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Professor Beetus
Apr 12, 2007

Zesty Mordant posted:

One of the basic truths this show tries to get across is the complex answer to this question. In regular fantasy TV, yes, all the police and judges and politicians are on the same team and they act as such. In real life, as portrayed by this show anyway... well, if you watch the whole thing, you'll see how profoundly disturbing the the truthful answer of "they're supposed to be" is.

I mean jfc in my hometown there's beef between two different non-profit organizations dedicated to helping victims of domestic violence because HUMAN BEINGS CANNOT HAVE NICE THINGS. For gently caress's sake "being on the same team" means for poo poo.

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Alec Bald Snatch
Sep 12, 2012

by exmarx

drunken officeparty posted:

I mean I understand the very basic gist of what is going on to move the plot forward but they talk about all these different offices and branches and ranks and how they interact with each other and my eyes just glaze over understanding none of it. I know he isn't supposed to be talking to the judge about things, I don't know why though. I mean they are on the same team and everything right?

All the higher level police, district attorney, and judge seats are either elected positions or political appointees, so they're playing a larger game beyond law enforcement. It's important to the ongoing plot, and explained in greater detail as the show goes on.

UFOTacoMan
Sep 22, 2005

Thanks easter bunny!
bok bok!
I saw this on another site today, there's spoilers if you go to the link.

quote:

That Orange Couch
[Vincent] Peranio: The orange couch came from a dumpster, the first day we were scouting up in Marble Hill. It was perfect. We weren’t going to start for another month, so I had them put it in one of the vacant houses to hold. And we used it. It ended up being a central part of the pilot.

The pilot was over and everything was dispersed. And then a month later [The Wire] got picked up. We certainly didn’t expect it to get picked up that fast. So I was talking with my decorator and said, “Well, it’s a good thing we still have that couch.” And he went mute. I said, “Oh no, you didn’t throw that couch away, did you?” It’s like a centerpiece for the show. He said, “Yeah, we did.”

We had to make that couch. Make the frame, send away to Scalamandre in London for the fabric because they were the only place that had crushed orange velvet. It was not popular at the time we were shooting the show. Then we had to age it, split it, pull the stuffing out. It ended up being a $5,000 couch. But we made it as close as possible to the other couch. I don’t think anybody knew. We didn’t even tell the producers.

http://americantelevisionblog.wordpress.com/2012/11/18/that-orange-couch/

Star Platinum
May 5, 2010
Yeah, I've been rewatching S1 for the first time after seeing all the other seasons twice, and just being aware of who everyone is makes it almost feel like a completely new season. It's nice to see the "beginnings" of all the characters, for instance I had forgotten that Bubbles started snitching on the Barksdales as payback for beating up Johnny. I was also amused by Prez's "move, shitbird!" before pistol-whipping that kid.

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
drat I'm actually kind of jealous, but also sympathetic of the guy that is watching for the first time and doesn't understand why Mcnulty going to the judge was a bad thing. It must be incredibly disturbing to begin the show with the idea that all the law enforcement people are "on the same team", only for the disgusting, rotten insides of the department to be gradually revealed to you over the course of the first few seasons.

thathonkey
Jul 17, 2012
I am in the minority i think but s1 is probably my favorite season (very very tough call to make). Especially on re-viewings. It also has one of the bigger surprises of the entire series (Kima getting shot).

Also re: shitbird... Is that Baltimore cop slang? I had never heard it before watching the Wire but LEOs on the show say it quite often to perps.

Alec Bald Snatch
Sep 12, 2012

by exmarx
It's really common in the military.

UFOTacoMan
Sep 22, 2005

Thanks easter bunny!
bok bok!
I believe the most pressing question about "poo poo bird" is: is it a bird that hangs around poo poo or a bird that is just terrible at being a bird?

gingerberger
Jun 20, 2014

Gotta love my Squirtle Swag

UFOTofuTacoCat posted:

I believe the most pressing question about "poo poo bird" is: is it a bird that hangs around poo poo or a bird that is just terrible at being a bird?

Or a bird that's made out of poo poo.

When I first started watching I thought they were calling people poo poo-bergs, like an iceberg made of poo poo instead of ice.

Ainsley McTree
Feb 19, 2004


gingerberger posted:

Or a bird that's made out of poo poo.

When I first started watching I thought they were calling people poo poo-bergs, like an iceberg made of poo poo instead of ice.

Shitberg would make more sense, but it would also be kind of antisemitic.

bucketybuck
Apr 8, 2012

thathonkey posted:

I am in the minority i think but s1 is probably my favorite season (very very tough call to make).

Its my favourite season because it is objectively the best season.

Sam.
Jan 1, 2009

"I thought we had something, Shepard. Something real."
:qq:
I would say season 3 is my favorite because the Neville Brothers are awesome and Stringer Bell is my favorite character.

Riled Shareef
Dec 19, 2013
I think I gotta give the second season my favor. I just loved the blue collar setting and the tragic tale of the Sobotka family. The evil Greeks. Oh man, guess I have to rewatch it again now.

gingerberger
Jun 20, 2014

Gotta love my Squirtle Swag

Sam. posted:

I would say season 3 is my favorite because the Neville Brothers are awesome and Stringer Bell is my favorite character.

I agree. I love the stringer avon dynamics at the end. The scene where they're in the rooftop is great

Harry
Jun 13, 2003

I do solemnly swear that in the year 2015 I will theorycraft my wallet as well as my WoW
I recently finished the series and enjoyed it quite a bit. I forgot it came out so long ago (pay phones lol) so it was fun to watch what tv shows were like back then. I wasn't a big fan of season 2 at first, but I didn't like how it opened up the baltimore drug world a lot. I'd say season 3 was my favorite, with the reveal that Clay Davis was full of poo poo even though it was a little obvious towards the end. I did like Marlowe and crew, but god drat they were hard to understand most of the time besides Chris.

Harry fucked around with this message at 02:55 on Jul 18, 2014

TryAgainBragg
May 5, 2014
This show never fails to live up to the hype on rewatches, I have yet to find a better series. Another s3 fan, between Hamsterdam, the Barksdales,Omar and the squad it just felt really satisfying. Best line is Lester: "You put fire to everything you touch McNulty then you walk away while it burns."

gingerberger
Jun 20, 2014

Gotta love my Squirtle Swag

TryAgainBragg posted:

This show never fails to live up to the hype on rewatches, I have yet to find a better series. Another s3 fan, between Hamsterdam, the Barksdales,Omar and the squad it just felt really satisfying. Best line is Lester: "You put fire to everything you touch McNulty then you walk away while it burns."

Moral of the story? Lester is a bad mother fucker.

thathonkey
Jul 17, 2012
My personal ranking goes something like:

* season 1
* season 3
* season 4 (tied with s3)
* season 2
* season 5

But we know they're all loving excellent and each time I rewatch s1 i end up rewatching the entire series without fail. I think i have seen the entire thing 6 times now. I pick up on new things every time too. It has to be the most dense and rich show of all time.

PS. To those saying they have trouble understanding the dialogue, i really recommend turning on closed captioning.

thathonkey fucked around with this message at 03:02 on Jul 18, 2014

McNerd
Aug 28, 2007

thathonkey posted:

PS. To those saying they have trouble understanding the dialogue, i really recommend turning on closed captioning.
This is the way to go. But don't trust it 100%, at least not if you're watching on Amazon; their captions are pretty atrocious.

thathonkey
Jul 17, 2012

McNerd posted:

This is the way to go. But don't trust it 100%, at least not if you're watching on Amazon; their captions are pretty atrocious.

Yeah I have noticed that about other shows on Amazon. Hulu is especially bad too (and usually out of sync as an insult to injury).

HBO Go has the best all around.

thathonkey fucked around with this message at 03:02 on Jul 18, 2014

TryAgainBragg
May 5, 2014

gingerberger posted:

Moral of the story? Lester is a bad mother fucker.

And a perfect judge of character

McNerd
Aug 28, 2007
One of my favorite scenes is when Daniels does his Lester impression to tease Pearlman.

thathonkey posted:

Yeah I have noticed that about other shows on Amazon. Hulu is especially bad too (and usually out of sync as an insult to injury).

HBO Go has the best all around.
I've heard the DVDs are good too, unsurprisingly.

Strange that this is even an issue. Don't they get the rights to HBO's captions along with the rest? It sure seems like a big waste of money to have someone go back through and re-transcribe the whole show. I can understand redoing it for the DVDs if they wanted to improve on the original, especially for a show like this where the language is tricky to get right; but if you're just going to mess it up, why bother?

gingerberger
Jun 20, 2014

Gotta love my Squirtle Swag

McNerd posted:

One of my favorite scenes is when Daniels does his Lester impression to tease Pearlman.

I've heard the DVDs are good too, unsurprisingly.

Strange that this is even an issue. Don't they get the rights to HBO's captions along with the rest? It sure seems like a big waste of money to have someone go back through and re-transcribe the whole show. I can understand redoing it for the DVDs if they wanted to improve on the original, especially for a show like this where the language is tricky to get right; but if you're just going to mess it up, why bother?

Can confirm DVDs are good, don't remember having any issue with them

drunken officeparty
Aug 23, 2006

The actor that plays McNulty could easily be Willem Dafoe's son.

ShaneMacGowansTeeth
May 22, 2007



I think this is it... I think this is how it ends
Oh look who's back together



:allears:

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo
Dominic West is turning into Garry Shandling it seems.

CeeJee
Dec 4, 2001
Oven Wrangler

ShaneMacGowansTeeth posted:

Oh look who's back together



Lester un-retired to become chief and Clay Davis found God.

Also in The Divide (from a channel called We I never heard of) is Frank Sobotka who is on death row and whose case the show revolves around. It's pretty good from what I've seen so far, it stars Marin Ireland who you may remember from season 1 Homeland.

kanonvandekempen
Mar 14, 2009

gingerberger posted:

Can confirm DVDs are good, don't remember having any issue with them

I don't know about other languages, but the dutch subtitles are pretty terrible, often saying the exact opposite of what is being said on the screen. I much prefer to watch it with english closed captioning, but I'm watching it with my father and he's too much set in his ways.

stev
Jan 22, 2013

Please be excited.



Just wanted to pop my head through the door and say I've been watching this for the first time over the last couple of months and it's loving fantastic in a way that creeps up on you. I really hated the first half of series 1 the first time I tried to watch it, but a year later I tried again and now I'm in love.

Just finishing series 4 and that finale was perhaps the most kill-yourself-today depressing things I've ever seen.

Ainsley McTree
Feb 19, 2004


Steve2911 posted:

Just wanted to pop my head through the door and say I've been watching this for the first time over the last couple of months and it's loving fantastic in a way that creeps up on you. I really hated the first half of series 1 the first time I tried to watch it, but a year later I tried again and now I'm in love.

Just finishing series 4 and that finale was perhaps the most kill-yourself-today depressing things I've ever seen.

You're talking about randy probably, right? There's at least one moment in five's finale that competes with that but yeah :(

stev
Jan 22, 2013

Please be excited.



Ainsley McTree posted:

You're talking about randy probably, right? There's at least one moment in five's finale that competes with that but yeah :(

Randy, Bodie and Bubbles all got me good.

Ainsley McTree
Feb 19, 2004


Steve2911 posted:

Randy, Bodie and Bubbles all got me good.

Oh god, I forgot about Bodie somehow. Now I'm sad again, thanks jerk :(

thathonkey
Jul 17, 2012
Bodie's death caused my gf the most distress of any when we watched it. I liked Bodie a lot too at that point in the show but I never quite forgave him for killing Wallace (even though he was younger and manipulated by Stringer).

Ainsley McTree posted:

You're talking about randy probably, right? There's at least one moment in five's finale that competes with that but yeah :(

Dukie becoming the "new" Bubbles?

Ainsley McTree
Feb 19, 2004


thathonkey posted:




Dukie becoming the "new" Bubbles?

Yep. That last scene, man :(

stev
Jan 22, 2013

Please be excited.



thathonkey posted:

Bodie's death caused my gf the most distress of any when we watched it. I liked Bodie a lot too at that point in the show but I never quite forgave him for killing Wallace (even though he was younger and manipulated by Stringer).

That throwaway line about how Wallace had to be killed because he snitched made it so much worse.

Gonna jump straight into series 5 tonight I think.

Renzian
Oct 25, 2003
REDTEXTING IS SERIOUS BUSINESS YOU GUYS.

SERIOUS.
BUSINESS.
Speaking of Randy and season 4 and the like, there's something that I only caught on like my 2nd or 3rd watch through of the series and it just breaks your heart in two. It's in the last episode of the entire show in season 5. I'm gonna spoilertag everything just to be safe, but I will say it's dialogue between Dukie and Michael. They're in Mike's car, and Mike is telling Dukie how he has to go away for a while (because of the whole business with Snoop getting shot). Dukie starts to laugh and try to lighten the mood and goes "Hey man, remember when...?" and describes the scene where we're first introduced to Dukie and his gang of friends - where they ran into some bullies, tried to get them back for beating on Dukie, but ended up drenching themselves in piss with their piss balloons instead. Mike just looks at him, and it's clear he can't remember it at all. Dukie tries to make him remember, but gives up when it's clear that it's a lost cause. It's heartbreaking because that's Dukie's last good memory before poo poo went bad for him and his friends, his last moment of real childhood, where he could just be a kid and have fun and not have to worry 24/7 about the crap deal that was his life.

Heartbreaking :(

doug fuckey
Jun 7, 2007

hella greenbacks

Renzian posted:

Speaking of Randy and season 4 and the like, there's something that I only caught on like my 2nd or 3rd watch through of the series and it just breaks your heart in two. It's in the last episode of the entire show in season 5. I'm gonna spoilertag everything just to be safe, but I will say it's dialogue between Dukie and Michael. They're in Mike's car, and Mike is telling Dukie how he has to go away for a while (because of the whole business with Snoop getting shot). Dukie starts to laugh and try to lighten the mood and goes "Hey man, remember when...?" and describes the scene where we're first introduced to Dukie and his gang of friends - where they ran into some bullies, tried to get them back for beating on Dukie, but ended up drenching themselves in piss with their piss balloons instead. Mike just looks at him, and it's clear he can't remember it at all. Dukie tries to make him remember, but gives up when it's clear that it's a lost cause. It's heartbreaking because that's Dukie's last good memory before poo poo went bad for him and his friends, his last moment of real childhood, where he could just be a kid and have fun and not have to worry 24/7 about the crap deal that was his life.

Heartbreaking :(

This right here is possibly the best scene in the show, at the very least the best scene between two kid actors I've ever witnessed. Michael's response of just "I don't" is absolutely crushing.

The last episode is great if you like to experience many very different emotions in quick succession.

TryAgainBragg
May 5, 2014
What I loved most about the boys arc was that it comes right after the conclusion of the Barksdales fall and you're left wondering how these 4 kids will match what happened before. In a lot of ways they surpass it

Jerusalem
May 20, 2004

Would you be my new best friends?

I've said it before but I still marvel that the show committed the usually unforgivable sin of bringing in child actors AND giving them major roles, and yet somehow not only the four main kids but all the supporting kids all absolutely nailed it.

I can't remember which castmember said it, it may have been Wendell Pierce, but apparently those who worked on the show all felt that they were working on something unique and special (just the fact that so many of the cast were African American was itself somewhat of a wonder) and they all lifted their game to the highest possible level to try and make it work.

Or maybe Robert Chew was just that great a mentor :c00l:

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Ainsley McTree
Feb 19, 2004


Jerusalem posted:

Or maybe Robert Chew was just that great a mentor :c00l:

This is Dr. J calling...

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

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