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TheBalor posted:I got the impression Avon was being heavily sarcastic in that scene. I think he was also just playing. He has this whole playful feel about him in the scene and it is his one chance to show some flex and make a play, but at the same time it's petty. He is essentially handing Marlo the connect, but I honestly think he doesn't seriously care who got it, otherwise it would have been Slim. He takes his cut and walks. He's in his element and it is a standard business transaction, and he is clowning around. I bet he would have sold to anyone.
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Jul 9, 2013 09:49
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Blind Melon posted:I think he was also just playing. He has this whole playful feel about him in the scene and it is his one chance to show some flex and make a play, but at the same time it's petty. He is essentially handing Marlo the connect, but I honestly think he doesn't seriously care who got it, otherwise it would have been Slim. He takes his cut and walks. He's in his element and it is a standard business transaction, and he is clowning around. I bet he would have sold to anyone. Avon did have a measure of respect for Marlo, even though he was planning to basically obliterate him from the face of the earth very shortly before his arrest, he thought he had heart. Slim on the other hand, while he might have respected his ability as as enforcer and felt he was worth the money he was paid to run the muscle, he didn't consider a leader of the type to run his own organization. Consider that Slim is left in charge by default and shows no organizational ability to hold the corners they have, telling Bodie to go to work for Marlo and selling his own services to Prop Joe.
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Jul 9, 2013 09:58
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Jerusalem posted:Avon did have a measure of respect for Marlo, even though he was planning to basically obliterate him from the face of the earth very shortly before his arrest, he thought he had heart. Slim on the other hand, while he might have respected his ability as as enforcer and felt he was worth the money he was paid to run the muscle, he didn't consider a leader of the type to run his own organization. Consider that Slim is left in charge by default and shows no organizational ability to hold the corners they have, telling Bodie to go to work for Marlo and selling his own services to Prop Joe. Slim admits that he isn't cut out for the "CEO" poo poo to Marlo, but at the end we find him and Fatface Rick take over the whole Baltimore drug trade with Spiros.
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Jul 9, 2013 12:37
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Slim knew his strengths and politicking wasn't it. He's like Wee-Bay and Chris, the general who oversaw the army.
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Jul 9, 2013 14:33
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One thing that The Wire has done that's ruined other television for me, is its use of no music other than ambient music that would naturally belong in the scene (with the exception of the occasional montage, and that weird out of place slow-motion walking scene in season one). I hate when I'm watching a show now, and a little music starts to swell, telling me "hey you, an emotional moment is coming, get ready for it, also here's some advice on how to feel about it." I wish more shows would ditch music like that, it makes a really noticeable difference. I'm sure The Wire isn't the first show to do it, but whatever it's the example that stands out to me.
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Jul 12, 2013 00:18
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Ainsley McTree posted:One thing that The Wire has done that's ruined other television for me, is its use of no music other than ambient music that would naturally belong in the scene (with the exception of the occasional montage, and that weird out of place slow-motion walking scene in season one). I hate when I'm watching a show now, and a little music starts to swell, telling me "hey you, an emotional moment is coming, get ready for it, also here's some advice on how to feel about it." Same here, definitely. It's actually called diegetic music. The montage music is great, and usually fits amazingly well (lyrically, too) with what is on screen, but that one scene with Avon in the pit was jarring. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diegesis
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Jul 12, 2013 00:50
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I think it's just something that depends on the show. For shows like The Wire, the Sopranos, or the Shield, a regular score wouldn't work towards what those shows were trying to do. But shows like Lost or Battlestar Galactica are far stronger with the composed score supporting them. Mad Men is a good example of a show that would be fine with just diegetic music, as the originally composed music for the show is nothing home to write about.
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Jul 12, 2013 00:59
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I've done a couple rewatches of the show but finding this thread made me start watching again. The recaps are incredible and I'm really paying attention to the commentaries now. Just wanted to thank you guys for this thread. Still got another 600 posts to catch up on. Killed a man after some bullshit. Edit: Also makes me hate the box set's lovely packaging again! 
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Jul 12, 2013 08:33
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Ainsley McTree posted:One thing that The Wire has done that's ruined other television for me, is its use of no music other than ambient music that would naturally belong in the scene (with the exception of the occasional montage, and that weird out of place slow-motion walking scene in season one). I hate when I'm watching a show now, and a little music starts to swell, telling me "hey you, an emotional moment is coming, get ready for it, also here's some advice on how to feel about it." The worst example of this is vanilla Law & Order, I can't watch an episode now without getting pissed off during McCoy's big dramatic court moments because the music was so blatantly,"NOW SOMETHING IMPORTANT IS HAPPENING! AND YOU SHOULD FEEL ANGRY/SAD/EXCITED AS THE TONE DICTATES!" Anyways *chirpy music plays* I'll have a new write-up done probably in a few hours.
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Jul 12, 2013 08:56
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Ainsley McTree posted:One thing that The Wire has done that's ruined other television for me, is its use of no music other than ambient music that would naturally belong in the scene (with the exception of the occasional montage, and that weird out of place slow-motion walking scene in season one). I hate when I'm watching a show now, and a little music starts to swell, telling me "hey you, an emotional moment is coming, get ready for it, also here's some advice on how to feel about it." Kind of like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDIi0dzmvpE Most shows won't ditch music because it's such an easy crutch to lean on. Most big shows or movies would struggle to make you feel anything if they couldn't put sad strings or uplifting horns behind it. CPFortest posted:I think it's just something that depends on the show. See, I think Lost was a terrible offender here. Most of the scenes wouldn't be emotional whatsoever if they didn't blare music at you to give you cues.
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Jul 12, 2013 10:19
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Season 3, Episode 8 - Moral MidgetryClay Davis posted:Crawl, walk, and then run. In Hamsterdam, business isn't just booming, a whole micro-economy is forming in the "free zone" as entrepreneurial types (many of whom are desperately trying to raise cash to score themselves) fill the niche of providing particular products. We've already seen Bubbles try shilling his "whiteys" and being told to come back with toilet paper, and now there are guys selling lighters and crack pipes out in the open, and the man who is running a shooting gallery for people to get high watches one junkie being hauled away by his friends, offering advice to ice his crotch so he'll be able to come back as soon as possible. A dealer named Tucky tries to make conversation with a young white lady in the back of a car that pulls up to ask for an 8-Ball, and - clearly uncomfortable - she tells him no offence but she doesn't want to talk to him. Tucky takes it in stride, not offended in the slightest, and tells her he was just being social. The car drives away after Tucky's young'un hands over the drugs (she even says thank you) but this isn't the last we'll see of this young lady, Dee-Dee. Played by writer Richard Price's daughter, she'll appear again in season 4 and 5 where we'll get to see glimpses of her spiral down from a nervous stand-offish young user to a desperate prostitute to a recovering addict. Tucky bumps into a man on the street who carefully mentions the jewellery store that was robbed recently and shows off some of the stolen product, pointing out the rowhouse where the stolen goods are being sold if Tucky wants to get his hands on some. Tucky rather foolishly lets his greed get the better of him and goes straight to the rowhouse himself, walking in and finding a gun stuck to his chin, his takings for the day stolen, his hands bound and mouth gagged as he forced down to sit alongside a line of already fooled dealers. It's the kind of scam you might expect Omar's crew to pull, but there's more than one stick-up crew in Baltimore. Outside, Carver arrives and asks the patrolmen on the perimeter what's happening, and in a show of how blase everybody has already become, the patrolman casually comments that there's nothing but a good package.... oh yeah, and that there were three ODs overnight. In an earlier episode, Landsman told Bunk that his double-homicide was in a zipcode that didn't matter - here we have something even more disturbing, does anybody in the BPD consider any of the inhabitants of Hamsterdam as even being human anymore? Up the street, the door to the rowhouse opens and Tucky comes falling out, writhing along the ground causing laughing comments from passersby such as,"Snake-looking motherfucker!". Carver rushes up to him and the others head inside and find the other captive dealers, and when Carver tears the duct-tape off of Tucky's face, he complains without a hint of irony that it's impossible to find a police officer when you need one. At the Major Cases Detail, Prez is unknowingly impressing Freamon and Daniels as he lays out what information he was able to gather about the origin of the burner McNulty provided them, right down to the store it was sold from. When Daniels asks what side of the display window the phone was on, a confused Prez asks how he'd know before it hits home that Daniels is both joking with him and giving him an "attaboy" - there's a real sense of pride in the looks both men give the guy who was once a disaster foisted on Daniels just to keep him from bothering anybody "important". Prez continues on, from the numbers on Bodie's phone, they found calls made to a local Baltimore number, one to Bodie's grandmother's house (no phone my rear end, Levy!) and the rest to six other disposable phones. He's tracked the origins of THOSE phones as well and lays out the locations for Freamon, who makes notes along a map for Daniels to look at. The pattern is obvious, somebody is making a 200 mile round trip every couple of weeks from Baltimore to near Richmond, Virginia just to be careful. Prez is good at data gathering but not quite so much at making the connections to the criminals they're chasing and doesn't understand what has Daniels and Freamon so fascinated, so they lay it out to him - it's an impressive and unexpected act of sheer discipline.   In two quick scenes, we get contrasting views of the world turned upside down. Colvin proudly shows off the corner of Mount and Fayette to the Deacon, where the only people on the street are cheerful looking neighbors and a mailman happily going about his work. There is no sound of touts calling out the latest product, just the sound of birds chirping. The Deacon asks HOW Colvin achieved this and his face falls a little before saying he'll show him. Meanwhile in Hamsterdam, Carver, Herc and Colicchio are listening in stunned disbelief as the ripped off dealers complain about not being protected and served by the police, going so far as demanding that they get to lay an official complaint about having their drug-dealing money stolen from them. At the Detail office, Kima and McNulty are getting brought up to speed on what Prez has worked out. McNulty is surprised, though I don't think he quite grasps the significance of the meaning behind these purchases even when Prez points out no wholesale purchases are being made, it's just 1 or 2 phones at a time. Freamon points out how even using disposable phones with a two week life, they're still concerned enough about a wiretap that they're spacing out their purchases. Daniels says it would be nice to know WHO is buying those phones, and Kima and McNulty exchange a knowing look - it looks like with Herc and Carver no longer working the Detail, they're the ones getting all the poo poo jobs. In Hamsterdam, the Deacon walks in horror through the streets, watching people openly buying and selling drugs, women who have obviously been prostituting themselves out, and kids everywhere. Over on the perimater with Carver, Colvin seems more bemused than anything by the story about the dealers being ripped off and tells Carver they have a point about their complaints, they were told not to bring guns or violence but they're not being protected. The stick-up boys have realized that Hamstersdam is like a lambs' pen and the dealers are starting to realize they're the lambs. Carver warns Colvin that he's more worried about all the kids who were brought down by the dealers but then cut loose, and we see one kid in particular drinking booze in a brown paper bag... remember how proud Colvin was of his paper-bag analogy? Well here's an example of the damage caused by these "common-sense" solutions. Colvin, seemingly on a high of his own over the quality of the former drug corners in his District, laughs that Carver should deputize the young'uns to keep an eye out for the stick-up boys since they're currently being paid their "unemployment" to do nothing. Carver jokes that they should get them bikes and badges, then realizes to his horror that Colvin is being completely serious. But the Major's good humor is popped when the Deacon returns to him and demands to know just what in the hell he has done.   McNulty and Kima arrive at the Mondo Mart to ask if he remembers the guy who came in and bought a couple of disposable phones 10-12 days ago. The clerk looks less than impressed by the question, especially when they decide to narrow it down by saying it was a black guy. They ask for his security camera tapes and he explains that unless there is an incident, it is Mondo Mart policy to reuse tapes every week. Discouraged, they head outside and check the map of purchase locations. McNulty gets a phone call from Jay Landsman to give him a message that Brianna Barksdale called, leaving McNulty blank for a moment before he remembers how he kicked up such a fuss over D'Angelo right up until the moment where he found something else to "do the right thing" over. He takes her number and tells Kima, saying he forgot all about the suicide and his efforts to get more information, and complains that he'll be wasting her time as much as he wasted his own.... just like they'll be wasting their time on this road trip. There's nothing but Mondo Marts for the next 100 miles, but they'll have to drive that far on the off chance the independent stores don't share Mondo Mart's policy - but as Kima says, it's better than the alternative of giving up early and disappointing Lester Freamon. Avon and Slim attend the open casket funeral of the muscle who died on Poot's corner last episode - Rico. Slim makes the best of the bad situation, noting how natural Rico looks, but Avon is furious, declaring they're going to go deep to teach Marlo a lesson. Meanwhile Stringer Bell is laying out his own frustrations directly to Clay Davis, complaining that nothing has changed in his situation other than a growing lightness in his pocket. It's a remarkable scene just in terms of watching Clay Davis lube Stringer up for the loving, as he oozes his way past Stringer's anger and charms his way into making Stringer look like an impatient idiot and Clay himself the wise, kindly and patient mentor. He hits Stringer with all the upcoming appointments they have, insists that will get them the consents they need, and then throws in a teaser by revealing that he has gotten Stringer's company the rights to supply light bulbs to the city's schools. He laughs off Stringer's complaint that he knows nothing about lightbulbs, saying all he needs to do is put his new status as supplier onto a B&B letterhead, there will be "white guys" doing all the actual work, and Stringer is a just a beard for a federal empowerment grant - in other words, B&B is a company owned and run by an African American, and a company is paying Clay Davis to use Stringer's name to get their contract, and Clay is passing some (I imagine quite a small proportion) of that on to Stringer. I honestly find it really difficult to figure out exactly how much of what Clay is doing is illegal and how much is "accepted business practice". Clay gleefully explains to Stringer - who is reluctantly letting go of his anger - that he's helping him in the long term while Stringer is still thinking short term, they need to work with the City this year, then move up to State Funding the following year, and in year 3 they can move up to the Federal level and get in on that sweet HUD money. It's crass and cynical and despicable, and Clay is certainly stringing Stringer along quite a bit as he extracts more than his fair share of cash from him... but this is the kind of thing that goes on in the business and political world all the time, not just in America but throughout every kind of capitalist society out there. Stringer insists he is ready to run now, but here Clay lays down the law - first crawl, then walk, and THEN you can run. In the Western police building, Herc watches as the Hamsterdam Dealers work on the identikit machines, demonstrating a surprising level of competency in running the program. Herc gets into the spirit of things and has Tucky make a funny face with the computer, and as they all laugh a furious Colicchio storms out of the room, unable to believe they're now joking about and letting the dealers not only deal drugs in the open but play with police equipment too. He storms past Colvin's office where the Major is trying to justify his actions to the Deacon, insisting that all he's done is push the dealers to abandoned and unimportant blocks and letting the parts of his city that can still be saved, be saved. The Deacon isn't letting him get away with this though, telling him the place he's created is hell, and he is the Mayor. Where is the running water? The electricity? The heating? The needle truck and condom distribution and drug rehabilitation intake? In short, they might be doing what they've always done in one concentrated area now, but Colvin has put them all there and now he has a responsibility to them. Angry - what Colivin really wanted was approval - the Major complains that as a police he has two choices when it comes to drug dealers, he can lock them up or move them off the corner they're dealing on, and he's take a more extreme version of that latter option. If the Deacon expects or wants something else, he's in the wrong place. The Deacon just shrugs, this is Colvin's idea and Colvin is the one who brought him into all of this, and he isn't going to provide any justifications of tacit approval of his actions. Just to diffuse some of the tension of this scene, we move to Carver arriving at the office just in time to discover Herc and the dealers have happily moved on from trying to identify the ringleader of the stick-up crew to designing the perfect pretty woman. Herc is hugely enjoying himself, and beams up at a disapproving Carver as Tucky asks if they have a machine that can make identikit asses too.   McNulty and Kima arrve at last at Baba Jani's, and get some good news. The manager knows exactly who they are asking about, saying that he's in every couple of weeks for phones and last time he purchased 8 at once, over $900 worth. He cracks a joke to his turbaned assistant about that being a lot of "ring-dings" and is more than happy to hunt through his register receipts and find Bernard's purchase. "Seek and you shall find," beams McNulty, causing the turbaned assistant - a Sikh - to do a surprised double-take. Unfortunately Baba Jani's policy on security camera footage is even stricter than Mondo Mart's, he records over the tapes daily. He allows McNulty to keep the bundle of receipts, and outside he and Kima ponder what to do - stake out the place and hope that the purchaser returns on another run in a couple of days and makes the same stops? A local town police car drives by and McNulty gives a cheery salute. In Baltimore, Cutty joins the Deacon at a Food Co-Op and helps him move boxes to the trunk of his car as he struggles to articulate exactly what it is that he needs to do with himself. He knows without something to keep himself busy he'll find himself sliding back into bad habits, he needs to find something to give him a sense of power and control, and the Deacon suggests the alternate - that he find something to surrender himself to. Realizing that the Deacon is talking about life in the Church, he swells up with unconscious menace and tells the Deacon with all due respect to stow that patter, and then with a frown attempts again to explain himself - it doesn't need to be something for himself, he feels like he should be doing something for other people... he just doesn't know what. At an appearance before a Council Meeting, Burrel and Rawls find themselves in the unusual situation of having to justify a 2% DROP in the crime rate, as Carcetti sarcastically notes the bulk of that drop comes from an 8% drop in the Western District, which beggars belief. Rawls admits that Major Colvin believes this to be a possible statistical aberration and insists that the stats haven't been massaged, going so far as to say he won't allow any of the men in his command to do so and that this is something the BPD absolutely does not do. Somehow his pants don't spontaneously combust as he says all this, and Carcetti notes that if the stats are indeed legitimate that he'd like to know what Colvin is doing that the other Majors are not - a disturbingly prophetic statement. Sensing that Burrel and Rawls are confident on this issue, he switches over to his new bugbear, the eyewitness death, and demands to know what if any steps are being taken to protect the good citizens who step forward to assist the authorities. Watching in the back of the room, Theresa D'Agostino is clearly irritated to see Carcetti ignoring long-term strategy in favor of the short term satisfaction of having a go at the Mayor, and Tony Grey beside him hastily scribbles a,"NOW?" note on a pad of paper to try and get Carcetti's attention. Carcetti tries to get fired up, suggesting that Burrell is holding back personal criticisms of the mayor (that gets Burrell's attention!), but finds himself unable to keep his momentum going as he spots D'Agostino get up and move purposefully out of the Council Hall, making her disappointment apparent. In Hamsterdam, Carver's expensive basketball hoop has apparently been wrecked and replaced by a home-made version using a crate for a basket. As the young'uns play, two begin to fight and are hauled apart by a large adult named Roman, who angrily reminds them that they're friends and like brothers to each other, and if they lose that they've lost everything. Who he is? The Deacon wasn't satisfied with Colvin crying off his responsibilities and has reached out to other community leaders to make their way down to Hamsterdam and see what can be done. The Deacon and Cutty arrive and the latter is introduced to Roman, and Cutty reveals that while he was never one for "balls and sticks" he always enjoyed using his hands, and the Deacon latches onto the idea. Roman knows a place where kids can go to spar, but its some distance away and the Deacon says he'd like to see it. Roman and Cutty (who goes by Dennis now, his real name) shake hands, both obviously impressed by the other. Carcetti has dinner with his wife and Theresa, where the two women gang up on him to hammer home the point that it's not enough to be the smart guy who wins arguments. That might fly in the City Council, but if he wants to be Mayor or Senator or Governor, he needs to become approachable and friendly, a person that people like and want to think of as their friends. It's unusual to see Jen so forceful, in fact she even seems to take control of the conversation away from Theresa as she pushes her point. Carcetti can understand what they're saying, but you can see his eternal desire to be right and win the argument as he struggles to force himself to accept their point of view. Meanwhile in Virginia, McNulty is proving he's not always quite the detective he thinks he is. Telling Kima to stay behind, he heads into the local Sheriff's department where he tries to ingratiate himself with what he imagines is a backwater, racist and not-very-bright Sheriff. It's actually a scene I wouldn't be surprised to see in a show like NCIS, to be perfectly honest, though its certainly amusing as McNulty tries to throw out some dogwhistle statements about "you know whos" running everything in Baltimore only to belatedly notice there is a black female officer working there.... and then squirms in his seat as he realizes that they're husband and wife. This is about as broad as the humor ever really gets in The Wire, and I don't genuinely find it funny, but thank goodness it is the exception rather than the rule.   Avon is discussing what to do about Marlo with Slim Charles, having finally come to the conclusion he needs to be subtle, Marlo is no fool. Marlo isn't all that is on his mind though, and in keeping with that discipline that Freamon mentioned, even in his inner sanctum with only Avon present, he discusses his continuing desire to kill Omar with words like,"that other thing", and ends up needing to go more specific to catch Slim up on what he wants. Fat Face Rick's cousin Trina - "Oh you mean Trina with the big old rear end?" asks Slim  - works at Social Services, and Avon suspects that a very young Omar or at least some of his people may be on record there, and they can use their in with Fat Face Rick - who is on the New Day Co-Op with Stringer - to get Trina's assistance. Slim diplomatically suggests that maybe they shouldn't be dividing their time between Marlo and Omar (that would be like breaking off to fight in Iraq while still bogged down in Afghanistan!), especially since Omar hasn't come back on them since they killed "his bitch". Avon stresses to Slim that he's home now, and Slim has to do things his way, and to his credit Slim accepts this slight dressing down in the good natured spirit it is given in. Stringer returns at that moment, obviously still irritated at the lack of building consents despite Clay Davis' smooth talk, but a happy Avon ignores his bad mood to ask if he's taking care of business, and happily says that he has been too.Meanwhile, Omar is doing the opposite to Avon, as he faces up to the fact that his single-minded, stubborn insistence on keeping after Avon has been wrong. After being convinced to take a shot at some dealers on the East Side, they've returned with an impressive haul of cash, jewellery and drugs and Omar has to admit that East Side wasn't ready for them. Kimmy and Dante both seem pleased with the take, and Omar looks over the money, considering if revenge on Avon is really all it is cracked up to be. In Virginia, the sheriff takes McNulty and Kima to a business across the road from Baba Jani's, after McNulty finally came out and told him they were looking for help finding a suspect. Baba Jani's runs 24 hours a day and gets plenty of problems with schoolkids swarming the counter at 3pm so they can boost car and gun magazines, and the security camera is so lousy that it's like watching a herd of buffalo through a snow-storm. But the sheriff has asked the business across the road to turn one of their surveillance cameras to face the store, meaning they can get a tape for the day in question of much higher quality. McNulty, impatient as always, heads straight to the door and rattles it, and the sheriff irritably tells him he'll get them the tape tomorrow when the business is open. McNulty storms past, equal parts irritated at having to wait and hugely embarrassed by his own screw-up, and the sheriff takes Kima aside to let her know what it doesn't take a detective to figure out - McNulty is a bit of an rear end in a top hat. Roman brings the Deacon and Cutty to a boxing gym in Baltimore, and Cutty is clearly instantly enraptured. He wanders about taking in the sights and sounds, watching as different ages spar and work the bags, use the gym equipment or are given instruction. As he looks about, he's watched with unrestrained pleasure by the Deacon and Roman, the only selfish aspect of their help the fact that they're both invested in helping preserve the strengthen the community, and they've just found somebody they think will be an asset in helping them do that.   Carver joins his DEU subordinates in that time-honored tradition of drinking under an overpass and bitching about their jobs. Colicchio is still furious about how Hamsterdam is unfolding, and the others aren't exactly thrilled either. Things take a quasi-philisophical turn with Colicchio declaring this is "moral midgetry" and regardless of whether the old corners are clear or not, it's still wrong. The others point out that the old way of doing things wasn't exactly effective anyway, and Carver lays out what for him is the most important thing - Colvin has always had their backs and helped them out when they were jammed up, and they owe him their support in return - hell, he's been police for 30 years, surely he's earned some elbow room? There is some grumblings about diming him in to the brass or even calling the Baltimore Sun, but eventually they decide to just sit back and wait, and give him the benefit of the doubt. In Virginia, Kima and McNulty have taken a room with two beds for the evening, with nothing but paper cups and a bottle of booze for company. Any other show would go the obvious route of a one-night-stand, but instead Kima takes the opportunity to question McNulty about his attitude and activities while he was married. Boasting about how many evenings of his marriage he spent in hotel rooms like this with one night stands or the likes of Pearlman. Kima seems disgusted but McNulty is impervious to the criticism, despite all those protests he has made in the past about wanting his marriage to work, bragging about how easy it was to get away with it with the connivance of a partner - he merely needed the partner to say he was working an extradition or in court if his wife tried to reach him, and then get a heads-up from the partner so he could call Elena back and act like nothing was wrong. Kima reveals she is back in the house after Cheryl threw her out, having "eaten some poo poo", but admits that she still isn't sure if she WANTS to be back, and seems more intrigued now by the notion of Jimmy's casual making GBS threads all over his marriage. She takes off her shoes and settles on her bed, wandering if there are "magic fingers", and McNulty makes what I'm sure is only a half-joke that HE could provide all the magic fingers she needs. She gives him a shocked stare and then bursts out laughing, and he joins in, turning on the television and chuckling,"You know me".... but seriously, I'm fairly certain he was half hoping she would suddenly forget she was a lesbian and that he had just openly admitted what a lousy person he can be.   In Baltimore the next day, Colvin arrives at a pool hall where the Deacon appears to be hustling a young, confident player. The Deacon corrects him, he's "educating" the man, and the "tuition" will stand him in good stead. Colvin has to hide a smile as the young would-be hustler is convinced to play another game for triple the money, but his humor doesn't last when the Deacon tells him that they need to talk more about Hamsterdam. Colvin complains that he never claimed it was pretty, which the Deacon says doesn't even begin to describe it, and Colvin promises to come back after his COMSTAT meeting. Stringer gets some good news from Andy Krawczyk, their permits are good... for the week at least. In a move so contrived that I almost feel embarrassed for Stringer for falling for it, Andy deliberately points out a man in a suit nearby and acts surprised that Stringer doesn't know who he is. He's a property developer that until a couple of years ago was struggling out of a tiny office, but ever since he hooked up with Clay Davis he's been a real player. It's so painfully obvious that it might as well be Krawczyk asking Stringer to give his bank account information because he's won the Nigerian Lottery, but Stringer looks impressed. Shortly after, he walks right into Clay's office and tells him that when he says he's ready, he MEANS he's ready, and a big genuine smile crosses Clay's face - it's not often the sheep walks in so eager to be shorn. FBI Special Agent Fitzhugh helps Freamon set up an AVID video playback for Prez to play with, having requested the equipment. Fitzhugh is genuinely friendly and always willing to help, and considering his gently caress-up at the end of season 2 he's probably more than eager to leap to their aide when requested. Greeting a returning McNulty, he gathers around the monitor with Kima, Daniels and Lester as Prez checks out the car identified as belonging to whoever bought Bodie's phone. In the background, McNulty calls Brianna back and Kima catches up Daniels on what is going on with that, before Prez puts on a little show. His confidence has grown, especially in light of Daniels and Freamon's earlier praise, and he takes great delight in performing a far more realistic version of the standard old cliche of "ZOOM! ENHANCE!" used by crime shows like CSI. He is able to zoom in on Bernard's license plate, and while the image remains blurry, the video quality is enough and the capture of the license plate large enough that they're able to make out a complete number. As Prez gloats, Daniels grins and tells him that sometimes, he still frightens him. Colvin lays out some bullshit at the COMSTAT meeting to explain the unprecedent 12% drop in crime stats over the last four weeks. Rawls is torn between delight and a natural suspicion - he doesn't take Colvin's claims of community outreach and targeted intensification at face value, and even looks to former pariah and current golden boy Lieutenant Daniels to see if he wants to take any credit for the sharp drop. Daniels is happy to admit that not only are they barely up on anything yet, but the crews they're investigating are still beefing and dropping bodies so they're DEFINITELY not responsible for the huge drop. Rawls finds himself in the unusual position of actually complaining that the politicians are already having trouble accepting the 8% drop let alone this coming 12% drop, and even jokes that he doesn't want to end up behind bars over whatever Colvin is doing. A supremely confident Colvin insists that he stood by his numbers when they were up and he stands by the numbers now they're so far down, and they're welcome to investigate as deeply as they please. For once, the COMSTAT meeting has an air of good humor about it, even though it's all based on something that genuinely could put them behind bars! The next scene is remarkable for a number of reasons, not least of which is the emotional brutality that McNulty unleashes on Brianna. It's tempting to view this scene as McNulty being a horrible rear end in a top hat or of a rather devious criminal getting some measure of comeuppance, but I find it's better to think of it as a traditional interrogation. McNulty uses everything at his disposal to get a rise from Brianna, who is there without a lawyer and her defenses, if not down, then at least severely compromised. He insists that D'Angelo was murdered, all but outright says that it must have been done with Avon's approval, shows her pictures of her son's corpse (Jesus Christ), explains how it couldn't have possibly been a suicide and reminds her that a usual prison murder involves a quick shanking but this was deliberate, planned and executed in private with a longer, stretched out strangling. Brianna doesn't want to accept it, and McNulty paints her son as a decent kid "all things considered" and claims that he kind of liked him and feels bad for him (despite having forgotten that D'Angelo existed until the phonecall the previous day). He reminds Brianna that she was the one who convinced him not to take the deal and go to prison where he died, but admits that nobody else but him is looking into this - D'Angelo's death was just far too convenient to too many people to kick up any fuss about. He even regrets bringing it back up to Donette, and when Brianna asks why he went to Donette and not her, he hits the final hammer blow by saying he wanted to tell somebody who cared about D'Angelo... after all, she was the one who convinced him to take the years. He walks out on her, having stirred up as much trouble as he can and perhaps gotten a measure of personal satisfaction over so badly upsetting the woman who so badly upset HIS case a couple of years earlier, leaving a Brianna stripped of all her defenses and justifications and excuses, tears rolling down her eyes. At this moment, she isn't the sister of Drug Kingpin Avon Barksdale and an active, hardnosed participant in his Empire, she's a distraught mother grieving for the death of her son. How much of that brutality was McNulty using interrogation tactics and how much was him getting some petty, vindictive "revenge" on her? And does anybody really deserve that?   In Hamsterdam at night, a real predator is observing the "lambs". As kids bite around and talk on radios (it seems Colvin WAS serious about deputizing the young'uns), Omar sits in the passenger seat of his car, reviewing the great feast that Dante has discovered. Dante is excited, it's dealers and junkies as far as the eye can see and no muscle, he's uncovered a huge, rich hunting ground for them... and Omar laughs it off and refuses to accept the evidence of his eyes. Omar's instincts are screaming at him that this is wrong, an upset of the natural order, and he refuses to believe it is anything but a massive trap "to catch some master-scoundrel, Capone an' whatnot!" He refuses to discuss it, telling a clearly displeased Dante to take them home and going so far as to chide him for not having his head in the game. Omar is both right and wrong, of course - Hamsterdam IS too "good" to last, but there were easy pickings there for a clever stick-up crew if the timing had been right. If nothing else though, it is clear that Hamsterdam is becoming more and more an open secret, and it's anonymity can't last much longer. Speaking of predators, Marlo is in a club of all places, sitting in half-shadow in an alcove, simply observing everything with his disturbingly blank face. A pretty girl at the bar stares at him with an enticing smile, and he finally approaches, and she tells him she likes his eyes, they're like a cat's. He's unsettlingly direct but the girl doesn't seem to mind, in fact she seems quite taken with him as he leans in close and asks who she is looking at? Who is she with? What kind of cat? Who did she say she was with again? None of this is asked angrily or with force, he's calm and collected, but seems poised to make a move at any time depending on the circumstances. She asks him to dance, but he demurs, saying he doesn't do that. She asks him to drink, but he demurs, saying he doesn't do that. So what does he do then (and why is at at the club)? He motions towards the door and she gets the message, and happily goes along. As they leave the club though, they're watched ceaselessly by Chris Partlow, Marlo's figurative shadow, another dangerous predator keeping his eyes out for danger even in the most relaxed social environment. Colvin has returned to the pool hall, where he joins the Deacon and Roman in pitching for a member of a non-profit public health organization to join them in Hamsterdam on the ground floor of the "Jurassic Park" of outreach programs. He's concerned over the obvious illegality of the free zones, not happy with Colvin's assurances that the open air drug markets aren't sanctioned, merely tolerated. The Deacon stresses that this is obviously a temporary situation, but if he gets involved now then he'll never have a better chance to reach a larger concentration of people who NEED his help. Condom distribution, clean needles, sex education, drug outreach programs etc - they all have an opportunity to get direct access. In the parking lot of the club, Chris stands alert on guard as Marlo has sex with the woman from the club, obviously feeling absolutely no sense of shame or awkwardness - this is his job, he has to look out for and protect Marlo, so if Marlo wants to go out and get laid - seemingly the only pleasure he allows himself - then Chris will be there to make sure nobody gets the jump on him while his guard is down. Inside the car, Marlo and the woman are still fully dressed, he's humping into her from behind, and the sex seems almost mechanistic, like Marlo's interest is merely to unload the tension of having NOT had sex - does he get any pleasure from the act at all? Finishing up, when the woman tells him "that was nice" he merely grunts,"It worked for me," which is really his own interest - she was just a tool for his gratification, he even wore a condom and now tosses it out the window - either concerned about STDs or unwilling the take the risk of a child and giving her a potential hook into him. Again, she shows no offense or alarm at his blankness, telling him that she'd like to see him again tomorrow at her place, where there'll be nobody to bother them other than her grandmother - they can get into a bed, take their time and enjoy themselves. Showing no sign of whether he is enticed or not, he hands her his phone and grunts at her to give him her number, and as she enters it she tells him she doesn't mean to be pushy, but in two days she'll be going to stay with her aunt in Florida.... and she sure would like something nice to think on/remember during that long bus ride down. Again he offers nothing back to her, just opening the door for her to leave, but as she goes he does at last ask another question - what was her name again? It was Devonne, which of course is the name of the "specialist" that Avon mentioned to Slim earlier when discussing how to get at Marlo from a different direction. As she leaves the parking lot, Chris watches her carefully, but I doubt even he suspects that there is a different kind of predator out and about tonight. The next day, Kima and Prez have found a surprising flaw in the otherwise disciplined actions of the Barksdale Organization member buying the burners - despite spacing out their purchases along a 200 mile round trip, they have been using the same car rental agency for every single trip, with name and address on record. Prez is confused and disappointed by this oversight, but Kima is delighted, suggesting that maybe they felt bad for the Major Cases detail. Shamrock visits Social Services and turns on the charm for Trina (with the big old rear end), who looks less than impressed but hands over the file he wanted when he hands over the envelope of cash. Inside is information on young Omar and his family, and Shamrock casts some admiring looks Trina's way before he goes, enjoying himself immensely. Soon enough, Slim Charles has been driven to across the street from where Omar's grandmother livs. In the front are Sapper and Gerard, the latter having apparently made his way back home at last after his part in the botched hit on one of Marlo's corners, and apparently somewhat subdued by the near-death experience. He understands that they need to sit on the house and wait for the possibility of Omar showing up, shaking his head at Sapper's stupidity when he suggests they try to beat the information out of her - a disgusting Slim telling him that she'd have no idea where Omar lays his head. Slim still hasn't solved his quality of muscle problem, obviously - it seems like Gerard is the best he has on offer at the moment, and that's deeply depressing. Clay Davis takes Stringer to a Federal Building to meet with a "faucet" who can turn on highly lucrative federal funding for B&B. In a carefully managed little sting operation, Clay takes Stringer into the building but "bumps" into his contact on the ground floor before they need to go through the metal detector, sign in and go up to his office. Staged perfectly, the nervous little white man refuses to shake Stringer's hand and barely talks about a whisper, just loud enough to let Stringer hear him say he doesn't know this "Russell Bell" so why should he talk to him? Clay of course speaks up for Stringer, leading the nervous contact away so Stringer is left on the outside, observing as Clay works his magic too far away to be heard, but eventually convinces the man to take Stringer's documents. Clay returns to Stringer proudly proclaiming that now they look set to get that sweet federal funding 3 years ahead of schedule, all thanks to him, and now Stringer really is ready to run. Stringer now feels like he is one of the big boys, in the inner circle, but just like in the pictures below, he remains on the outside looking in.   Cutty is taken to the dilapidated remains of an old gym by Roman, who tells him it'll be a lot of work to clean it up. Cutty looks enthused by the challenge though, saying he can sort that out, and seems to revel in the notion of being the one to take this place from A to B - he's finally found his calling. Meanwhile, Carcetti is enthralled by himself. He's watching his latest City Council performance alongside D'Agostino and a speech coach, who warns him that he needs to use warmer language and make direct eye contact rather than constantly looking about, so he can engage with the audience and make them feel a personal connection. He also needs to avoid such pointed, biting turns of phrase, and when he jokes that there's no fun in that D'Agostino shuts down his jokes and asks him if he wants to win this or not? Chastened momentarily, that quickly fades as he turns back to watch his favorite person in the world continue to speak. Marlo calls Devonne and quickly cuts across her warm hello to ask when she is leaving town again, and agrees to meet with her later that day. He doesn't want to spend the evening at her place though, they'll stay at a hotel, and he won't tell her what hotel until he sees her. They set a meeting place near a restaurant and he warns her not to be late, if he arrives at 5 and she isn't there, he'll go. Again she warmly accepts everything he says like he was a smooth talking lothario, and this receptive, welcoming air itself seems to have raised his suspicions, as he tells Chris to to their meeting place hours earlier and scope it out for him. They're standing in a alley behind some houses, and the entire time Marlo is on the phone there's a really fascinating thing going on as dogs bark in the background and Chris stands unfocused in the foreground, head turning carefully as he takes in the surroundings, reacting to the dogs and moving in their direction in case their barking is a sign of incoming trouble. He accepts his assignment without any qualms, Marlo's paranoia is completely sensible to him where even Wee-Bey found Avon's to sometimes be a little over the top. Brianna storms into Stringer's office wanting to know where Avon is, and after Stringer's traditional admonition to his muscle to close the door, he tucks away his files and tells her that as they're currently beefing over corners Avon is out of reach. He promises that as soon as he sees him he'll arrange for them to meet, but Brianna won't be put off, and tells him about seeing the detective about D'Angelo. "That would be McNulty," says Stringer, who apparently does know his name, and tries to explain to her that he's long had a thing for screwing with the Barksdales and she should ignore anything he has to say. He tries to lay out a reasonable and sensible argument - prisons press on people and D'Angelo just found an early way out is all, and nobody could have prevented that. Brianna won't be shunted aside on this though, insisting on seeing Avon again, and once again Stringer explains that Avon isn't available because of the current beef, but he promises she'll see him as soon as Stringer can talk to him. He commiserates with her pain and tells her that a cop shouldn't mess with a mother's pain like that, and she retorts that nobody should be storming back out. At the restaurant (Lake Trout) where Marlo is due to meet Devonne, one of Avon's large personal muscle makes a large purchase that is obviously for multiple people and leaves, paying no attention to the young lady sitting inside eating a meal. The lady is Snoop, and she heads out into the parking lot and tells Chris about the purchase just made and being carried out to a car waiting up the road. Chris warns his driver to be ready. They wait, and soon Devonne comes walking down the street, and finally makes a mistake as she passes the parked car and turns her head to look at it for a moment before moving on. The window comes down and a used napkin is tossed out, and Chris has seen enough. He orders the driver to pull up slow to the other car, and as they pass he almost casually passes his shotgun out the window and opens fire before they pull away. Inside the other car, a shocked Avon is covered in glass and blood, Tater dead in the seat beside him. Checking if the driver was hit, he tells him to get the hell out of there, his trap on Marlo having backfired.   In Hamsterdam, Colicchio is getting even angrier as now health organization representatives are setting up needle exchanges and handing out condoms. Colvin, the Deacon and Roman watch it all with mixtures of pleasure and satisfaction, and when a young'un comes up complaining about the free sandwich he was given because he's allergic to peanuts, Colicchio loses his temper completely and begins roaring at the kid about what he's going to do when all this falls apart... until he realizes he's doing this right in front of Major Colvin. He storms off, still furious over what he sees as an unacceptable change to the natural order of things. In his office, Stringer hands over a briefcase full of money to Clay Davis (oh Stringer) and warns him that his man better be capable of everything he says he is. Clay, a complete professional at this, turns the briefcase back and tells him to keep it if he still has that mentality, because obviously it means he isn't ready to run. Shamrock makes a hurried entry into to the office, trying to warn Stringer about what has happened to Avon, but Stringer snaps at him to leave and close the door behind him, and despite his reservations Shamrock follows the orders of the man who brought him up in the Organization. Stringer makes his decision and hands over the money to Clay (goodbye money), telling him to do it, and a very happy Clay leaves as a very concerned Shamrock re-enters, letting Stringer know immediately that Avon took a hit in the shoulder. To the credit of Stringer from a gangster point of view, the very first thing he does is grab a gun from his desk drawer, sliding it into his pants at his back and pulling on his jacket. Shamrock, getting frantic now, explains that Brianna keeps calling wanting to know where Avon is, should he tell her? No! Stringer is adamant on that, she isn't to come anywhere near them. But while Stringer is grim and Shamrock is frantic, Avon himself is delighted. When Slim brings a veterinarian to an old abandoned building to stick up Avon's shoulders, he jokes about the type of stitches and happily tells Shamrock that going up against Marlo makes him feel like it is old times again. Colicchio returns to the Western District and is clearly uncomfortable when he spots Colvin, unenthusiastically going along with Colvin's old "where are you" schtick but barely able to meet his Major's eyes. Stitched up now, Avon is enjoying holding a war council with his top muscle, explaining that Marlo will be expecting an instant comeback but they're going to play it smart and sit back for a time, and let Marlo's people sweat about what is inevitably coming. Stringer arrives wanting to talk but is shut down much like he shut down Shamrock earlier, as Avon explains to the others that Marlo needs to work his corners to make money, and they're going to see who has the bigger war chest. Stringer insists again and Avon grumpily dismisses everybody, and the episode ends with the two "brothers" finally having it out both verbally and physically. Until this point, Stringer has always been submissive to Avon, even when actively working against Avon it was usually in what he considered to be Avon's best interests, as well as their Organization. I don't doubt at all the sincerity of his joy when Avon got out, and that he was hoping Avon would join him in moving into the legitimate business world. But it has become increasingly obvious that they now have two wildly opposing views of how things should be run, and both have had enough of the other pushing his own agenda. Stringer tells Avon that they can't just "go to the mattresses", this is wrecking their business and putting them all at risk. Avon in turn taunts Stringer for always trying to settle things from a business or money point of view, laughingly calling them the Trump Brothers and then rather cruelly (but sadly accurately) the Chump Brothers - he picked up Clay and Andy for the opportunistic con-men they are the moment he met them. Avon posted:I look at you these days you know what I see? I see a man without a country. Not hard enough for this right here and maybe, just maybe... not smart enough for them out there. Stringer is infuriated by Avon's insulting words, and complains that Avon's idea of being a gangsta is indiscriminate violence - does it make him less of a man because he thinks before taking a life? When Avon scoffs at the notion of Stringer ever having taken a life, Stringer finally lays out the big one and drops the atom bomb - who did he kill? Why, D'Angelo! He explains that the cop has been bothering Brianna, but that the cop is right, he DID have D'Angelo killed - he made that decision for Avon because Avon couldn't make it himself. Avon's reaction is as expected, he launches himself in an indiscriminate rage at Stringer, who takes advantage of his injured shoulder to slam him to the ground and hold him there, roaring at D'Angelo would have inevitably turned on them and that he HAD to be killed, and Stringer made that call. Physically dominated and in pain, Avon quietly insists that Stringer let him up, and when he finally does, the two men just stare at each other - as close as brothers most of their lives, now two strangers wondering just who the hell this other person is.   
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Jul 12, 2013 15:09
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That took a little longer than I thought, sorry - it ended up 400 words over the 50,000 word limit and after careful pruning to get it below 50k, the preview window kept telling me I needed to trim it down further. I could have written so much more just on that rather amazing final scene between Avon and Stringer. Episode 8 - Moral Midgetry <-- Link for the OP
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Jul 12, 2013 15:10
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Jerusalem posted:Meanwhile Stringer Bell is laying out his own frustrations directly to Clay Davis, complaining that nothing has changed in his situation other than a growing lightness in his pocket. It's a remarkable scene just in terms of watching Clay Davis lube Stringer up for the loving, as he oozes his way past Stringer's anger and charms his way into making Stringer look like an impatient idiot and Clay himself the wise, kindly and patient mentor. He hits Stringer with all the upcoming appointments they have, insists that will get them the consents they need, and then throws in a teaser by revealing that he has gotten Stringer's company the rights to supply light bulbs to the city's schools. He laughs off Stringer's complaint that he knows nothing about lightbulbs, saying all he needs to do is put his new status as supplier onto a B&B letterhead, there will be "white guys" doing all the actual work, and Stringer is a just a beard for a federal empowerment grant - in other words, B&B is a company owned and run by an African American, and a company is paying Clay Davis to use Stringer's name to get their contract, and Clay is passing some (I imagine quite a small proportion) of that on to Stringer. I honestly find it really difficult to figure out exactly how much of what Clay is doing is illegal and how much is "accepted business practice". Minority-owned pass through companies are fairly common with local government contracts, it's not illegal, but it's not the actual intent of why those programs are set up. The only thing illegal that Clay might be doing, is getting B&B registered as a minority-owned business way faster than normal. I'm in construction in Chicago, so I have to deal with this stuff occasionally, and getting your company registered as a Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) or Woman Business Enterprise (WBE) takes like a year to do, so maybe Clay is just greasing the right wheels here. Although Chicago and Illinois are starting to crack down on pass-through companies and trying to make the MBE/WBE companies actually responsible for supplying their product, or doing their own installation. The MBE/WBE setup has a lot of problems though. I also like how the fight between the two boys on the court early in the episode foreshadowed the fight between Avon and Stringer at the end of the episode.
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Jul 12, 2013 16:53
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Thanks for that info on Minority-owned pass through companies, that kind of stuff boggles my mind.Meltathon posted:I also like how the fight between the two boys on the court early in the episode foreshadowed the fight between Avon and Stringer at the end of the episode. Yeah, I ran out of room to really follow through on that other than referring to them as "brothers", but Roman's line is really prophetic - "Without that, you've got nothing!"
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Jul 12, 2013 18:27
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If only Roman had been there with Stringer and Avon. You guys are like brothers. 
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Jul 12, 2013 18:39
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Jerusalem posted:Thanks for that info on Minority-owned pass through companies, that kind of stuff boggles my mind. I could do a write-up on the MBE/WBE stuff if you really want to know about it, but it's not terribly interesting.
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Jul 12, 2013 19:01
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Dang, is this a museum? Haha — just joking like I was fooled by all the artifacts. That XviD codec is one ugly ██████████    “Ah much better”
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Jul 13, 2013 00:51
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Haha, I'm just taking screengrabs in VLC as I write v v
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Jul 13, 2013 01:21
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Great write-up, I never really pieced together what was happening in the scene where Chris lights up Avon's truck and now it all makes perfect sense. The first time I watched the series I also took all of Clay's theatrics at close to face value and chuckled at how dumb I was when the con was revealed. It feels like "getting played" is a strong theme of this episode but there must be more to it. It starts with Tucky falling for the "stolen watches in that warehouse" routine and includes Avon trying to trick Marlo with the girl but getting himself played instead, the Deacon hustling that kid at pool, McNulty telling Kima how to trick her SO, and of course Clay completely duping Stringer. It ends with Stringer revealing to Avon that he had been tricked into believing D's death was a suicide. Omar refuses to hit Hamsterdam because he's afraid of getting played, meanwhile McNulty plays himself at that Sherriff's office. There are a few scenes that kind of reflect the opposite, the Cutty scenes and most of the Colvin/deacon story seem to show a lighter side of humanity with people trying to build each other up in legitimately good faith.
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Jul 13, 2013 01:28
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No mention of how Roman is played by the late, great Clarence Clemons?!
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Jul 13, 2013 01:47
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The great part about how Clay pulls his con is how he makes Stringer the one who eagerly pushes him on to continue. Stringer feels like HE is the one taking control of the situation and dictating what is happening, all while he dances to Clay's strings. I found myself constantly thinking about The Sting and how carefully orchestrated everything was to make Lonnegan feel like he was gaming everybody.escape artist posted:No mention of how Roman is played by the late, great Clarence Clemons?! Thanks for bringing things like this up, I didn't actually know who he was. As with Method Man, one of the great things about The Wire is how they didn't cast celebrities for the sake of the,"There's a celebrity! Wow!" factor. Roman's character fits right in and is just as effective whether you know he is or don't.
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Jul 13, 2013 02:39
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You did a fantastic job capturing just how unlikeable Colicchio is. You're kind of with him when he's pissed about his fellow offices joking with Tucky and making faces on the computer. Then the thing that makes him crack is... a kid with a peanut butter sandwich. What an rear end in a top hat.
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Jul 13, 2013 05:38
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Skeesix posted:You did a fantastic job capturing just how unlikeable Colicchio is. Don't you think you would have a stick up your rear end being in his position? His character has probably wanted to be a cop (or come from a cop family) since he was a kid. All of a sudden his boss declares drugs are not only a 'paper bag' nuisance, but requires his presence at the border to sanction the area an open air drug market.
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Jul 14, 2013 21:01
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3spades posted:Don't you think you would have a stick up your rear end being in his position? His character has probably wanted to be a cop (or come from a cop family) since he was a kid. All of a sudden his boss declares drugs are not only a 'paper bag' nuisance, but requires his presence at the border to sanction the area an open air drug market. Cops have bosses like any other people. Sounds like he was just as doe-eyed as anyone else in this show.
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Jul 14, 2013 21:07
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3spades posted:Don't you think you would have a stick up your rear end being in his position? His character has probably wanted to be a cop (or come from a cop family) since he was a kid. All of a sudden his boss declares drugs are not only a 'paper bag' nuisance, but requires his presence at the border to sanction the area an open air drug market. That's kinda the whole point though. Wanting to be a cop shouldn't mean wanting to take part in the drug war. The only reason he should be pissed is getting guard duty when he should be out solving real crimes like assaults, robberies, rapes and murders. Like Colvin says the worst part about the drug war is it ruined the job of being police. Jerusalem i just want to thank you again for doing these writeups, and doing them as quick as you do. They are very entertaining and you have picked up on some stuff i've completely missed even after like 8 rewatches. (I watch too much TV)
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Jul 14, 2013 21:34
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3spades posted:Don't you think you would have a stick up your rear end being in his position? His character has probably wanted to be a cop (or come from a cop family) since he was a kid. All of a sudden his boss declares drugs are not only a 'paper bag' nuisance, but requires his presence at the border to sanction the area an open air drug market. Collichio just wanted to scream at black kids and Hamsterdam got in the way of that. He's a scummy fucker.
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Jul 14, 2013 22:48
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Colicchio is a really good example of the hosed up system, because cops like him and Herc and even Carver (in the first 2.5 seasons or so anyway) have come up through a system with such fundamentally screwed up priorities that they simply don't understand why what they consider to be "good police work" is so pointless and useless. Their intentions are actually pretty good in that they think they're doing the right thing, they really do believe that the way to fight crime is to literally beat up the street dealers at the lowest level of "the game", as if that will make any difference. They don't understand things like deep, detailed investigations or aiming higher up the chain - and even the detectives who do are fighting a losing battle since the entire goddamn system is flawed and hosed up to begin with. Part of it is lashing out against a subconscious realization that what they do makes no appreciable difference, part of it is believing that this violence is the only thing the dealers understand/respect, and I'm sure there is also some part of it that fulfills some need/desire to inflict violence/dominate or otherwise influence power over somebody (anybody!) else. Look at Officer Walker, I'm sure he didn't just appear in the world fully formed, and if anything seems to piss him off it's when people don't pay him the respect he thinks he is owed or act like they are in some way above him/worthier than him. Fragmented posted:Jerusalem i just want to thank you again for doing these writeups, and doing them as quick as you do. They are very entertaining and you have picked up on some stuff i've completely missed even after like 8 rewatches. (I watch too much TV) No problem, I'm happy to do it and there is still a whole bunch of stuff I miss with each episode/season so it's great to see these things pointed out - I don't think I'll ever be "done" with this show, it's just too good even on a surface level, and the depth of complexities to it is just incredible.
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Jul 14, 2013 23:36
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In The Wire alumni news, Nick Sobatka plays a great creepy, corrupt correctional officer, named Pornstache, in the Weeds meets Oz Netflix show "Orange is the New Black".
geeves fucked around with this message at 00:23 on Jul 15, 2013 |
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Jul 15, 2013 00:16
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geeves posted:In The Wire alumni news, Nick Sobatka plays a great creepy, corrupt correctional officer, named Pornstache, in the Weeds meets Oz Netflix show "Orange is the New Black". Aka Pablo Schriber Aka Liev's half-brother ( I totally don't get the family resemblance)
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Jul 15, 2013 04:30
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Jerusalem posted:Part of it is lashing out against a subconscious realization that what they do makes no appreciable difference, part of it is believing that this violence is the only thing the dealers understand/respect, and I'm sure there is also some part of it that fulfills some need/desire to inflict violence/dominate or otherwise influence power over somebody (anybody!) else. Look at Officer Walker, I'm sure he didn't just appear in the world fully formed, and if anything seems to piss him off it's when people don't pay him the respect he thinks he is owed or act like they are in some way above him/worthier than him. All that said, there are assholes in any group. There's probably dozens of Walkers and Colicchios in the department, and there doesn't need to be so many, but you'll always get a few.
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Jul 15, 2013 05:01
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It's ironic that the New Day Co-Op has more potential to reduce drug war violence than the big cases against the Barksdale crew. If they can actually snag up all the dealers into their system, they can prevent more turf wars than any number of police stings. It's unstable, but it's a better system than an endless succession of street kings who reign for a few months or a few years, then go down in flames.
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Jul 15, 2013 08:27
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It is depressing that the situation is so screwed up that "solutions" like The New Day Co-Op and Hamsterdam seem like preferable alternatives to the status quo. Both systems are based on the idea that it's better to hide away drug use and pretend it isn't happening so "regular people" will feel better about things. But peoples' lives are still being ruined by drugs, you have junkies like Johnny dying, or Dee-Dee starting a downward spiral that will lead her into prostitution, and entire great sections dropping out of society and becoming wrapped up in the drug economy instead. But the alternative seems to be arresting nobody street-level dealers and throwing them into the horrible, overcrowded and nightmarish prison system, and no politician is going to commit career suicide by pushing for/calling for the great overhaul of the base inequalities of society required to make some kind of headway into this "war".
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Jul 15, 2013 09:16
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Jerusalem posted:It is depressing that the situation is so screwed up that "solutions" like The New Day Co-Op and Hamsterdam seem like preferable alternatives to the status quo. Both systems are based on the idea that it's better to hide away drug use and pretend it isn't happening so "regular people" will feel better about things. But peoples' lives are still being ruined by drugs, you have junkies like Johnny dying, or Dee-Dee starting a downward spiral that will lead her into prostitution, and entire great sections dropping out of society and becoming wrapped up in the drug economy instead. But the alternative seems to be arresting nobody street-level dealers and throwing them into the horrible, overcrowded and nightmarish prison system, and no politician is going to commit career suicide by pushing for/calling for the great overhaul of the base inequalities of society required to make some kind of headway into this "war". I believe there will also be people who want to escape from life, so there will always be a market. We can't put the genie back in the bottle, and making drug use illegal obviously doesn't work. On the "theoretical ideal" end, better social support structure could probably shrink the drug market to the bare minimum of people who would use no matter what. I would say our current approach is on the other end unfortunately (create the market by abandoning people, and then arrest everyone who is part of the problem), with Hamsterdam/New Day in the middle ("We won't help you, but we won't bother you either")
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Jul 15, 2013 11:31
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Just finished the thread and got up to season 5 again, which I never completely finished first time around. I definitely see what you guys are getting at about the news room crew, they were trying to set up Gus as our newspaper mcnulty, but he lacks that immediate charisma, and they squeezed out by the old crew's stories, so they don't get enough air and screen time to feel real. drat though, the end of season 4. loving Bodie.  If only he'd had someone for him like Bunny was for WeeBey's boy... It fucks me up to know that's the story for all those bodies in the row houses too, and doubtless for a million others that actually died on the real streets, names all forgotten.It's the same for that dude from the corner store stash house, when Chris and Snoop walked him into that vacant, it wasn't the death he was scared off, but that his people would never know. God drat. E: loving phone key board. Dice Dingus fucked around with this message at 20:37 on Jul 15, 2013 |
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Jul 15, 2013 20:32
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Dice Dingus posted:It's the same for that dude from the corner store stash house, when Chris and Snoop walked him into that vacant, it wasn't the death he was scared off, but that his people would never know. God drat. There is something utterly terrifying about how Chris and Snoop so calmly "force" a person to walk to what they know is their death, making their victims seem almost apologetic about the trouble they are causing them. To reach that point where you are so convinced of your death that you'd grasp onto every single second even if you knew it was just making things easier for your murderer, just so you could still be alive even a little longer.... goddamn, I can't even imagine it.
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Jul 15, 2013 23:16
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I honestly don't know why the ending montage shows Chris and Wee-Bey hanging out together. Other than having killed a whole bunch of people they don't seem anything alike. Not all soldiers are the same. Maybe one second after the montage ends Bey goes "leave me alone you dead eyed creep."
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Jul 15, 2013 23:22
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Chris has his family that he seemed to enjoy being around. He was worried that Omar would go after them. He's a stone cold killer, but not completely dead inside.
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Jul 15, 2013 23:29
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They're both dangerous guys who are satisfied working for a dominating personality. Neither has any illusions that they're the guys who should be running things, they're lieutenants through and through, happy with the authority they have but not wanting the responsibilities of being the sole guy in charge. Neither really has the drive or motivation to push pro-actively to get their names out there or rule by fear, they're happy taking orders. I can see the two of them getting along just fine because each would always know where the other stands and know they can rely on them to have their back and execute their part of the plan perfectly. Besides which, prison makes strange bedfellows - the prison is only so big and there is a hierarchy to fit into, two noted enforcers like that are always going to end up coming together either as allies or enemies. Even Sergei recognizes that if he wants to do anything or needs assistance/protection/help inside heneeds to go to the guy in charge, so he respectfully goes to Avon despite the fact he's used to working for a much, much, much bigger fish on the outside.
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Jul 15, 2013 23:33
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ChikoDemono posted:Chris has his family that he seemed to enjoy being around. He was worried that Omar would go after them. He's a stone cold killer, but not completely dead inside. Just look at what he did for Michael, and what that tells us about his own past.
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Jul 16, 2013 00:18
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I've always felt its quite deliberate that the head enforcer for all 3 of the major organizations - Wee-Bey, Chris and Sergei - all take the most heat for their bosses, with life sentences. I think Wee-Bey and Chris at the prison fence is a reflection of the message here; it all goes back to the "self-serving institution" theme. Though I'm not sure - all of them seem quite at peace with it, that its their duty to take the fall, unlike the lower level pawns like Bodie and D'Angelo. Although now I remember that Sergei willingly gave up the Greek's hotel (to avoid the death penalty IIRC). Maybe he knew they would be gone by the time the cops raided it. grading essays nude fucked around with this message at 00:29 on Jul 16, 2013 |
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Jul 16, 2013 00:24
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