"The Wire" on HBO

james ransone is amazing as ziggy! i don't think i appreciated his performance the first time i watched the season, though; ziggy is so irritating to watch.

I could never hate the son of Frank Sobotka.

the avon/stringer stuff in 3 makes it my favorite. i wish calling tv shows shakespearian wasn't a cliche.

Its sorta the nature of Ziggy at the beginning to even irritate the audience: the less you sympathize with him to begin with, the more affecting his particular story arc becomes. But w/e, I fucking love him str8 up.

Ziggy reminds me of Johnny Boy (Robt DeNiro) in Mean Streets

^^^

robot deniro is like a futurama joke

i feel like season 1 is so underrated & 4 didn't really affect me the way it seemed to hit everyone else in the heart. 3 is prob my fave.

2-1-3-4-5

you're leaving your midfield pretty open there

And the frikkin Police chief (can't remember his name, Ferengi dude [... from DS9]

hahah wtf had to google to make sure that he wasn't actually Armin Shimmerman or something but lolz if this isn't the OTMest thing anyone has ever said about this the greatest show ever.

:)

dudes! Rich Eisen showed Baltimore Sun front page on NFL channel this morning, called it "Stringer Bell's favorite paper" :)

too many julliard trained actors saying "true dat"

― J0rdan S., Saturday, January 15, 2011 12:05 AM (13 hours ago)

Is that how he got the name Method Man?

lol sarah

quality post

ziggy is not supposed to be likeable, I wouldn't call his acting overacting though. you're supposed to hate his guts. I actually admire how much of an asshole he comes off as.

― dayo, Saturday, January 15, 2011 6:10 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark

yeah i'm trying to think if there's ever been another divisive TV/movie character where so many people seem to conflate the irritating personality with an actual bad performance

if they ever do a Jeff Buckley biopic they should really cast Ransone, both because he looks close enough and because afaict JB was about as obnoxious as Ziggy irl

Ransone is cute imo

he is. i left him off the wire babez poll bc ziggy is so irritating, but it was an oversight.

he is tiny though

guys i know that ziggy is supposed to be irritating, that doesn't mean that the acting isn't often awful too

ziggy definitely worst character on the show, between him and mouzone

mouzone being all dapper/nation of islam or w/e is a bit overkill but i don't mind him -- i did lol at him being all WHERE ARE MY NEW ISSUES OF THE NATION AND ATLANTIC? I NEED MY ANDREW SULLIVAN

ransone is cute, yes -- have you guys seen 'ken park'? (it's pretty much porn)

found out last weekend that he went to college with my bf's wife

I must see this Ken park

Immediately

lol @ j0rd being all "this isnt authentic enough"

― dayo, Saturday, January 15, 2011 5:09 AM (11 hours ago) Bookmark

idk man, for as impressively intricate the story is (and will get, i'm sure), on a scene-by-scene basis there's still tons of groaners from a writing/acting perspective

j0rdan i wish i could have your back on this since i was w/ you on Paul Dano in There Will Be Blood, but for me there's nothing about Ransone's performance that doesn't ring true to what Ziggy-type people are like IRL

yeah it's amazing...wait till the end of the season, j0rdan

Oh man he's certainly not on a Paul dano level. Like I said, I think he was great some of the time but awful in other ways that I sorta couldn't get over

Also: was this really the first thread on the show? Weird that it took until the final episode of s2

the show's initial profile was not remotely what it eventually became. also not every TV show had a thread on ILE 9 years ago.

Word -- I forget how early this started -- last night I was watching an episode where they were all "he's using these things called text messages" and I was like O_O

lol i don't remember that

it's in season 2, when the greeks & stevedores figure out that all their phones are being tapped, spiros whips out like a palm pilot or some shit & sends a text message and they're all like "huh..." -- one dude in the room even says "my kids do it all the time"

when did SMS take off in the US

also spiros gets a text in greek, which was very swag

feel like it was later than in the UK, maybe a cost thing?

SMS took off way later here than in the UK. I don't really remember anyone doing it until QWERTY keyboards were commonplace.

AT&T didn't even really have MMS capability until the iPhone came out.

until after, that is

http://i.cdn.hbo.com/assets/images/series/the-wire/character/the-law/stanislaus-valchek-160.jpg

"Opportunity plus instinct equals profit."

http://i.cdn.hbo.com/assets/images/series/the-wire/character/the-law/stanislaus-valchek-160.jpg

It never hurts to suck up to the boss.

http://i.cdn.hbo.com/assets/images/series/the-wire/character/the-law/stanislaus-valchek-160.jpg

"The flimsier the product, the higher the price."

http://i.cdn.hbo.com/assets/images/series/the-wire/character/the-law/stanislaus-valchek-160.jpg

"Dignity and an empty sack is worth the sack."

http://i.cdn.hbo.com/assets/images/series/the-wire/character/the-law/stanislaus-valchek-160.jpg

"Employees are rungs on the ladder of success. Don't hesitate to step on them."

Watching S2 I kept thinking that if anyone ever wanted to make a movie about the life of Jeff Buckley (heaven forbid), James Ransone would be the guy.

if they ever do a Jeff Buckley biopic they should really cast Ransone, both because he looks close enough and because afaict JB was about as obnoxious as Ziggy irl

― some dude, Saturday, January 15, 2011 5:22 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I thought it was a bit of groaner when Zig was in the public library looking something up on the computer that Nicky came by and Zig had to explain to Nick what a search engine was in 2003.

xpost Leee you forgot my favorite: Never Place Friendship Above Profit

Just started watching this for the second time through with my gf who has never seen it. I forgot so much great stuff and im totally picking up new things and loving it