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Yeah though S5 is my least favorite season and rightfully regarded as the weakest by most fans, the final 2 episodes are stellar and belong up there with any of the show's best. I watched it live and HBO was letting you watch episodes a week early if you had Comcast On Demand but I seem to recall that they didn't extend that privilege for the final episode and the 2 week wait for it was practically unbearable.
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Jan 15, 2014 23:19
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| # ¿ Dec 7, 2025 03:51 |
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Oh to be young and only on a second re-watch of the Wire 
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Jan 16, 2014 16:39
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I think I've watched the entire series 3 times, but individual seasons well into the 5th and 6th times. It's hard to pick a favorite, but I've always been very very fond of Season 1. Anyway, the point I wanted to make is that there is SO MUCH DETAIL in the show that I really pick up on a lot of new stuff with each re-watch. There are few shows that approach the level of density that you'll find in the Wire. One really cool thing that I haven't noticed in other shows is that they script out background and other partially indistinct or off-screen dialogue which is almost always worth listening out for (oftentimes, it is funny). Other David Simon projects do the same thing (Generation Kill for example). Anyway, sometimes this dialogue is hard to pick out in the audio track even if you're listening for it but with subtitles on sometimes you'll get the text. Depends on the CC source. thathonkey fucked around with this message at 23:57 on Jan 17, 2014 |
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Jan 17, 2014 23:55
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Sneaky Fast posted:"Eat my dick, Dike oval office bitch" Bird is the best Just a lucky guess by Bird that Kima is gay, right? (But still the best part about that little takedown on Bird is seeing Lester in action on the streets. Trying to think of any other times in the series besides when he comes to Marlo's court to arrest him in person)
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Mar 24, 2014 17:31
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Dark Weasel posted:She's a female police, and as far as stereotypical perceptions of people there go, "lesbian" is number one Yet, it still has to be explained to McNulty 
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Mar 24, 2014 18:45
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Also technically Prez "uses" his gun to clock that kid in the eye outside the towers in S1. I always hated Prez. gently caress his redemption arc or whatever you call his role in s4.
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Jun 20, 2014 15:50
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Lester is on a bunch of HBO shows, notably Treme. He is a great actor and now that i think about it i am ashamed to not know his real name...
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Jul 8, 2014 11:39
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Bigass Moth posted:I know the point of Ziggy's character is that you're supposed to hate him and think he's a fuckup, but on a second watch he was SO overacted that it took me out of the show. That's probably why I didn't like season 2 the first time around, but I thought it was great on a second view knowing what happens instead of dreading another boring dockworker bar scene and wacky Ziggy. Ziggy's actor is good, his story is good, but I personally think they made him too extreme and in your face. Just in case anyone hasn't watched it, the actor who plays Ziggy is great in Generation Kill (which is itself a great miniseries by a lot of the same people who worked on the Wire).
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Jul 16, 2014 22:24
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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.
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Jul 17, 2014 13:51
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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 02:02 on Jul 18, 2014 |
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Jul 18, 2014 01:56
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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 02:02 on Jul 18, 2014 |
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Jul 18, 2014 02:00
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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?
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Jul 19, 2014 20:45
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frenton posted:Yeah, I'm aware. I was pointing out that I was confused the first time I watched the show because they never explain the abbreviations and such. It's one of the things I picked up through context, not an overt explanation. It's not really important to your understanding of the show, though. It would be awkward to write in explanations for things like that.
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Jul 20, 2014 11:58
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drunken officeparty posted:NO not Wallace you assholes how could you I'm sorry for your loss 
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Jul 21, 2014 22:18
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Anecdote: The only time I have ever reacted outwardly towards my TV during a show was when Slim Charles dropped Cheese out of nowhere. I think I sat up and clapped for like a solid 10 seconds and had to rewatch the rest of the scene immediately. "That was for Joe"
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Jul 23, 2014 01:28
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In S1 when Stinkum is bringin the re-up to the terrace right before Omar and crew stick them up for the first time he tells Bodie "10 minutes." I've never understood this part. Does he mean they're gonna go inside and wait 10 minutes to make their stop by the apt look more legit in case anyone is watching or to stop selling for 10 minutes while they break down the pack or what? I figure it is some kind of security measure cause why would it take 10 minutes just to make the drop-off?
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Jul 25, 2014 22:34
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drat i dont have anything to add but thanks for all the brilliant posts about Omar. Of course my initial reaction to his anti-climactic death was disappointment, after stepping back and analyzing the bigger picture i have to agree his arc was pretty much perfect in a show full of so maybe great arcs. The only one that might top it imho is Bubs' Edit: speaking of Bubs, is he the only character with an unequivocally happy ending?
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Jul 28, 2014 16:30
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Also dont forget, for all of Mouzone's rep, Omar gets to him at the motel pretty easily and would have killed him if he didnt take Mouzone's word that he was being played. (s5 contains all the most unbelievable parts.) Also when you think of moments like in S1 where Omar just strolls into the pit on basketball game day by himself it is kind of surprising some random corner kid didnt take him out from behind way before Kenard. thathonkey fucked around with this message at 19:47 on Jul 28, 2014 |
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Jul 28, 2014 19:44
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Minor point but it is Fruit that Cutty has dead-to-rights but cant pull the trigger despite Fruit having ripped him off on his coming home package. Savino is in the Barksdale crew (and later Marlo). He, of course, gets ended by Omar in S5. Good riddance, always hated him since he helped set up Kima getting shot
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Jul 28, 2014 20:20
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PostNouveau posted:Oh god, he'd show up once or twice in the later seasons, and it's always like "Jeez, this rear end in a top hat is still kicking around?" I think he goes to jail for a few years (due to whatever they were able to charge from his involvement in Kima's shooting) and by the time he's out, Avon and Stringer have fallen and he starts muscling for Marlo.
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Jul 28, 2014 20:32
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Steve2911 posted:For all the poo poo Avon pulls, and for as terrible as he generally is, that moment is so drat respectable. Marlo would have put him straight in a vacant for that. Yeah it's almost as if the writers were afraid they had portrayed Avon as too likable (and you could definitely make the case that he is even glorified to some extent) so for his successor, Marlo, they made him completely ruthless and more of a textbook "villain" (scenes like killing that security guard who calls Marlo on shoplifting the lollipops are there just in case you didn't realize that he is basically the spawn of satan) thathonkey fucked around with this message at 20:46 on Jul 28, 2014 |
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Jul 28, 2014 20:44
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Jerusalem posted:Spiros explains that the attention they're getting means they need to temporarily move out of town, and that there will be a (depressingly brief) delay before they can start bringing in new shipments for him. Joe and everybody else basically has to get by with what they've got until they're set back up, and then everything is running exactly the way it was before the Major Case Investigation. I haven't seen S2 in a while but doesn't the Greek have a very reliable FBI informant too? They probably knew exactly when they could come back safely and resume business-as-usual.
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Jul 30, 2014 20:33
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Yeah I honestly wish we could get a redo of S5 somehow sans the ridiculous fake serial killer plot  It sullied several characters for me also.Like i appreciate what they were going for but it was just too out there. Hamsterdam was way more believable.
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Jul 30, 2014 21:04
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gingerberger posted:Pretty sure it's just supposed to be a random body. Definitely this. Just another scene showing how things carry on in cycle.
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Aug 1, 2014 12:39
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^^ IIRC, that is Stringer who gives the "poo poo weak, we sell twice as much" speech. Anyway, yeah the cap colors are just another type of branding like "WMD!" "Spider bags!" and it means nothing more than that - branding. I suspect some well-established gangs tend to "own" certain brands (I think Avon used yellow and red tops?). At the level of Avon/Stringer/Marlo/Joe, they're buying "raw" (closish to pure product) and cutting it themselves down to various strengths as they package it for street distribution. So the quality fluctuates - but within a fairly controlled range. It's not in their best interest to have a huge swing in quality. Too strong, you'll start killing your customers. Too weak, you'll lose them all. You'll hear reports of a rash of ODs from a "really strong batch" or something cut with a stronger narcotic by accident, but those are exceptions to the norm. 2 and 2 would mean 2 coke 2 heroin. I think you also occasionally hear "2 for 1" - 2 for the price of 1 (some deals available at certain times of the day when business are slow). Not sure if yellow vs red top meant the drug within... I'm guessing you usually just verbally tell whoever is taking your money what your order is exactly. I've never heard an explanation for why Baltimore uses those glass vials. It is the only place I've ever heard of glass vials being used to distribute coke and heroin. I know in New Jersey they use weird (wax I think?) stamped bags (the stamps fill the role of branding here). I think those are just weird little idiosyncrasies that have been ingrained in those big drug markets. Other big cities mostly just use tiny little plastic bags. thathonkey fucked around with this message at 12:20 on Aug 2, 2014 |
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Aug 2, 2014 12:17
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Sam. posted:Is there any reason for the dealers not to step on the drugs as much as they can, since they'd sell more that way? They pretty much do as a general rule. But if it gets too weak, theyll lose customers to someone stepping on iy slightly less. Too strong, they'll lose customers to OD. There is a bit of an art to it. Avg purity levels of cocaine and heroin sold in the US were laughably low last i checked (like <20%). Thats why occasionally when a batch gets out that got stepped on once or twice less than the usual for whatever reason and there is a spurt of ODs. End users of drugs like that are used to the status quo which is remarkably low purity (%-wise). PS. This is why the notion of selling 99% pure meth in Breaking Bad is wholly unrealistic for a bunch of reasons. thathonkey fucked around with this message at 15:27 on Aug 2, 2014 |
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Aug 2, 2014 15:22
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tadashi posted:Stephen King called her "perhaps the most terrifying female villain to ever appear in a television series." I always thought Chris came off as the more terrifying of the 2 by a decent margin.
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Aug 7, 2014 20:27
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I'd recommend giving Treme another shot. It's not like "if you liked the Wire, you'll like Treme" necessarily but it is a high quality show and I think it gets better as it goes along.
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Aug 11, 2014 13:14
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wormil posted:This show has ruined tv for me. I'm struggling to enjoy anything else and just keep thinking about rewatching it. Yeah, well, luckily the show holds interest through basically unlimited rewatchings as far as i can tell
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Aug 20, 2014 22:11
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The police had a big manhunt going for weebay since he was wanted for shooting a police officer so i dont think they would necessarily think someone snitched. It's not like he went very far to lay low (baltimore to philly). Either way, Stringer decides to have D killed pretty shortly due to paranoia over snitching so it is probably a moot point.
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Sep 1, 2014 17:31
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Marlo was also on Heroes, but not the good season.vuk83 posted:How is it that 16:9 and 4:3 is not the same. The ratios are the same. I dont get it. No you just dont get math dude
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Sep 12, 2014 15:31
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I started another rewatch because why the hell not... I never noticed that the first guy they show Kima, Herc, and Carver busting appears to offer Herc a bribe? It's never mentioned again though I don't think but that's pretty funny if Herc just pockets the money. I don't think it's very common to successfully bribe a cop like that in the US? Edit; Later when D and Wee-bey are riding in his Mercedes and D starts talking about how they worked the security guard. Wee-bey turns up the music in case the car is bugged just like Sevino does later when Kima goes undercover. Barksdale crew was disciplined just like Marlo's. thathonkey fucked around with this message at 13:20 on Sep 13, 2014 |
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Sep 13, 2014 13:04
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blue squares posted:Hey guys. Massive fan of the show, watched it three times through since the original run. But right now I need Colvin's quote about "when a police knew his people, and got information from his people..." etc. I can't for the life of me remember when he says this, and I can't find the quote on Google. Any help? Thanks. Your paraphrasing of the quote isn't quite right but I don't remember the exact phrasing either. There are a couple speeches kind of like this but I think the one you're referring to is when Colvin is talking to Carver (season 3) about how police need the community to trust them so that they'll be willing to cooperate when some real bad poo poo happens. Something to that effect?
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Sep 13, 2014 17:06
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA5za4VsskM
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Sep 13, 2014 18:17
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KaosPV posted:Does anybody else think that that episode when they show Stringer Bell's library with Wealth of the nations, and him attending economics classes are just like... uh... Trying to hard, and ending up looking dumb? It's kind of if like they were trying to say "look at this criminal mastermind motherfucker, reading Adam Smith and poo poo, and he also knows about economics, he's got the academic knowledge AND the street wisdom". Adam Smith is loving centuries old and yeah, it's a classic of economics, but it's not like they're showing some loving cutting edge economist that is all the hot poo poo with neocons nowadays, which would have made more sense (like putting forward the whole idea of wanting to have a completely deregulated, outside of the state market, with drugs and poo poo). Not really. Somebody else made a better post about this same subject, but basically these scenes exemplify Stringer wanting to jump outside of the life he was born into. Taking economics classes at a community college does not an expert business man make. This is demonstrated later in the season when he gets easily played by much smarter players in the arena he's trying to enter. Stringer is from the street and happens to pick up a few nuggets of wisdom that anybody with a basic understanding of business and economics already knows. Yet he wants desperately to transpire that lifestyle but ultimately fails at it. He isn't even able to implement any of these simple business parables into the drug enterprise that he controls. I'm sure somebody else can dig up a more articulate analysis but yeah, I think those scenes are crucial to Stringer's character. thathonkey fucked around with this message at 22:42 on Sep 15, 2014 |
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Sep 15, 2014 22:39
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Speaking of related books, I bought a copy of The Corner accidentally (long story, not a loaded statement). Is it worth reading? I've already seen the HBO miniseries based on it (which was excellent and I'm pretty sure most Wire fans would enjoy it, the entire thing was on Youtube for a while but it looks like it got pulled, sorry y'all).
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Sep 16, 2014 21:04
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drunken officeparty posted:I'm rewatching House of Cards and just realized that Freddy is the assistant-mayor guy for Carcetti drat I didnt make that connection until just now 
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Sep 25, 2014 12:57
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the culminator posted:Also, I might need to give season five another lookin. A lot of these police procedure scenes with Lester and Sydnor are great. Someone needs to put out a chopped up version of season 5 with only the Stanfield/Omar/Clay Davis prosecution scenes. Yeah there are great parts of season 5. I tell people that they have to watch it, though some parts of the story will leave a sour taste in their mouth, it's at least worth making it through to the final episode which brings a really satisfying closure to the series. It'd be excellent if somebody could chop up a version minus all the serial killer and newsroom parts (for fans' benefit).
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Sep 26, 2014 21:51
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KORNOLOGY posted:Does Avon have a nickname? Nah I don't think so
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Oct 9, 2014 01:05
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| # ¿ Dec 7, 2025 03:51 |
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gingerberger posted:I think Stringer is a pretty sick street name, even though I have no idea what it could mean. Doesn't sound like it means anything beyond this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stringer_Bell) - Wikipedia posted:Stringer's name is a composite of two real Baltimore drug lords, Stringer Reed and Roland Bell.[3] His story bears many similarities to the life of Kenneth A. Jackson—specifically, his crossover from the illegal drug trade to legitimate business ownership and political contributions.
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Oct 9, 2014 19:17
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