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Yeah, with Chris, Michael knows EXACTLY what he wants from him, and that exchange - soldiering in exchange for protection/money/housing - is completely fine with him. He doesn't have to worry about ulterior motives (real or imagined) because it's already completely out in the open.
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Feb 28, 2024 07:39
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| # ? Oct 13, 2024 18:45 |
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I'd say that Dennis very much picks up on Michael's discomfort and the reason for it, which is exactly why he makes that awkward "Boy, I do love the women" comment. Michael just doesn't buy it, because it comes off as insincere.
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Feb 28, 2024 08:56
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Aces High posted:it probably doesn't look good that the local gym owner sleeps with every woman that gives him a casserole. the game is the game
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Feb 28, 2024 11:36
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Spend 20 years locked up and then have women just throwing themselves at you before you judge Dennis.
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Feb 28, 2024 12:34
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...how good were the casseroles
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Feb 28, 2024 12:41
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Jerusalem posted:Yeah, with Chris, Michael knows EXACTLY what he wants from him, and that exchange - soldiering in exchange for protection/money/housing - is completely fine with him. He doesn't have to worry about ulterior motives (real or imagined) because it's already completely out in the open. This is a nice concise way to put it, helps me understand the character more. It's kinda prison rules. Don't take gifts-- because they aren't free. Fits as well with Michae'ls refusal of Marlo's money.
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Feb 28, 2024 13:25
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the kids' faces in the scene where dennis apologizes. Some of them are like okay, whatever. Some don't buy it. Some are like "wait, what?!"
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Feb 28, 2024 13:28
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God Hole posted:...how good were the casseroles Significantly better than prison food I would imagine
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Feb 28, 2024 13:36
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Orange Devil posted:Spend 20 years locked up and then have women just throwing themselves at you before you judge Dennis. what Dennis and another consenting woman do are their own business. I was merely saying that, yes, there's a plot reason for showing off how much he loves women, it's part of his arc. The first time I watched the series I wasn't 100% what was happening, I thought he was accepting their gifts in a "well, I don't have a LOT of money, so I'll get a decent dinner tonight" way, it wasn't until Spider left that it clicked.
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Feb 28, 2024 17:23
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Apropos of nothing, and having not done a rewatch of the show in a long time, I realized recently that a majority of the time anyone says "It's going to be an XX degree day" that I think of the dumb guy muscle excitedly saying "We'll be on them like a 40 degree day!!" I had to tell someone how my dumb brain works and I have no one in my life who would understand the reference, so you're welcome I guess.
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Feb 28, 2024 18:54
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deep dish peat moss posted: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. Does this mean it’s improved?
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Feb 28, 2024 19:29
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theblackw0lf posted:Does this mean it’s improved? lol No everyone knows it doesn't work but it's still done everywhere
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Feb 28, 2024 19:41
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And closing out season 4: - Season rankings: 3 > 4 > 1 > 2 - It's been a relief to have only a scene or two of McNulty each episode this season. That's the right amount. - Good on Prez for confronting Carver about handing Randy off to Herc. Carver, you partnered with Herc for how long and still don't understand that he's a gently caress-up that can't be trusted with anything? - Guess Carver can't be trusted with anything, either. Didn't expect a firebombing this season, jesus. That walk down the hospital hallway is gonna stick with ya. - I was impressed that he tried to take on the foster parent responsibility himself. Of course that ends with yet another disaster. Just an endless stream of disasters. - It's nice that nobody seemed mad at Dukie for running to get help. Dukie's not a fighter. Pretty rough to see Dukie end up working the corner too. - Not surprised that Michael's story this season ends with him becoming a soldier for Marlo. - I kind of expected there to be another shoe that would drop about corruption in the school being why the computer/textbooks were down there. I guess maybe that's a clue about the upcoming budget deficit. - I would be more excited about Freamon getting back the major crimes unit if I didn't know there was another season left, but I'm not sure this is the happy ending it appears to be. The immediate discovery of the subpoena returns did make me laugh, as did the editing back-and-forth between the documents and the fundraiser. - "Can you fix this, Joe?" --> "What's the problem?" --> "Ran out of time." - Appreciate how consistent it's been over the course of the show that Omar isn't just smart, he's well-prepared. He's always doing recon for the next thing. - That said, I had no idea the co-op was a secret until Omar discovered it. Just seemed like the kind of thing that would've inevitably leaked out past the top brass by this point. - I got a bit lost with Omar's story in the second half of the season. After making his promise to Bunk, he initially went to threaten Andre, realized Andre had been killed by Marlo so he started trailing Marlo, then he saw Marlo connecting with Slim Charles and started following him. Slim Charles also met with Prop Joe, which confused Omar and eventually led him to discovering the co-op's existence. Then Omar threatens Prop Joe about lying to him about the card game and asks for info on how to steal Marlo's next package, or else he'll go tell Marlo that his tipoff about the card game was from Prop Joe. Prop Joe agrees and gives him a phone, but Omar starts tailing Cheese to his meeting with Marlo, and then again to the eventual delivery. Prop Joe tries calling him, but Omar ignores it since he already knows where the delivery is taking place. I think I've got all of that right, but the actual robbery is what confuses me. I understand that instead of just stealing Marlo's portion of the shipment, Omar's crew steals the entire shipment. Then that gets divvied up between the various crew members, but Omar goes and tells Prop Joe he'll sell him back the shipment for 20 cents on the dollar. I guess the idea is that Omar just decided that, while taking his revenge, he might as well pull off a huge score too, and that he kept enough of the shipment to match Prop Joe and Marlo's shares specifically? I dunno, lot of moving pieces on that one. - Very funny that Prop Joe told Marlo that the price was 30 cents on the dollar. - "Dignity, I say! Dignity above all!" - Namond asking Mike to be his backup to talk with baby Kenard is pretty embarrassing. - "I ain't want it." - well, he got there eventually, at least. But of course he backslides the next day and doubles down in an even more embarrassing way before finally giving up the illusion for good. - Every scene we've had of Wee-Bey since season one just makes me think that we got robbed of him too early. - Sherrod poisoning himself was telegraphed clear as day. Bubs, you gotta warn your partner if you're gonna leave poison lying around! - I did a legitimate Luke-finding-out-Vader-is-his-dad NOOOOOOOOOOO! when Jay opened that door and Bubbles was hanging there. I'm still recovering from losing Frank Sobotka, you can't do this to me. - "Like I ain't who I am, right?" - Not shocking that Dennis got himself shot, although he handled the high dude well enough earlier in the season that I thought he might've played that situation smarter. Even less shocking that Dennis ended up with the hot nurse. Big romcom vibes from their first scene. - The corpse gymnasium is a good setpiece. That bit of Cedric backstory makes me think maybe that other shoe from the Eastern District days is going to drop after all. - I'm still waiting for a dead prostitute to tumble out of Carcetti's closet so the putting-his-ambition-above-the-schools thing didn't catch my attention much. - We finally got to the fireworks factory with Bodie this season. Cylburn Arboretum was a nice setting for his penultimate sendoff. "...I feel old.  "
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Feb 29, 2024 02:01
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Omar stole a lot of drugs. Lots. Being in his kind of work, the logistics of getting it all sold and turned into cash would be difficult, to say the least. Taking 20% of its price to not have the hassle, and get rid of it all at once, is a reasonable solution.
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Feb 29, 2024 02:59
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Aces High posted: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. Once those boys grow up though they'll understand the desire to sleep with every woman who makes you a casserole.
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Feb 29, 2024 03:05
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WithoutTheFezOn posted:Omar stole a lot of drugs. Lots. Yes, I understand that. I don't understand how Omar simultaneously divided up the shipment between the crew and is also selling the shipment back to Prop Joe.
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Feb 29, 2024 03:07
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Presumably the people taking the smaller quantities could sell it along for a lot closer to retail than Omar could.
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Feb 29, 2024 03:10
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surf rock posted:And closing out season 4: No, this is pretty much working as intended. It's normal for teachers to have no idea what the gently caress resources we're supposed to have access to and for employees to be clueless about what's even in the building or how money is being spent. In a school like this in Baltimore there is, shall we say, a high turnover rate of staff so stuff gets lost easily. Also, schools often get grants or gifts that get lost or misfiled so it's normal for supplies to disappear, for example a teacher files a grant application, sends it out, the application gets lost or delayed somehow, and then literally years later it gets resolved and poo poo just shows up one day. Or maybe a teacher wanted to "clean up the clutter" and accidentally stashed supplies somewhere without telling anyone else (or God forbid, just decided to throw out thousands of dollars of materials for no loving reason). Or maybe a department chair has been squirreling supplies away and then retired or disappeared and didn't bother to inform anyone about their stash. edit: also the budget deficit is because public schools are underfunded as gently caress and No Child Behind (backed by both parties I might add) decided that the best way to motivate schools was to tie funding to standardized test performance. I think it goes without saying the Baltimore school system tends to do poorly on standardized tests. Also No Child Left Behind required schools to drop a poo poo ton of cash on educating kids with special needs and stuff like that (a good thing), but then whoops the federal money that was supposed to make that happen never actually manifested. Ithle01 fucked around with this message at 03:19 on Feb 29, 2024 |
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Feb 29, 2024 03:12
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surf rock posted:- It's been a relief to have only a scene or two of McNulty each episode this season. That's the right amount.
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Feb 29, 2024 03:15
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God I forgot all this happens in S4. Everything Bubbles after Sherrod is absolutely devastating.
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Feb 29, 2024 03:15
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There's a ton of poo poo in S4 because on top of the other ongoing plots, they add Cutty and his sideplot, along with all of those kid characters I have no idea how they managed to balance all of that into something cohesive.
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Feb 29, 2024 03:17
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surf rock posted:Yes, I understand that. I don't understand how Omar simultaneously divided up the shipment between the crew and is also selling the shipment back to Prop Joe.
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Feb 29, 2024 03:33
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Now onto the circle jerk season
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Feb 29, 2024 03:45
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Season 4 covers education, a subject that was VERY close to Ed Burns because in addition to being a former cop he was a former teacher. This gave him real insight, but he needed David Simon there to help keep him in check and make sure his personal feelings didn't override the quality of the writing and characterization. Season 5 covers newspapers, a subject that was VERY close to David Simon due to his former job as a journalist for the Baltimore Sun. Ed Burns was off doing pre-production on Generation Kill.
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Feb 29, 2024 07:09
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I could turn those textbooks around for an easy profit
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Feb 29, 2024 23:55
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surf rock posted:And closing out season 4: The really fun thing is that this will change every time you rewatch. zenguitarman posted:God I forgot all this happens in S4. Everything Bubbles after Sherrod is absolutely devastating. Even Jay's heart grew three sizes after that. Which is bad since it was already enlarged.
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Mar 1, 2024 04:41
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he bought all the porn mags and hot dogs in a corner store. We all deal with grief+trauma in our own way.
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Mar 1, 2024 05:01
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Rev. Bleech_ posted:The really fun thing is that this will change every time you rewatch. Yep. Season 2 is always at the bottom of every first time viewer's list
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Mar 1, 2024 12:55
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I enjoyed season 2 as someone who just recently watched the series for the first time. It’s just not quite as good as the strongest seasons.
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Mar 1, 2024 14:00
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Season 2 is objectively the second best season.
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Mar 1, 2024 14:11
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Orange Devil posted:Season 2 is objectively the second best season. For me I think the order would be 2, 4, 1, 3 and 5.
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Mar 1, 2024 14:14
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PriorMarcus posted:For me I think the order would be 2, 4, 1, 3 and 5. I agree, although I flip back and forth between 2 and 4 being the best
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Mar 1, 2024 14:48
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Season 2 has been my favorite since the first watch. Chris Bauer is the loving man.
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Mar 1, 2024 16:03
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Hell yeah, looks like it https://twitter.com/realchrisbauer/status/1653264475896844288?s=20
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Mar 1, 2024 16:06
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I saw him later in an episode of Brooklyn 99 and thought “wow he lost a lot of weight” but apparently he was wearing a fat suit for the wire? A choice as subtle as it was arguably not necessary, if I had to have an opinion about it
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Mar 1, 2024 16:09
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Ainsley McTree posted:I saw him later in an episode of Brooklyn 99 and thought “wow he lost a lot of weight” but apparently he was wearing a fat suit for the wire? A choice as subtle as it was arguably not necessary, if I had to have an opinion about it Surprised the hell out of me, too. But I'd argue it was necessary to sell the character. Of course he'd be out of shape -- he isn't working the docks like the loaders (except near the end when he's doing it as an escape), he doesn't really exercise or take care of himself, and he eats lovely calorie dense food out of stress. I think the physicality shows that in a way that a lean character wouldnt.
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Mar 1, 2024 16:25
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Reminds me of Nick Offerman for Parks and Rec. I recall him saying he'd basically eat an extra food at every meal just to get to Ron's size.
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Mar 1, 2024 16:46
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Entering season 5 with episodes 1-4: - After listening again to each, my final ranking of each season's opening song rendition: 1 > 3 > 5 > 4 > 2 - Oh no, there was a mix-up at the dream factory and this season is Oops! All McNulty! - Who would have ever guessed that McNulty would be a disaster upon leaving patrol, up to and including cheating on Beadie? And he doesn't pay for news, either! - And of course McNulty has plummeted from the wagon too, and he's somehow now significantly worse than he was at the start of season one. - Honestly, to some extent it feels pretty lazy to just have everything go from a mixture of good/bad to just total poo poo between seasons. About the only thing that has gotten better is Michael isn't quite as hardboiled as he seemed by the end of season four. - An adventure to Six Flags! And hey, Dukie's got game. - It was a good idea to have Marlo hold court outdoors initially. Pretty distinctive. No surprise that's over now. - Also, someone finally noticed a white guy with loving binoculars on a rooftop at all hours of the day! About time! - Carcetti looking at his campaign consultant before every single decision and demanding to know what the crime stats were is pretty rich. - Also, Norman's right. In terms of Carcetti's political ambitions, turning down the money didn't accomplish anything because who's gonna elect the mayor of a dying city to be governor? It was just his ego from the governor making him wait and then requiring a press conference. - Could not give less of a gently caress about the cops not getting overtime pay. Like hell they don't have the money to pay a drat bar tab. - Herc just keeps failing upward. - Sydnor being like "no, I don't remember that detail about a case I wasn't involved in" is simultaneously very satisfying as an attentive viewer and also feels like something they added just to allow for McNulty's expository dialogue without annoying what I'm sure was a rabid internet fanbase at the time. - I'd heard that this season added the press to the show's various institutional focuses, and I had worried that that would feel very antiquated. So far, it has. As funny as the show's occasional scene has been where people get blown away by now-commonplace technology (burners! texting! search engines!), those moments were also really few and far between over the past four seasons. - With the press stuff, I know it's accurate for when it's set, but it feels more like a time capsule than anything resonant now. They thought they were struggling with the first few rounds of buyouts/layoffs and unfilled positions, but the endless waves of devastation that came after makes this feel like a fantasyland. It just stands out to me because so much of the show still feels so contemporary, and this is the last season so you'd expect it to feel the CLOSEST to the present day. The obliteration of the media outside of the NYT has just been staggering. - "At this rate, there won't be much to call a newspaper in 10 years." - pretty close estimate! - Scott is such a little prick, ugh. - I thought Dee-Dee at the narcotics anonymous meeting at the start of episode two must've been Eliza Dushku's younger sister or something; the resemblance was uncanny. - As always, ACAB, but Bunk's many little schemes (the McDonalds driveby! the Xerox polygraph!) are entertaining. - "Tough gig, mother of four." - One thing I've been wondering about ever since her last appearance in (I think) early season two is what Shardene's up to. Curious whether she and Freamon are still together. - "If you leave everything in, soon you've got nothing." - Gale Boetticher is here! So interesting that these shows just barely overlapped. - And Avon is back! Long overdue, jesus. The visitation between him and Marlo just re-exposed Marlo's lack of charisma. - The FBI guy who's inexplicably buddies with McNulty is such a plot device. I'm glad he got one fun scene with the car tag stuff after five seasons. - "Ain't no other way. I can see that." - aw, man, not Butchie. - Fun to see Omar bopping around a tropical island. - "What the gently caress, Lester?" - - Knowing now that the other shoe to drop about the Eastern District was skimming from drug money seizures... that's so lightweight. I mean, we saw Herc and Carver doing it in season one. It's the cop equivalent of jaywalking. The closest equivalent I can think of between how I feel about seasons 1-3 versus 4-5 of this show is the anime Death Note. In Death Note, it was much more interesting to follow Light vs. L than it was to follow Light vs. Near/Mello. In this show, it was much more interesting to follow The Law vs. Avon/Stringer than it is to follow The Law vs. Marlo Stanfield. Especially with Marlo knocking off the other characters who were keeping the street part of the story afloat, like Bodie and Prop Joe.
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Mar 1, 2024 17:15
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surf rock posted:The closest equivalent I can think of between how I feel about seasons 1-3 versus 4-5 of this show is the anime Death Note. In Death Note, it was much more interesting to follow Light vs. L than it was to follow Light vs. Near/Mello. In this show, it was much more interesting to follow The Law vs. Avon/Stringer than it is to follow The Law vs. Marlo Stanfield. Especially with Marlo knocking off the other characters who were keeping the street part of the story afloat, like Bodie and Prop Joe. Marlo never really fully came together for me either, but then I also felt that Season 3 was treading water with the Avon gang and I was relieved when they all got dealt with, it's been interesting seeing you so invested in them.
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Mar 1, 2024 17:21
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You will have your question answered about Freamon’s love life but not until later
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Mar 1, 2024 17:58
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