"The Wire" on HBO

B-b-b-but the show makes it painfully clear that he's tried to get back in her good graces before and then completely fucked her over again and again.

Shakey has posted far more than most of the women on this thread and yet I don't feel like he's taken the opportunity to show his redeeming qualities very often.

Brianna Barksdale isn't a monster, just extremely self-interested, self-deceiving and beholden to the mythologies of the lifestyle that comes with drug dealing, i.e. McNutty's stingy barbs wouldn't have affected her the way they did if she wasn't at heart a typical mom.

I've also reached the last disc of the fourth season, but I am not feeling it much at all. Maybe because I realize that all the warm hopiness that made this season so arresting the first time is actually really shallow and wispy, and I can't emotionally invest with it.

Taking the Kima/Cheryl relationship outside of the show's main thrust, it sure seemed like a dysfunctional relationship. It was pretty clear that Kima didn't really want a kid, and was only going along with it to make Cheryl happy, which tends to not work out well, but is a situation where both parties are at fault.

Shakey - he repeatedly cheated on her and lied to her - I don't think she was being overly harsh. He was being unrealistic about how easy it would be to patch up that relationship.

Also, I kind of get tired of Sonja Sohn's acting tics -- she goes with her exasperated sigh waaay too often not to bug.

Brianna Barksdale isn't a monster, just extremely self-interested, self-deceiving and beholden to the mythologies of the lifestyle that comes with drug dealing,

she sends her son to jail out of selfishness and greed. that's pretty monstrous imo.

on the other hand, she's probably pretty aware that were he to become an informant, he would likely get killed.

as opposed to being in jail, which is a totally safe environment

seriously when did daniels' wife nag, they had a clintonesque agreement & he reneged & is now doing his penance which he seemed totally a-ok with despite residual sadness of y'know a marriage breaking up

xp Shakey - it was made clear that he had protection from Avon while in jail.

since she's pretty much disappeared after mid-Season 3, mostly what I remember is from Season 1 and 2 where she continually pushed him to get ahead in the department. they're relationship wasn't as strained as Keema and Cheryl's but it didn't seem particularly loving to me

it was made clear that he had protection from Avon while in jail.

lolz yeah that worked out real well

basically she put her son's life in the hands of murderous, unscrupulous people, so that she could be a rich mother-hen in the background - putting all the risk on him and none of it on her, while she reaped the benefits.

anyway i mostly agree with shakey on details yet am not sympathetic to his argument cause very little of this is pertinent to the main thrust of the show, i mean, i ended up fast forwarding all the kima/cheryl scenes after awhile & missed nothing important that i could tell

xp - I'm sure Avon and Brianna were totally thinking, "Hey, our trusted business partner is totally gonna betray us and kill a member of our own family."

i dunno shakey, the show is careful to set it up so the "monstrousness" is built into the system -- asking her son to do his duty so the whole organization doesn't collapse, it looks virtuous within that, is the point. d'angelo (the angel! fuxake!) still has a residual real moral sense.

most of the show is about "falling on your sword" in the service of preserving the status quo.

most of the show is about "falling on your sword" in the service of preserving the status quo.

Holy shit, so true.

does the watch/mobile phone mms code make any sense?

the show is careful to set it up so the "monstrousness" is built into the system

most of the show is about "falling on your sword" in the service of preserving the status quo.

yeah these are both true, and it is great writing that showcases the characters' ambiguity against this backdrop... even so, I have problems with the whole resignation/"forget it Jake, its Chinatown" POV and am still inclined to hold characters' actions against them when a) they're motivations are highly questionable and self-serving and b) the resulting suffering is too horrible to be acceptable. This show is very, very bleak and in a way defies the viewer to judge its characters by constantly shifting the blame away from any given individual and instead onto the institution or system they find themselves in. I have issues with this. Institutions are built by people, run by individuals - for them to function and not become total nightmares, lines have to be drawn and people need to be held accountable. Otherwise you end up with... Baltimore (or Chinatown lolz)

Forget it Shakey, this is America.

heh

I thought her issues with Kima were pretty justified!

― Your heartbeat soun like sasquatch feet (polyphonic), Tuesday, September 8, 2009 5:52 PM (45 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i know we've moved on, but this! i love kima, but she's kind of an asshole as a girlfriend.

I kinda didn't understand why they were together at all

it's all setup for the "these bitches are no joke" strip club scene

xp oh I think you understand.

finished season 4 last night. Easily the best season - couldn't care less about the politics shit though, kinda wish it had just been all about the kids. Actually I kinda wish the whole series was about kids (cops are boring)

Favorite line of whole series: "You know who got the sweetest pussy and the fattest asses? Midgets, nigga"

I heart you, Method Man

you spent ~50 hrs watching a show that goes into minute & exacting detail about a profession you find boring. congratulations!

no I spent 50 hours watching "THE BEST SHOW EVER" (tm) according to many ILXOrs

it was an okay show. I'd say its about as good as the movie Traffic.

for Shakey:
http://pixiestixkidspix.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/cookie-bite-web.jpg

mm yummy

you get a whole one once you finish season 5!

http://img.skitch.com/20090911-cnjdk55p9m2t6g1jkey3m6qump.jpg

the wire may or may not be best show ever but it is certainly one of the most immersive tv (or general filmic) experiences you can have. the things it does well are almost totally related to procedure & the day-to-day minutiae of very particular worlds. if you're not interested in these i can't fathom getting through more than a handful of eps.

the things it does well are almost totally related to procedure & the day-to-day minutiae of very particular worlds

^^^none of this applies to traffic btw

"good" doesn't apply to traffic either.

otm

Benicio del toro was very good-looking in traffic.

I really hated "Traffic", so fuck that comparison.

Traffic was hilarious. Traffic and The Departed are the funniest US adaptations. The UK and HK versions were not as funny.

i liked Traffic. didn't know there wa a UK version tho! hhmmmm...

I give a thumb up to all movies about rich teenagers on hard drugs.

Benicio del toro was very good-looking in traffic

mmm so sepia-y

yeah glad I'm not the only person who thought Departed was a comedy. running in-joke with my wife is to randomly shout "are you a cawp?!" at each other

The Departed would have been much better if it was just the parts with Alec Baldwin and Marky Mark in it.

i liked Traffic. didn't know there wa a UK version tho! hhmmmm...

Six-part miniseries from the 80s. Spelled with a "k".

leaving work i passed sonja sohn on the street

ws for the ages

at farmers market i saw "santangelo"

My sons (25 and 27) still steadfastly refuse to watch The Wire because...
their parents are into it.
We shoulda shut up about it, rather than getting son #2 season 1 for xmas.
We're considering paying them to watch it.