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BiggerBoat
Sep 26, 2007

Don't you tell me my business again.
I didn't mind the news room stuff at all but the invented serial killer thing didn't work for me, especially Lester jumping on board, but I guess they cross over so too it's hard to view them as separate elements. That aside, I enjoyed the newspaper stuff.

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Human Tornada
Mar 3, 2005

I been wantin to see a honkey dance.
The serial killer and journalism plots really aren't that bad and both have some classic scenes (the FBI profile of McNutty, for one). The biggest issue is they feel rushed because of the reduced episode order but sometimes you have to play the hand you're dealt. That and some people really hate the idea of a Mary Sue character but IMO Clark Johnson is still fun to watch.

Syrian Lannister
Aug 25, 2007

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


Sugartime Jones

Ainsley McTree posted:

good news, the show is even better the second time

And third, fourth, fifth, etc walk-through. It honestly took me probably 3 or so re-watches to appreciate seasons 2 and 4.

MrMojok
Jan 27, 2011

Human Tornada posted:

The serial killer and journalism plots really aren't that bad and both have some classic scenes (the FBI profile of McNutty, for one).

I have to say, this has got to be my single favorite scene of the entire show. Dominic West does some incredible (and hilarious) acting in that scene with only his facial expressions

teen phone cutie
Jun 18, 2012

last year i rewrote something awful from scratch because i hate myself

MrMojok posted:

I have to say, this has got to be my single favorite scene of the entire show. Dominic West does some incredible (and hilarious) acting in that scene with only his facial expressions

yeah that was absolute gold

teen phone cutie
Jun 18, 2012

last year i rewrote something awful from scratch because i hate myself
aaaaand done. gently caress dukie hitting up mr presbo for money hurt to watch and hit wayyyy to close to home

Jerusalem
May 20, 2004

Would you be my new best friends?

Watching Dukie's fall was so depressing, yeah.

But on the flip side, watching Bubbles walk up those stairs.... :unsmith:

Tony Phillips
Feb 9, 2006
Don't think this was mentioned, but The Wire came up in a recent Simpsons episode.

Hard to find a proper clip online, but there's this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1vHLJGVuoU

You can see the girl's next line in the subtitles right before it ends. Skinner responds "That season was slow, and also: This. Is. War."

Eason the Fifth
Apr 9, 2020
Rewatching now over 20 years later and it is kind of amazing how perfectly the show uses minor details to capture what the early 2000s were like. I mean there's the obvious stuff like using songs from the era for diegetic music (like In Da Club) or Nick being amazed at the internet, but there's also tiny things like Kima calling 9/11 ("Nine Eleven") 911 (Nine One One) before we all as a nation decided on what to call it.

Count Roland
Oct 6, 2013

"It's called texting. My teenage daughter is crazy about it"

deoju
Jul 11, 2004

All the pieces matter.
Nap Ghost
Beepers were a throw back thing even then, but remember payphones? When was the last time you even saw one of those?

Ainsley McTree
Feb 19, 2004


I think The Wire must have come out just around the tail end of them, there's a scene in season 5 i think where McNulty drunkenly goes to use one and then remembers he has a cell phone

Tony Phillips
Feb 9, 2006

deoju posted:

Beepers were a throw back thing even then, but remember payphones? When was the last time you even saw one of those?

Maybe 6-7 years ago there was a dive bar near me that still had a non operational payphone in the corner.

You ever want to feel old as hell - stand around watching as 3 guys that look to be 30 or so bust out laughing when one of them picks up the receiver and in the mockingest voice you've ever heard says "Hello, operator? Yes, I'd like to make a **collect** call..."

Jerusalem
May 20, 2004

Would you be my new best friends?

Tony Phillips posted:

You ever want to feel old as hell - stand around watching as 3 guys that look to be 30 or so bust out laughing when one of them picks up the receiver and in the mockingest voice you've ever heard says "Hello, operator? Yes, I'd like to make a **collect** call..."

gently caress. This physically hurts.

A couple years ago, my mom bought my niece a novelty curly phone cord attachment to add to her mobile phone. We all had a laugh and asked if she knew what the curly cord on phones used to be used for. She was at that age where she didn't like to admit not knowing things, and it was wild seeing her mind racing as she struggled to figure out what the gently caress use a cord could ever have with a phone.

Ainsley McTree
Feb 19, 2004


Jerusalem posted:

gently caress. This physically hurts.

A couple years ago, my mom bought my niece a novelty curly phone cord attachment to add to her mobile phone. We all had a laugh and asked if she knew what the curly cord on phones used to be used for. She was at that age where she didn't like to admit not knowing things, and it was wild seeing her mind racing as she struggled to figure out what the gently caress use a cord could ever have with a phone.

What an idiot, everyone knows that that's where you put the string to connect with the tin can on the other end

Mu Zeta
Oct 17, 2002

Me crush ass to dust

The Wire looked old the day it aired. I thought it was intentional with the non-HD and non-widescreen format. I never saw a police station look so dreary and old on TV before The Wire.

Kosmo Gallion
Sep 12, 2013
What looks worse, Major Crimes' basement or the Barn from The Shield?

Bird in a Blender
Nov 17, 2005

Just hoping everyone has fun.

Mu Zeta posted:

The Wire looked old the day it aired. I thought it was intentional with the non-HD and non-widescreen format. I never saw a police station look so dreary and old on TV before The Wire.

It premiered in 2002. I don’t remember flat screens being that popular then, although they rapidly spread. Flat screens didn’t overtake CRTs until 2008 or 9. It seems a little weird to say it was intentionally non-HD when widescreen HD would’ve been way outside the norm when it first aired.

Mu Zeta
Oct 17, 2002

Me crush ass to dust

Maybe it was too early for HD but it was also way late on having the HD version available. IIRC the Blu Rays had to be like rescanned or upscaled or something because at least the first few seasons were only filmed in full screen on crappy cameras. And full screen always sucked even back in 2000. I'm pretty sure I watched The Sopranos season 1 in widescreen DVD on my Playstation 2.

Jerusalem
May 20, 2004

Would you be my new best friends?

David Simon has talked about this a bit. Apparently around the 3rd or 4th season he and the director of photography sat down and discussed whether to make use of the better quality cameras now available to them and change up the aspect ratio etc, and they decided to keep things the same for the sake of uniformity across the seasons.

Years later, HBO decided to do a Blu-Ray release of the whole show and David Simon only found out about it after they'd already started the process (I believe the DoP had died as well?), and he jumped in and told them he wouldn't allow the release unless he approved it, took a look at what they were doing and saw they'd just cropped to 16:9 without any consideration for how it affected the DoP's very carefully chosen framing, and ended up sitting in on a complete restart where they endeavored to ensure as much of the vitally important stuff originally considered by the DoP when initially filming (including character placement, eyelines, prop placement etc) was present in the final edit as possible.

teen phone cutie
Jun 18, 2012

last year i rewrote something awful from scratch because i hate myself
something about 4:3 is very magical. even watching older it's always sunny, the episodes just feel funnier shot in that ratio

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo

Mu Zeta posted:

Maybe it was too early for HD but it was also way late on having the HD version available. IIRC the Blu Rays had to be like rescanned or upscaled or something because at least the first few seasons were only filmed in full screen on crappy cameras. And full screen always sucked even back in 2000. I'm pretty sure I watched The Sopranos season 1 in widescreen DVD on my Playstation 2.

Partially it was filmed in 4:3 because David Simon liked it.

They framed everything for 16:9 right from the start and just filmed in 4:3, just to future proof it. When they reached season 4 there was a big discussion between David Simon, the DPs, the producers etc if they wanted to switch to 16:9 but in the end David Simon made the decision to stay with 4:3 because he felt that it fit the look of the show best.

But the fact that everything was already framed for 16:9 meant that the subsequent widescreen remastering (which David Simon originally didn't want to do, but HBO kind of forced his hand) was a lot easier and you don't get the usual weird look of every one being bunched together in the middle of the screen.

Shrimp or Shrimps
Feb 14, 2012


Mu Zeta posted:

The Wire looked old the day it aired. I thought it was intentional with the non-HD and non-widescreen format. I never saw a police station look so dreary and old on TV before The Wire.

NYPD Blue's police station looked old and dirty as hell, and those locker/washrooms :barf:

HootTheOwl
May 13, 2012

Hootin and shootin

Shrimp or Shrimps posted:

NYPD Blue's police station looked old and dirty as hell, and those locker/washrooms :barf:

A real pigsty, if you will

Ainsley McTree
Feb 19, 2004


drat pig, you live like this?

Angryhead
Apr 4, 2009

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




Has anyone checked out this book?
The Wire: The Complete Visual History by D. Watkins.

quote:

Celebrate the greatest television show of all time with this definitive tribute to The Wire.

Twenty years after its debut, HBO’s The Wire is widely regarded as one of the greatest TV shows of all time. This deluxe volume explores the creation and legacy of creator David Simon’s landmark series through exclusive interviews with Simon and his cast and crew, including Idris Elba, Wendell Pierce, Sonja Sohn, Andre Royo, Jamie Hector, George Pelecanos, Ed Burns, and many more. The book also features commentary and essays from notable writers including New York Times bestselling author D. Watkins (The Beast Side: Living and Dying While Black in America). Illustrated with striking visuals from the show, including concept art and candid behind-the-scenes images, The Wire: The Complete Visual History, is the essential companion to a stone-cold television classic.

HUNDREDS OF NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN PHOTOS: Discover an exclusive treasure trove of incredible photography and production art that tells the story of The Wire like never before.

INTERVIEWS WITH CAST AND CREATORS: The visual story of The Wire is narrated by all-new interviews with creator David Simon and key cast and crew members, including Idris Elba, Wendell Pierce, Sonja Sohn, Felicia Pearson, Ed Burns, and more.

EXCLUSIVE ESSAYS: Discover unique commentary on all five seasons of the show from leading commentators including Melanie McFarland, Eric Deggans, Siddhant Adlakha, and more.

THE ULTIMATE TRIBUTE: Comprehensive and unmatched in its depth, this prestige volume is the ultimate retrospective of the greatest television show of all time.

Eason the Fifth
Apr 9, 2020
Al Brown (Valchek) died.

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.
Rat fuckers, all a ya!

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
What a great actor. I hated Valchek so much

the numa numa song
Oct 3, 2006

tumbling through the ointment
The audible groan that I made at the end of the series when Valchek became commissioner. What a creep. He shall be missed.

Eason the Fifth
Apr 9, 2020
Fits like a glove! :haw:

Ainsley McTree
Feb 19, 2004


My low key favorite Valchek scene is early in season 2 where he's in his office and he has a computer in the background on a desk with no chair in front of it, stuck on the password screen (or some kind of similar tableau, i forget the specifics), and it's clear he's never touched the thing in his life. An absolute rat hump of a man, what a performance

Jerusalem
May 20, 2004

Would you be my new best friends?

The sheer glee he has when Herc tells him what he saw in the Mayor's Office, and how he has to explain to Herc that HE has the advantage over the Mayor and not the other way around was so great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uWipx42M0c

"Just shut up and play dumb."
"I can do that!"

StashAugustine
Mar 24, 2013

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

Ainsley McTree posted:

My low key favorite Valchek scene is early in season 2 where he's in his office and he has a computer in the background on a desk with no chair in front of it, stuck on the password screen (or some kind of similar tableau, i forget the specifics), and it's clear he's never touched the thing in his life. An absolute rat hump of a man, what a performance

yeah its stuck on the same error message the entire season lol

MarcusSA
Sep 23, 2007

ilmucche
Mar 16, 2016

I was, in a way, the one who had to leave.


It's not his turn!

Jerusalem
May 20, 2004

Would you be my new best friends?


Who knew the real thin blue line was four inches of blue steel all this time.

Vichan
Oct 1, 2014

I'LL PUNISH YOU ACCORDING TO YOUR CRIME

I'd totally wear this as a goof even though nobody would get it.

MarcusSA
Sep 23, 2007

Vichan posted:

I'd totally wear this as a goof even though nobody would get it.

I was legit gonna order it till I saw the shipping was $9

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Jewmanji
Dec 28, 2003

MarcusSA posted:

I was legit gonna order it till I saw the shipping was $9

Imagine how much more expensive it would’ve been before containerization/shipping automation.

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