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MrMojok posted:I’m in Baltimore visiting my daughter. Well did he earn that iron urn or didn't he?
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Aug 5, 2024 01:27
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MrMojok posted:I’m in Baltimore visiting my daughter. no known abode
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Aug 5, 2024 03:22
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just started Generation Kill and did not realize this was a David Simon thing. It's loving good!
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Aug 5, 2024 17:26
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Lid posted:It's so black and white in a nuanced world where there are black and white in every faction but boy is there no grey in journalism. I think there is a fair amount to criticize Gus for. For all his moaning, he never actually takes a stand against his bosses, and he even takes a huge demotion to the copy desk in the end rather than quit. He's extremely self-important, which is a pretty common trait with journalists. He has an irreplaceable amount of institutional knowledge, but it's not an accident that he gets the bulletin on Prop Joe dying, and he has no idea who he is and puts it on a brief deep in the city section. (Of course Prop Joe was very good at making sure no one knew who he was, so maybe this isn't really Gus' fault.) He hasn't been out in the field in a long time, and I think it's mentioned that a lot of the Baltimore movers and shakers he used to know are dead.
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Aug 5, 2024 19:50
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Yeah I agree. Gus comes off as Simon's mouthpiece, but for all his self-righteousness, he still strikes out more than he hits. He's just another version of McNulty, though not as self-destructive or as willing to go so far behind the bosses' backs. My biggest complaint about 5 (aside from how McNulty working the crime scene comes off like something from The Shield) is that Templeton is a complete non-person in a show that otherwise has impossibly well-written characters. Even Marlo and Levy get scenes that show other sides of themselves. Templeton is just there for the show to make a point.
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Aug 5, 2024 20:26
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So my wife and I were out for drinks the other night and "Stacy's Mom" came on. Middle age train of thought in my head: Was this Harvey Danger or Fountains of Wayne? Wait. Didn't someone from one of those bands die of Covid early on? A little wiki later, and it was Fountains of Wayne, and yes - bassist Adam Schlesinger died of Covid in April 2020. Glancing at his page, and huh. He's cousins with Jon Bernthal.
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Aug 5, 2024 20:37
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PostNouveau posted:I think there is a fair amount to criticize Gus for. For all his moaning, he never actually takes a stand against his bosses, and he even takes a huge demotion to the copy desk in the end rather than quit. He's extremely self-important, which is a pretty common trait with journalists. Yeah, Joe's death getting buried is a good moment but I also think Joe was definitely in favor of not being 'famous.' There's that scene in like s2 of him and Stringer talking about some kingpin that Stringer's never heard of, because he didn't care about taking territory and making a name, just buying and selling and making money. The show doesn't really dwell on the East side operation- you have to assume Joe's people have the same violence baked into the whole mess that the Barksdales do- but you can tell that Joe wants to be pure business.
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Aug 6, 2024 03:44
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the point of money is so you can afford to do your hobby all day. In this case clock repair.
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Aug 6, 2024 03:54
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I believe Simon has straight out come out and said in the past that his intention was that Gus is so caught up in trying to expose Templeton and score cheap shots on the bosses (who are unbelievably one dimensional, which is its own problem), so inwardly looking and wrapped up in the notion of what a newspaper is supposed to be, that he completely missed dozens of major stories that were going on in Baltimore at the time, not least of which being that the Mayor, Commissioner and Deputy Ops knowingly covered up a major drug bust being the result of a couple of police faking a serial killer to divert resources and messing with the chain of evidence. Basically another version of the police, dockworkers, politicians etc going on about a semi-mythical past that ignored all the very real and obvious problems that existed back then. And I can see it, but it doesn't change the fact that Gus is written the most shallowly of the various characters who were similarly blinkered in prior seasons, that the "enemy" within the industry is written so poorly and shallowly (loving Valchek gets to show nous and political cunning at times! VALCHEK!) that Gus feels similarly one dimensional because there's no contrast or context to the forces he's opposed against.
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Aug 6, 2024 05:20
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Jerusalem posted:I believe Simon has straight out come out and said in the past that his intention was that Gus is so caught up in trying to expose Templeton and score cheap shots on the bosses (who are unbelievably one dimensional, which is its own problem), so inwardly looking and wrapped up in the notion of what a newspaper is supposed to be, that he completely missed dozens of major stories that were going on in Baltimore at the time, not least of which being that the Mayor, Commissioner and Deputy Ops knowingly covered up a major drug bust being the result of a couple of police faking a serial killer to divert resources and messing with the chain of evidence. Well put
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Aug 6, 2024 11:44
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I think that’s certainly the correct read, but I also like the alternative explanation that Joe was so successful at keeping a low profile that even gus—the greatest journalist in Baltimore, maybe even the world—didn’t know who he was
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Aug 6, 2024 11:55
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I really think S5 suffers from having less episodes and that results in the story getting kind of truncated at times
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Aug 6, 2024 19:34
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I love how Scott Templeton is just your average lazy goon you'd find 1000 of in any industry who lies about poo poo like a kid going to a baseball game and gets infinitely more hate that corrupt cops/politicians or literal drug dealing murderers with "codes".
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Aug 6, 2024 19:50
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Jerusalem posted:I believe Simon has straight out come out and said in the past that his intention was that Gus is so caught up in trying to expose Templeton and score cheap shots on the bosses (who are unbelievably one dimensional, which is its own problem), so inwardly looking and wrapped up in the notion of what a newspaper is supposed to be, that he completely missed dozens of major stories that were going on in Baltimore at the time, not least of which being that the Mayor, Commissioner and Deputy Ops knowingly covered up a major drug bust being the result of a couple of police faking a serial killer to divert resources and messing with the chain of evidence. Yeah this is a good point. You can tell Gus KNOWS McNulty is full of poo poo when he confirms that Templeton got calls from the serial killer, but he never investigates why the lead investigator on the case would be lying about this at all because he's completely tunnel-visioned on Templeton. Because ultimately he's too much of a company man. The lead investigator confirming it is a slam dunk for the top brass at the paper and Gus would look disloyal if he was caught sniffing around the case any further. There's a similar scene where he knows Templeton's baseball story is horseshit and the executive editor says "Oh great work Scott. I'm putting it on the front" and Gus is just like "well, the man made a call" PostNouveau fucked around with this message at 19:53 on Aug 6, 2024 |
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Aug 6, 2024 19:50
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banned from Starbucks posted:I love how Scott Templeton is just your average lazy goon you'd find 1000 of in any industry who lies about poo poo like a kid going to a baseball game and gets infinitely more hate that corrupt cops/politicians or literal drug dealing murderers with "codes". The other problem is Simon was like this stuff happens in the world comparing it to Stephen Glass and Little Jimmy's Wonderland (and if he said it a few years later the Rolling Stone Glass Bed that set back sexual assault realities a decade) but missed that the point if all those stories is they were all caught and efficiently. Instead his reading of it is more "real journalism who write real shot get nothing but fiction writers are getting the awards every year" which is probably not the aesop he thought he was writing. It's a break from reality in a show whose biggest selling point is its realistic depiction of actions and consequences even when ridiculous (such as the true story of the lie detecting photocopier).
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Aug 8, 2024 11:12
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The thing that always gets me with Scott is when he goes to the Orioles game, he IS interviewing people. He could've written an article based on the interactions he had. He always seems so stuck on a specific type of story, and when the fieldwork leads somewhere else, he just makes everything up. At that point, why not just become an author instead of a journalist. Hell, Alex Jones and other grifters were already firmly planted at that time. It's not like the pipeline didn't exist, so why risk it?
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Aug 9, 2024 00:47
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I do like the part where Gus gets the guy to look through he's work and he's like "it's all bad, lol."
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Aug 9, 2024 01:08
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“it’s in my notes!  ”
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Aug 10, 2024 13:48
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I like that Alma eventually does look at his notes and finds that they're mostly blank. Earlier in the season you see him actually making up fake notes when he's doing his bullshit but by the end he isn't even bothering with that basic fiction. And why would he? The bosses had made it clear that they were willing to take absolutely everything he said and wrote at face value.
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Aug 11, 2024 01:05
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Jerusalem posted:I like that Alma eventually does look at his notes and finds that they're mostly blank. Earlier in the season you see him actually making up fake notes when he's doing his bullshit but by the end he isn't even bothering with that basic fiction. And why would he? The bosses had made it clear that they were willing to take absolutely everything he said and wrote at face value.
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Aug 11, 2024 01:18
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Ironic that Scott ends up getting an absolutely career-defining story dumped right in his lap and he CAN'T write it or else he'll completely expose his own outright lies and destroy that career. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i98zHfCZQO8 One other thing I like about the season is that early on Scott does actually sit down and do the work on a story, writes it well, and Gus takes the time to give him the "attaboy" he was upset about not getting earlier, praising the quality of the writing and how he held back from his natural desire to get flowery with his language. He did actually have real potential as a reporter, he just didn't want to wait (and was feeling the pressure of the "downsizing" and felt maybe he didn't have the time to do so in any case) so he took all those shortcuts for success that we know is more than likely eventually going to be exposed as utterly fraudulent. Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 02:53 on Aug 11, 2024 |
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Aug 11, 2024 01:43
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If there's actually a "hero" in the newspaper story, I think it's really supposed to be Fletcher.
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Aug 11, 2024 02:32
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Oh for sure, or at the very least he's meant to contrast the "right" way to do things, including in the (slight) mentorship he gets from Gus, and the fact that he shows empathy and grows as a person from the work he does with Bubbles.
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Aug 11, 2024 02:55
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Jerusalem posted:Ironic that Scott ends up getting an absolutely career-defining story dumped right in his lap and he CAN'T write it or else he'll completely expose his own outright lies and destroy that career.
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Aug 11, 2024 03:46
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christmas boots posted:If there's actually a "hero" in the newspaper story, I think it's really supposed to be Fletcher. Don't go giving a gently caress, etc.
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Aug 11, 2024 04:46
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Gus and Scott didn't bother me at all in S5 but, man, that stupid serial killer plot didn't work for me at all even though it gave us one of the best scenes in the entire show (FBI profiler)
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Aug 11, 2024 14:18
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As much as I love McNulty confronting Templeton, his “I know why I did it, I just can’t figure out what you get out of it” is a bit silly, it’s like duh, he’s getting accolades and a promotion, that’s what he’s getting out of it.
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Aug 11, 2024 23:40
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i love when in s3 he just drops into the off-site for no other reason than to sit around and boast for five minutes about how great him and Lester is, while Pryzbelewski is actually working in the background
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Aug 12, 2024 09:05
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Trip report: Homicide is up on Peacock. A lot of the music rights did not get secured so many of the songs used in the original airing got replaced unfortunately. HD looks good though.
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Aug 19, 2024 18:40
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dreffen posted:Trip report: Homicide is up on Peacock. A lot of the music rights did not get secured so many of the songs used in the original airing got replaced unfortunately. As a former smoker I was genuinely bothered by the unending chain smoking throughout the 1st season, and then smoking ended up the B plot of the season finale. Haven't watched further on yet, but did enjoy that. Wild to think how normal that was not very long ago.
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Aug 19, 2024 21:55
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Smoking on planes wasn't completely banned the FAA until by 2000. 
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Aug 19, 2024 22:55
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I live outside Pittsburgh so I'm a Kennywood (amusement park) regular. They STILL have smoking benches in the park. It's loving wild and it always loving stinks whenever I have to walk by them.
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Aug 19, 2024 23:01
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There are still some Southern states (I know Alabama is one) that have smoking sections in some restaurants. I ran into this when I was on a road trip and I felt like I was in a time warp.
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Aug 19, 2024 23:03
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I remember after my dad quit smoking talking about how he never realized how much tobacco stink there was EVERYWHERE. I'm very proud and glad he quit, but we all knew that already, dad 
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Aug 19, 2024 23:46
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Smoking is gross as gently caress. Not just for the smoker but everybody Here's the ceiling of Grand Central Station in NYC. That black spot is the only portion left uncleaned from the 40s to 1998. And that is 125 ft above pedestrian traffic.  BTW, Grand Central is a really weird place. You walk into the main hall and its an incredibly beautiful space that is well maintained. Then you go down a stair case and turn left to get to your platform and it was built in 1976 and was last cleaned in the Clinton administration. It smells like piss and there are dust stalactites old enough to vote.
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Aug 20, 2024 00:55
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Victory Lap posted:As a former smoker I was genuinely bothered by the unending chain smoking throughout the 1st season, and then smoking ended up the B plot of the season finale. Haven't watched further on yet, but did enjoy that. Wild to think how normal that was not very long ago.  it's no surprise Andre braugher died from lung cancer honestly 
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Aug 20, 2024 02:11
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Japan still has smoking everywhere, every train station has smoking rooms on the platform and restaurants always cone with ash trays on the table. It's very much a look at what was.
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Aug 20, 2024 05:46
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Jerusalem posted:I remember after my dad quit smoking talking about how he never realized how much tobacco stink there was EVERYWHERE. My dad talks about him and his siblings being woken up on the weekend in the 60s when the smell of all the visiting neighbors' cigarette smoke started wafting to their rooms
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Aug 20, 2024 05:47
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Can I play the audio from the dvds over the hd stream or will there be audio drift?
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Aug 21, 2024 01:13
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It's hard to malign smoking when you realize without it we would not have the David Lych oeuvre. Anyway this has been my Ted Talk.
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Aug 21, 2024 03:19
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