 2005 07:38 (twenty-one years ago)

hey matthew sorry i haven't responded to yr email. i'm not sure how to get season three, though supposedly it's coming out this summer. certainly you could get it via bittorrent i'm sure, and i bet some folks on the hbo wire message board could hook you up. that's all i gots.

― Jams Murphy (ystrickler), Monday, 21 March 2005 14:05 (twenty-one years ago)

If it's coming out in the summer, I can probably hold out and netflix them. But oh man, I am dying to get on with the Stringer Bell/Omar/Brother Mouzone storyline.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Monday, 21 March 2005 16:53 (twenty-one years ago)

SUMMMER SUMMMMMMER WANT WIRE PART THREE IN SUMMMMER!

― Frankenstein in SF (Alex in SF), Monday, 21 March 2005 16:54 (twenty-one years ago)

It's probably a wise move to wait a bit on season three if it's going to be at least 12 months til season 4 starts up. (The Sopranos will be on winter 06, so The Wire will probably start around March or April.)

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Monday, 21 March 2005 16:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Be quiet with your marketing REASONS! Want in SUMMER!

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Monday, 21 March 2005 16:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Actually, I think in terms of marketing, sooner is better. I was talking about myself there - it's better that I pace myself right now rather than have to wait a full year to get the next fix.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Monday, 21 March 2005 17:32 (twenty-one years ago)

i was told by someone in the know a month or so back that because of the TREMENDOUS success of the wire on dvd, they were gonna get season three out sooner than you might expect. i've seen season three twice now (thanks on demand!). anyone saying it's a drop off is totally nuts.

― Jams Murphy (ystrickler), Monday, 21 March 2005 17:48 (twenty-one years ago)

It's no big shock that The Wire would find its greatest success on dvd. That's the perfect format for the show. I know that I never would have gotten into the show if I didn't watch it on dvd in rapid succession. And now I'm hooked and I'll be a regular viewer. It's the only way to make converts, you can't just jump in on that show. I tried, and I was in way over my head.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Monday, 21 March 2005 17:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I wish that the box sets weren't so expensive, though. I'd probably buy them if they were more like $30 or $40 instead of $100. I mean, I will probably buy them, just not any time soon on my current income.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Monday, 21 March 2005 18:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, I was very lucky to have someone send me half the first season on tape I managed to watch all of that in about two days and now I'm never getting rid of this monkey.

― Austin, Still (Austin, Still), Monday, 21 March 2005 18:02 (twenty-one years ago)

three months pass...

Anyone know anywhere on the webs to pick up the third season? I can't WAIT.

― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Thursday, 23 June 2005 18:17 (twenty years ago)

two weeks pass...

You can find season 3 at Pirate Bay.

I really liked this show. A whole lot. But didn't anyone else think it was a little too, I don't, Tom Waitsy? Like they were trying to turn Baltimore into New Orleans, a super-colorful gothic place that's full of really colorful eccentrics. And sure, Baltimore is pretty interesting, but come on. I had exactly the same problem with Homicide.

McNulty accent was pretty awful too, especially compared to Stringer Bell's. Everytime he'd really try to put on a Baltimore accent (by saying "Bawmore" or whatever), I winced.

― Chris H. (chrisherbert), Thursday, 7 July 2005 23:51 (twenty years ago)

i'm finishing up season 2 right now and am kinda disappointed with it after loving season 1. it's funny though how many of the cop actors in "the wire" were previously playing junkies and crackheads in "the corner" mini-series (which i think might be superior to the wire, as far as being a slice of "baltimore reality" goes. but then it is based on true story...)

― Ô¿Ô (eman), Friday, 8 July 2005 01:08 (twenty years ago)

Season 3 is probably the worst of the three. Partly cause it's the whole Hamsterdam subplot is overtly political and a little hard to believe.

Oh yeah, and the sex scenes! WHY?! It's you're watching a nice, realistic drama then bam, cinemax style softcore.

― Chris H. (chrisherbert), Friday, 8 July 2005 04:27 (twenty years ago)

goddamit fuck. i'll still rent it though.

― Ô¿Ô (eman), Friday, 8 July 2005 04:44 (twenty years ago)

Oh yeah, it's worth renting. No question.

― Chris H. (chrisherbert), Friday, 8 July 2005 04:53 (twenty years ago)

oh my god! i just realised prez is the elevator dude in hudsucker proxy!

that is so cool.

― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Friday, 8 July 2005 05:11 (twenty years ago)

season 1 was OK at parts, kinda patchy i thought. but season 2 was great, although i didn't like it at all in the beginning. it definitely grew on me though and surpassed season 1.
i missed season 3 when it came out and am now following the weekly reruns on hbo2 (wed. nights). so far it is pretty yawny, but it seems they all start out that way. interested to see how it transpires each week ... or may lose patience and download the whole season 3 off bit-Torr.

omar is pretty SIC-WID-IT though.

― leonard (tk), Friday, 8 July 2005 05:15 (twenty years ago)

I've seen them all in a row up through midway through season 3 (currently being rerun on Wednesdays on HBO2) and seriously I have no complaints. There are maybe a couple inconcruous sex scenes, but I don't know, sometimes the show needs some bit of sexiness or levity because so much of everything else in it is pretty dead serious.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Friday, 8 July 2005 13:07 (twenty years ago)

Dude, I laugh a LOT while watching The Wire. The Moving the Desk scene, to take one brilliant example. Snot Boogie. Drunk Driving through the underpass...

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

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Saturday, 9 July 2005 01:54 (twenty years ago)

Okay, the sex scenes can be forgiven or explained away, but Lt. Daniels has his shirt off through half the third season, and he looks like a GI Joe man. Or D'Angelo in that video. He's absurdly ripped, and looks like he's done a 45 minute workout before filming the scenes. I dunno, it distracted me, that's all.

― Chris H. (chrisherbert), Saturday, 9 July 2005 02:29 (twenty years ago)

He's estranged from his wife, so he's gotta do something to work out that excess energy.

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.

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Saturday, 9 July 2005 02:49 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, I was kinda "whoa" when Daniels was topless - I figured he'd be skinny, not totally ripped.

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.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Saturday, 9 July 2005 15:29 (twenty years ago)

Hey, imagine getting that memo: "Love the show, but please add more titties."

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Saturday, 9 July 2005 15:30 (twenty years ago)

The rumors say there will be a lot less McNutty in S4. Whatsisname's movie career is getting big, and the character was busted back to beat cop anyway so he can't be working any big cases. He'll supposedly show up for a cameo in a few episodes, but not part of the main ensemble.

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Saturday, 9 July 2005 15:58 (twenty years ago)

That could be a good thing. I like McNulty fine, but the renegade-cop shtick is one of the few gratuitous cliches on the show.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Saturday, 9 July 2005 16:36 (twenty years ago)

There should be more scenes with Carver and Herc! There's something very captivating about Carv, I dont know how to explain it. I just want to see more of him. Also, that scene(s) with him and Herc when they talk about what man, if they had to, they'd sleep with, is so very classic.

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

― Lovelace (Lovelace), Saturday, 9 July 2005 20:52 (twenty years ago)

They should subcontract Omar to other series and movies. He's such a great character, he could just kind of turn up here and there, do his thing, move on.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Saturday, 9 July 2005 21:15 (twenty years ago)

a friend thinks that bunk and lester should get their own show where they solve a new crime every week. amazing.

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.

― Jams Murphy (ystrickler), Saturday, 9 July 2005 21:54 (twenty years ago)

He might be reality-based, but his clashes with the brass started to seem kinda Dirty Harry-ish.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Saturday, 9 July 2005 22:06 (twenty years ago)

If I could make one request for season 4, it would be PLEASE MORE FREAMON AND PREZ PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Sunday, 10 July 2005 00:44 (twenty years ago)

I think McNulty is a great character, but I think most all of them are great characters. Herc and Carver's old-married-couple routines are definitely a comic highlight of the show, though.

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.

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Sunday, 10 July 2005 00:59 (twenty years ago)

three months pass...

I just finished Season 3, and I have to say I think it leaves the other two seasons, good as they were, in the shade. There's just so much payoff. Long-term payoff. Arcs whose parabolas have taken three years to reach their zenith and then fall spiralling inevitably towards the flames. What's there left to do? Plenty, I guess. But to me the show's heart was always the Barksdale crew. The scene with Stringer (can words to justice to Elba's portrayal?), Avon (who to me bears an eerie resemblance to Brad Pitt; I think it's because he looks like he could smuggle rodents in his constantly flexing jaws) and Brianna (the incredible Michael Hyatt), where they discuss the circumstances of D'Angelo's death, plays deeper than anything else in the three seasons of the show, in part because it's had three season's worth of build-up to get to that point. The core of the crew is in the crucible there, you can see it in the picture made by the actors in the room, you can feel it in their performances, and you can see the results in every aspect of the plot thereafter.

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.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 26 October 2005 03:59 (twenty years ago)

the "game" is something the cops can dip out of -- to the extent that they turn off their cell phones -- any time they want

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

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Wednesday, 26 October 2005 05:41 (twenty years ago)

Which isn't a slam on the actors. The cop roles just don't seem like they have the same stakes to them. DRINKING GAME: Every shit-eating grin out of McNulty one drink; every seen-it-all shrug from Kima one drink (with eye-roll, drink from the bottle); every exasperated sigh from Kima's partner... well, okay, the stakes were always pretty high with her. Too high. But she wasn't a cop! The theory holds!

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

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 26 October 2005 05:52 (twenty years ago)

Why the hell am I so stilted writing about this show??

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 26 October 2005 16:06 (twenty years ago)

awesome tracer! i'm impressed that you watched season three in like three days! the avon/stringer/briana scene was amazing, as was avon and stringer on the balcony overlooking the harbor.

and prez. poor poor prez.

― Jams Murphy (ystrickler), Wednesday, 26 October 2005 16:14 (twenty years ago)

and CUTTY!!! so cute!

― Jams Murphy (ystrickler), Wednesday, 26 October 2005 16:14 (twenty years ago)

What do y'all think about the City Hall dimension of the show, which has gotten more significant every year, the council and mayoral politics, etc? I'm of two minds about it because on the one hand it's sort of amazing to find a TV show taking that stuff seriously and showing some level of sophistication about it, but on the other hand the show (which I guess means the writers) seem a little less sure-footed there than on the street. The political consultant dragon lady, e.g., doesn't really convince me.

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.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Wednesday, 26 October 2005 16:28 (twenty years ago)

Also, did anyone see the NYT article a while back about how Baltimore's new police chief has a stepdaughter who's a junkie prostitute? It was a really sad story, and sounded exactly like a "Wire" storyline.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Wednesday, 26 October 2005 16:30 (twenty years ago)

i love that aspect of the show, especially as it expounds on the wire's obvious power theory obsession. unfortunately i cannot say how realistic it is, but based on homicide (the book) and the articles i've read about city government, it seems fairly on point. supposedly the fourth season will focus on the city government and its relationship to the schools.

― Jams Murphy (ystrickler), Wednesday, 26 October 2005 16:34 (twenty years ago)

I think it gets the broad strokes right, the way the power relationships work and everything, it's just that the details seem a little less convincing than the details of the police work and the gangs. The characters are a little more stock, and their motivations are less complex. But that could be because they've been relatively minor characters so far, maybe in a season that focuses more on the bureaucracy, we'll get more interesting bureaucrats.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Wednesday, 26 October 2005 16:38 (twenty years ago)

(and I think focusing on the school system is a great idea)

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Wednesday, 26 October 2005 16:40 (twenty years ago)

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