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escape artist
Sep 24, 2005

Slow train coming

Ryu no Ikari posted:

As a high school teacher in a corner of Baltimore that is just like the Wire, i can tell you that this has evolved into "knockers" and is related to the way cops are perceived to pound on doors. Kids who weren't my students would regularly ask me if I was a knocker because their paranoid hatred of police runs so deep that they genuinely believed it was likely that i was an undercover posing as a teacher. I did once ask a class to explain the term and they're the ones that demonstrated the knocking by pounding loudly on their desks and yelling things like "Open this motherfucking door!"

Almost all of my kids, even the good ones, had stories of random police harrassment. Sad poo poo.

That is a shame. Hell, I was a middle class white kid and experienced severe police intimidation before I had even hit puberty. Though, I definitely noticed the police (even the police in school) had a distinctly racist vibe to them. We have a lot of Hispanic people where I live, and I once saw a 13 or 14 year old Puerto Rican screamed at by the school officer, and the kid raised his open hands in surrender, and the officer said "You just raised your fists at me", and he slammed the kid face first into the wall before taking him away. This was at a time when I was way too scared to ever report something like this.

I also heard him make remarks to a young lady, who had written "I <3 Puerto Rico" on her bookbag; he said "If you love it so much, why don't you go live there?" We have a large Hispanic population where I live, and the racism is everywhere. I even heard my own dad say something, and this is a progressive guy who is in favor of gay marriage, make a blanket statement about how Hispanics are troublemakers with bad attitudes.

It's almost made me become a "reverse-racist"-- I tend to favor non-white people in conversation, and give them the benefit of the doubt more often, which I myself will admit, is an incorrect thought process. Everyone should be judged on their own merits, character, and otherwise, on a strictly individual basis. After 9/11, I saw lots and lots of harassment of convenience store clerks... who were Indian!!!

Ugh.

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geeves
Sep 16, 2004

BrBa posted:

I'm rewatching this too and up to The Pager. I'm probably alone on this, but I don't really like the 'gently caress gently caress gently caress' scene. It seems too affected for a show that generally has more natural-sounding dialogue. It doesn't fit with the rest.


I disagree, it's entirely within the scope of The Wire. And it presents a few facets of the show and the assumptions about the viewer.

I think it shows how well Bunk and McNulty work together and establishes that they are good police versus Santangelo or Cole(?) who originally investigated the murder. Also, they were able to communicate through tone of voice rather than explicit statements. It also drops the viewer directly into the scene to discover the crime scene with the detectives instead of being told explicitly by the characters what happened to the victim.

Crumbletron
Jul 21, 2006



IT'S YOUR BOY JESUS, MANE
It also kinda shows you the detectives' sense of humour. I liked reading Homicide for the insight on that.

Jerusalem
May 20, 2004

Would you be my new best friends?

escape artist posted:

Yes and I will do them at a faster pace, too. The holidays + myself being sick, and my dog being deathly sick needing 'round the clock care, has sort of postponed it. I was up 36 hours tending to him-- just holding him to try and make him comfortable.

I'm glad you're not Cheese. He's your dog, and he'll always have much love for you. :unsmith:

escape artist
Sep 24, 2005

Slow train coming

geeves posted:

I disagree, it's entirely within the scope of The Wire. And it presents a few facets of the show and the assumptions about the viewer.

I think it shows how well Bunk and McNulty work together and establishes that they are good police versus Santangelo or Cole(?) who originally investigated the murder. Also, they were able to communicate through tone of voice rather than explicit statements. It also drops the viewer directly into the scene to discover the crime scene with the detectives instead of being told explicitly by the characters what happened to the victim.

I think the landlord sort of acts as a surrogate for the viewer in this scene. At first he's confused, then a little nervous when they bring the gun out, but he is able to follow all of their realizations, and in the end, he has a big smile on his face when Bunk finds the shell.

Jerusalem posted:

I'm glad you're not Cheese. He's your dog, and he'll always have much love for you. :unsmith:

:unsmith:

The Rooster
Jul 25, 2004

If you've got white people problems I feel bad for you son
I've got 99 problems but being socially privileged ain't one

Jerusalem posted:

I'm glad you're not Cheese. He's your dog, and he'll always have much love for you. :unsmith:

Ya'll are cold-rear end motherfuckers.

BrBa
Oct 12, 2012
Done with season 1. Some of the best scenes:

Omar identifying Brandon's body :smith:

Kima's shooting. I love how, without betraying the series' no-music rule with a big dramatic score, they manage to get the same effect with an increasingly louder cacophony of police sirens and helicopters.

'Y'all my niggas, yo. We boys!" :smith:

Dee's mother guilt-tripping him into not turning snitch.

A scene I didn't like: McNulty admitting that his 'crusade' to bring Avon to justice was all about proving how smart he is. This show is normally smarter than having a character openly state their motivation like that.

All in all, season 1 may be simpler than the following ones, but man is it still good.

Jerusalem
May 20, 2004

Would you be my new best friends?

BrBa posted:

A scene I didn't like: McNulty admitting that his 'crusade' to bring Avon to justice was all about proving how smart he is. This show is normally smarter than having a character openly state their motivation like that.

What I like about that is that McNulty is just self-aware enough to recognize this flaw in himself, but not enough to actually make a change. Even when it seems that he has (in season 4) we quickly see him fall back into his old habits and in the end the job has to be forcibly taken from him for him to finally be able to let go.

escape artist
Sep 24, 2005

Slow train coming

Jerusalem posted:

What I like about that is that McNulty is just self-aware enough to recognize this flaw in himself, but not enough to actually make a change. Even when it seems that he has (in season 4) we quickly see him fall back into his old habits and in the end the job has to be forcibly taken from him for him to finally be able to let go.

Agreed. Besides Season 4, he basically has this point-of-view throughout the series.

I like how Daniels replies to McNulty's "I just wanted to prove I'm the smartest person in the room" with "You think we didn't know that?"

chesh
Apr 19, 2004

That was terrible.

escape artist posted:

Yes and I will do them at a faster pace, too. The holidays + myself being sick, and my dog being deathly sick needing 'round the clock care, has sort of postponed it. I was up 36 hours tending to him-- just holding him to try and make him comfortable. He's recovering, finally, though.

Poor puppy. :( I'm glad he's better.

quote:

But I plan to do a recap for all 60 episodes. Don't you worry ;)

:dance:

I'm back from my holiday travels, too, so I can continue with my rewatch. I can also intersperse the depressing poo poo with the complete series of Fraggle Rock thanks to my parents being awesome gift givers.

I'm also trying to listen to the commentary tracks as I go through, which I've never done before. Episode 1 is Simon, and he doesn't say anything we haven't already discussed here. Episode 2 is Clark Johnson, and he starts out like this:

"Hi, I'm Clark Johnson, and I wrote, directed, produced and edited every single frame of this series. And if you are watching it, you are probably in the Smithsonian, because it's that good."

quote:

(If I do that, I'm thinking about basically turning it into a blog, too. Would that be worth it? Maybe Google AdSense could throw a few dimes to a crippled man in desperate need. I could also pair it with my cinema review blog.)

You should! These insights should be shared beyond just the goons.

Randomly Specific
Sep 23, 2012

My keys are somewhere in there.

Jerusalem posted:

What I like about that is that McNulty is just self-aware enough to recognize this flaw in himself, but not enough to actually make a change. Even when it seems that he has (in season 4) we quickly see him fall back into his old habits and in the end the job has to be forcibly taken from him for him to finally be able to let go.

He's got an addiction-prone personality. The thrill of the hunt, the booze, the women, the main thing that mostly keeps him on the 'right' side of the fence is that he's got the badge.

ChikoDemono
Jul 10, 2007

He said that he would stay forever.

Forever wasn't very long...


I like to think he does care about the people whose murders he tries to solves. Rewatching season 2 and he seemed dead set on figuring out the identity of the first Jane Doe so she wouldn't have an anonymous burial.

2house2fly
Nov 14, 2012

You did a super job wrapping things up! And I'm not just saying that because I have to!
Didn't he say when he gave up on that that he just wanted to play detective one last time?

escape artist
Sep 24, 2005

Slow train coming

2house2fly posted:

Didn't he say when he gave up on that that he just wanted to play detective one last time?

And he sure as hell did, didn't he? I think he really wanted to bring down Marlo, most of all. His addictions were in full swing in Season 5, not to mention his pushing the limits of acceptable behavior to satisfy his desire.

grading essays nude
Oct 24, 2009

so why dont we
put him into a canan
and shoot him into the trolls base where
ever it is and let him kill all of them. its
so perfect that it can't go wrong.

i think its the best plan i
have ever heard in my life

ChikoDemono posted:

I like to think he does care about the people whose murders he tries to solves. Rewatching season 2 and he seemed dead set on figuring out the identity of the first Jane Doe so she wouldn't have an anonymous burial.

On the other hand, there's an interesting scene near the end of season 1, when he learns of Wallace' murder while in the car with Daniels. Daniels says "poor fuckin' kid" or something and McNulty's first thought is how it fucks up the case against Stringer.

I think he did care with the dead Jane Doe, because that unmarked mass grave he describes sounds pretty horrifying even by the standards of Baltimore. But overall, the whole purpose of McNulty and to a lesser extent, other detectives was specifically to go against the "myth of caring." Either they just treat it like any other job, or they're like Jimmy and just like to prove they're smarter than the criminals. Although in this sense I don't know what to make of Bunk, who seems to have a lot more compassion in doing his job than others we see.

grading essays nude fucked around with this message at 17:59 on Jan 7, 2013

escape artist
Sep 24, 2005

Slow train coming

cletepurcel posted:

On the other hand, there's an interesting scene near the end of season 1, when he learns of Wallace' murder while in the car with Daniels. Daniels says "poor fuckin' kid" or something and McNulty's first thought is how it fucks up the case against Stringer.

I think he did care with the dead Jane Doe, because that unmarked mass grave he describes sounds pretty horrifying even by the standards of Baltimore. But overall, the whole purpose of McNulty and to a lesser extent, other detectives was specifically to go against the "myth of caring." Either they just treat it like any other job, or they're like Jimmy and just like to prove they're smarter than the criminals. Although in this sense I don't know what to make of Bunk, who seems to have a lot more compassion in doing his job than others we see.

Not to mention his reaction to Bodie's death. "I owe it to this corner kid."

DarkCrawler
Apr 6, 2009

by vyelkin

escape artist posted:

Not to mention his reaction to Bodie's death. "I owe it to this corner kid."

I don't remember that...I always thought he was pissed because he lost an useful witness.

Jerusalem
May 20, 2004

Would you be my new best friends?

DarkCrawler posted:

I don't remember that...I always thought he was pissed because he lost an useful witness.

It goes back to his limited self-awareness. He's human/self-aware enough to feel guilty over Bodie's death - after all, he "knew" Bodie, would chat to him on the street and had worked out a rough peacetime compromise with him over when to be on the corners and when not, and it was his "fault" that Bodie was killed. But that's temporary, his guilt over Bodie's death is quickly overcome by his overwhelming need to "beat" the bad guy (Marlo this time, Stringer in the past, Avon before that) and "win". "I owe it to this dead corner kid" quickly goes from genuine contrition to just another in a long line of justifications for his own lovely behavior.

ShaneMacGowansTeeth
May 22, 2007



I think this is it... I think this is how it ends

cletepurcel posted:

I think he did care with the dead Jane Doe, because that unmarked mass grave he describes sounds pretty horrifying even by the standards of Baltimore.

The mass grave thing does exist, or at least it did in 1988 Baltimore in the Homicide book. One of the detectives (I think its Digger Waltermayer) has rather unfortunately landed the Black Widow case, involving a quite frankly batshit insane old woman who has a bad habit of taking out life insurance policies on her husbands and family members then murdering them, one of whom survived being shot twice, once in the head. Anyway, Waltermayer drives out to have one of the bodies exhumed and it turns out, the paperwork is wrong so they dug up the wrong body. He comes back when the cemetery has sorted out the paperwork, but it's still the wrong body. After a bit of a yell, the manager of the place admits that sometimes the ground in the main cemetery is too hard in winter so they dump all the bodies at the bottom of the place where it's easier to dig.

ShaneMacGowansTeeth fucked around with this message at 23:26 on Jan 7, 2013

Bird in a Blender
Nov 17, 2005

It's amazing what they can do with computers these days.

Wow, that reminds me of a scandal at Burr Oak Cemetery outside Chicago where they were digging up bodies and reselling the plots to new people. They dumped the exhumed bodies into a corner of the cemetery.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/09/burr-oak-cemetery-4-charg_n_228610.html

grading essays nude
Oct 24, 2009

so why dont we
put him into a canan
and shoot him into the trolls base where
ever it is and let him kill all of them. its
so perfect that it can't go wrong.

i think its the best plan i
have ever heard in my life

Jerusalem posted:

It goes back to his limited self-awareness. He's human/self-aware enough to feel guilty over Bodie's death - after all, he "knew" Bodie, would chat to him on the street and had worked out a rough peacetime compromise with him over when to be on the corners and when not, and it was his "fault" that Bodie was killed. But that's temporary, his guilt over Bodie's death is quickly overcome by his overwhelming need to "beat" the bad guy (Marlo this time, Stringer in the past, Avon before that) and "win". "I owe it to this dead corner kid" quickly goes from genuine contrition to just another in a long line of justifications for his own lovely behavior.

Even before Bodie's death, McNulty was poking around the Marlo investigation, asking Bunk and Lester questions, and they were goading him to join the hunt.

escape artist
Sep 24, 2005

Slow train coming

Jerusalem posted:

It goes back to his limited self-awareness. He's human/self-aware enough to feel guilty over Bodie's death - after all, he "knew" Bodie, would chat to him on the street and had worked out a rough peacetime compromise with him over when to be on the corners and when not, and it was his "fault" that Bodie was killed. But that's temporary, his guilt over Bodie's death is quickly overcome by his overwhelming need to "beat" the bad guy (Marlo this time, Stringer in the past, Avon before that) and "win". "I owe it to this dead corner kid" quickly goes from genuine contrition to just another in a long line of justifications for his own lovely behavior.

Don't you remember his chat with Beadie, in bed, when they kissed after sleeping? (Gross) He said "corner boy... I owe it to him.) Not to mention he got him out of jail despite Rhonda's objections, not to mention he had a couple "sammichs" with him.

He was happy walking a foot beat; I almost feel like his pursuit of Marlo was a direct result of Bodie's death. "I owe it to him"-- he basically admitted that he was the result of Bodie's death.

DarkCrawler posted:

I don't remember that...I always thought he was pissed because he lost an useful witness.

Nope. That was Wallace, contrasted by Daniels simultaneous reaction.

Stringer, on the other hand, McNulty was all about outsmarting him. It was an obsession. Right at the end of S3, he denies Daniels' request to be in the major crimes unit, despite Marlo inheriting the crown, and he recognized that what makes him good police, is what makes him bad at everything else. McNulty showed a great deal of growth in that episode, and of course in Season 4-- it was Season 5 where he regressed to his old self.

escape artist fucked around with this message at 23:48 on Jan 7, 2013

Crumbletron
Jul 21, 2006



IT'S YOUR BOY JESUS, MANE

cletepurcel posted:

Even before Bodie's death, McNulty was poking around the Marlo investigation, asking Bunk and Lester questions, and they were goading him to join the hunt.

Bunk (drunkenly) calls Jimmy bad for people in season 1, but he's still a huge enabler.

escape artist
Sep 24, 2005

Slow train coming

Parachute Underwear posted:

Bunk (drunkenly) calls Jimmy bad for people in season 1, but he's still a huge enabler.

The thing about Bunk is, he is a good man, even if he enables Jimmy's bad traits. He's a "company man", which is why he never once got in trouble with the brass.

Crumbletron
Jul 21, 2006



IT'S YOUR BOY JESUS, MANE

escape artist posted:

The thing about Bunk is, he is a good man, even if he enables Jimmy's bad traits. He's a "company man", which is why he never once got in trouble with the brass.

While he's good police and knows where to draw the line to keep out of trouble, I wouldn't necessarily call him 'good'. He is also assumed to drink and drive, and has cheated on his wife at least once that we know of, and further helps send Jimmy back into a downward spiral despite criticizing that particular trait of his in the past.

Within the show's cast, he's probably one of the good ones, though.

Jerusalem
May 20, 2004

Would you be my new best friends?

escape artist posted:

Don't you remember his chat with Beadie, in bed, when they kissed after sleeping? (Gross) He said "corner boy... I owe it to him.) Not to mention he got him out of jail despite Rhonda's objections, not to mention he had a couple "sammichs" with him.

He was happy walking a foot beat; I almost feel like his pursuit of Marlo was a direct result of Bodie's death. "I owe it to him"-- he basically admitted that he was the result of Bodie's death.


Nope. That was Wallace, contrasted by Daniels simultaneous reaction.

Stringer, on the other hand, McNulty was all about outsmarting him. It was an obsession. Right at the end of S3, he denies Daniels' request to be in the major crimes unit, despite Marlo inheriting the crown, and he recognized that what makes him good police, is what makes him bad at everything else. McNulty showed a great deal of growth in that episode, and of course in Season 4-- it was Season 5 where he regressed to his old self.

I'm not disputing that McNulty felt bad about Bodie's death and that he had the best of intentions when he rejoined the Major Cases Squad and went after Marlo, but those genuine feelings pretty quickly became just another in a long line of McNulty excuses/justifications for what he was doing.

As you note, at the end of season 3 and for much of season 4 he has learned to back off and he is a much better person for it. Lester and Bunk should know better but continually goad him to get back in the game, and when he eventually does it is with the best of intentions. But by the time he is faking the serial killer deaths, those good intentions are long in the past and it's once again become about him him. Him against the police, against the mayor (who he personally blames for making him "believe") and somewhere lower on the list, on the actual drug kingpin who is killing people.

2house2fly
Nov 14, 2012

You did a super job wrapping things up! And I'm not just saying that because I have to!

Parachute Underwear posted:

While he's good police and knows where to draw the line to keep out of trouble, I wouldn't necessarily call him 'good'. He is also assumed to drink and drive, and has cheated on his wife at least once that we know of, and further helps send Jimmy back into a downward spiral despite criticizing that particular trait of his in the past.

Within the show's cast, he's probably one of the good ones, though.

I'll forgive Bunk everything for being one of the few cast members to call Omar out on his bullshit. People get this impression that Omar is honourable because he only targets people who are "in the game" but the series stresses over and over how many people in the game are kids who have to do it to survive and have no prospects. Bunk is having no part of the Omar fan club: "We had us a community... now all we got is bodies, and predatory motherfuckers like you."

Yeah, Bunk's a cheater and a jobsworthy company man, but he does care, in a way NcNulty doesn't.

grading essays nude
Oct 24, 2009

so why dont we
put him into a canan
and shoot him into the trolls base where
ever it is and let him kill all of them. its
so perfect that it can't go wrong.

i think its the best plan i
have ever heard in my life
I think it's unfair to call Bunk a "company man". On the show the term is used to connote guys who only care about ADVANCING their careers (ie. Rawls, Valchek, Daniels in the early episodes). Bunk is merely self-preservative which is something he shares with every other detective save for the self-destructive Jimmy. And he does stand up to the bosses from time to time, like when he refused to investigate Dozerman's gun or when he sprung Omar from jail. And he still manages to be one of the best homicide detectives.

Slo-Tek
Jun 8, 2001

WINDOWS 98 BEAT HIS FRIEND WITH A SHOVEL
So, when Carver is playing goodcop with Bodie when they picked him up for walking out of juvie, he says he came up hard, in the Flaghouse Towers. Did any of the peripheral material support this claim, or was it supposed to be obvious goodcop bullshit that Bodie was seeing right through?

Kevyn
Mar 5, 2003

I just want to smile. Just once. I'd like to just, one time, go to Disney World and smile like the other boys and girls.
At the basketball game, he is pleased and says "my boys" or something when they're told that the Eastside is winning, so he is from the Eastside projects.

escape artist
Sep 24, 2005

Slow train coming

cletepurcel posted:

I think it's unfair to call Bunk a "company man". On the show the term is used to connote guys who only care about ADVANCING their careers (ie. Rawls, Valchek, Daniels in the early episodes). Bunk is merely self-preservative which is something he shares with every other detective save for the self-destructive Jimmy. And he does stand up to the bosses from time to time, like when he refused to investigate Dozerman's gun or when he sprung Omar from jail. And he still manages to be one of the best homicide detectives.

Landsman has always been a mix of good cop/company man.... so I have to disagree. Throwing back a clearance? That's something the brass would hang him for.

Trap Star
Jul 21, 2010

BrBa posted:

'Y'all my niggas, yo. We boys!" :smith:

If you gon' do it then do it goddamnit

escape artist
Sep 24, 2005

Slow train coming

Trap Star posted:

If you gon' do it then do it goddamnit

That scene never fails to captivate me and break my heart. Bodie doesn't want to do it, his hands shaking, giving his "be a man" speech, telling him he should have stayed in the country (implying he really, really does not want to do it) while Poot decides to end the protracted suffering, with two rapid shots while he [Poot] is crying... I mean, that could have been written so poorly, but they absolutely nailed it and gave depth to each character. And eventually, you begin to sympathize with the murderers. What would have happened to Bodie if he said "No, Stringer, Wallace is my boy and I'm not going to kill him"-- it's still that age old story of the institution versus the individual.



Then when Bunk finds Wallace's dead body, you can tell he doesn't give a poo poo about the boy-- just how it is going to affect Jimmy's case.

Man, I can't rank the seasons. Whichever I season I watched most recently, is the best season.

Ineffiable
Feb 16, 2008

Some say that his politics are terrifying, and that he once punched a horse to the ground...


escape artist posted:

Yes and I will do them at a faster pace, too. The holidays + myself being sick, and my dog being deathly sick needing 'round the clock care, has sort of postponed it. I was up 36 hours tending to him-- just holding him to try and make him comfortable. He's recovering, finally, though. But I plan to do a recap for all 60 episodes. Don't you worry ;)

(If I do that, I'm thinking about basically turning it into a blog, too. Would that be worth it? Maybe Google AdSense could throw a few dimes to a crippled man in desperate need. I could also pair it with my cinema review blog.)

A blog would be cool. Just cross post it over here as well, some people are lucky enough to be able to get on SA at work but it's a tossup for most other sites, especially blogging sites.

UnfortunateSexFart
May 18, 2008

𒃻 𒌓𒁉𒋫 𒆷𒁀𒅅𒆷
𒆠𒂖 𒌉 𒌫 𒁮𒈠𒈾𒅗 𒂉 𒉡𒌒𒂉𒊑


edit: oops, meant for the other Wire thread.

StrugglingHoneybun
Jan 2, 2005

Aint no thing like me, 'cept me.
I'm doing my first re-watch and am showing my girlfriend the show for her first time.
We've finished S2E1, and she's having the same issue I did the first time I watched it: It's hard to start giving a poo poo about all these dock workers so abruptly. The show just throws them at you after you've invested so much time building up feelings for all the people in the first season.

Another reason, perhaps equally responsible for my feelings towards them, is that she got me watching True Blood before I ever saw The Wire, and I can't take the actor who plays Frank Sabotka seriously because he plays a bumbling-idiot, backwoods sheriff on True Blood. I refuse to believe that the school scenes in season 4 are anything but a documentary because the kids are all fresh faces, but every time I see Sheriff Andy Belfleur put on a safety vest, I'm reminded that this is a scripted show, and my interest wanes. I'm not saying I'm correct in my views, but it's difficult to suspend disbelief for all the shipyard scenes.

I'm not sure I remember much of their plot either, so I'm finding it hard to give her compelling reasons to care about these new characters when I'm not sure that I even do. I'm gonna get us through it for no other reason than to see Hamsterdam and the kids in Season 4 again.

Can you guys remind me of some reasons to pay closer attention to these union folk on our re-watch journey?

escape artist
Sep 24, 2005

Slow train coming

End of Life Guy posted:

I'm doing my first re-watch and am showing my girlfriend the show for her first time.
We've finished S2E1, and she's having the same issue I did the first time I watched it: It's hard to start giving a poo poo about all these dock workers so abruptly. The show just throws them at you after you've invested so much time building up feelings for all the people in the first season.

Another reason, perhaps equally responsible for my feelings towards them, is that she got me watching True Blood before I ever saw The Wire, and I can't take the actor who plays Frank Sabotka seriously because he plays a bumbling-idiot, backwoods sheriff on True Blood. I refuse to believe that the school scenes in season 4 are anything but a documentary because the kids are all fresh faces, but every time I see Sheriff Andy Belfleur put on a safety vest, I'm reminded that this is a scripted show, and my interest wanes. I'm not saying I'm correct in my views, but it's difficult to suspend disbelief for all the shipyard scenes.

I'm not sure I remember much of their plot either, so I'm finding it hard to give her compelling reasons to care about these new characters when I'm not sure that I even do. I'm gonna get us through it for no other reason than to see Hamsterdam and the kids in Season 4 again.

Can you guys remind me of some reasons to pay closer attention to these union folk on our re-watch journey?
The main character of the show is and always will be Baltimore. The faces change, different institutions are explored, but the game stays the same. In this case, it's the decline of the blue-collar worker, the disintegration of unions, and of course, how profits are more important than people. Don't speed through it-- seriously. Even Ziggy, on second viewing, is a wonderful and ultimately tragic character.

Also, I am so sorry you first met Chris Bauer (Frank) as the Sheriff on True Blood. He's a terrific actor and can pull off both serious and... not-so-serious roles.

Ineffiable posted:

A blog would be cool. Just cross post it over here as well, some people are lucky enough to be able to get on SA at work but it's a tossup for most other sites, especially blogging sites.

OF course I will cross post it. Hell, maybe you guys could do me a solid and get me more clicks, spread the word, get a little bit of extra change for my much-needed but unaffordable MRI. I scratch your back and you... help... me magnetically view mine. ;)

escape artist fucked around with this message at 18:39 on Jan 8, 2013

OregonDonor
Mar 12, 2010

End of Life Guy posted:

Can you guys remind me of some reasons to pay closer attention to these union folk on our re-watch journey?

Escape Artist said it best, but season 2 parallels the death of the (traditionally white) working class with the effects of urbanization explored in season 1 and beyond. Also, Frank Sobotka is probably one of the most honorable characters in the entire series. I've got to admit a bias here though, because season 2 is my favorite.

Jerusalem
May 20, 2004

Would you be my new best friends?

Season 2 is also the closest that the police EVER get in the series to actually making an arrest that would have delivered a crippling (but not permanent, sadly) blow to the drug trade in Baltimore. While Avon and Marlo and Prop Joe and the like are all big players, it's the supplier that is the true King and they get within minutes of capturing The Greek (who is not even Greek). Even then, as is always true in this show, you can pretty much guarantee that nothing would have happened as it is revealed in that same season that The Greek operates with the tacit approval of the US Government, as he works as an informant for them so they can get good PR with opportune "big busts" for maximum PR.

It's another example of "drugs on the table" on a far larger scale. The Federal Government is playing the numbers/stats game just as much as the State and Local Governments are, and it further reinforces what a lie the "War on Drugs" is.

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escape artist
Sep 24, 2005

Slow train coming

Jerusalem posted:

Season 2 is also the closest that the police EVER get in the series to actually making an arrest that would have delivered a crippling (but not permanent, sadly) blow to the drug trade in Baltimore. While Avon and Marlo and Prop Joe and the like are all big players, it's the supplier that is the true King and they get within minutes of capturing The Greek (who is not even Greek). Even then, as is always true in this show, you can pretty much guarantee that nothing would have happened as it is revealed in that same season that The Greek operates with the tacit approval of the US Government, as he works as an informant for them so they can get good PR with opportune "big busts" for maximum PR.

It's another example of "drugs on the table" on a far larger scale. The Federal Government is playing the numbers/stats game just as much as the State and Local Governments are, and it further reinforces what a lie the "War on Drugs" is.

I just realized the irony of The War on Drugs and The War on Terror-- the Greek operates in both of these futile charades, on the "bad" side in one and on the "good" side of the other.

(The Greek was protected by the FBI because of his knowledge of potential terrorists, right? I could be wrong-- but I thought he sold out the Colombians for buying a huge supply of chemicals. Then again, those could have been made to manufacture cocaine-- ironic any way you look at it.)

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