The wire isn't completely realistic, but I think most of it's plausible. I certainly bought into Hamsterdam because the script took nearly two seasons building up to it. By contrast, the serial killer plot seemed like it came out of nowhere.
― leavethecapital, Wednesday, 1 April 2009 02:40 (fifteen years ago) link
has anyone seen torrents of law and order (1978) kicking around anywhere?
― caek, Tuesday, March 31, 2009 9:24 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
haha ok this (1978) makes so much more sense now
― ice cr?m, Wednesday, 1 April 2009 02:43 (fifteen years ago) link
― lo (cozwn), Wednesday, 1 April 2009 06:57 (fifteen years ago) link
Actually I think there are sizeable elements of The Wire that would appeal to the Pinefox - particularly all the dockers/unions/changing nature of capitalism stuff in Series 2, but also the political bits of S3. But I seriously doubt he'd make it through the first series to find that out.
― Matt DC, Wednesday, 1 April 2009 08:38 (fifteen years ago) link
not to mention its use of language and the fact its a very intelligent and intelligently written show, give it a go pf
― lo (cozwn), Wednesday, 1 April 2009 09:03 (fifteen years ago) link
i've been working through this show for the past 2 years or so. i'll basically start a season, become totally engrossed and power my way through the thing in a day or two. then i'll put off the next season for like months because i don't want to feel guilty about sitting in front of my computer or television for a dozen hours straight. anyway, i just started season 4 and it's great and i'm back in the routine again. i live right outside of the city so that fact that i haven't finished it yet has been a minor source of embarrassment.
I notice Dominic West's inconsistent accent a lot more
this has always bothered me. it's kind of a combination of trying to do an American accent and throwing in some Bawmore shit randomly that throws me off. sounds totally inconsistent. also the fact that there are actual Baltimore dudes on the show that have a pretty hard accent mixed with actors who don't playing their peers is a little weird. i'm not really butthurt about it as i think it's cool that they have these guys on the show and i don't expect all the actors to speak that way, but it is a bit jarring.
― ham hand (circa1916), Wednesday, 1 April 2009 09:46 (fifteen years ago) link
h8 mcnutty
― ice cr?m, Wednesday, 1 April 2009 15:22 (fifteen years ago) link
^^2tru
― lo (cozwn), Wednesday, 1 April 2009 15:23 (fifteen years ago) link
i love that he's from sheffield really, even though he went to eton.
― caek, Wednesday, 1 April 2009 15:23 (fifteen years ago) link
hung out last night with a high school teacher who has been showing the wire season 1 in his literature class :D (pretty sure he can only get away with that because it's a catholic school)
― Ømår Littel (Jordan), Wednesday, 1 April 2009 20:16 (fifteen years ago) link
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04172009/watch.html
― someone who is aware how stupid the net is (harbl), Saturday, 18 April 2009 14:15 (fifteen years ago) link
that's a goodun
― one thousand BIG HOOS raging and pounding (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Saturday, 18 April 2009 15:37 (fifteen years ago) link
lol, "McArdle"
http://leethomson.myzen.co.uk/The_Wire/The_Wire_-_Bible.pdf
― rent, Friday, 24 April 2009 20:19 (fifteen years ago) link
man, this really came out pretty much fully formed.
― Long, helmet-defying hair (forksclovetofu), Friday, 24 April 2009 20:27 (fifteen years ago) link
stringy bell!
― barfy (harbl), Friday, 24 April 2009 20:43 (fifteen years ago) link
"Stringy" Bell -- the Stringer/Avon relationship is actually reversed in that document!
― nabisco, Friday, 24 April 2009 20:43 (fifteen years ago) link
xpost!
― nabisco, Friday, 24 April 2009 20:44 (fifteen years ago) link
how do they decide to pick mcnulty over mcardle i wonder? like what's the diff
― barfy (harbl), Friday, 24 April 2009 20:46 (fifteen years ago) link
HERC - dumb as a box of rocks and an anabolic steroid addict to boot
― Dr. Phil, Friday, 24 April 2009 20:47 (fifteen years ago) link
in the show he ends up dumb as a box of hammers
― barfy (harbl), Friday, 24 April 2009 20:48 (fifteen years ago) link
box of rocks vs. bag of hammers vs. hammer of bags vs. hammer of boxes
― one thousand BIG HOOS raging and pounding (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Friday, 24 April 2009 20:53 (fifteen years ago) link
dumber than a box of hair
― barfy (harbl), Friday, 24 April 2009 20:56 (fifteen years ago) link
vs. doorknobs
― Long, helmet-defying hair (forksclovetofu), Friday, 24 April 2009 20:59 (fifteen years ago) link
Dumber than a bag of dicks
― too many misters not enough sisters (milo z), Saturday, 25 April 2009 01:56 (fifteen years ago) link
http://www.threadbombing.com/data/media/2/fgg.gif
― Dr. Phil, Wednesday, 29 April 2009 03:41 (fifteen years ago) link
http://www.threadbombing.com/data/media/2/281akc8.gif
― Dr. Phil, Wednesday, 29 April 2009 03:42 (fifteen years ago) link
yess wire gifs, i have now doubled my collection
― lil waynes babymama (musically), Wednesday, 29 April 2009 04:10 (fifteen years ago) link
Thanks for that Moyers interview. The part in Part 2 where he talked about the contempt newspaper owners have had for their product hits home, obviously...
― Pete Scholtes, Thursday, 30 April 2009 04:30 (fifteen years ago) link
Got my dvds back from Dad woooooooooo! He couldn't get my stepmom to watch it though. Apparently he did the same bad thing that I've done on occassion - used The Wire as a club to beat shows that other people like. Not the best sales technique, really.
― Full Metal Slanket (Oilyrags), Thursday, 30 April 2009 10:28 (fifteen years ago) link
Yeah, I've fallen into that trap sometimes too, definitely something to avoid - really makes you look like a douche no matter how good the show is.
― Nhex, Thursday, 30 April 2009 12:18 (fifteen years ago) link
Nathan "Bodie" Barksdale and Kenny Jackson tell their versions of Baltimore's street life in The Baltimore Chronicles: Legends of the Unwired
http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17966
― just being playful and friendly (some dude), Thursday, 30 April 2009 13:24 (fifteen years ago) link
makes you look like a douche
― Full Metal Slanket (Oilyrags), Thursday, 30 April 2009 23:39 (fifteen years ago) link
Is it me, or has there there been a pretty noticeable backlash against the wire brought on by the many who haven't seen it, but have been turned off it because of unending recommendation and sycophancy. To bad, as it is the sort of thing where you can't stress enough,
― formerly: mehlt (Edward Saroyan), Friday, 1 May 2009 01:20 (fifteen years ago) link
how much they actually should watch it.
― formerly: mehlt (Edward Saroyan), Friday, 1 May 2009 01:21 (fifteen years ago) link
I think a lot of fans forget that the show requires a ton of effort to absorb, compared to 99.9% of TV shows it's pretty impenetrable. But honestly I think the show is just as ignored as it's usually been. That said, I don't know anyone who has actually watched the show that doesn't LOVE it, but there's that - people who would be interested are the ones seeking it out, not the general public.
That City Paper article was pretty interesting - had no idea how much Simon took from real people (not just names, but things like Avon having a boxing background, or the strip club thing from S5) that went into the show.
― Nhex, Friday, 1 May 2009 03:36 (fifteen years ago) link
Clay Davis in a role he was born to play:
― Your heartbeat soun like sasquatch feet (polyphonic), Thursday, 14 May 2009 18:02 (fifteen years ago) link
the many who haven't seen it, but have been turned off it because of unending recommendation and sycophancy
This was my position for a very long time about (a) The Wire, (b) living in Brooklyn, and (c) Macintosh computers -- i.e., stuff I was sure was fine and lovely, but I was not interested in and getting really sick of having constantly recommended to me
Then I watched The Wire and was like yeah, this is really good
That said, my usual response to Wire recommendations was "I'll wait until it's over and the whole thing's out on DVD," and I think that was the right decision; I feel like it would have totally exhausted and bothered me to watch this week to week and season to season
― nabisco, Thursday, 14 May 2009 18:09 (fifteen years ago) link
watching the wire in brooklyn on your mac
― u have a new mistress my friend and her name is little debbie (omar little), Thursday, 14 May 2009 18:12 (fifteen years ago) link
I'm ready to rewatch this front-to-back now. Wish I could find a box set for a hundred bucks.
― the toxic Internet art of constant callous one upsmanship (forksclovetofu), Friday, 15 May 2009 15:07 (fifteen years ago) link
"that's japanese for goodbye"
― the toxic Internet art of constant callous one upsmanship (forksclovetofu), Friday, 15 May 2009 15:09 (fifteen years ago) link
1-5 is £86 in the UK and $180 in the US. i am surprised. individual series here are £16, about $25.
― koogs, Friday, 15 May 2009 15:10 (fifteen years ago) link
Have just arrived at the Season 3 finale. Damnit, if I don't love Bunny Colvin. That man is great.
― Two Will Get You Three (B.L.A.M.), Friday, 15 May 2009 15:58 (fifteen years ago) link
I'm 3 eps away from Season 3 finale, literally cannot stop watching it. I don't know why I didn't see it when it was on TV, except that maybe it conflicted with other shows. First couple of episodes, I liked it but was a little deterred by how hard you had to work to track what was going on, who all the characters were. But man...the payoff was huge. And to find out that Richard Price, Dennis Lehane & George Pelecanos are writing for the show...DING! SOLD.
I love how initially McNulty seems like the ultimate cool police, but by Season 3 I'm just feeling like, man this dude is nowhere. So many great characters though. I kinda love Cutty.
― VegemiteGrrrl, Sunday, 17 May 2009 03:48 (fifteen years ago) link
nabisco i was like that about the entire concept of email for awhile.. like "pffft, ok, i'm glad you're into that"
― Tracer Hand, Sunday, 17 May 2009 11:51 (fifteen years ago) link
The real Barksdale comes off as kind of a creepy dude in that article.
― Garri$on Kilo (Hurting 2), Sunday, 17 May 2009 17:34 (fifteen years ago) link
Not that it should be all that surprising for an ex-kingpin to be that way.
We just watching the last season. I'm a total fangirl, I know, but fuuuuuuuck is this show great.
― the tip of the tongue taking a trip tralalala (stevienixed), Monday, 18 May 2009 12:13 (fifteen years ago) link
As a johnny come lately, I've just finished watching season one. It's thoroughly engrossing, but trashier than I expected. The acting can be really OTT, and some of the dialogue and characters are kind of cliched, at least more so than in The Sopranos or Mad Men (though it's more plot-driven than either of those shows).
Having said that, I've compulsively watched the whole season in a week, so it's definitely very good TV. I'm just not yet convinced it deserves the 'best ever' tag.
I'm out, need to get me a re-up.
― chap, Saturday, 23 May 2009 00:56 (fifteen years ago) link
I find as I watch it more I see more of the cliches and 'predictable' aspects, and at the same time, the less I care about them.
Which is to say, I've shedded off the mindset of watching it for realism and more just as a TV show that is realistic.
― Edward Saroyan, Saturday, 23 May 2009 01:10 (fifteen years ago) link
My sons won't watch it because I'm into it. I can relate, but, duh.
― Beth Parker, Saturday, 23 May 2009 01:12 (fifteen years ago) link