s8 is about beef between the As & Orioles, ripped from Today's Headlines
― lauded at conferences of deluded psychopaths (Sparkle Motion), Wednesday, 11 June 2014 19:57 (nine years ago) link
trying to remember, was it was basically: 1 - corners 2 - docks 3 - back to the corners 4 - school/mayoral race 5 - newspaper?
because if so makes sense that the docks disappear after their focus season, the school and newspaper plotlines are also only foregrounded for one-season arcs too, right?
― Brio2, Wednesday, 11 June 2014 20:25 (nine years ago) link
I think David Simon saw it a bit like:1 - Drugs/Police2 - Work3 - Reform4 - Education5 - Information
Season three is a bit tough to nail down, thematically, what with Hamsterdam and all that.
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 11 June 2014 21:01 (nine years ago) link
yeah, there are lots of reasons why it makes sense that they didn't return to the dock workers, I just would've enjoyed seeing them again.
― nitro-burning funny car (Moodles), Wednesday, 11 June 2014 21:14 (nine years ago) link
brio and frederick both right
except maybe i'd say s1 was about the housing projects and s3 going back to the corners after losing the towers/pit the barksdales had fought so hard to get/hold on to
― °ㅇ๐ْ ° (gr8080), Wednesday, 11 June 2014 21:19 (nine years ago) link
i feel like the layers of reform/education in 3rd and 4th seasons were still present when the s5 layer of media/information was the focus
― °ㅇ๐ْ ° (gr8080), Wednesday, 11 June 2014 21:20 (nine years ago) link
yeah - that's true... and school - or at least kids' daily lives - was a big part of the narrative throughout
― Brio2, Wednesday, 11 June 2014 21:27 (nine years ago) link
I think S4 was my favorite. I just loved those kids.
― lauded at conferences of deluded psychopaths (Sparkle Motion), Wednesday, 11 June 2014 21:30 (nine years ago) link
Same here - would have much preferred to stay with them more through Season 5 in place of all that fake serial killer shit.
― Brio2, Wednesday, 11 June 2014 21:38 (nine years ago) link
really if they took out the serial killer bullshit and maybe stretched out the season for a couple more episodes s5 would've been just fine.
― marcos, Wednesday, 11 June 2014 21:44 (nine years ago) link
pretty much, yeah, I even think the fake serial killer plotline could have worked in way scaled-back form. But it just felt like it went on and on and pushed things off the rails to me.
― Brio2, Wednesday, 11 June 2014 21:49 (nine years ago) link
s4 is good but i never ever get the urge to watch it again, whereas 1-3 i can sit thru quite happily. Then again Prop Joe is my favourite character.
― pandemic, Wednesday, 11 June 2014 21:50 (nine years ago) link
s4 prob too downbeat for my tastes, although it should be.
― pandemic, Wednesday, 11 June 2014 21:51 (nine years ago) link
I read this thread as I was watching the show (earlier this year) so I was ready for S5 to be much much worse than it was
― lauded at conferences of deluded psychopaths (Sparkle Motion), Wednesday, 11 June 2014 21:55 (nine years ago) link
s5 isnt that bad, i think it maybe would have been better if David Simon didn't have such a bone to pick w/ his journalism past? idk
― °ㅇ๐ْ ° (gr8080), Wednesday, 11 June 2014 22:01 (nine years ago) link
Yeah I watched S5 after hearing how bad it was too - and enjoyed it way more than I expected.
xxpostI can see your point about the "downbeat" aspects to 4 and, to me, 5 - it was always dark but I did feel a little less engaged with the battle for the streets stuff once Marlo came out on top, just found Stringer and Avon way more interesting as the counter-force to the cops.
But I do get how it made total sense for the arc of the show and its big themes that Marlo would come in to replace them - and he is a kind of great character in his own right too.
― Brio2, Wednesday, 11 June 2014 22:05 (nine years ago) link
i really resented Marlo at first but ended up loving his place in the show by the end
― °ㅇ๐ْ ° (gr8080), Wednesday, 11 June 2014 22:28 (nine years ago) link
First few episodes of S5 depict a stalled bureaucratic world so thoroughly that this approach can be confused with the show itself being tedious and dull.
Some of the frustration, at least when it was airing, reminded me of Sopranos when's-somebody-finally-going-to-get-whacked conversation around the same time.
― did click through tho on the money (Eazy), Wednesday, 11 June 2014 22:32 (nine years ago) link
i've only watched 4 once or twice, 5 only once. 4 was beyond great but it was heavy, didn't want to just repeat it thoughtlessly.
― j., Wednesday, 11 June 2014 22:43 (nine years ago) link
for me the death of frank sobotka was the first truly powerful wire scene. therefore season 2 is great!
― g simmel, Wednesday, 11 June 2014 22:47 (nine years ago) link
wallace's last scene wasn't powerful?
― Clay, Wednesday, 11 June 2014 22:50 (nine years ago) link
On a slight tangent: on my second re-watch of S1, Kima's shooting suddenly seems a lot more affected in a trite sort of way, especially the way that Rawls went "I hate ur guts but we're IN THIS TOGETHER MCNUTTY," don't really remember the details of my beef.
― Call the Doctorb, the B is for Brownstein (Leee), Wednesday, 11 June 2014 23:06 (nine years ago) link
Yeah Kima's shooting was when I got invested.
― Strictly EZ Snappin' Nhex (Spottie), Wednesday, 11 June 2014 23:09 (nine years ago) link
i wonder if it's kind of a counterpart to kima's rushing in to wail on bodie after he hits polk or whoever the alkie cop is. like, things are under control, she's way far away, and she sees it and BOOKS over there so she can get in some kicks and stuff too. more for a kind of performance of solidarity for her fellow cops.
― j., Wednesday, 11 June 2014 23:12 (nine years ago) link
It's pretty amazing in the Wire how even the "good guy" cops don't hesitate to jump in on some massive police brutality when they think it's warranted. Even Daniels wails on that one guy (albeit offscreen)
― lauded at conferences of deluded psychopaths (Sparkle Motion), Wednesday, 11 June 2014 23:18 (nine years ago) link
oh right… what is that, in an interrogation room?
i always think that with daniels that's half a matter of fitting in
― j., Wednesday, 11 June 2014 23:21 (nine years ago) link
yeah I don't remember who. He comes in takes a polaroid of the guy, shows it to him, tears up the photo and locks the door.
― lauded at conferences of deluded psychopaths (Sparkle Motion), Wednesday, 11 June 2014 23:22 (nine years ago) link
Yeah, that was when they got Bird and he's spewing abuse at Kima, and I think in that case it was a lot more personal since Kima is one of his officers.
― Call the Doctorb, the B is for Brownstein (Leee), Wednesday, 11 June 2014 23:24 (nine years ago) link
cutty's story arc is hitting me way harder the 2nd time through
― °ㅇ๐ْ ° (gr8080), Wednesday, 11 June 2014 23:42 (nine years ago) link
xps re: marlo, yea i haaaaated marlo the first time through, just an unfun hardass who never lets up, but second time around i feel like he's a great character with a really heavy presence, great contrast to avon
― marcos, Wednesday, 11 June 2014 23:45 (nine years ago) link
xxxp not as much I guess. sobotka's fate was determined in the last second ("your way...it won't work") and he willingly took a risk.
wallace was too much (children killing children) too early (wasn't as invested yet)
― g simmel, Wednesday, 11 June 2014 23:46 (nine years ago) link
Cutty's denoument with Dukie, his line that "somebody out there's able to escape all of this... but I'm not that guy" is just so goddamn sad.
― lauded at conferences of deluded psychopaths (Sparkle Motion), Wednesday, 11 June 2014 23:49 (nine years ago) link
Also that scene where he's running set to Move on Up is amazing.
― lauded at conferences of deluded psychopaths (Sparkle Motion), Wednesday, 11 June 2014 23:50 (nine years ago) link
avon with cutty is gold
― g simmel, Wednesday, 11 June 2014 23:53 (nine years ago) link
I see it like:1. - The Game (starts off with the murder at the dice game), then there's the chess scene, opponents are dealers and cops2. - Globalization (you see how the drugs are just a part of the global economy, and how the Barksdale operation gets screwed when their supplier gets busted as part of a larger game)3. - Capitalism and Reform (this was my favorite season)4. - Reproducing the Means of Production5. - Post-modernity (I don't really have a clever theme for this season)
― sarahell, Thursday, 12 June 2014 00:20 (nine years ago) link
2. - Globalization (you see how the drugs are just a part of the global economy, and how the Barksdale operation gets screwed when their supplier gets busted as part of a larger game)
OTM and prob why I remember so fondly S2 - just blew my mind how they just opened the lens wider to show how the corners were just a speck in the structural big picture. Truly felt that I was watching a political TV show for the first time (and not a show about politics). Also at the time I was working on global shipping policies and I did feel that it was a rather obscure sector that captured a lot of the important stakes of the 21st century economy - the show kinda comforted me in that idea.
― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Thursday, 12 June 2014 13:17 (nine years ago) link
4. - Reproducing the Means of Production
nice
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 12 June 2014 14:33 (nine years ago) link
been thinking about it a little, i think one of the reasons s2 doesn't appeal to me that much is because there is such a massive cliche in american media of the "eastern european gangster" and despite the quality and depth of the rest of the shows' characters, i just never feel like the greek and his men transcend that cliche. they just aren't very interesting or dynamic characters. i know the greek is intentionally left fairly mysterious in the show b/c that's how his character rolls, but to me, instead of mysterious he just seems to fit the vague stereotype of "eastern european gangster". same for vondas and sergei.
― marcos, Friday, 13 June 2014 19:45 (nine years ago) link
good point - especially in contrast to how sharply observed and rooted in Burns' and Simon's own experiences the street level gangsters, cops, and city hall worlds are
― Brio2, Friday, 13 June 2014 19:55 (nine years ago) link
To me, their role is to show how the Sobotka family is completely out of their depth
― odd proggy geezer (Moodles), Friday, 13 June 2014 21:00 (nine years ago) link
so i started re-watching season 4, definitely feel like it's the best. there are no false notes, every story in it is magnetic, the boys especially. marlo & his crew are developed so much more. freamon and bunk paired up in homicide flows so well. carcetti bored me in season 3 but the mayoral race is fascinating, watching him so sure he's gonna lose and then it turns. maybe the only thing that's a little over the top is bubbles getting beat on all the time
― marcos, Tuesday, 17 June 2014 15:12 (nine years ago) link
there's some Omar & Prop Joe gold in 4 too
― Brio2, Tuesday, 17 June 2014 15:33 (nine years ago) link
definitely
― marcos, Tuesday, 17 June 2014 15:41 (nine years ago) link
omar robbing marlo's card game was pretty satisfying too
just started s4 last nite
had completely forgotten abt dukie :-(
― °ㅇ๐ْ ° (gr8080), Tuesday, 17 June 2014 15:43 (nine years ago) link
yea...
― marcos, Tuesday, 17 June 2014 15:46 (nine years ago) link
How could you forget Duquan??
― Call the Doctorb, the B is for Brownstein (Leee), Tuesday, 17 June 2014 16:20 (nine years ago) link
didn't forget. dukie's story was the only one that brought tears to my eyes in the 60 hours of watching this show
― marcos, Tuesday, 17 June 2014 16:24 (nine years ago) link
that kid was so well cast - all the kids were, but him especially. great performance.
― Brio2, Tuesday, 17 June 2014 16:25 (nine years ago) link
Speaking of heartstrings, the scene where Wallace gets his little siblings ready for school in the abandoned house.
― Hier Komme Die Warum Jetzt (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 17 June 2014 16:36 (nine years ago) link