"The Wire" on HBO

that is so cool.

omar is pretty SIC-WID-IT though.

I guess a lot of it happens in the pre credit sequence.

Actually, I find the softcore pretty distracting and not (usually) revelatory of any character or plot stuff, so I have a theory it's all just part of HBO's attempt to keep a minimum tits per hour average on their original shows.

Any time sex on the Wire borders on gratuitous, it's always McNulty. And it's usually funny.

And yeah, there's a lot of wit in The Wire. Just not a lot of slapstick.

And it's essential they find a way to add Omar to the storyline for next season.

mcnulty might be the most cliched thing to you, gypsy, but he's also one of the most reality-based characters on the show! he's ed burns.

Personally, I hope they find some way to keep Cutty in the mix - that guy is fascinating. I'd like to see Zig and Nick and Horseface and the Greek and other guys from the docks come back, too, but I guess they've been pretty well dropped.

The cops, on the other hand, have never seemed too serious to me. They've never had a scene like that. Sure, there have been steely-eyed threats, hurled recriminations, long friendships put at risk, but the "game" is something the cops can dip out of -- to the extent that they turn off their cell phones -- any time they want. Even to the most "natural police," as the show puts it, their jobs, and the relationships in their jobs, matter, but only so much. Which probably reflects reality, to an extent. Bayliss and Pembleton cared so much they almost drove themselves off the deep end; these police seem a little more balanced. But less interesting.

You're giving pretty short shrift to a McNulty who recruits his own kids for subject surveillance!

xpost haha yeah, but McNulty caught hell for it, cause he's an outrageous dick.

and prez. poor poor prez.

I'd like to see a City Hall show written by someone who knows City Hall as well as Simon knows cops and robbers. But maybe I'd be the only one who watched it.

xpost to jamz -- yeah! The black councilman is running for mayor on an education platform, and the white councilman is running on crime, right? The white councilman is a great character, you never quite know where he's coming from. He seems like he's got real decency under there, but there are ominous signs... the moral triage of politics comes a little too naturally to him, and his vanity is well-documented. The revelation of Hamsterdam was a moment of moral choice for him and he wrestles with it -- use it to his campaign's advantage, or follow his conscience? He's told: "You've been dealt a winning hand and it's like you forgot how to play!" but he remembers how to play at the end, and I wonder if it's the first step down a long, venal road.

The other big indicator that 4 will be all about the money, or at least the politics, as that Clay Davis remains unconscionably un-comeuppanced.

Lance Reddick rules. He ruled on Oz too.

I saw him running at the dog park a few weeks back. Intimidating! But sporting the tall man's tell-tale knee braces.

And, in the hidden indicators department, he's done time in Rochester. Eastman School on his resume.

Secondly, last week thanks to the transit strike and me spending Christmas in New York, I rewatched the first season and am mid-way through the second. Just so so good. So many things I had forgotten, and some little tidbits in the early going that showed the uncertainty that it began with. Things like:

1) Omar curses in the first episode
2) Stringer SMOKING in the first episode (no way would he ever smoke)
3) McNulty's British accent is sooooo apparent in the earlygoing

Anyway, I'm just convinced more and more everyday how genius this show is/was.

Also, has anyone else seen Cutty in those Cheerios commercials? And last night I saw D'Angelo's mom in an episode of West Wing!

This sentence is true of me as well. Yancey, are you me?

On the second viewing, I found myself more impressed by the skillful long-arc structuring, but slightly more annoyed by the couple of actors for whom I can't quite suspend disbelief. Frank Sobotka in particular makes me picture the script, and the camera, and the audition, and generally the actor trotting around the Upper West Side with a latte and a copy of Backstage.

"YOU MOTHERFUCKERS GAVE ME BAD ADVICE!"

Hey you guys are me wtf cut it out I'm me

Yeah, season 4 is debuting in the fall of 06.

HBO for 06:

March - May: The Sopranos / Big Love

July - September: Deadwood / Entourage

September - November: The Wire