"The Wire" on HBO

s4 is when i start to resent bubbles, partly because i feel boringly manipulated by the relentless pathetic suffering and partly no doubt because i yearn to turn my privileged face from the underclass, but he does interact in this season with the (nameless?) malevolent beat cop who's almost a shadow of marlo and troubles the s3 ideal (the final shot of mcnulty) of the compassionate plugged-in beat cop: evil is not always ignorant or confused or detached; sometimes being aware of and close to people's pain means exploiting it better. "bad cop" hardly a groundbreaking character concept and iirc this guy gets no complexity or depth (stands with levy in the show's very small complement of simple monsters) but there is very little of him, enough to forget he exists between appearances, and the actor projects a genuinely frightening predatory vibe, so whenever i see him i'm startled and unnerved. can't remember what happens to him or if he's in s5.

some of the stuff in the schools (prez's naive indignation, SO WE JUST TEACH THE TEST??? etc) foreshadows the clunkiness of the newspaper imo, but is right away better because prez is totally incompetent for much of the season instead of an angelic vision like gus. plus yeah the kids are all great. i kinda hate the cheaply drawn Wimpy Academic tho.

might be the best bunk season: partnered with lester, puking at the wake, talking that other detective into "unsolving" his own case. (landsman, also a gem this season btw: "and you! stand the fuck up for yourself!") finally, i might actually prefer you-gonna-take-care-of-me-sergeant-carver to where-the-fuck-is-wallace, on the cries-of-unanswerable-anguish front.

man reading the recent flurry of posts I'm remembering characters i haven't thought about in years

I had the same thing, to the point of looking up bubs' friend johnny on wikipedia today and remembering that he had a colostomy bag for some reason.

Got the shit kicked out of him literally iirc

Yeah. In episode one. It's the reason Bubs start working with the wire-team.

it's funny, Clay Davis is in the first three seasons but it's not till s4 till he really let's loose with the "shheeeeeeit"

http://i.imgur.com/9nRsS2T.png

i kinda hate the cheaply drawn Wimpy Academic tho.

otm, simon must really hates naive academics, jabs against them pop up here and there throughout the show.

that character is really cheaply drawn, dude's a professor in a school of social work, social workers imo are pretty plugged in and aren't super naive. sure they're not tough hardened cops but if you're a social worker in baltimore i'm sure you've seen some shit. lots of social work academics are practitioners too. (disclosure: my wife is a social worker and worked for years w/ drug addicts, mostly heroin)

sure, but lots are like that guy as well.

it "worked" better in the series that he was a wimp. it would have looked weird if he had been a tough guy as well alongside Bunny. you needed the contrast

not saying he needed to be a "tough guy"

ok

just saying that inner city social workers are engaged w/ the streets, in a different way than cops yea definitely, but social workers are working w/ urban kids all the fucking time, any kid or adult who goes through "the system" for crimes (especially drug-related crimes) is probably gonna see a social worker at some point

when i represented some kid busted for dealing heroin he had a social worker and she seemed pretty plugged in. couple of social workers i know/worked with have seen some pretty dark shit. it's a little unfair to characterize them as wimpy, you have to have iron skin to handle that stuff on a day to day basis, especially since you're working personally with your clients and not killing them/throwing them in cages.

otm

i have a friend who's an art therapist at a halfwayhouse in east LA for girls coming out of juvie and man, the things she has to process...

it's not "all social workers"

it's one wimpy social worker

he doesn't represent all social workers you guys, it's not a characterization, it just works better for the story if he'a a little wimpy

i mean he's from a university right?

no i get that it was convenient to make him wimpy for the contrast w/ bunny, i'm just saying he was a cheaply written character. though it says a lot for the show that the poorly written characters stand out so obviously since all the other characters are so fleshed out and deep

also s4 has some REALLY great rawls moments, one of the best characters on the show imo, guy is captivating

Not to worry: Season Five would offer plenty of cheaply written characters.

yeah i love the shit out of rawls

The second season of OITNB shouts out a couple times to The Wire.

i really wish there was a youtube supercut of every time bodie spits

totally! same goes for daniels' "THIS IS BULLSHIT"

lol yes

I'd also like a supercut of Lance Reddick delivering dialogue from over his shoulder. Between this show and Fringe it's his signature move.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KVyRqloGmk&feature=kp

I'd also like a supercut of Lance Reddick delivering dialogue from over his shoulder. Between this show and Fringe it's his signature move.

lol I'm thinking he picked it up from Tyra Banks.

I'm noticing a lot more the way Reddick is sort of a meta version of the classic "IN MY OFFICE, NOW!" superior officer from every cop show ever. A lot of characters function that way especially in the PD -- setting up and thwarting your expectations of cop show archetypes (also e.g. McNulty as the rogue cop and Bunk as his sober partner who gets dragged into things).

Like in other shows he'd just represent *AUTHORITY* but in this show he's authority that has both selfish and selfless motives and is also hamstrung by even bigger *AUTHORITY*.

I don't know if I use the word sober to describe Bunk. Certainly more willing to tow the company line than McNulty.

Yeah maybe "hinged" is more what I mean.

feel like carcetti is so much more watchable in s4 because he has norman wilson around all the time:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/62/The_Wire_Norman_Wilson.jpg/250px-The_Wire_Norman_Wilson.jpg

http://hbowatch.com/the-wire-being-remastered-rebroadcast-in-hd-by-hbo/

Internet at my house has been down for a week and will be down another week and my wife is out of town helping her mom so I was like aggghhh my shows but then the Wire gold box I bought at a discount three years ago was like hi hello. So I'm 3 episodes into a rewatch. This'll only be my second time through. So fucking good. Love Bubs so goddamn much.

Heh, I just resumed my second rewatch -- started season 2 this last weekend.

And every single scene with Ziggy is still mega uncomfortable to watch.

Goddamn Zig.

http://i.lv3.hbo.com/assets/images/series/the-wire/episodes/2/22/stray-rounds-04-1024.jpg

Looks like McNutty has a movie out soon.

McNutty has a new show out soon (The Affair on Showtime)!

i blocked so much of ziggy out of my mind xps

McNutty has a new show out soon (The Affair on Showtime)!

Doh right, that's the teaser I saw last night.

early buzz is super positive

Y'all should check out the Andre Royo (aka Bubbles) interview with Marc Maron at www.wtfpod.com

Really good conversation.

http://davidsimon.com/the-wire-in-hd/

At the last, I’m satisfied what while this new version of The Wire is not, in some specific ways, the film we first made, it has sufficient merit to exist as an alternate version. There are scenes that clearly improve in HD and in the widescreen format. But there are things that are not improved. And even with our best resizing, touchups and maneuver, there are some things that are simply not as good. That’s the inevitability: This new version, after all, exists in an aspect ratio that simply wasn’t intended or serviced by the filmmakers.

Still, being equally honest here, there can be no denying that an ever-greater portion of the television audience has HD widescreen televisions staring at them from across the living room, and that they feel notably oppressed if all of their entertainments do not advantage themselves of the new hardware. It vexes them in the same way that many with color television sets were long ago bothered by the anachronism of black-and-white films, even carefully conceived black-and-white films. For them, The Wire seems frustrating or inaccessible — even more so than we intended it. And, hey, we are always in it to tell people a story, first and foremost. If a new format brings a few more thirsty critters to the water’s edge, then so be it.

This time Wallace shoots first

Proposition Jabba finally shown as David Simon intended him to look

lol

Freamon can distinguish between nails and rivets from 3 feet

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/12/15/way?mbid=social_tumblr