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

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spog: Aug 7, 2004; It's your own bloody fault.

Escobarbarian posted:

Time to start a debate maybe or something:

I'm planning on rewatching this for the first time. I've seen the whole show exactly once, but it took me from like 2008-2011 to finish it. For my rewatch, should I go for the 4:3 DVDs or the widescreen blus? I figure now we're a few years out from the blu release maybe there would be some consistency in opinions but who knows??

BluRay

They look much better in HD than DVD quality.

# ¿ Jan 9, 2018 11:53

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# ¿ Sep 20, 2024 17:46

spog: Aug 7, 2004; It's your own bloody fault.

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 checked the dates: he got the headshot in the same year that season 2 aired - just 6 months after it finished airing.

'Transitions' aired in 2008.

# ¿ Feb 28, 2018 00:53

spog: Aug 7, 2004; It's your own bloody fault.

Ainsley McTree posted:

I�m doing another rewatch and the actor who plays Burrell is so goddamn good. I mean, all the actors are good, but something about his performance is just spellbinding to me

It's amazing because the character was only required to be a big bad bogie man in the beginning. Yet as the story progresses, you come to understand and almost sympathise with him -almost entirely as a result of the pained look on his face.

# ¿ Mar 6, 2018 00:49

spog: Aug 7, 2004; It's your own bloody fault.

theCalamity posted:

That look when he realizes that the commissioner in season one wasn�t going to say anything to Kimas girlfriend and knows he�ll have to do it himself.

The script was fairly simple: 'my boss is an rear end in a top hat, I'll do it'.

But the acting gave you his entire career in a couple of facial expressions and you suddenly understood the guy and felt he was real.

# ¿ Mar 9, 2018 01:22

spog: Aug 7, 2004; It's your own bloody fault.

exmachina posted:

Just Bodie, man. He deserved a happy ending.

I genuinely cried.

The actor who played him doesn't seem to have done much else. That's a shame.

# ¿ Mar 10, 2018 13:18

spog: Aug 7, 2004; It's your own bloody fault.

Capntastic posted:

A friend is watching for the first time and is realizing that McNulty might not be an effective officer of the law

How many out there can do what he does?

Don Warden, Ed Burns, Gary Childs out in the county, John O'Neil and Steve Cleary over in Woodlawn, oh they bring it in, but there's not many.

# ¿ Mar 15, 2018 17:30

spog: Aug 7, 2004; It's your own bloody fault.

Basebf555 posted:

Season 2 is just so unbelievably underrated, even to this day. It's such a great companion piece to all the other seasons, people tend to not realize all the connections it has to the other storylines until they go back and rewatch it.

I think in hindsight, I disliked S2 on the first watch because it was stopping me from following the Barksdale crew and I resented that.

On the rewatch, I enjoyed it a lot more and appreciated it.

Ainsley McTree posted:

Sobotka is such an amazing and tragic character. In over his head, playing a game he was never ever going to win in the first place

You can really feel his emotions: Chris Bauer really knew how to show pain with just his eyes.

# ¿ Apr 3, 2018 17:40

spog: Aug 7, 2004; It's your own bloody fault.

Escobarbarian posted:

That dude�s Littlefinger voice gets so so weird by the end

In The Wire he slowly turns into Diamond Joe Quimby

Which seems very apt.

# ¿ Apr 11, 2018 17:27

spog: Aug 7, 2004; It's your own bloody fault.

Ainsley McTree posted:

Yeah that’s the thing; namond exhibits potential, but ziggy is just like...constantly loving up everything he tries to do, if there’s a niche for him, the show doesn’t go out of its way to show us what it might be.

So I’m not gonna say frank is father of the year or anything, but as much as I feel for ziggy, I feel a little bad for frank, too, his kid’s a scumbag

I'd say Ziggy is a fuckup rather than a scumbag.

# ¿ Apr 15, 2018 08:18

spog: Aug 7, 2004; It's your own bloody fault.

kaworu posted:

There are LOTS of people like that - like Ziggy. Maybe they're a little autistic, a little mentally ill, a little damaged, whatever. There are people who simply do not fit into the world they are born into no matter HOW they try, and the best they can ever do is manage a pitiable impression.

I think when it comes to young men a lot of it has to do not necessarily with being an inborn fuckup, but just not having the same skill-set as those around him. Critically, a lot of those people have serious issues with masculine gender roles - either not fitting into them or bucking against them. Both of these things were true of Namond and Ziggy - they weren't queer but because of their appearance (having long hair or being scrawny/weedy) they were never really treated as MEN proper in the tough communities they were coming up in.\

But it's a very very common story. That's where all the drug addicts generally come from... pitiable kids like Ziggy or Namond or even Dukie of course who simply weren't built to have guns pointed at them.

To me, this hits the nail on the head: Ziggy is one of the most intelligent people in the series.*

He's a fuckup because he tries to succeed in two worlds: the shipyard where seniority counts for everything-tired old farts repeating the same story for 20 years get the respect and the streets - where muscle and perceived power are everything.

He has neither of these qualities and so fucks up because he is trying to compete in these worlds.

*
1-only one who considered looking up what the stuff they smuggled for The Greek did and knew how to use the web to do so
2-understood how digital cameras work
3-researched the prices and market value of them and so negotiated a better deal than Nick when selling them
4-the car-stealing plan was very clever and well-thought out. It only failed because GG could push him around.

# ¿ Apr 15, 2018 11:33

spog: Aug 7, 2004; It's your own bloody fault.

You have to consider the Dickensian aspect of it.

# ¿ Apr 21, 2018 00:09

spog: Aug 7, 2004; It's your own bloody fault.

kaworu posted:

But anyway, my point is really that I found all of that stuff with him and Lester really kind of tedious, because it was fairly obvious how it would more or less play out. And the schtick with Bunk and McNulty felt really tired at time, it was just Bunk acting disgusted at McNulty's actions and making scathing comments and doing nothing. Something about the entire thing felt "off", even when they got "The Wire" up. At that point I felt like the whole initial concept of catching people on "The Wire" had been played out to its logical end in season 3, and it was clear that technology had changed too much from that point on. Something about it all just felt... Really "off" and a little contrived.

It felt a bit Scooby-Doo to me: Old Man McNulty pretends to be a ghost to scare the townspeople and would have gotten away with it if it weren't for those pesky kids

# ¿ Apr 25, 2018 18:46

spog: Aug 7, 2004; It's your own bloody fault.

bucketybuck posted:

Also, just like every rewatch I am once again amazed at just how big of an absolute oval office McNulty is.

The more I watch it, the more I feel that Rawls probably was making the right call way back in S1

# ¿ Jun 26, 2018 21:13

spog: Aug 7, 2004; It's your own bloody fault.

That's my take too: a lot of heart, not a lot of brains.

I suppose it is illustrative of the depth of the characters that I sometimes wonder if he had been taken under someone's wing, he could have been a sturdy cop - instead everyone ignores him.

I even feel sympathy for Colicchio who is forced to adopt Bunny's new way of thinking, without buying into it.

# ¿ Jun 27, 2018 22:11

spog: Aug 7, 2004; It's your own bloody fault.

Stare-Out posted:

Wood Harris is in everything and I can't not see Avon when he appears. Dredd and Blade Runner 2049 were weird to watch.

Is it my imagination or does Wood get the crap kicked out of him in every role since The Wire?

# ¿ Jul 6, 2018 00:01

spog: Aug 7, 2004; It's your own bloody fault.

Lemon posted:

I'm trying to put my finger on exactly why I hate McNulty more than the street guys, even though the vast majority of them are inarguably worse people.

I guess maybe it's because they are essentially more honest, especially with themselves. Also they don't act like spoiled children for the majority of their screentime.

He's very intelligent while most of them vary between 'dullards' and 'competent' - Kima is probably best of the rest, but she still doesn't have that genius spark.

# ¿ Jul 14, 2018 22:29

spog: Aug 7, 2004; It's your own bloody fault.

Have you watched all the series?

# ¿ Jul 20, 2018 07:15

spog: Aug 7, 2004; It's your own bloody fault.

I think you can guess that I've answered your question.

Which leads to a question from me: why the hell haven't you watched the last series recently????

# ¿ Jul 20, 2018 07:49

spog: Aug 7, 2004; It's your own bloody fault.

Dongattack posted:

Ah yeah, that makes sense. The money went everywhere near officials tho, i guess they were just trying to get whomever they could into their pocket? It's kinda sad then really that they spent so much money and energy on buying politicians and the like and they never actually got anything but problems cause of it.

I think I disagree with that: they had so much legitimate money because of their fronts that they didn't need to deal on the streets anymore. If it wasn't for Avon and his corner mentality, they could have liked like untouchable kings.

# ¿ Oct 4, 2018 21:51

spog: Aug 7, 2004; It's your own bloody fault.

Dongattack posted:

Were the fronts actually working a profit tho? I'm just thinking about the whole series of scenes where it was revealed that Clay was scamming Stringer all along and i assumed that it was hinted at then that the whole business was operating at a loss and going nowhere. But also now that i think about it it could just be a scene showing Clay Davis being Clay Davis and everything that didn't involve him probably ran a whole lot smoother.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kn76iJ0DOpI

# ¿ Oct 4, 2018 22:11

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# ¿ Sep 20, 2024 17:46

spog: Aug 7, 2004; It's your own bloody fault.

I felt Deadwood was two seasons of building up and then sudden cancellation.

# ¿ Dec 22, 2018 19:00

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