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It's real science!
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Feb 9, 2016 14:15
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I hate the Greek so much. Every other 'villain' in the series, even Marlo, has some kind of pull or appeal (even if, in Marlo's case, it's terror). But the Greek's just smug business in a greasy diner and he's got everything set up perfectly. I hate hate hate him. He's a creative success and I wouldn't erase him from the series but God do I hate his stupid little face.
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Jul 7, 2016 18:00
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LordPants posted:If you thought that Frank went to the big Union in the sky at the end of Season 2, well it's great to see him as a American Pilot's Association representative in Sully. They should get along great! They both ended up in the water
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Sep 5, 2016 18:06
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Boywhiz88 posted:So I was just hopping around Wikipedia while on my rewatch of The Wire. Ed Norris has “the headshot” done to him during a corruption investigation. I really need to listen to the commentaries because I’m sure how that came into Simon’s stratosphere. I had to look this up, so for the benefit of thread viewers as dense as me, The Headshot is a technique used by federal prosecutors to turn a minor investigation into major jail time. You look at the target’s mortgage documents and try to find any false or sketchy claims they made to secure the mortgage (like claiming your gtandpa’s money as your own asset). Then you can indict for bank fraud and threaten thirty years in jail, forcing them to plea bargain.
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Feb 27, 2018 20:37
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Decriminalizing a bunch of drugs and vastly scaling back the carceral state might be centrist but it would still be good if it happened, as compared to it not happening.
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Jul 4, 2020 18:19
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I hate the Greek so much. Not as a character or a part of the show, just as a person. I hate his weird little face and his weird little expressions and the way he gets away with everything. I hate his twee diner and his sipping. I hate him
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Sep 1, 2020 20:28
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I think about this a lot, what is 'real power' in the Wire? Is it the protection of the law to hide your crimes behind? Is it being part of the state?
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Sep 2, 2020 18:05
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I think I would argue that in the narrow tactical sense of The Wire's game, 'true power' is the ability to move elements of your strength outside the Baltimore game and into larger structures. The Greek is truly powerful because he's hooked up as a federal informant, for example. Marlo and Avon and Stringer lack 'true power' because their centers of gravity are still vulnerable to the game. Major Crimes certainly isn't truly powerful. Brother Mouzone is truly powerful because he doesn't have any vulnerabilities inside the game aside from the corporal risk of being shot—his power base is up in New York. Omar is 100% in the game, unfortunately; imagine how much more 'powerful' he'd be if his boyfriends were out of reach. Stringer tries to move his power out of the game but fails. D'angelo is completely powerless. In a sense Namond is powerful because his dad is watching over him from out of the game, and it's Weebey who ultimately saves him from the life. I dunno, just a toy model. Zoom it out and everything's just embedded in a bigger game.
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Sep 3, 2020 15:48
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Yes, but he’s powerful as a soldier, and able to pursue his own objectives, because the people who give him authority and money and so forth are out of reach. If he worked directly for the Barksdales he’d be dead meat the moment Stringer wanted him gone.
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Sep 3, 2020 18:46
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BiggerBoat posted:Avatar/post combo I get this complaint but on the other hand real life is loving weird. They had to tone down some of Omar's feats from the irl guy he was based on. Brother Mouzone is a weird and possibly anachronistic guy but I like the way the show gives him a plausible reason to be such an effective street enforcer. He's from the guys in New York, anyone looking to get him is going to learn that and understand that loving with Mouzone is borrowing trouble. Omar is, uh, tactically capable, in that he's intimidating and has enough friends to avoid being pinned down and killed, but because his only power is in his physical personage he's doomed in the long run. Anybody who can be destroyed simply by being shot isn't going to last long in the game.
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Sep 4, 2020 17:51
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Gargamel Gibson posted:Yeah, Omar dies if you kill him. Which characters does this not apply to? Any character embedded in a power structure which will retaliate for their death. For example, you can't just go kill Clay Davis without massive blowback. Even the dealers are backed up by their organizations; if you get got, someone will take revenge.
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Sep 10, 2020 16:09
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We see in the show that killing Davis is considered out of bounds for the dealers, so he has some kind of institutional protection.
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Sep 10, 2020 18:09
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CharlestheHammer posted:He does but that’s because they need him for business, even Omar at times was let go when he had protection. Only when Marlo didn’t give a gently caress was Omar hosed. If you think Marlo wouldn’t go at Clay Davis you miss the point of his character I’m pretty sure Stringer wants to kill Davis but he’s told it would be absolutely insane to draw the kind of heat that comes with murdering a state senator. Marlo might do it but he’d still face institutional retaliation. Clay isn’t gonna disappear into some vacants with a shrug.
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Sep 10, 2020 19:15
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CharlestheHammer posted:Stringer didn’t do it because it would be bad for business which is exactly what Marlo is suppose to be a contrast to. Kima is a cop, it's pretty clear cops have real power over poor black people.
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Sep 10, 2020 20:32
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Van Dis posted:I dunno I kinda felt the Big Reveal that Rawls is gay was the definition of an inconsequential detail and obvious attempt to add ~complexity~ to a character that had been pretty 1.1 dimensional, without understanding that his portrayal that way is already very effective for the narrative and didn't need to be "fixed" so to speak. It's already easy to infer that he's closeted from all his homophobic exclamations so seeing him in the bar reads are very "Here, idiot! Do you get it now? Do you?!" to me. It's good because it's not a big reveal. Sometimes being gay is totally incidental to a character. Adding gay doesn't add complexity, it's just something someone can be, like a redhead or a coffee hater. The scene it adds the most to is Landsman's story about intrusive thoughts about McNulty while he's jerking off. It makes Rawls laughing even funnier because he grasps how horrible that would be on multiple levels!
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Sep 15, 2020 01:56
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Van Dis posted:That's exactly what I'm thinking about, because I think Rawls already got that hint of complexity in this scene: People aren't gay to add to a theme or character. They're just gay. They're tall or short, they're thin or fat, they're straight or gay or bi or whatever, it's just a trait people have.
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Sep 15, 2020 04:17
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It’s not intrinsically better writing to have a character’s traits left to subtext. Concealing Prop Joe’s hair color wouldn’t be dramatically preferable to showing it. Rawls is gay on screen and that’s good because too often gay characters are given plausible textual deniability to avoid pissing off homophobes. If you want to dig into it thematically, consider that Rawls’ sexual orientation changes absolutely nothing about his behavior as a cop. He’s got a hidden side that might in theory make him sympathetic to the ‘other’ but in practice he’s still a fully incorporated armature of the war on drugs. Either he’s a true believer or very very good at playing his role without any qualms or moral hesitation. Or he’s really good at leaving his work at work, unlike McNulty or Kima.
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Sep 15, 2020 05:10
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ilmucche posted:When they're making the busts in the out in season 1 and Bodie decks the cop I'm surprised kima comes across to join in beating on him. It struck me as out of character for her to sprint over to do that In other shows Kima would be the Good Cop but this show wants to remind you that she’s still a cop. I love the blocking in that scene, it looks like she’s trying to break up the fight but she just wants to get in.
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Sep 27, 2020 22:40
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What is ‘it,’ beating up black kids? Or Kima being less than morally spotless? She cheats on her girlfriend, she’s not as much of a mess as McNulty but she’s hardly a textbook Good Person. Now if you want dropped character flaws, I don’t think Daniels’ dirty past (took bribes, maybe?) ever came up again.
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Sep 27, 2020 23:37
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That’s not a personal failing, that’s people being trapped by circumstance and conditions. Shaking your head mournfully at fans overhyping a show is pretty condescending. I’m not going to call The Wire a complete and accurate diagnosis of urban poverty and violence, but what do you feel if treats in a very surface level way?
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Dec 19, 2020 17:59
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Also I’m pretty sure this show is primarily about the iron law of oligarchy.
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Dec 19, 2020 17:59
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That's the problem with subjectifying anyone, inevitably you appear to be presenting 'their side of things' or rationalizing their crimes as okay or excusable due to circumstance. The problem with trying to fix that is that you end up making art which is purely moral corrective, in which all characters are allotted subjectivity based on their moral righteousness, and the unacceptable are clearly condemned or put in jail or killed or whatever. Then you're not writing about real life any more. I don't personally think Presbo beating a kid's eye out is played for laughs at all. I think it's deadly serious, and the cops' attempts to make nice are (correctly, imo) spat upon. The only reason Presbo isn't thrown out of the force and put on trial for assault is that cops get a free pass from their own system. I also don't think you can say this about The Wire: Slo-Tek posted:And who gives a gently caress about the people hosed with, certainly not our overarching plot. You don't think The Wire spends time and narrative energy on the perspective of people who are constantly hosed with by cops?
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Dec 19, 2020 19:06
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If you think the kids rejecting ways out is due to their 'weak characters' or anything about personal responsibility I don't think you understood what was happening. People don't make choices from an objective beep boop standpoint, the decisions we make are themselves the product of our upbringing and environment.
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Dec 19, 2020 19:26
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No, it has nothing to do with personal failings. They make correct decisions based on what they've learned in their upbringing. Michael hates adults who try to take care of him, and for very good reason. Dukie has seen 'help' given to him just taken away and used for more drugs and booze. They never had a choice. They knew the system was going to fail them because it already had. The show doesn't blame it on them, it shows them as rational and reasonable given what they know.
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Dec 19, 2020 19:43
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It's the same logic used in the famous marshmallow experiment. You're supposed to sit there and not steal the marshmallow so you can get a bigger prize in a few minutes. Some kids steal the marshmallow anyway, we say they're impulsive and blame their bad decisions for making them poor. But there's an alternative explanation, which is that the poor kids have learned by experience not to trust promises of something good coming in the future. They just take what's in front of them because they know it's their only chance and if they trust the 'system' they'll be hosed over. Dukie quitting school and joining up with his friends on the crew is exactly this.
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Dec 19, 2020 20:35
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Even if you did have an example you’d probably have many more examples of people working hard and getting gently caress all for it. I don’t “like” Prez getting a redemption arc but it’s institutionally pretty realistic. White cop blinds a black kid, shoots a black cop, gets to retire clean because he feels bad about it, goes into teaching to become a better person. No consequences except to his own feelings.
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Dec 21, 2020 17:55
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Good post/username combo Also that McDonalds millionaire story sounds very last millennium.
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Dec 22, 2020 19:09
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I'm agreeing with you.
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Dec 22, 2020 19:50
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Morally nothing wrong, but I don't think you could replicate that guy's McDonalds Method of becoming a multi-millionaire today. Like you can't go get a McDonalds job and save and get promoted and live modestly and achieve the American Dream any more. The way is shut.
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Dec 22, 2020 21:20
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It's really hard to go from the climax of season 1, after everything's been set up and you've become invested in all the characters, back to the beginning of the process. Brains don't like to learn, we want our comfortable things we know we enjoy. Absolutely worth it though.
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Feb 18, 2021 00:52
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Feb 19, 2021 14:06
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algebra testes posted:The Little Things isn't very good, but Chris Bauer is good in it, shout out to my man, don't go under the bridge! He's great as Deke Slayton in FOR ALL MANKIND too.
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Feb 22, 2021 03:10
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Prez out there in space messing it up
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Feb 23, 2021 18:42
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It's not as good as Sopranos. It's so much better you can't even compare the two  e: Sopranos is a great show about a guy's psychology, with great characters stuck in an endless cycle of keeping each other lovely. The Wire is an exploration of an entire city and the collapse of America. They're both great TV but the Wire is just something else.
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Feb 23, 2021 20:27
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If your criticism of The Wire is "there aren't as many happy endings as I wanted" then, well, man, I dunno.
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Feb 23, 2021 20:31
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The Sopranos gets better the less stuff happens. The early episodes have “plots” and “incidents” but later in the show they realize they can just let the characters bounce off each other making bad decisions. I guess there’s still a plot but it’s much more emergent from the buildup of grudges and the breakdown of relationships than from outside contrivance.
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Mar 6, 2021 17:08
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Wire is the 2 hour action movie reboot about Omar's path of revenge and the cops who try to help him.
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Mar 7, 2021 04:08
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I would be scared of Chris if I ran into him on the street and didn’t know a loving thing about him, the guy has a look about him. Whereas Weebey just seems larger than life. Of course that fear at first sight goes tenfold for Marlo.
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Jul 15, 2021 15:54
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He was such a human actor. Even in trash like Battlefield 4, something about his eyes. He just looked hurt and real. Impossible to describe because there’s nothing like him to compare to. Just a totally unique one.
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Sep 7, 2021 14:17
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If he were ugly maybe he wouldn't be so outnumbered.
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Feb 3, 2023 00:14
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