The Wire: The Rewatch... and all the pieces matter.

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > The Wire: The Rewatch... and all the pieces matter.

Nail Rat: Dec 29, 2000; You maniacs! You blew it up! God damn you! God damn you all to hell!!

Dodoman posted:

Any reason why?

quote:

Reflecting on that legacy, the actor also expressed some concerns over the way the character came to be glorified.

"We're all idolising Stringer Bell, but who are we really idolising?" Elba said. "Are we idolising a smart drug dealer or a dumb narcotics dealer? What are we saying here? Is it okay to pump a community full of heroin, but because you're smart at it that makes you cool?

"That was a problem for me."

Though Elba acknowledged that it wasn't an issue when he was playing the role, in later years he came to have concerns over the way in which Stringer Bell was viewed.

"We celebrate him because he's a drug dealer and we can put him in a box - but oh, by the way, he's learning in school and he's very articulate. The irony of it used to just make me laugh," Elba said.

"The truth of the matter is most drug dealers go to jail at some point in their lives. They get caught.

"It doesn't matter how successful they are. It doesn't matter how good to the community they are. They will end up getting caught because what they're doing is illegal. As much as people celebrated the character, the harsh reality is that you either get shot or go to jail."

I think anybody who paid close enough attention doesn't idolize Bell the way he thinks, though. It was clear that while he was smart, his understanding of business was facile at best. He was intended to be another example of self-delusion of getting away from the system, in my opinion. The way he got played at the end cements that.

edit: the more I think about it, it's almost like he didn't watch the show at all. The Wire is ultimately making the exact point that he is, along with similarly bleak messages about police work, reporting, politics, etc.

Nail Rat fucked around with this message at 16:41 on Mar 6, 2019

# ¿ Mar 6, 2019 16:30

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Mar 22, 2023 15:31

Nail Rat: Dec 29, 2000; You maniacs! You blew it up! God damn you! God damn you all to hell!!

COMPAGNIE TOMMY posted:

None since on the show they never treated them as humans, just corpses. That never sat well with me.

It’s like they go out of their way not to acknowledge they were living humans killed in transit as part of a human trafficking organization, just a common ho-hum mysterious shipment of dead bodies.

It's the Baltimore homicide department, I imagine it's the only way you can cope with the job especially on a scale like that, to try to distance yourself from the humanity of it. It's why they're all alcoholics too (McNulty's just the worst/hitting his bottom earlier).

# ¿ Oct 24, 2019 16:06

Nail Rat: Dec 29, 2000; You maniacs! You blew it up! God damn you! God damn you all to hell!!

codo27 posted:

Omar supermanning out the window, apparently breaking only his leg but just walking it off after a day only to wind up meeting his end as he did

As an FYI, this happened for real with the dude who was the inspiration for Omar. Except the window was higher.

Sometimes you just get lucky, until you don't.

# ¿ Feb 23, 2021 20:01

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > The Wire: The Rewatch... and all the pieces matter.