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Ginette Reno
Nov 18, 2006

How Doers get more done
Fun Shoe
Avon tries to integrate himself into the community a little bit but other than that he is pretty damned ruthless. They kill a kid. Avon is upset (but ultimately lives with) Stringer killing D.. Avon gives spiked dope to inmates just to get himself a lighter sentence. They brutally torture Brandon instead of just killing him.

Bodie complains about Marlo's wanton killing but Marlo doesn't really kill without a point. Little Kevin did talk to the cops, and even though he didn't snitch, he pawned his job off to someone else. When Marlo kills Junebug over him calling him a slur, that seems extreme, but in that life it is important to evoke fear and respect on the streets or else people will feel like they can threaten Marlo.

Stringer never really grasps that and just wants to rule as a quiet businessman, while Avon correctly intuits the threat that Marlo is right away and understands the importance of making sure that the Barksdales are thought of as the only game in town.

Honestly not so sure that Avon and Marlo are so different in the end. Avon tries to add other dimensions to himself like the sense of community and belonging, but when the chips are down he's every bit as ruthless and focused as Marlo is. And he's the only other character in the series who instantly understands Marlo and his motivations.

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Mu Zeta
Oct 17, 2002

Me crush ass to dust

Avon will probably outlive Marlo even in prison.

Randallteal
May 7, 2006

Computers probably did not create the growth of conglomerates and multinational corporations, but they certainly have abetted it. They make fine tools for the centralization of power, if that's what those who buy them want to do with them.
My read on it is Avon was probably a lot more like Marlo when he ten years younger and still trying to take over instead of being on top in his thirties trying to hold others down. If you want to put it into a metaphor it's like the difference between the hyper-expansionist 19th century US and the "protecting stability and international norms" 21st century US. Avon's super-casual prison sitdown with Marlo to negotiate handing over the heroin connection is indicative of their relationship. Avon knows who Marlo is and it doesn't make him uncomfortable or unsettled in the least to hand over the reins to him after he's played all of his cards.

Human Tornada
Mar 3, 2005

I been wantin to see a honkey dance.
I liked the irony that Marlo's single-minded focus on wearing the crown actually hurt his legacy in the end. In his last scene he asks "do you know who I am?" to a couple of guys telling tall tales about Omar. Joe, Avon, and Omar's names probably all live on as legend because they had actual human personalities as opposed to Marlo's Capitalism-Bot 3000.

christmas boots
Oct 15, 2012

To these sing-alongs 🎤of siren 🧜🏻‍♀️songs
To oohs😮 to ahhs😱 to 👏big👏applause👏
With all of my 😡anger I scream🤬 and shout📢
🇺🇸America🦅, I love you 🥰but you're freaking 💦me 😳out
Biscuit Hider
His star burned out super quick too

Eason the Fifth
Apr 9, 2020
If I understand the implications of the ending right, Rhonda Pearlman tells Levy that if there's so much as a scent of Marlo back on the streets, Marlo's case that McNulty and Lester hosed up comes off the stet docket and she's willing to expose what they did to take down Marlo again. Marlo immediately went back to the streets, which means that McNulty and Lester and probably pretty hosed and will be brought up on criminal charges, yeah? Or is Pearlman bluffing in that scene with Levy?

Jerusalem
May 20, 2004

Would you be my new best friends?

It's quite possibly a bluff, but even if so, the other implied threat is that the very moment Marlo shows even a hint of being back in the game, he would be back on the radar and under active investigation VERY quickly and they'd be likely to throw everything they have at him no matter what they catch him doing, because they're aware of everything else he's responsible for that he got to walk on.

So I choose to read the scene as demonstrating that no matter what the case is Marlo's basically finished. He either capitulates to a life of comfortable retirement which he quite obviously can't, or he tries to rebuild from scratch and either dies quickly (he's already forgotten on the street, his worst possible fear plus he's lost his army) or ends up right in jail with Chris, Weebay and Avon.

Kosmo Gallion
Sep 12, 2013
One thing I do like about Marlo is his relationship with Vinson, the guy who runs the rim shop. For some reason he's the only person Marlo takes advice from. Prop Joe tries to fill this role but Marlo has none of it.

Shrimp or Shrimps
Feb 14, 2012



That's good because Hector's a much more compelling screen presence than Welliver (to me), and the slightly odd cadence he speaks with is magnetic and that quick turn from affable to fearsome is great. Reddick is also good (and similarly the way he speaks is highly attention-grabbing). He's like if Cedric had played the game the way Marla wanted him to.

Funky See Funky Do
Aug 20, 2013
STILL TRYING HARD
Tiny little detail #900000 that I just noticed in a new watch through: One of the bums in the shanty town when McNulty gives that guy a business card in season 5 is the same guy that pulled off the Mercedes heist with Ziggy.

Jerusalem
May 20, 2004

Would you be my new best friends?

Yep, goes completely uncommented on, nobody recognizes him, it doesn't lead to anything. Just all part of the background details of how these stories all continue even when the show changes focus, and how quickly and easily you can go from employed with a proud history in a once highly valued field to being homeless and living on the street in Baltimore Maryland America.

MarcusSA
Sep 23, 2007

Are they listed as the same character?

Funky See Funky Do
Aug 20, 2013
STILL TRYING HARD
Yeah that's Johnny 50 alright.

Count Roland
Oct 6, 2013

MarcusSA posted:

Are they listed as the same character?

In the wire it goes without saying that they are. Minor characters from seasons past constantly show up. That's one I'd never noticed myself.

Vichan
Oct 1, 2014

I'LL PUNISH YOU ACCORDING TO YOUR CRIME
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHYAAR1fl58

This is my favourite recurring minor character.

deoju
Jul 11, 2004

All the pieces matter.
Nap Ghost

Count Roland posted:

In the wire it goes without saying that they are. Minor characters from seasons past constantly show up. That's one I'd never noticed myself.

Gbenga Akinnagbe, who played Chris Partlow, appears as a cop in a court scene in the first episode. Randy's foster mom, Miss Anna, is played by same woman Bunk hosed before setting his clothes on fire, though it's possible she is supposed to be the same character.

But I still think it's supposed to be Johnny 50 under the bridge and we are supposed to assume he hit hard times when the union was crippled.

Also Dee Dee's arch is great for how little screen time she has.

awesmoe
Nov 30, 2005

Pillbug

deoju posted:

Gbenga Akinnagbe, who played Chris Partlow, appears as a cop in a court scene in the first episode. Randy's foster mom, Miss Anna, is played by same woman Bunk hosed before setting his clothes on fire, though it's possible she is supposed to be the same character.

But I still think it's supposed to be Johnny 50 under the bridge and we are supposed to assume he hit hard times when the union was crippled.

Also Dee Dee's arch is great for how little screen time she has.

hahaha i can see a night with the bunk causing someone to set aside their wicked ways and reform

Ginette Reno
Nov 18, 2006

How Doers get more done
Fun Shoe

Kosmo Gallion posted:

One thing I do like about Marlo is his relationship with Vinson, the guy who runs the rim shop. For some reason he's the only person Marlo takes advice from. Prop Joe tries to fill this role but Marlo has none of it.

Prop Joe is a rival, and Marlo desires his power. Vinson's just an advisor.

Also Marlo listens to Chris.

ShaneMacGowansTeeth
May 22, 2007



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

Count Roland posted:

In the wire it goes without saying that they are. Minor characters from seasons past constantly show up. That's one I'd never noticed myself.

wasn't there an old woman living in the house were Nick sold drugs on the stoop in season two, and in the last scene she's put her house up for sale?

Alhazred
Feb 16, 2011




BiggerBoat posted:

I think he is.


Avon's crew kills children, employs child soldiers, kills every one that might go to the cops and treats women like literal garbage. Wee-Bey is every bit as sociopathic and ruthless as Chris and Snoop. Avon is a bit smarter than Marlo but they're basically the same.

christmas boots
Oct 15, 2012

To these sing-alongs 🎤of siren 🧜🏻‍♀️songs
To oohs😮 to ahhs😱 to 👏big👏applause👏
With all of my 😡anger I scream🤬 and shout📢
🇺🇸America🦅, I love you 🥰but you're freaking 💦me 😳out
Biscuit Hider
I will say, for as savage and bloodthirsty as we're told Marlo's generation is, they weren't the ones who broke the Sunday truce.

zenguitarman
Apr 6, 2009

Come on, lemme see ya shake your tail feather


The Game's the same, just got more fierce.

Shrimp or Shrimps
Feb 14, 2012


I just finished up the last season of Bosch (5) and really wish they had done more with Hector (Marlo's actor, to make this The Wire-adjacent). He's got so much range with just his facial expressions, and his voice is so compelling. I honestly spent most of the show wishing he was on screen when he wasn't.

Was the second-gen Haiti aspect of his character written into the show late? It's a marked shift in S5, and with Bosch commenting "even I don't know you" or something to that effect, I'm guessing it was.

I'm sad that there is a good plot thread there left dangling. I'd like to see Edgar clear the case with Gary and the crooked cops, even if we, the audience, know what's what.

Also, I'm assuming the name of his uncle (Antoine Hector) is deliberately the same family name as his own? I'm only just realizing that Jerry is pretty similar to Jamie. Does anyone know if his character shift in S5 was based off real life?

E: I also may have just missed completely obvious clues as to Edgar's heritage during the show as I am a quintessential goon and bad at watching things. Also not from the US nor familiar with the Haitian diaspora so maybe I was just missing things left and right.

Shrimp or Shrimps fucked around with this message at 01:38 on Sep 29, 2022

deoju
Jul 11, 2004

All the pieces matter.
Nap Ghost
Dominic West is playing Prince Charles in the new season of the Crown.

Jimmy fuckin McNulty is the Prince of Wales.

Spot on.

Count Roland
Oct 6, 2013

What an rear end in a top hat

Vichan
Oct 1, 2014

I'LL PUNISH YOU ACCORDING TO YOUR CRIME

deoju posted:

Dominic West is playing Prince Charles in the new season of the Crown.

Jimmy fuckin McNulty is the Prince of Wales.

Spot on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvGGfIk0tXc

christmas boots
Oct 15, 2012

To these sing-alongs 🎤of siren 🧜🏻‍♀️songs
To oohs😮 to ahhs😱 to 👏big👏applause👏
With all of my 😡anger I scream🤬 and shout📢
🇺🇸America🦅, I love you 🥰but you're freaking 💦me 😳out
Biscuit Hider
*Charles unknowingly walks in moments after the queen has died. Everyone turns to look at him, thinking that this man is now their king*

Charles: The gently caress did I do?

christmas boots
Oct 15, 2012

To these sing-alongs 🎤of siren 🧜🏻‍♀️songs
To oohs😮 to ahhs😱 to 👏big👏applause👏
With all of my 😡anger I scream🤬 and shout📢
🇺🇸America🦅, I love you 🥰but you're freaking 💦me 😳out
Biscuit Hider
“These are for you, your royal highness”

Kosmo Gallion
Sep 12, 2013
The Prince of Tides

HootTheOwl
May 13, 2012

Hootin and shootin
Looks like Cromwell switched sides

bucketybuck
Apr 8, 2012

Ainsley McTree posted:

I guess Lester's characterization could have been a little more transparent, but I guess I rationalized his behavior in Season 5 as like, the impetuous "oh gently caress the bosses" part of his personality that landed him in the pawn shop unit for 14 years is still in there, deep down.

But remember that what landed him in pawnshop for 14 years wasn't a desire to gently caress the bosses, but wanting to do the job right.

Lesters characterization was perfectly consistent for 4 seasons, he knew the rules of the game better than anybody and hard earned experience taught him to play by them. For instance when Major crimes was gutted did he go nuclear like McNulty would have done? No, he accepted that Rawls had won, went to homicide and got on with doing a good job. He made people sit on rooftops watching payphones, he switched off wires when calls were not pertinent, etc etc.

Then there is also the fact that the show presented Freeman as having a huge amount of perspective about the job of policing, he is literally the character chosen to explain that the job is not the be all and end all, that a case is not worth losing everything, that there is more to life than cases.

He may have tried a few moves like delaying subpeona's until election time but even that is perfectly within the rules of the game. There was absolutely nothing about Lester Freemans character that ever suggested he would be complicit in flat-out fabricating false evidence of felony.

bucketybuck fucked around with this message at 00:07 on Nov 22, 2022

King Of Coons
May 5, 2006

bucketybuck posted:

There was absolutely nothing about Lester Freemans character that ever suggested he would be complicit in flat-out fabricating false evidence of felony.


bucketybuck posted:

pawnshop for 14 years

bucketybuck posted:

wanting to do the job right

christmas boots
Oct 15, 2012

To these sing-alongs 🎤of siren 🧜🏻‍♀️songs
To oohs😮 to ahhs😱 to 👏big👏applause👏
With all of my 😡anger I scream🤬 and shout📢
🇺🇸America🦅, I love you 🥰but you're freaking 💦me 😳out
Biscuit Hider
13 years

Syrian Lannister
Aug 25, 2007

Oh, did I kill him too?
I've been a very busy little man.


Sugartime Jones

And 4 months

bucketybuck
Apr 8, 2012

I guess you think you made some sort of point here.

teen phone cutie
Jun 18, 2012

last year i rewrote something awful from scratch because i hate myself
one episode away from finishing and i want to save it so it doesn't have to end :cripes:

glad michael made moves. it feels like redemption for wallace in a weird sort of way. i really like michael and duke's arc. it was tough watching duke walk into that den of homeless dudes shooting up

Ainsley McTree
Feb 19, 2004


teen phone cutie posted:

one episode away from finishing and i want to save it so it doesn't have to end :cripes:

glad michael made moves. it feels like redemption for wallace in a weird sort of way. i really like michael and duke's arc. it was tough watching duke walk into that den of homeless dudes shooting up

good news, the show is even better the second time

Mike N Eich
Jan 26, 2007

This might just be the year
People rag on Season 5 but I feel like everything involving Omar, Marlo, Bubbles and the kids works really well and wraps up their stories in a satisfying way.

It just sucks that they introduce the Journalism plot and it feels extremely beside the point compared to everything else going on and the serial killer plot line is just a touch far-fetched. But the Greek tragedy of the street story works really well for me.

Ainsley McTree
Feb 19, 2004


Yeah the good parts of season 5 are probably as good as the rest of the show. And honestly even the bad parts are better than most shows

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christmas boots
Oct 15, 2012

To these sing-alongs 🎤of siren 🧜🏻‍♀️songs
To oohs😮 to ahhs😱 to 👏big👏applause👏
With all of my 😡anger I scream🤬 and shout📢
🇺🇸America🦅, I love you 🥰but you're freaking 💦me 😳out
Biscuit Hider
People mostly rag on Season 5 because of the serial killer/journalism plot, but everyone gets a satisfying (if not happy) conclusion to their narrative arc, which means it did a much better job sticking the landing than most shows can say.

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