"The Wire" on HBO

mcnulty quoted bodie last night, yeah?
i think so - "this game is rigged" right?

Avon is totally f***ing with Marlo. I'm sure Marlo gets that..

i didn't like the way bunk just kinda stood around and didn't stop mcnulty. i feel like he would have restrained the fuck out of jimmy mcnulty right there - this would mean a real fight of some kind in order for mcnulty to pull what he pulls though and i guess they didn't wanna go there??

elsewhere i like how the editor's relationship with cj mirrors the tension that i imagine exists between simon, the newspaper guy, and screenwriters who really know how to structure things and tell a story in pictures (and keep a season on track); the difference, as we're probably going to find out, is that one's a fictional tv show and the other's supposed to be the news

tracer otm, the second bit.

fave line so far: "*everything's* thin"

also it was a wicked awesome surprise to see clark johnson in it. pembleton should be the finale's deus ex machina.

Looking forward to seeing how they deal with McNulty pulling this at some other crime scenes.

it kind of requires that he gets called to a number of similarly dead dead guys! ie not gunshot/stab wounds etc.

or that he starts killing junkies

Ep 3 finally "available"!

i think we're doing this sunday by sunday y/n

I'm watching them as they become available.

Then go to the non-real time thread!

SPOILERS: The Non-Realtime Wire Season 5 Thread

I'm in between the non-realtime and the real-time threads! Besides, non-realtime already is talking about ep 3, so announcing its availability is kind of redundant.

so s05ee03?

worst Wire episode ever? maybe. my friend neale talks about the shittines of "stromfronts" or something on season 2/3 (i forget), but i don't remember what happens in that one. anyway, this blew. the performances were fine but my disappointment with the writers with this mcnulty/serial-killer plot remains unabated. and bringing Freeman on board? gah. this is the dude who wouldn't let operatives listen to the wiretap longer than the legally sanctioned limit, etc. such bullshit.

similarly: McNulty ignoring the article about Cedric/Burrell in the paper? wtf! or the total hackneyed/cardboard dumb-newspaper-owner and wise-newspaper-editor characters? and don't fucking get me started on the telegraphing/cliche of the Omar shit at the end. weeping as he hears the news. this show used to SURPRISE and OUTSMART me. there was almost nothing on screen tonight that made it any superior to the shield or whatever the fuck else.

McNulty hitting on Alma was aight.

lolz mcnulty the rake up to his old ways lolz

McNulty ignoring the article about Cedric/Burrell in the paper? wtf!

he didn't ignore it, he gave a kind of jaded shake of his head at it -- the top brass, musical chairs, who knows the politics of it? who cares? he had a more pressing issue that morning.

or the total hackneyed/cardboard dumb-newspaper-owner and wise-newspaper-editor characters

you mean mr. red suspenders, "my friend, who's the dean of the journalism school" dude? he's not the owner, he's the editor-in-chief. the owner is the tribune company in chicago; they're calling the shots.

<i>McNulty ignoring the article about Cedric/Burrell in the paper? wtf!

he didn't ignore it, he gave a kind of jaded shake of his head at it -- the top brass, musical chairs, who knows the politics of it? who cares? he had a more pressing issue that morning.</i>

Yeah, see I'd get this if it were a bullshit police show with a hackneyed, character-flaws-writ-overlarge lead, but this is an intelligent guy who sees in the paper that HIS FORMER BOSS, WHO MADE THE MARLO INVESTIGATION HAPPEN, remember MARLO, THE REASON HE'S DOING THIS SERIAL KILLER BS IN THE FIRST PLACE.... is going to become uh COMMISSIONER OF THE POLICE and he doesn't even fucking read the thing!? total plot contrivance bs.

<I>you mean mr. red suspenders, "my friend, who's the dean of the journalism school" dude? he's not the owner, he's the editor-in-chief. the owner is the tribune company in chicago; they're calling the shots.</i>

ah, thanks. i got the chicago thing, but didn't catch the editor's job title - assumed he was an MBA lackey for the brass.

ok, that's a good point about daniels

that said, mcnutty is completely off the rails and frankly his serial killer connivance seems less of a well-honed strategy and more of a giant game which has become its own justification

i feel you that people aren't behaving very rationally, but as i said on the other thread, this season is shaping up to be the elmore leonard season - everyone doing very dumb shit to try and break out of whatever situation they feel trapped by, and working through the consequences of it

this guy? - http://www.hbo.com/thewire/img/castcrew/character_season05/landing/jameswhiting_90.jpg

and lester freeman?

what I wanna know is what bar McNulty goes to that it's that easy to get laid

sean what about lester? you mean why is he down with mcnutty's plan? i dunno, maybe if you'd spent a decade and a half stuck behind a desk for doing the right thing only to finally get a shot at cracking a big case and then see it all go up in smoke just a week or two away from being able to close the whole thing -- maybe you'd resport to some crazy shit too

resport

oooor, in real life - maybe not!

again, Lester was so devoted to the rule of law that he wouldn't let people listen in on the wiretap after the federally mandated 45 seconds or whatever, even in the heat of the case. And besides, he seemed pretty fucking psyched about taking down Clay Davis. And even if Freeman would be tempted/amused by what McNulty's doing (if memory serves he's called McN a self-serving asshole before), Bunk was there in the room as a disapproving influence, and it's BS to think that Freeman would just automatically be sympathetic to McNulty's side.

The detention-room "gotcha!" of Freeman agreeing with McNulty was maybe fakest and most hyuk-teevee! moment of the whole episode (nay, the series?).

Lester was so devoted to the rule of law that he wouldn't let people listen in on the wiretap after the federally mandated 45 seconds or whatever, even in the heat of the case.

it's been awhile, but i don't remember lester insisting on this because of some abstract devotion to the rule of law -- it was practical: they simply couldn't use the evidence if it was beyond the 45 seconds, and if they started getting into changing the logs every time there was something interesting in order to make it seem like it was under the 45 seconds then the whole thing would be a compromised mess

i agree it was set up clumsily -- i feel like bunk has gotten a lot of disappointingly obvious/ham-handed lines so far this season. then again i've always felt the police end of things has always been the least "real" part of the show

i've always felt the police end of things has always been the least "real" part of the show

A friend of mine who worked as an attorney with the Baltimore Police Department (not a DA or States - sort of like a legal advisor, I'd say) has told me, on numerous occasions, that this show absolutely, 100% gets the Baltimore Police Department square between the eyes.

Yeah if anything I think, given the time Burns spent on the BPD and Simon spent covering it upclose, that they depict the police work is more accurate than probably anything else (drug trade, city hall, the docks, etc.) in the show, where I tend to feel a little more suspension of disbelief.

I mean, it definitely shows more sitting at a desk, or sweating about overtime or who picks up the next call, real garden variety shit that takes up 90% of any job, than any other show about police.

haha oh well - B.L.A.M. got me trumped on insider info - i just feel like the actual characters are sort of cartoony - the wise old cop who carves miniature furniture, the young hotblooded maverick.. i like this, it's a classic sort of dirty dozen style cast of antiheroes, but the stakes feel lower for them than for everyone else. we don't really get a look at what makes them tick. if that means we don't have to endure any more scenes of kima's lovelife or jimmy going to his kids' soccer game i should be grateful though

he didn't ignore it, he gave a kind of jaded shake of his head at it -- the top brass, musical chairs, who knows the politics of it? who cares? he had a more pressing issue that morning.

McNulty was shaking his head at his serial killer story being relegated to the page 42.

HE SHOOK HIS HEAD TWICE OK, MAYBE THE FIRST TIME WASN'T ON CAMERA, LET'S MOVE ON

oh by the way, omar is in "gone baby gone" - as a POle-eece!

The worst thing, aside from bringing in Lester, was the way McNulty kept dropping serial killer hints and waving it in front of Landsman's nose. Yeah, that eagerness isn't going to make anyone suspicious, buddy.

wise old cop who carves miniature furniture, the young hotblooded maverick.. i like this, it's a classic sort of dirty dozen style cast of antiheroes

THIS stuff, I gotta believe is totally for the show. The interior politics, the worrying about OT and clearing bodies, etc...that's the stuff my buddy has verified for me.

Whether or not there's a hornball Irishman with a cirrhotic liver who probably just needs some Ritalin, a lesbian detictive who is going broke paying child support and a wizened old sage who made his loot carving doll furniture...all working to stop the 23 year old drug kingpin wunderkind...these are prolly just composites of careers spent in the BPD and at the Sun.

Beadie is in Gone Baby Gone too.

yeah!

McNulty is in the background at the bar near the end.

Lester was so devoted to the rule of law that he wouldn't let people listen in on the wiretap after the federally mandated 45 seconds or whatever, even in the heat of the case.

that was way the fuck back in s1 and by season 3 or whatever he was withholding subpoenas until election time came around. omg his character changed over time wtf

n e way the best part about mcnulty looking at the newspaper which none of u grasped is that he doesn't pay for it. he makes the guy hold the box open for him and if you listen closely you'll hear the guy say "cheap motherfucker!" as he walks away

lol people like mcnulty are the reason the sun's circulation is going down the tubes!

tru. also the world wide webs

freamon does whatever is EFFECTIVE, that's why he's the man

yeah cool lester smooth is awesome.

you'll hear the guy say "cheap motherfucker!" as he walks away

This was some of the funniest shit from this episode. Hungover, untucked, three-day-old shirt McNulty, cheaping a newspaper. Hilarious.

I liked him riding the bus to the crime scene even better. (Was that Ep 2?)

yeah that was great

uh yeah it's hilarious (and i laughed) but am i the only one who thinks these HILARIOUS MCNULTY HIJINKS are actually lame easy-out gags that avoid any deeper characterisation? where the fuck is beadie? or mcnulty's kids? as if he could be continuing down this road without any slapback - and as if he's in the same place emotionally as s1 where beadie getting enraged (or, as in s05e01, remaining there for him) wouldn't matter to him.

this whole episode was so hamfisted. ok, "cool lester smooth" - but that kind of 2-dimensionality is so boring to me. as if he'd have no reservations about this retarded plan. god.

i hold the Wire to a higher standard than fucking law and order or whatever. ha-larious mcnulty and wise-cool lester and badass omar do not something altogether exceptional make.

shit's hilarious this season. it's borderline satire.

mcnulty missing a story in the paper is no more ridiculous than the somewhat predictable thread from season 4 which saw randy's name get out on the street as soon as herc needed some leverage (saw that coming from a mile away). the serial killer thing is no more nuts than hamsterdam. actually, far LESS nuts. the newspaper stuff is pretty accurate from what i have heard. HQ in chicago just canned the l.a. times editor (third one in four years or something) because he refused to cut $4 million off the budget. one story i read sounded a lot like the editor's speech.

i think this big emphasis on how "realistic" everything about this show is has always been sort of misplaced

where the fuck is beadie? or mcnulty's kids? as if he could be continuing down this road without any slapback

she was in a scene or two already, but yeah, could stand to be in there more (hopefully without a boilerplate been caught cheatin' confrontation). but goddamn you're hopping up and down a lot about these first 2 or 3 episodes, if The Wire has taught me nothing else it's that a lot of strands can seem to go nowhere or make no sense before coming together beautifully at the end of a season.

(xpost Tracer Hand OTM, there's a lot of big-d Dramatics in this show and plenty of contrivances, always has been)