that opening scene is a good example of the 'writerly' style that probably rubs j0rd the wrong way.
The opening scene (replete with Snot Booger) is repeated almost wholly from the "Homicide" book, as are a few other bits and pieces throughout the show.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 16 January 2011 21:21 (thirteen years ago) link
maybe a kindly mod could take out the last couple of spoilers? It killed me when I'd just finished season four and inadvertently found out about XXXXXX being YYYYYY in season five
― Ismael Klata, Sunday, 16 January 2011 21:28 (thirteen years ago) link
It is a shame that aren't threads for each season of this show, but that request is pretty much "You want it to be one way, but it's the other way."
― sarahel, Sunday, 16 January 2011 21:36 (thirteen years ago) link
ha, great line but I can't even remember where it's from
― Ismael Klata, Sunday, 16 January 2011 21:40 (thirteen years ago) link
no don't tell me
people who really and truly wish to avoid spoilers don't hang around message board threads about the thing they haven't seen all of yet
― Alex Da Dad (some dude), Sunday, 16 January 2011 21:40 (thirteen years ago) link
it's kind of like busting into someone's bathroom and going OH GOD YOU'RE NAKED WHAT THE HELL
― Alex Da Dad (some dude), Sunday, 16 January 2011 21:41 (thirteen years ago) link
Ismael - it was in season 4.
some dude - otm
― sarahel, Sunday, 16 January 2011 21:41 (thirteen years ago) link
What's more, they should really stay away from a thread for a show that's been off the air for 2+ years.
― Fairport Dinkum Convetion (Leee), Sunday, 16 January 2011 21:50 (thirteen years ago) link
but we're talking hypothetically here -- I mean, did J0rdan say he didn't want spoilers?
― sarahel, Sunday, 16 January 2011 21:54 (thirteen years ago) link
I'm sure that all people want spoilers unless they explicitly state otherwise.
― Fairport Dinkum Convention (Leee), Sunday, 16 January 2011 21:58 (thirteen years ago) link
it's not unreasonable to assume
lolxpost
― got electrolytes (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Sunday, 16 January 2011 21:59 (thirteen years ago) link
hey jordan here's where omar gets shot in the head by a little kidhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CshAkqlAj1o
― gr8080, Sunday, 16 January 2011 22:00 (thirteen years ago) link
i texted him and told him not to open the thread so he's good
― fruit of the goon (k3vin k.), Sunday, 16 January 2011 22:00 (thirteen years ago) link
Tell him it's safe now.
― Fairport Dinkum Convention (Leee), Sunday, 16 January 2011 22:02 (thirteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPt5FOw_yIA
rilly tho?
― fruit of the goon (k3vin k.), Sunday, 16 January 2011 22:03 (thirteen years ago) link
hate to break it to you J0rd, but Marlo really likes candy
― sarahel, Sunday, 16 January 2011 22:04 (thirteen years ago) link
well done gr8080, that's precisely the clip I saw right after watching the last ep of s4
― Ismael Klata, Sunday, 16 January 2011 22:11 (thirteen years ago) link
i think the fact that omar dies got spoiled for me on ILX but the circumstances and even which season it happened in were still unknown to me, which was kind of awesome because it made the stakes even higher every time i watched a scene with him
― gr8080, Sunday, 16 January 2011 22:14 (thirteen years ago) link
omar is my favorite television character ever btwhttp://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x18/gr8080/omar.jpg
― gr8080, Sunday, 16 January 2011 22:16 (thirteen years ago) link
when i'm like 3-4 seasons behind on a show and i accidentally read a spoiler about something that happens in an episode i probably won't catch up to for months or years, i just try to forgot what i read
― Alex Da Dad (some dude), Sunday, 16 January 2011 22:17 (thirteen years ago) link
i have a mind like a steel trap so that's v v hard for me to do
― gr8080, Sunday, 16 January 2011 22:20 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah, the act of trying means that thing is then always in the front of my mind, whether I'm thinking about the show or not
― Ismael Klata, Sunday, 16 January 2011 22:24 (thirteen years ago) link
it helps if it's some involved plot development involving characters or circumstances that haven't been introduced yet in the episodes i have seen -- obviously something like "(super memorable character) gets killed" doesn't pop out of your brain easily.
― Alex Da Dad (some dude), Sunday, 16 January 2011 22:39 (thirteen years ago) link
omar is my favorite television character ever btw
GOAT imo
― ullr saves (gbx), Sunday, 16 January 2011 23:32 (thirteen years ago) link
one of my favorite characters on ILX!
― dayo, Sunday, 16 January 2011 23:41 (thirteen years ago) link
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, January 17, 2011 5:21 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark
and so I'm to assume that it was transcribed directly from a tape recording of whatever real-life situation it was taken from?
I think David Simon heard a cop retelling that story.
― Fairport Dinkum Convention (Leee), Sunday, 16 January 2011 23:42 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah but all stories are embellished through retelling
― dayo, Sunday, 16 January 2011 23:56 (thirteen years ago) link
I just read The Corner co-written by Simon & Ed Burns - a Baltimore detective for 20 years & then a public school teacher. interesting perspective there, to say the least. you can totally see the genesis of several Wire characters in the real people on The Corner: D'Angelo Barksdale & Bubbles. fascinating book whether you've seen the series or not.
only skimming this thread since I'm in the middle of season three
― hubertus bigend (m coleman), Monday, 17 January 2011 00:51 (thirteen years ago) link
uh, don't read the ~50 or so posts above yours
― fruit of the goon (k3vin k.), Monday, 17 January 2011 00:52 (thirteen years ago) link
i really want to read the corner too
mouzone's right hand man is the actual dude from the corner book
― am0n, Monday, 17 January 2011 00:57 (thirteen years ago) link
i read like half The Corner before its library due date, really need to go take it out again and finish it.
i love Omar and totally get why he's the most iconic character from The Wire, but i can't imagine him being remotely my favorite out of all the great characters on the show.
― Alex Da Dad (some dude), Monday, 17 January 2011 00:58 (thirteen years ago) link
OmarBunkZiggyFrank Sbotka
― VegemiteGrrrl, Monday, 17 January 2011 01:01 (thirteen years ago) link
i can dimly see the objection to the first scene of the show, but criticizing 'the wire' for being writerly... very occasionally they go too far, but mostly not. 'the corner' is never writerly, iirc, but it's also kind of boring. i don't think 'the wire' is even aiming for that kind of verisimilitude -- example, it's set within the half-decade the show ran for, but also stands for about a quarter-century.
― moholy-nagl (history mayne), Monday, 17 January 2011 01:05 (thirteen years ago) link
it incorporates stories and situations and people from 1980s and 1990s IRL Baltimore but it's all internally consistent to the show's present day timeline, don't see how that has any relationship to the show's verisimilitude
― Alex Da Dad (some dude), Monday, 17 January 2011 01:09 (thirteen years ago) link
― dayo, Sunday, January 16, 2011 5:56 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
what point are u even making here
― *gets the power* (deej), Monday, 17 January 2011 18:17 (thirteen years ago) link
sometimes real life is like this & dudes on the corner say some profound shit abt life
― *gets the power* (deej), Monday, 17 January 2011 18:18 (thirteen years ago) link
if a real life street dude said "thin line 'tween heaven and here" i'd roll my eyes at him too
― Alex Da Dad (some dude), Monday, 17 January 2011 18:20 (thirteen years ago) link
bunkprop joefrank sobotkarandynorman
― difficult listening hour, Monday, 17 January 2011 18:22 (thirteen years ago) link
― Alex Da Dad (some dude), Monday, January 17, 2011 12:20 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
o rly
― *gets the power* (deej), Monday, 17 January 2011 18:23 (thirteen years ago) link
norman is a great
― horseshoe, Monday, 17 January 2011 18:23 (thirteen years ago) link
i am trying to come up with a list of my favorite characters, but it would be more efficient to say everyone except marlo and namond's mom
― horseshoe, Monday, 17 January 2011 18:24 (thirteen years ago) link
i guess norman might be kind of a flat Good Guy but he's more fun than gus and i like the suggestion that he is in a cycle where he continually works closely with politicians who then disappoint him so he finds a new one -- like the whole country, but more intimate.
― difficult listening hour, Monday, 17 January 2011 18:25 (thirteen years ago) link
I love the deadness of marlo. Not that I'd list him as a favorite character but I love that after us building up this love for all these bad street dudes like Stringer or Omar, you get Marlo who is such a complete cipher, like a vaccuum of anything identifiable, just straight ambition. I find him kind of fascinating in a weird way.
― VegemiteGrrrl, Monday, 17 January 2011 18:27 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah i don't actually think he's badly characterized, i just hate him.
― horseshoe, Monday, 17 January 2011 18:28 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah SPOILERZ i really like the contrast between the rooted barksdale empire -- which is rapacious and destructive but which does things like fund cutty's gym not just as a repaid favor but out of a sense of residence in a community, and whose leaders eventually destroy each other because of incompatibilities/impossibilities in dreams and ideals they have that go back to childhood -- and marlo who just consumes money and people and has no discernible history. the show's position seems to be ALL THESE SYSTEMS ARE FALLING APART AND GETTING WORSE INCLUDING THE DRUG TRADE
― difficult listening hour, Monday, 17 January 2011 18:30 (thirteen years ago) link
plus in seasons 1-3 you get used to kind of rooting for stringer as the guy who wants to legitimize the outfit, over avon as the guy who seems too caught up in his own street reputation, and then at the end of 3 stringer turns out to have been hugely naive and just exploited laughingly by people who are playing a much higher-level destructive game than mere drug trafficking, and avon might actually have been the smart one, and then marlo shows up just to show you what someone who only cares about his own reputation actually looks like.
― difficult listening hour, Monday, 17 January 2011 18:35 (thirteen years ago) link