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bucketybuck posted:As an aside, I always wondered how Wee Bay took the news that his family were being cut off. Him and Avon were right there beside each other in prison after all. I can't imagine Wee-Bey was too bothered about DeLonda getting humbled.
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# ? Feb 23, 2024 23:50 |
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# ? Oct 6, 2024 02:56 |
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Gargamel Gibson posted:I can't imagine Wee-Bey was too bothered about DeLonda getting humbled. I've said it before, but the way (season 4+) she shuts down when he quietly threatens her really speaks to a sense that he was certainly not above being physically abusive to her, and while it is tempting at first to thrill to her being shut up after all her own abusive parenting of Namond, it's a pretty grim thing to think about the implications. As for her being cut off, I always assumed that Wee-Bey was still enjoying privileges in prison. But even if it was now to a lesser extent that he was the type who would not blink at having to put in work in prison regardless of the fact he'd already eaten a huge number of murders for Avon and that there were plenty of people who owed him their freedom or their lives.
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# ? Feb 24, 2024 00:23 |
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Konstantin posted:The simple fact was that there wasn't any more money. Bodie and the other Barksdale people were getting their package from Marlo or Joe, they had no reason to pay Avon a cut. I'm sure he had some money put away and he had various fronts that may have been paying him a small amount, but it wasn't enough to keep paying DeLonda as he had been. Wee Bey seemed to indicate to her in their last conversation that he could keep taking care of her. I assume he had squirreled away a lot of money based on that.
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# ? Feb 24, 2024 00:39 |
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Jerusalem posted:I've said it before, but the way (season 4+) she shuts down when he quietly threatens her really speaks to a sense that he was certainly not above being physically abusive to her, and while it is tempting at first to thrill to her being shut up after all her own abusive parenting of Namond, it's a pretty grim thing to think about the implications. As for her being cut off, I always assumed that Wee-Bey was still enjoying privileges in prison. But even if it was now to a lesser extent that he was the type who would not blink at having to put in work in prison regardless of the fact he'd already eaten a huge number of murders for Avon and that there were plenty of people who owed him their freedom or their lives. that's interesting cos i never interpreted it this way with weebay and delonda you might be right that he abused her physically and that's why she let him shut her down when he gives her the 'it'll be my word that finds you' speech, but i always interpreted it more as just that weebay is reminding her that without the influence he still has over people outside through his means and reputation, she'd pretty much be working at walmart and scraping by. she doesn't seem afraid of him so much as afraid of what him removing his support would mean. she's very confident when she speaks until he pulls that 'this is the law' card. weebay's support from prison obviously only lasts so long but from her perspective, short term, it's stil very important to allow her to live a life of relative luxury. she's not a deep character, she's very superficial and mean, and i don't know if we're supposed to interpret that as partly a reaction to weebay being a scary partner so much as someone who makes all the wrong choices about what matters. she just comes off as very selfish. but you still might be right. roomtone fucked around with this message at 00:53 on Feb 24, 2024 |
# ? Feb 24, 2024 00:51 |
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I would be interested in hearing what others think, because I do think his words are a barely veiled threat that she'll do what he says or else he'll still be able to reach out to take out his anger on her, and I think the way she - who has been so vocal and in people's faces and insistent - suddenly just shrinks down indicates to me somebody who has seen the reality behind that kind of threat before. It is entirely possible I read it wrong though. I think part of what colors my read is the knowledge of Wee Bey's utter indifference to the death of that stripper. We already know he's a killer but there's something different between killing guys in "the game" and killing some poor stripper who was at a party they were throwing as a celebration.
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# ? Feb 24, 2024 06:10 |
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Jerusalem posted:I would be interested in hearing what others think, because I do think his words are a barely veiled threat that she'll do what he says or else he'll still be able to reach out to take out his anger on her, and I think the way she - who has been so vocal and in people's faces and insistent - suddenly just shrinks down indicates to me somebody who has seen the reality behind that kind of threat before. Your read never occurred to me and I don't think it's in the text. But I see what you mean and it certainly fits.
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# ? Feb 24, 2024 07:03 |
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I don’t think the indifferent murderer has a strong respect for the bodily autonomy of others and I do think that he sees violence as a tool for resolving conflict.
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# ? Feb 24, 2024 07:36 |
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Bird was a much more believable heartless killer imo, Wee-Bay was far too interesting with how much he was into those fish and became too likeable.
Miss Lonelyhearts fucked around with this message at 09:39 on Feb 24, 2024 |
# ? Feb 24, 2024 09:36 |
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I don't think Bird would be as effective in this situation; he's just a caricature whose only job is to call Kima a succession of slurs and then to lose his poo poo in court. Him being abusive to people around him isn't anything new. Meanwhile we've seen Wee-Bey being a good friend to Avon, a mentor to D'Angelo, we've even seen him as a father who ultimately makes a good choice for his son's sake; we got to like him, even. On certain rare occassions, however, we've seen him kill people without hesitation. We know he's capable of making the conscious choice to turn on that violence, and so does DeLonda, and that's why that one line hits home, IMO
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# ? Feb 24, 2024 11:29 |
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Episodes 4-6 of season 4: - It's funny that the homicide department doesn't actually seem like an especially bad place to work as far as police goes. Rawls is a jerk but he's pretty hands off most of the time, and Jay's not terrible. The tie-cutting mausoleum, the city zoo prank for newbies, the admittedly hosed-up slip of paper in the body's hand; I guess it's alright as long as you're not a total rear end in a top hat like McNulty. - Really, the biggest issue with the homicide department (and all of these other departments) seems to be that they're built to churn through individual cases, not to invest huge resources in manpower/cash in spotting patterns and going after the big fish behind them. Now, if they just had a major crimes unit, that would solve so many of their chall-oh, wait. - I was uncertain whether - I think my problem with Marlo might be a mixture of the casting and acting. The actor has no visual presence to me at all; he's just Some Guy. Combine that with the acting being so understated, and I'm just underwhelmed. Yeah, he can be menacing in the right situation/framing, but to me it's a pretty dull package for someone who's now a really major player in this story. Feels like when big chunks of the first season rested on Dee's unremarkable shoulders. - I was very concerned that they were gonna have Marlo or his people kill Omar in order to help establish him as a Big Deal to viewers, but framing him for a murder was indeed a better move. - This show has a lot of assholes in authority, but I think the worst might be Burrell. I'm trying to think of what redeeming moments he's had over three and a half seasons. The closest I can come to is that I think he's the one who talked with Kima's girlfriend in the hospital when she got shot. So basically nothing in other words. - Enjoyed the mayor's poker game fundraiser. There we go, we got an election-related scene that I really liked. - "There ain't no 'bout a-doubt it." - you tell 'em, Bubs - Admittedly, your ice cream truck song could use some work, Bubs - Prez is hanging in there a lot better than I'd expected. I'll give him that. - "Monday-to-Friday-angry" is tough. - It's fun to see the parallels between, say, a police interrogation and the interrogation Randy got about tagging those hallways. These school staff aren't dummies. - Love the scene of Colvin just wandering the halls, seeing the little sparks of educational light in the sea of chaos. No, it's not ALL bad... but it's mostly bad. - I'm kind of surprised that Deacon put up Dennis to the roundup van job. It's such a cynical ploy that of course it was going to depress him. - "Yeah boy, you know I love the women!" - Dennis, what the gently caress, he's a kid. Very funny though that Dennis's storyline has become that he's simply too hot and bothered to stop banging his student's moms. Real left-turn from where it started. - So, Slim Charles is working for Prop Joe now? We know Bodie - One thing I know about De'Londa, she sure as gently caress isn't ever going to get a job herself. Awful. - Feels like Carcetti's acting got noticeably worse between seasons. It wasn't amazing in season three, but he feels so wooden here. Or maybe it's the same and, now that it seems like he doesn't actually have any meaningful skeletons in his closet, I'm not misreading it as a false front. - Enjoyed his just-barely-out-of-rhythm clapping during the church service, though, as well as his kids going haywire from the energy of the choir. His wife is also very sweet, which is a nice bit of sugar given the atmosphere of this show. He even resisted loving D'Agostino! - Learned some new hate speech from that Irish guy on election day, jesus. Also, what an accent. - Didn't take long to get this season's dumb police raid! - The show has so little music that it's nice when we get some diagetic tunes. Gotta love some Curtis Mayfield. This might be the most ambitious show I've ever seen. The number of plates being spun simultaneously at this point is absurd. About the only thing they've dropped focus on is the port and Cedric's history in the Eastern (not sure that shoe will ever drop). Someone mentioned Twin Peaks earlier, and I like the comparison. It's a lot easier to understand now why this show became an obsession for folks, and how it would be so many people's all-time favorite.
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# ? Feb 24, 2024 18:37 |
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Yeah, in We own this City they also talk about how in the homicide department is still possible to do real police work, as opposed to the endless corrupt brutal bullshit of the war in drugs
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# ? Feb 24, 2024 19:00 |
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armpit_enjoyer posted:I don't think Bird would be as effective in this situation; he's just a caricature whose only job is to call Kima a succession of slurs and then to lose his poo poo in court. Him being abusive to people around him isn't anything new. I agree with that, Bird is far less developed. It also props up Omar when he's completely unintimidated by openly snitching on Bird, a known killer.
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# ? Feb 25, 2024 01:14 |
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surf rock posted:- "Yeah boy, you know I love the women!" - Dennis, what the gently caress, he's a kid. That was so painful, because I think he was trying to put Michael at ease and of course it had the instant opposite effect
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# ? Feb 25, 2024 05:25 |
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surf rock posted:Episodes 4-6 of season 4: I will say that the understated acting of Jamie Hector as Marlo was a deliberate creative choice by the creators, though. Keep the thoughts coming, loving em.
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# ? Feb 25, 2024 16:19 |
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Konstantin posted:The simple fact was that there wasn't any more money. Bodie and the other Barksdale people were getting their package from Marlo or Joe, they had no reason to pay Avon a cut. I'm sure he had some money put away and he had various fronts that may have been paying him a small amount, but it wasn't enough to keep paying DeLonda as he had been. Should have gotten into the copy shop game
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# ? Feb 26, 2024 00:45 |
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Stringer smugly explaining how the mobile phone market was clearly saturated and he'd sold all his stock still cracks me up
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# ? Feb 26, 2024 00:53 |
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Jerusalem posted:Stringer smugly explaining how the mobile phone market was clearly saturated and he'd sold all his stock still cracks me up The look that his henchmen give each other in that scene is top notch face acting
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# ? Feb 26, 2024 01:04 |
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Jerusalem posted:Stringer smugly explaining how the mobile phone market was clearly saturated and he'd sold all his stock still cracks me up Big "I've taken Intro to Econ and now I'm an expert on the market" energy from Mr. Bell.
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# ? Feb 26, 2024 03:28 |
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Now that we have the gift of hindsight, i'm curious if someone could calculate how well that investment would have worked out for string
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# ? Feb 26, 2024 05:26 |
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Ainsley McTree posted:Now that we have the gift of hindsight, i'm curious if someone could calculate how well that investment would have worked out for string Yale has got you covered.
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# ? Feb 26, 2024 06:46 |
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son of a bitch, he made the right call
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# ? Feb 26, 2024 09:38 |
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He wasn't smart, he just got lucky with that trade. At that time, nobody could have predicted Apple would enter the market with a revolutionary product that would push most of the incumbents out. Of course, if he was a real capitalist he would have taken credit for it regardless.
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# ? Feb 26, 2024 09:55 |
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Ithle01 posted:Not well. He has Omar's boyfriend tortured to death and displayed as a message then puts out a contract on Omar. Once Omar tries to kill Avon the two make a fragile peace that is obviously a trap and a wounded Omar leaves town rather than risk being killed. I thought the first part was more Stringer than Avon. Welp.
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# ? Feb 26, 2024 12:51 |
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Orange Devil posted:I thought the first part was more Stringer than Avon. Welp. True, it's Stringer handling business for Avon, but this is season 1 so we can assume that this has Avon's blessing and is more or less exactly what he wanted. When Stringer and Avon are talking about Omar I don't remember there being any sign of them being out of agreement. It's been a few years though.
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# ? Feb 26, 2024 12:56 |
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roomtone posted:son of a bitch, he made the right call
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# ? Feb 26, 2024 13:24 |
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Konstantin posted:The simple fact was that there wasn't any more money. Bodie and the other Barksdale people were getting their package from Marlo or Joe, they had no reason to pay Avon a cut. I'm sure he had some money put away and he had various fronts that may have been paying him a small amount, but it wasn't enough to keep paying DeLonda as he had been. Stringer and Avon had literally millions though, even when money stops coming in it would take a long time for those millions to dry up. And while I can see then cutting people off, this isn't jettisoning pawns like Poot and Bodie. Weebay is not only inner circle, he is the only one left of the inner circle, he is carrying a lot of years for Avon and he is right there beside him in jail. If Weebay isn't getting any support then nobody is, and considering Weebay knows that Avon has millions, I have to imagine conversation between the two is going to get very strained from that point on.
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# ? Feb 26, 2024 14:41 |
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quote:- I was uncertain whether Tom Hammerschmidt Marimow was intentionally sabotaging the major crime unit on command's orders or just deeply incompetent, but I love that it turned out to be the latter. I always assumed he was sabotaging units through incompetence, and that if you asked him he thought he was doing a great job. The intentional part came from Rawls knowing what would happen and making use of it. Its Rawls that called him the unit killer after all. And Marimow looked genuinely annoyed when he messed up those raids.
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# ? Feb 26, 2024 14:45 |
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Rawls is an absolutely brilliantly written character and John Doman kills it. You may think he's just gonna be an archetypal rear end in a top hat in charge and then he ends up with a massive amount of depth.
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# ? Feb 26, 2024 15:06 |
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Starts to show his depth when he calls McNulty a gaping rear end in a top hat.
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# ? Feb 26, 2024 15:50 |
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roomtone posted:son of a bitch, he made the right call Only for stopped-clock reasons though, Nokia and Motorola didn't lose value because there were too many cell phones around already, they lost value because they couldn't keep up with Apple on smartphones.
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# ? Feb 26, 2024 16:33 |
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He would have doubled his money if he held them until 2006-2007 and then sold. He just flat out failed, like he did with everything else. WithoutTheFezOn fucked around with this message at 18:28 on Feb 26, 2024 |
# ? Feb 26, 2024 18:26 |
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Stringer Bell, the most relatable fictional character in history
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# ? Feb 26, 2024 22:22 |
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Episodes 7-10 of season 4: - Stabbed up the rear end is a really tough way to lose a fight. - Thanks for not blowing Prez's cover, Bubs. - There's not a lot of afternoon-special to this show, but one thing it's very consistent about is showing that the life of an addict living on the streets is a nonstop series of violations to your extremely vulnerable person. gently caress that psychopath who keeps bullying Bubs, and double-gently caress that cop Walker who spends all his days robbing and abusing people. - Herc is such a do-nothing dipshit that it's easy to overlook him in the Biggest rear end in a top hat power rankings, but he just sucks. Always willing to sink to the lowest level he can feasibly get away with. gently caress him for leaving Bubbles out to dry. - It was a small sample size, but Spider's actor seemed shockingly bad. - Pretty good that absolutely everyone involved in the polygraph knew that polygraphs are bullshit and never pretended otherwise. - Thought for sure that Dennis was about to get shot trying to protect that dope Namond; that little scene was one of the highest-tension moments in the show's whole run to me. - Your lieutenant is, what, seven years old Namond? Good loving luck. - The best thing going for Marlo or his crew is how much of a weirdo Snoop is. Also, what a perfect name for her. I liked her sincere look of distress at the loss of her nailgun. - It's pretty silly that two of the characters we were on-track to lose at the end of season 3 both end up working at the same school. I like following Colvin and Prez's stories but that's a stretch. - Lester, you sonnuva bitch, you did it again! Big win for Pearlman. - Seemed kind of crazy for Kima to be doing field work in those heels, let alone burst into an unknown house gun drawn with multiple people inside, but fair enough I guess. I do like that the show's rare forensic scenes are usually dialogue-free. - That little entrapment scene while Carcetti is on the ridealong was some real bullshit. They took his bike! - "The job isn't about picking the stories we like best." - hoo boy, what a line - "And he who owes his good fortune to the numbers, abides by them." - another banger - Fuzzy Dunlop gets namedropped in the same episode that introduces Sydney Handjerker? Beautiful. - Loved Prop Joe's little acting showcase there. If they had done a spinoff show, he would have probably been one of the best options to lead it. - Whole lotta bad parents this season, although De'Londa is still leading the pack. loving horrendous. - I forgot to mention this in previous posts, but thank god they stopped saying "suction" every two minutes in this show. When it still pops up occasionally I feel a chill; what an awful bit of slang. - Poot looks a little better with a bit of facial scruff and a crewneck instead of those polos. - Good "passing the bar" joke, Kima. A+ work. - How many times is it going to be a plot point or emphasized in dialogue this season that Dennis loves banging chicks? - I'm obviously familiar with the idea of teaching the test, but it's wild to have every class not only directly teaching the questions but all in the same unit (language arts) regardless of the class's subject. Oof. - I haven't mentioned him before, but noting for the record that the cop who looks like the prototype for Jon Bernthal with the half-shaved head has now spent multiple seasons as the generic Bad Cop. - Good on the writers for making the other shoe drop with Namond's hair. You really can tell that poo poo from a mile away. - When the bottomless pit of corruption Clay Davis left the room, Carcetti's "jesus christ!" and audible sigh of relief made me laugh. - Clay Davis is the living embodiment of Mac's "I'm playing both sides, that way I always end up on top" meme, except it actually works. - "It's bad in there. I don't know if it's THAT bad." - Of course Burrell hears "maybe try doing some police work so that firing you isn't as obviously desirable" and his solution is to literally double-down on the useless bullshit. Burrell continues to have absolutely zero redeeming qualities. - "Oh, man! My brew! My shoes!!!" - Nobody does a bemused expression like Bunny Colvin. Perfect casting for the guy whose existence is running a new wacky scheme each year. - "We have 45 minutes left. We can do Last of the Mohicans-NO!!!" - Interesting that it's unclear why exactly Michael wants his dad (or maybe just Bug's dad, not certain on that one) dead. Chris's assumption is that he's a child abuser, but I don't think Michael ever says that directly. I guess you can infer that his discomfort with any level of physical touch between him or Bug and the guy stems from that, but it could also be abandonment issues. - The first Ben Carson reference from the show made me nostalgic, but the second one (not by name, just allusion) from Bunk about his younger son... is his son the one in Colvin's class? Didn't look the same to me, but would be really weird to do that if not.
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# ? Feb 28, 2024 04:02 |
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surf rock posted:- Of course Burrell hears "maybe try doing some police work so that firing you isn't as obviously desirable" and his solution is to literally double-down on the useless bullshit. Burrell continues to have absolutely zero redeeming qualities. + killer short putting game + impeccable cop-stache
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# ? Feb 28, 2024 04:25 |
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Randallteal posted:+ killer short putting game
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# ? Feb 28, 2024 04:29 |
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surf rock posted:- Interesting that it's unclear why exactly Michael wants his dad (or maybe just Bug's dad, not certain on that one) dead. Chris's assumption is that he's a child abuser, but I don't think Michael ever says that directly. I guess you can infer that his discomfort with any level of physical touch between him or Bug and the guy stems from that, but it could also be abandonment issues.
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# ? Feb 28, 2024 04:36 |
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surf rock posted:- The best thing going for Marlo or his crew is how much of a weirdo Snoop is. Also, what a perfect name for her. I liked her sincere look of distress at the loss of her nailgun. Fun behind-the-scenes stuff: Snoop was actually a Baltimore gangbanger in a previous life and Snoop is her real nickname. Robert Chew is an acting coach and coached several of the child actors on the set.
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# ? Feb 28, 2024 04:45 |
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surf rock posted:- Fuzzy Dunlop gets namedropped in the same episode that introduces Sydney Handjerker? Beautiful. God it's so good when he makes those phone calls. I especially love that even with everything he knows, from his perspective it does appear like the detective who approached Marlo is actually a major player and a dangerous adversary - his facial expressions as he jumps from the police department to the Mayor's office and then over to Major Crimes are fantastic on top of the voices and names. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyewqmAKHto
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# ? Feb 28, 2024 04:47 |
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surf rock posted:- I'm obviously familiar with the idea of teaching the test, but it's wild to have every class not only directly teaching the questions but all in the same unit (language arts) regardless of the class's subject. Oof. Season 4 is set in 2005/2006 where this kind of stuff was common practice in schools throughout the US, it was peak No Child Left Behind era. I graduated in 2005 and throughout highschool we had an entire class that we all attended for several hours a week that literally taught us how to cheat at standardized tests - they taught us about common answer patterns and all kinds of "test-taking strategies" like how to deduce the right answer without even reading the question (e.g. "if one answer is significantly longer than the others it's virtually guaranteed to be the right answer, so select it and skip the question"). It was all focused around English and Math no matter what teacher was teaching it, because those were the only things our standardized tests covered. Also it was generally taught by teachers of other subjects (science, non-English languages, art, social studies, history, etc) so that the English/Math teachers could keep teaching us English & Math like normal. deep dish peat moss fucked around with this message at 05:51 on Feb 28, 2024 |
# ? Feb 28, 2024 05:29 |
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# ? Oct 6, 2024 02:56 |
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surf rock posted:Episodes 7-10 of season 4: these two points are kind of intertwined, that and part of Dennis' own journey is that his actions have consequences, such as Spider and other boys leaving his gym because he almost immediately sleeps with their moms. He wants to be a good influence, but he doesn't realise that by doing what he's doing, he's upsetting his students. However, when it comes to Michael, you get a lot of not so subtle hints that Bug's dad did some very bad things. When the other boys talk about how much Dennis is sleeping around, Michael immediately cuts in that that doesn't mean he doesn't also like men or that he wouldn't go after kids (I don't think he SAYS that, but you definitely get that's what he means based off of the anger and venom in his delivery). When Dennis takes them to see a real fight and he is talking about the discipline that's required to get to that level, Michael still isn't buying what he's selling and Dennis doesn't pick up why Michael isn't pleased. Same when it comes to the "boy, I do love the ladies", I think part of that is Dennis having very little experience as a teacher (I mean, he'd been in prison for 20 years or something?), and realising in that moment that, yeah, it probably doesn't look good that the local gym owner sleeps with every woman that gives him a casserole. Dennis is very good at boxing and he gets really into it, that's fine for some kids, but for ones that have experiences like Michael, their armour hardens as soon as the authority figure starts taking special notice of them. The other issue is that Michael doesn't trust male authority figures that approach him the way Dennis does, you see the difference in how he talks with Chris and how he responds to Dennis. Chris doesn't hide who he is, and Dennis isn't either, but he's also doing all the wrong things (how would he know different?) to demonstrate to Michael that he's not trying to take advantage of him.
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# ? Feb 28, 2024 07:15 |