"The Wire" on HBO

iirc homicide is entertaining but it really has the fontana touch - super-catholic, earnestly liberal in a somewhat dated feeling way - the acting's prob better than The Wire, all things told

― Princess TamTam, Tuesday, January 18, 2011 10:19 AM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I have to side with deej here, the acting is H:LOTS is a lot more theatrical and mannered, even Braugher -- where The Wire is "writerly," H:LOTS is "actorly." (I couldn't get through 3 seasons, coming to it post-Wire.)

david simon's response to bealefeld:

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/blog/2011/01/simon_responds_to_bealefelds_c.html

It is my understanding that Commissioner Bealefeld - by finally choosing to emphasize the quality, rather than the quantity of arrest - has been able to reduce the homicide rate somewhat in our city. If true, this is not only commendable, it is a long time coming. Too long, in fact.

Interestingly, the newspaper that covered his department began making the argument to do exactly that as early as 1994, in a series of articles entitled "Crisis In Blue" (Ed. note: part two can be found here) that carefully articulated the disconnect between the Baltimore department's aggressive street-level prosecution of the drug war and the root causes of violence in the city. The arguments were furthered in a book entitled "The Corner" that was published three years later. After a new election cycle, however, those arguments were ignored in favor of years of "zero tolerance" of minor street crimes and an obsession with street-level drug enforcement that actually de-emphasized quality police work and led to marked declines in arrest rates for major felonies.

Later, when a mayor sought to become governor using public safety as an issue, the same police department went further down the path, emphasizing widespread street arrests of dubious quality and legality. This did not reduce crime so much as it violated the civil rights of many city residents and led to the widespread alienation of our jury pool, with many city jurors no longer willing to trust the integrity of testifying officers - a problem that will plague Baltimore law enforcement for years.

Furthermore, on behalf of Mr. O'Malley's political aspirations, many supervisors in many police districts were engaged in a prolonged campaign to improperly downgrade U.C.R. felonies to misdemeanors so as to further the political claim that crime was under control. This was common knowledge throughout the department and was much remarked upon privately by respected veteran supervisors and investigators, themselves frustrated at the practice. Nonetheless, aggravated assaults became common assaults. Armed robberies became larcenies. Rapes were unfounded.

I do not recall that Commissioner Bealefeld - when he was rising through the ranks during those years - made strenuous public objection to the department's misdirection, to its statistical flummery, or to the decline in arrest rates that resulted as quality police work was de-emphasized in favor of juked stats. Perhaps he did so in private, to little avail. And perhaps now that he is in a position to act, he is taking a better path. Again, as a resident of Baltimore, he has my wholehearted support if this is the case.

But publicly, let me state that The Wire owes no apologies -- at least not for its depiction of those portions of Baltimore where we set our story, for its address of economic and political priorities and urban poverty, for its discussion of the drug war and the damage done from that misguided prohibition, or for its attention to the cover-your-ass institutional dynamic that leads, say, big-city police commissioners to perceive a fictional narrative, rather than actual, complex urban problems as a cause for righteous concern. As citizens using a fictional narrative as a means of arguing different priorities or policies, those who created and worked on The Wire have dissented.

Commissioner Bealefeld may not be comfortable with public dissent, or even a public critique of his agency. He may even believe that the recent decline in crime entitles him to denigrate as "stupid" or "slander" all prior dissent, as if the previous two decades of mismanagement in the Baltimore department had not happened and should not have been addressed by any act of storytelling, given that Baltimore is no longer among the most violent American cities, but merely a very violent one.

Others might reasonably argue, however that it is not sixty hours of The Wire that will require decades for our city to overcome, as the commissioner claims. A more lingering problem might be two decades of bad performance by a police agency more obsessed with statistics than substance, with appeasing political leadership rather than seriously addressing the roots of city violence, with shifting blame rather than taking responsibility. That is the police department we depicted in The Wire, give or take our depiction of some conscientious officers and supervisors. And that is an accurate depiction of the Baltimore department for much of the last twenty years, from the late 1980s, when cocaine hit and the drug corners blossomed, until recently, when Mr. O'Malley became governor and the pressure to clear those corners without regard to legality and to make crime disappear on paper finally gave way to some normalcy and, perhaps, some police work. Commissioner Bealefeld, who was present for much of that history, knows it as well as anyone associated with The Wire.

We made things up, true. We have never claimed otherwise. But respectfully, with regard to our critique, we have slandered no one. And to the extent you can stand behind a fictional tale, we stand by ours - and more importantly, our purpose in telling that tale.

Respectfully,

David Simon
Baltimore, MD

flawless takedown

FATALITY

i was coming to post the takedown am0n posted a week ago but

2 thread cops with clashing personalities, forced to be partners. what hijinks will ensue?

― gr8080, Tuesday, January 18, 2011 10:49 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I'm getting too old for this shit.

― polyphonic, Tuesday, January 18, 2011 10:50 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark

this is quality fucking posting guys kudos to yall

Season 5 = shameful shit (at least the half I'm through)

It gets better. Slightly.

The funny thing

Fucking phone

Anyway the funny thing is that I'm really into the newspaper thing personally but This other thing with mcnulty should've been shot down in one second

i hated it at the start too, but i like how it plays out.

The McNulty plotline is almost (and i say almost) worth it for Bunk's reactions and one scene late in the season.

For all its flaws, and it had plenty, Season 5 did a good job at showing the impossibility of a "great white hope" style hero to save the day. That to me was one of the overall points of the series.

spoilers

you know, i think this actually ended well, i esp like how they tied up the daniels thing, w/ him having to protect his ex-wife & current GF -- i think it was a good counterpoint to mcnulty & freamon as the lone wolves that only care about themselves

i thought michael as the next omar with MINI-SHOTGUN & all was a bit heavy-handed, tho sydnor as the next jimmy was choice

i would give anything for there to have been a procedural spin off ft bunk & greggs -- would've easily replaced stabler & benson in my heart

i had tons of problems w/ omar as a character in general, maybe i'll post about that when i'm feeling a bit less lazy

i also wish that they wouldn't have shown duke doing heroin -- i think they gave enough away when he took the money from prezbo that i wish they would've let that one lie, sorta how they don't give you the satisfaction of thompson being outed as a maker-upper but you know he's gonna get his anyway

As irrelevant as much of the Sobotka stuff felt, it wasn't as lazily written or conceived as Season Five.

Sobotka stuff isn't "irrelevant" at all, WTF.

We could have seen the Greeks and their connection to the re-up without the stevedore woes.

and Ziggy is still the worst acted and conceived thing in the show.

Yeah, the failures and death of unions isn't topical at all in a show about the decay of american cities.

and Ziggy is still the worst acted and conceived thing in the show.

― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, March 7, 2011 4:06 AM (5 hours ago)

nah -- I think a lot of people have known a Ziggy-like person, and while it's painful to watch, there is truth to it.

very last line of the whole thing is cheesy as fuck.

forget it chris... it's baltimore

wtf indeed the stevedores are some of the best characters on the series & are entirely central to telling the story of baltimore. wtf alfred

interested to know what jordan's probs w/ omar are

yeah me too

great show, but my one qualm has always been the casting of the red-head politician... um, lady

really? this woman is desirable to ALL of you? (hello, i'm a recovering sexist)

well i think that for a show that is so grounded in realism & is so proud & pompous about how 'real' it is & is perceived to be, that it's a bit odd to have a character like omar that is so unrealistic & practically superhuman -- on the one hand it's a wonderfully acted character, but i think omar undercuts a lot of what the show stands for

i mean, an openly gay rebel gangster (who just so happens to find tons of other gay gangsters to be his boyfriend AND partner in crime) that can steal hundreds of thousands worth of drugs just by showing up and walks around in a trench coat as kids flee the streets and go "oh my god it's omar" -- it's just really fantastical nonsense at times -- and i ALWAYS resented how this superhuman character was not able to kill avon from point blank range in the beginning of season one, which sorta undercuts the whole notion of the character

a show where everything was like real life would suck

― gr8080, Saturday, January 15, 2011 10:01 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark

then maybe they shouldn't have created a show based on the premise of it being the most 'real' show ever

maybe you should come at such a show with adult expectations

what should i have expected

dunno if you listened to these, but in some of the commentaries simon talks about omar bits as the least realistic and most crowd-pleasing and western-y they did, more for the sheer fun value. so at least there is the recognition that not everything in the show was created with the same tone or effect in mind. if intent matters!

what would've been the sopranos equivalent of this?

then maybe they shouldn't have created a show based on the premise of it being the most 'real' show ever

― little humma boy (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, March 9, 2011 3:40 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

that's not the premise of the show at all, though, more the terms people decided to praise it on. there was always a lot more heightened reality in the show beyond Omar than people gave credit for.

http://www.thesterlingedgeduo.zoomshare.com/files/thats_entertainment_gold.jpg

like, vito comes back w/ the diner short order cook and starts robbing all of tony's spots as little italian children drop their ham sandwiches and scramble off the street

i mean i kinda roll my eyes when people focus on Omar or trumpet him as the best character on the show but i don't really mind the charged element he brought to the show

that's not the premise of the show at all, though, more the terms people decided to praise it on. there was always a lot more heightened reality in the show beyond Omar than people gave credit for.

― JaySeanLilWayne (some dude), Wednesday, March 9, 2011 3:48 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

well i understand "heightened reality", but omar is a huge outlier

it's not like the character ruined the show for me or anything -- i still love the show & think it's one of the best things i've ever watched, i just find the character to be problematic is all

i understand & appreciate the purpose of having omar being killed by a random corner kid & not dying in a firefight w/ omar's ppl but maybe they shouldn't have had him survive a six story fall off of a balcony, is all i'm saying

w/ marlo's ppl*

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s235/revmyspace2/graphics/Misc/Bling_Pimp/bling_tony_soprano.gif

http://i40.tinypic.com/710i1x.jpg

are you saying the six-story fall was too comic booky? like some spider-man shit?

lol

great show, but my one qualm has always been the casting of the red-head politician... um, lady

really? this woman is desirable to ALL of you? (hello, i'm a recovering sexist)

― yeah (kelpolaris), Wednesday, March 9, 2011 3:23 PM (24 minutes ago) Bookmark

i can't even tell who you're referring to -- maybe Rhonda Pearlman? but she wasn't a politician and i thought her hair was more dirty blonde (although i could be wrong about that)?

it has to be rhonda pearlman tho she only had relationships w/ two ppl on the show, also kelpolaris is a troll so let's not bother

probably the most oddly bad performance in this show was the woman carcetti hires to help run his campaign in s3. but i don't think that's the one we're talking about.

i understand & appreciate the purpose of having omar being killed by a random corner kid & not dying in a firefight w/ omar's ppl but maybe they shouldn't have had him survive a six story fall off of a balcony, is all i'm saying

― little humma boy (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, March 9, 2011 2:52 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this was based on something that actually happened!!

o rly