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I thought the exchange with her aide after she made the call was pretty clearly meant to communicate that she made it up.
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Sep 1, 2015 19:32
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I'm only about three episodes in but I think the most interesting part is how lovely behavior gets attention (and sometimes praise) while any attempt to do the right thing or better yourself is ignored (and something scorned) Widow of the drug dealing asthmatic gets emergency priority because of her baby and is still willing to push through all the government bullshit to get exactly what she wants because it's all she has. 47 year old nearly blind diabetic doesn't want to file papers for a medical aide because of the way she had to fight to get disability and, when her kids finally convince her to file the paperwork, the aide doesn't show up. Weird beard guy trying to limited the number of units per site to limit the probability of creating a ghetto is looked down on by everybody. There's parallels all over the place.
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Sep 2, 2015 12:59
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My favorite reveal in the series might be that Oscar Newman's beard was actually real. I thought for sure that was a David Simon Invention to make it easier to recognize him, but nope - the real dude had that bitchin' facial hair.
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Sep 2, 2015 20:36
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Just finished up the series, it was fantastic. That scene where Wasicsko near inaudibly calls out his brother's name and then breaks down was heartbreaking. The ending montage was just excellent too, and it made my blood boil to see that the case wasn't fully resolved until 2007.
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Sep 3, 2015 03:10
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This show was amazing and I cried when the Latino lady got to get her fancy pots and pans out
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Sep 5, 2015 15:41
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Escobarbarian posted:This show was amazing and I cried when the Latino lady got to get her fancy pots and pans out Yeah, that was definitely a mini "Bubbles at the table" moment.
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Sep 6, 2015 05:15
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On the flip side, when the older lady with the vision problems went to the restaurant, was welcomed warmly and decided to leave because she wasn't comfortable being surrounded by only white people was really sad. I'm glad her family seemed so devoted to her, though 
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Sep 6, 2015 05:32
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Well I finally finished this. Pretty good overall, though I do think the first half of the show or so is a bit weaker than than the second half. I think my main issue is that the beginning parts of the show didn't do a very good job at showing us the lives of the people that would eventually move into the public housing. Some scenes with these characters were only about 15 seconds long. Luckily the later episodes rectify this, particularly once we see the struggles these people face once they've finally moved in. Oscar Isaac was great of course, The Wire alumni pull their weight remarkably well with how little time some of their characters get onscreen, and Paul Haggis ended up doing a bit better than I was expecting. For whatever reason this shot stuck out to me most in the whole show: 
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Sep 6, 2015 12:39
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Here's some amazing original footage of the Wasicsko v Spallone debate. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QL8CKQugs0
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Sep 8, 2015 01:39
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Maybe it's my British naivete but I really thought this was based in the 70s/80s based on the politics (well, racism), I couldn't believe it when 199x popped up at some point. I marveled at the housing guys beard every single time it was on screen.
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Sep 8, 2015 03:01
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aga. posted:Maybe it's my British naivete but I really thought this was based in the 70s/80s based on the politics (well, racism), I couldn't believe it when 199x popped up at some point. Racism is still very much alive in America. Like they say on this show, it just gets couched in very different terms other than the n-word and other obvious epithets these days, and even in some parts of the country those still happen too.
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Sep 8, 2015 03:28
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Yeah, the case wasn't actually settled once and for all until 2007, which is just mindboggling.
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Sep 8, 2015 03:54
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Jerusalem posted:On the flip side, when the older lady with the vision problems went to the restaurant, was welcomed warmly and decided to leave because she wasn't comfortable being surrounded by only white people was really sad. I'm glad her family seemed so devoted to her, though I'm pretty sure her not wanting to stay there had more to do with her vision/dizziness/being all discombobulated, and she just mentioned the white folks instead because she was uncomfortable letting her loved ones know just how bad her symptoms would get at times.
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Sep 8, 2015 04:34
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I felt that her family were well aware of the extent of her vision problems by that point (and that she was aware they were aware), but she felt like an outsider in that restaurant even though the other customers didn't notice her at all and the host was gracious and welcoming.
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Sep 8, 2015 04:38
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Before that she had made mentions of wanting to be with her own kind, so i am pretty sure that the intent was to show that she was just as racist as some of the white folks, just in a more subtle way.
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Sep 8, 2015 05:45
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Yeah, I took it as her being a different kind of racist, while her daughter didn't even think twice about eating at a restaurant where she was the only African American. The series was really good, Oscar Issac was amazing.
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Sep 8, 2015 09:45
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"different kind of racist." Oy. I watched the series on HBO now and there's a really great featurette that aired at the end of certain episodes. Simon specifically talks about the diner scene as a way to show the "Scars of segregation" and the generational divide between the nurse and her daughter.
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Sep 8, 2015 09:48
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Narcissus1916 posted:"different kind of racist." Oy. As in a quiet, "polite" grandmother-y form of racism. "We'll just take our meal to go (where there aren't White People)  "I understand that she's still living as if segregation were still "a thing".
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Sep 8, 2015 11:56
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Bert Roberge posted:Here's some amazing original footage of the Wasicsko v Spallone debate. The first time I watched this series, if I had a complaint, it was how heavy-handed some of the characters and plot points were. The homeowners and some of their champions like Spallone were basically caricatures of themselves. I forget what politics is like sometimes in smaller communities.
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Sep 8, 2015 14:28
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tirinal posted:The first time I watched this series, if I had a complaint, it was how heavy-handed some of the characters and plot points were. The homeowners and some of their champions like Spallone were basically caricatures of themselves. This happens a lot in dramatized versions of reality where they quote verbatim some public political moment. I'm thinking of the judge from the Sophie Scholl film. They had to tone him down for that film because his real life counterpart was somehow more cartoonish in his grandstanding. For this show, I kinda want to hear why David Simon finally relented on his whole "no non-diagetic music ever except for the finale" rule that he usually imposes on his work.
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Sep 8, 2015 15:28
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Max posted:For this show, I kinda want to hear why David Simon finally relented on his whole "no non-diagetic music ever except for the finale" rule that he usually imposes on his work. It's his themesong
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Sep 8, 2015 19:03
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Max posted:For this show, I kinda want to hear why David Simon finally relented on his whole "no non-diagetic music ever except for the finale" rule that he usually imposes on his work. I think Treme uses a fair amount of non-diegetic music, although not as much as most shows would use.
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Sep 8, 2015 20:23
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Bird in a Blender posted:I think Treme uses a fair amount of non-diegetic music, although not as much as most shows would use. Music and performance were such a central part of that story that they couldn't really get away with it, but they still had a lot of on-camera performances for the music to justify it being there. I'm thinking specifically of Generation Kill, which went to such lengths as to have the directors of the episodes just make the actors sing the songs they wanted to be playing since he wouldn't let them use the recorded music. I hope he has a commentary track come out for this mini-series, because those were always fascinating to listen to for his other works.
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Sep 8, 2015 20:38
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Max posted:This happens a lot in dramatized versions of reality where they quote verbatim some public political moment. I'm thinking of the judge from the Sophie Scholl film. They had to tone him down for that film because his real life counterpart was somehow more cartoonish in his grandstanding. In Good Night and Good Luck, test audiences complained that the guy playing Joseph McCarthy was overacting, with poorly written, ridiculous dialogue that made him appear one-dimensional and overly villainous, just an utterly unrealistic character that spoiled the restrained feel of the rest of the film. They were using archive footage of Joseph McCarthy 
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Sep 8, 2015 23:27
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Similarly, test audiences didn't like the "happy hollywood ending of Apollo 13"
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Sep 9, 2015 03:20
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Here's a 48 hours episode about Yonkers housing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l27X9CZz9Vw It has ads but you can skip em.
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Sep 9, 2015 04:05
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Finally got to the last episode, and boy is it heartbreaking. I guess I'll spoiler it just in case. Everything falling apart for Nick so quickly was pretty tough, but a good chunk of it was his own doing. He could have just dropped out of politics and become a lawyer. Hell he could have spent a bunch of years as a lawyer and gotten back into politics later on, but he seemed destined to burn every bridge he could. He just clung to being a politician that once he was out of the system he felt there was no reason to go on, just really tragic. I'm not going to spoiler this because I don't think it needs to be. It was frustrating to see all of the new tenants in the townhouses refuse to participate, at least at first. They get handed a great opportunity, but then won't step up themselves. Mayhawk (Clarke Peters) pretty much had it right, get them started with some help, but then force them to take responsibility by removing the help, and at least some of the tenants did that. Some just want to complain and never do anything about it, but that happens with all sorts of people. I was also surprised to see that most, if not all, of the public housing characters were actually real people, I thought they were just added to give perspective. It was really nice to see that these were all real people, and real problems. Poor Billie Rowan though, she got shafted at every turn.
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Sep 10, 2015 17:16
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Bird in a Blender posted:Poor Billie Rowan though, she got shafted at every turn. It was like watching an E/N thread where everything the boyfriend did screamed SEVER and she kept digging down into that well.
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Oct 12, 2015 07:22
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Watched the final part last night. Loved it. That guy was only 34 years old, loving hell. Thank you, David Simon, for bringing this story to the attention of the ignorant people like myself. Keep up the good work. I've never heard Lift Me Up, it's beautiful. No actress does the look of sheer horror in her face better than Winona Ryder: 
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Oct 17, 2015 16:32
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I didn't know the real life story about the guy, so when the "where are they now" montage started, I thought the funeral was for the reformed racist lady. It slowly dawned on me whose funeral I was watching, since they move the suicide to after that segment. Really well done.
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Oct 19, 2015 19:59
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