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DropsySufferer
Nov 9, 2008

Impractical practicality
It was mentioned how McNulty and team catch (kinda) the minor drug kingpins but miss the people truly at the top, like the Greek. I found it interesting when it was revealed in the last season that the real mastermind more or less behind Avon, Stinger, and Marlo was Levy. Guys like Avon and Marlo will come ago but the real leadership behind it will keep profiting. Actually that includes the State Senator Clay Davis who is quite corrupt. I guess the message is that the wealthy elite are the ones that ultimately profit from the drug trade. Either that or lawyers are the source of all problems. :v:

I'm also doing a rewatch and what amazes me about this show it's just as good if not better watching it a second time. I noticed I'm having a hard time dealing with Bubbles because I know what's going to happen to him and there is no hope this time of anything good happening. It's very bleak. At least he starts to finally get better near the end of series but it's a long sad road.

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DropsySufferer
Nov 9, 2008

Impractical practicality

FrozenVent posted:

Bubbles has one of the best ending in the show, possibly the only uplifting one. What are you refering to?

I'm referring to his entire journey throughout the series and that's what I mean about parts of it being hard to watch. Just in the first few episodes take what happens to his friend for example. Every time something good almost happens he ends up getting really screwed over time and again. That's the depressing but necessary part of the show and yes there is good ending to it but a long and painful road.

DropsySufferer
Nov 9, 2008

Impractical practicality

Etherwind posted:

I think I might have cracked the symbolism behind the trains...

I'll admit I'm also curious about this and it's been mentioned several times in the thread. Why not ask the series creator directly? I'd send an email myself but frankly I'm not half as articulate as some of you here who would could peak his interest a bit a more.

http://davidsimon.com/contact/

DropsySufferer
Nov 9, 2008

Impractical practicality
I was just thinking when I looked at this thread that I wish the OP would do write-ups of each episode like he had started to do in the first few posts. I think the change you should make is to be less ambitious in the attempt to transcribe every episode word for word. Instead just do a summary of each episode then we could have a discussion of each episode on a weekly basis or something like that.

I'm on early season 2 now. What I'm left to wonder is who is the Greek's supplier. When you think about it, the greek is just a middleman when it comes down to it. Interesting to consider that even had the greek been busted it wouldn't have mattered as the supplier would still exist. I like to imagine at very top of it all is someone like Sosa from scarface who basically controlled a country.

DropsySufferer
Nov 9, 2008

Impractical practicality

Jerusalem posted:

Episode 4: Old Cases

The episode opens with Herc struggling to move a desk through the doorway in the dank offices of the Major Crimes Unit. What follows is pretty much the police department in a nutshell, as more and more of the squad join in to help him out. Freamon watches the pathetic display with the unspoken suggestion that he knows exactly what is going wrong, and he seems both dismayed and amused at what is happening. Everybody finally gives in, and Herc complains that at this rate they're never going to get it IN. Everybody else was, of course, trying to get the desk OUT, and by working against each other and failing to communicate they got nothing done. We've seen this frequently already on the show and we'll see it more this season and across the series as a whole. It's also just a genuinely funny scene, even if it is a little forced (Herc says "You know what to do!" instead of saying "push" or "pull"). Of more interest to me is that Freamon is equally a part of a problem. While they could have sorted out the issue with the desk quickly with a little communication, Freamon could have also solved all their problems by pointing out they were working against each other, or even being diplomatic and making a suggestion like,"Are you trying to get it in or out?" - Freamon is a character who is willing to sit back and let others make fools of themselves, but wouldn't it have been more productive to be part of the team and help, even at the risk of looking a little foolish or making others feel that way? It's also interesting that Kima isn't there - would she have seen the problem or just jumped in with the others to try and solve it.



Great job on the writeups both of you!

Amazing. I have watched this scene twice and I could not figure out what the joke was there but I knew I was missing the point. I thought the desk was jammed in the doorframe or something. Somehow it did not occur to me that Herc was pushing the table in while the others were pulling. I'm going to rewatch the scene again can't believe this wasn't obvious to me.:doh:

DropsySufferer
Nov 9, 2008

Impractical practicality
I can't help but be impressed by Stringer throughout the show (or at least to point I'm at which is Season 2). I know how you know you guys to downplay his going to a community college and the basic econ class where he only got an A- on his paper. Let's say though Stringer or Mr. Russell Bell :colbert:
ended up not being killed (alternative reality Omar and Brother Mouzone both kill each other). Could String have really made it in the real world?

I can't quite guess his age but I'd say early 30s. Let's say he finishes community college transfers and goes to university of phoenix or better yet WGU. I think he would be smart enough to earn an MBA (why a drug kingpin would need one, who knows but he could have eventually done it.) If he had been born in suburbia it would be safe to say he'd incredibly successful but The King stay the King for those born in the slums.

Could Stringer have reached near legitimacy and what would he have ended up doing? I'd look up real life examples of drug kingpins in the US reaching legitimate status but I don't think any exist.

VVVVV

Dollhouse furniture $200 on ebay

DropsySufferer fucked around with this message at 07:10 on Feb 17, 2013

DropsySufferer
Nov 9, 2008

Impractical practicality
That's one thing I've have liked to see; the rise of Avon and Stringer. My one issue with the show is that Stringer seems so much smarter then Avon for the most part. We don't have much time to see how Avon was running things because Avon is gone and jailed 1st season. Avon never impressed me because it looked like string was running the show. Apart from a few orders what exactly was Avon doing? Now that's where the series just did not have time to cover that I'll bet. Still imagine how great a wire prequel would be showing the rise of Avon, and String, and maybe a young Freamon, and Daniels, or even Rawls.

DropsySufferer
Nov 9, 2008

Impractical practicality
Not really related to the wire but is NA like an non-religious AA?

I just watched the episode where Ziggy shoots that middleman salesfront character and his son. Ziggy really is just a dumb kid, I can explain his actions best as he wanted to be gangster and respected. Just for that moment he lost it and did what he did. Can anyone give other reasons on why the hell he did that? I enjoy seeing different perspectives aside from mine.

I've known people like Ziggy the whole thing is just really :(
If he had been in college he'd be just another dumb kid, very sad. Same is true for so many other characters of course, but I think we personally relate to some characters better than others and I've known a "ziggy".

DropsySufferer
Nov 9, 2008

Impractical practicality

Lugaloco posted:

When you do a rewatch (it's inescapable) come back and tell us what you thought of season 2 the next time around. I can't even count the number of times people in this thread and the old one had season 2 as the worst season viewing it for the first time but elevated it to the top couple on rewatch.

Yeah, I recall the first watch and the change was very jarring to me. I was annoyed because I wanted to find out what was happening with Avon, Stringer and everyone else; who cares about a dock? I started to really like season 2 the first time by the end though. Everyone is so talented writing about the wire I can't do remotely do it justice myself.

There's a Mayor's Race going on in LA that keeps me thinking of the wire. The man running happens to be a city council member named Garcetti. I can't help but think of Carcetti and think, "hey look there's The Wire in reality".





Granted I don't know how skilled of a politician Garcetti is or his inner thoughts but at their core nearly all politicians care more about advancement or money then the public good. What the Wire showed us is how quickly a man would comprise his principles and ideals in order to gain power and position.

Couldn't help bringing up that mayor's race I see too much similarity.

DropsySufferer
Nov 9, 2008

Impractical practicality
I've made it to the the end of session 3 and I'll be stopping now until the writeups eventually get to season 4. I realized I missed so much about Stringer and Avon. Stringer isn't near as intelligent as I gave him credit for. The problem with Stringer is he is trying to have things both ways. He wants the gangster drug business and he wants to be a "real businessman". Avon knows better that the drug business is what it is and won't be changed. Stringer is very short sighted and does not grasp the economic concepts he was attempting to learn.

Avon impresses in the sense that not while business savvy has tremendous common sense and knows exactly how to run a gang and that reputation is extremely important unlike Stringer.

One the saddest moments in the series is near the end of the 3rd session when Avon and Stringer are talking on the balcony of Avon's high rise apartment about the past.

quote:

Avon:
"Tonight I'm going to just kick back and enjoy this view. I mean look at this poo poo. Can you loving believe this?" "I mean I got a crib that's overlooking the harbor. This is the same place we used to run through this Motherfucker we had every security guard in there following us."

Stringer
"As they should have"

Avon agreeing "True, true" " And there was that one time."

Stringer interrupts "Toy store?"

Avon:
"Hell yeah, I told your rear end not to steal the badminton set. What are you going to do with a loving net and a racket and we ain't got no yard (Stringer and Avon say together). " You like. Yo, that white boy ain't going to jump over that counter and come chase after me."

Stringer
"He sure did though".

Avon:
"He was on your rear end like Carl Lewis, fists was rolled up. Your rear end was running too, as fast as you could. Punching yourself in the chest looking all mad and poo poo."

Stringer

"That poo poo was crazy man. Right here too, right there. Goddamn" Can you imagine, man, if I had the money that I have now, man. I could have bought half this waterfront property. God drat it "

Avon
"Forget about that for a while, man. You know, just dream with me."

Stringer
"We ain't got to dream no more, man. :smith:
At this point Avon knowns Mouzone is coming for Stringer, it's a sad moment. Later in the courtroom after Avon is arrested. Avon keeps looking back as if Stringer would still be there like in the past. I think Avon really felt Stringer was like a brother to him.

Respect to Jerusalem and escape artist, just copying that bit of dialogue took me quite a while.

DropsySufferer fucked around with this message at 04:05 on Mar 29, 2013

DropsySufferer
Nov 9, 2008

Impractical practicality
When I see how Rawls slowly advances in rank throughout the series I'm wondering how such an jerk was able to get so far in the first place? He isn't a friendly guy so he's not winning by personality. By the comstat meeting in this episode he's what deputy of operations? I'm guessing his alliance with Burrel is what really got him to the top tier but he had to do something well early in his career to make Lieutenant. I'll never understand how guys like that get to be bosses.

Likewise look at Landsman, he stays a sergeant for the whole series. I wonder if he just stopped caring about rank?

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DropsySufferer
Nov 9, 2008

Impractical practicality
I know the goal behind Joe's showing Marlo so much like how to launder money was to "civilize" him (create an ally/stability). Not sure what Joe was thinking giving away the few skills that would have made him indispensable to Marlo. I think Joe's problem was that he couldn't see Marlo for the ruthless carnivore he was. I think the main reason is probably because Joe always thought he could talk his way through problems. That is offer a proposition which would never work on Marlo.

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