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Kevyn
Mar 5, 2003

I just want to smile. Just once. I'd like to just, one time, go to Disney World and smile like the other boys and girls.

ShaneMacGowansTeeth posted:

it's not like he sailed halfway round the world and didn't learn no motherfucking english

Kunta Kinte... yabba dabba dabba doo.

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Escobarbarian
Jun 18, 2004


Grimey Drawer
This loving video slays me every time

https://youtu.be/FOtYuPceqlE

Geekslinger
Jan 30, 2005

I was bored and started watching random Wire clips and came across this gem with some of the cast from early last year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p7cRF3-v6s

Asbury
Mar 23, 2007
Probation
Can't post for 6 years!
Hair Elf

Geekslinger posted:

I was bored and started watching random Wire clips and came across this gem with some of the cast from early last year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p7cRF3-v6s

This is great.

But "...[t]here are college courses being taught using The Wire as an example of where society was at the time" reminds me that the early 2000s was a far longer time ago than I like to think.

Stairmaster
Jun 8, 2012

wouldnt that implying society has moved on and not infact gotten even worse

Angryhead
Apr 4, 2009

Don't call my name
Don't call my name
Alejandro




Escobarbarian posted:

Nah the oral history of the Wire that just came out called All the Pieces Matter, which is what the AV Club article is getting its info from.

I'm two thirds of the way through and it's a really enjoyable read so far.
Also got me to finally buy the blu-ray set (after owning the DVD one for numerous years)
Time for a sixth rewatch, I guess!

Boywhiz88
Sep 11, 2005

floating 26" off da ground. BURR!
So I was just hopping around Wikipedia while on my rewatch of The Wire. Ed Norris has “the headshot” done to him during a corruption investigation. I really need to listen to the commentaries because I’m sure how that came into Simon’s stratosphere.

General Battuta
Feb 7, 2011

This is how you communicate with a fellow intelligence: you hurt it, you keep on hurting it, until you can distinguish the posts from the screams.

Boywhiz88 posted:

So I was just hopping around Wikipedia while on my rewatch of The Wire. Ed Norris has “the headshot” done to him during a corruption investigation. I really need to listen to the commentaries because I’m sure how that came into Simon’s stratosphere.

I had to look this up, so for the benefit of thread viewers as dense as me, The Headshot is a technique used by federal prosecutors to turn a minor investigation into major jail time. You look at the target’s mortgage documents and try to find any false or sketchy claims they made to secure the mortgage (like claiming your gtandpa’s money as your own asset). Then you can indict for bank fraud and threaten thirty years in jail, forcing them to plea bargain.

Ginette Reno
Nov 18, 2006

How Doers get more done
Fun Shoe

Jerusalem posted:

For all the issues I have with the newspaper storyline, I'll forever love McNulty "confessing" to Scott and giving him the BIGGEST news story he will ever get in his life, safe in the knowledge that Scott could never report it without exposing himself.

Paraphrased, but McNulty's "I know why I did it, but the one thing I can't figure out is what YOU get out of this?" is such a great line.

I actually wasn't a huge fan of that. It felt kinda self serving to me. Like it was what David Simon really wanted to say to someone so he had Mcnulty say it to Templeton.

But I didn't like the Templeton character at all. He was just so one note, which is weirdly out of place on the Wire with how multifaceted most of the characters are.

awesmoe
Nov 30, 2005

Pillbug

Ginette Reno posted:

I actually wasn't a huge fan of that. It felt kinda self serving to me. Like it was what David Simon really wanted to say to someone so he had Mcnulty say it to Templeton.

But I didn't like the Templeton character at all. He was just so one note, which is weirdly out of place on the Wire with how multifaceted most of the characters are.

he (simon) was way too emotionally close to the newspaper stuff for it to have the same perspective as everything else on the show

Jerusalem
May 20, 2004

Would you be my new best friends?

Yeah, the bosses at the paper in particular were horribly one-dimensional which sucked, since even Burrell got the chance to demonstrate some level of depth.

At least with Scott they showed his frustration with his lack of progress, his fears about getting fired and inability to desert the sinking ship he thought the Sun had become, and the fact that he got unnecessarily sidelined by Gus on the serial killer story initially despite the fact it was him going along with Alma that gave (or so they thought) McNulty the impetus to give them enough info to make it a printworthy story.

Klebanow and Whiting? Nothing. They were just dumb WASP assholes with no journalistic integrity whatsoever, who existed purely to get dunked on by Gus, then stagger around putting their feet into buckets and windmilling their arms wildly before falling into nearby bodies of water. Also their pants had fallen down around their ankles and they were wearing tighty-whiteys.

spog
Aug 7, 2004

It's your own bloody fault.

Boywhiz88 posted:

So I was just hopping around Wikipedia while on my rewatch of The Wire. Ed Norris has “the headshot” done to him during a corruption investigation. I really need to listen to the commentaries because I’m sure how that came into Simon’s stratosphere.

I checked the dates: he got the headshot in the same year that season 2 aired - just 6 months after it finished airing.

'Transitions' aired in 2008.

exmachina
Mar 12, 2006

Look Closer
I just found a socialogical and criminological analysis of The Wire, an interesting read. A series of articles here: http://thecrankysociologists.com/tag/the-wire/

Whiz Palace
Dec 8, 2013

awesmoe posted:

he (simon) was way too emotionally close to the newspaper stuff for it to have the same perspective as everything else on the show

otoh, Ed Burns based a lot of stuff in Season 4 directly on his experience as a schoolteacher.

StashAugustine
Mar 24, 2013

Do not trust in hope- it will betray you! Only faith and hatred sustain.

The story I heard was that Burns had Simon to edit him but Burns was mostly working on Generation Kill during S5 so Simon didn't have a cowriter do bounce stuff off.

exmachina
Mar 12, 2006

Look Closer

Whiz Palace posted:

otoh, Ed Burns based a lot of stuff in Season 4 directly on his experience as a schoolteacher.

Yeah, but cynicism about their occupation comes a lot more naturally to teachers than to journalists, especially at the time the wire was made.

awesmoe
Nov 30, 2005

Pillbug

exmachina posted:

Yeah, but cynicism about their occupation comes a lot more naturally to teachers than to journalists, especially at the time the wire was made.

And thinking about it now, the teachers (not admin staff) are also all longsuffering saints, iirc.
But it’s written better so it’s easier to forgive.

Jerusalem
May 20, 2004

Would you be my new best friends?

I will say that there were at least a few scenes showing how the teachers are complicit, like talking about keeping the heat up to make the kids drowsy, being bemused at Prez's anger about teaching to the test, eagerly cheering the notion of the more aggravating kids being tucked away in another classroom etc - there is context provided of course, but even the most effective of the teachers are eventually worn down by the system.

Philthy
Jan 28, 2003

Pillbug
Finished my fourth rewatch. That last episode is just so great. What an amazing send off.

Gotta say, season 1 was always my favorite, but now it's Season 2.

CBJSprague24
Dec 5, 2010

another game at nationwide arena. everybody keeps asking me if they can fuck the cannon. buddy, they don't even let me fuck it

S2 E5 of my first watch of this show and god drat it owns, even if the Valchek/Sobotka pissing match over who loves the Priest more is kind of dull.

Ray from Generation Kill is pretty much the same character from that show as he is in this, only dumber.

e- I get this isn't a first-time watch thread, so I'll leave this here and revisit it when I finish the season.

CBJSprague24 fucked around with this message at 16:34 on Mar 5, 2018

pokeyman
Nov 26, 2006

That elephant ate my entire platoon.
:justpost: I love getting to vicariously watch for the first time again.

Cage
Jul 17, 2003
www.revivethedrive.org
Im sure its been discussed but I'm watching Oz right now, and its great how many people from The Wire are showing up. So far the weirdest one was Avon Barksdale showing up as a prison guard for about 10 seconds just to bring an inmate a gun and then literally never show up again.

Philthy
Jan 28, 2003

Pillbug
I totally forgot about Oz. I gotta rewatch that. I only saw the first few seasons when it originally aired.

Every time I see that car insurance commercial I think tit cancer.

Jeffrey of YOSPOS
Dec 22, 2005

GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS
Yeah Oz had a ton of crossover. Burrell is a guy on death row's dad or something. The actors who played Bodie, Herc, Carv, Daniels, Rawls and Norman all have roles. There's more I'm forgetting but yeah.

Ainsley McTree
Feb 19, 2004


I’m doing another rewatch and the actor who plays Burrell is so goddamn good. I mean, all the actors are good, but something about his performance is just spellbinding to me

spog
Aug 7, 2004

It's your own bloody fault.

Ainsley McTree posted:

I’m doing another rewatch and the actor who plays Burrell is so goddamn good. I mean, all the actors are good, but something about his performance is just spellbinding to me

It's amazing because the character was only required to be a big bad bogie man in the beginning. Yet as the story progresses, you come to understand and almost sympathise with him -almost entirely as a result of the pained look on his face.

theCalamity
Oct 23, 2010

Cry Havoc and let slip the Hogs of War
That look when he realizes that the commissioner in season one wasn’t going to say anything to Kimas girlfriend and knows he’ll have to do it himself.

Jerusalem
May 20, 2004

Would you be my new best friends?

I always liked to think that when Oz ended, the prisoners and the guards all escaped together and fled to New York to get heavily involved in the Law & Order franchise.

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo
The Guardian wrote a good (and long) article about The Wire.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-...-dream-was-dead

Orange Devil
Oct 1, 2010

Wullie's reign cannae smother the flames o' equality!

theCalamity posted:

That look when he realizes that the commissioner in season one wasn’t going to say anything to Kimas girlfriend and knows he’ll have to do it himself.

And don't forget the extra layer of he himself being gay so also basically finding out in very clear and personal terms how big of a poo poo his boss the commissioner is in that moment.

Stare-Out
Mar 11, 2010

MrBling posted:

The Guardian wrote a good (and long) article about The Wire.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-...-dream-was-dead

That was pretty nice, yeah. Also on that site is a bunch of pictures of the locations used in the show, funny how I recognized almost all of them instantly.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/gallery/2017/may/27/baltimore-15-years-after-the-wire-in-pictures

Jeffrey of YOSPOS
Dec 22, 2005

GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

Orange Devil posted:

And don't forget the extra layer of he himself being gay so also basically finding out in very clear and personal terms how big of a poo poo his boss the commissioner is in that moment.

I don't think Burrell was gay - are you thinking of Rawls?

Extremely memorable scene either way though.

Pellisworth
Jun 20, 2005

Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:

I don't think Burrell was gay - are you thinking of Rawls?

Extremely memorable scene either way though.

Yeah Rawls was gay. An interesting note about the dialogue in that scene - Carv suggests someone speak to "Kima's girl" and I think it's Burrell who responds "her daughter." Daniels: "no, her roommate."

I'm not sure Burrell got the subtext there, but the commissioner definitely didn't and gave no fucks.

exmachina
Mar 12, 2006

Look Closer
Yeah I watched the scene and I feel that while Daniels didn't want to drag Kima out of the closet eventually Burrell got it.

Orange Devil
Oct 1, 2010

Wullie's reign cannae smother the flames o' equality!

Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:

I don't think Burrell was gay - are you thinking of Rawls?

Extremely memorable scene either way though.

Yeah I was having a total brainfart there.

spog
Aug 7, 2004

It's your own bloody fault.

theCalamity posted:

That look when he realizes that the commissioner in season one wasn’t going to say anything to Kimas girlfriend and knows he’ll have to do it himself.

The script was fairly simple: 'my boss is an rear end in a top hat, I'll do it'.

But the acting gave you his entire career in a couple of facial expressions and you suddenly understood the guy and felt he was real.

deoju
Jul 11, 2004

All the pieces matter.
Nap Ghost
https://twitter.com/WendellPierce/status/971890824802914304

I guess the show has been off the air for 10 years.

Gobbeldygook
May 13, 2009
Hates Native American people and tries to justify their genocides.

Put this racist on ignore immediately!
https://twitter.com/AoDespair/status/971903844799180800

This isn't a joke: If you donate $500 to a slate of democratic candidates tonight, David Simon will send you a hand-written apology for killing off the Wire character of your choice.

Kevyn
Mar 5, 2003

I just want to smile. Just once. I'd like to just, one time, go to Disney World and smile like the other boys and girls.

deoju posted:

https://twitter.com/WendellPierce/status/971890824802914304

I guess the show has been off the air for 10 years.

Seems Bunk Moreland is worse than a homicide detective. He's a developer.

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Mouse Cadet
Mar 19, 2009

All aboard the McEltrain
Next Stop: Atlanta

Kevyn posted:

Seems Bunk Moreland is worse than a homicide detective. He's a developer.

:golfclap:

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