# Can anyone answer my questions about "The Wire"? SPOILERS **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 31, 2011, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-answer-my-questions-about-the-wire-spoilers/607898 "2011-12-31T00:48:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![PrettyVacant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/49beb7/32.png) [@PrettyVacant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PrettyVacant)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-answer-my-questions-about-the-wire-spoilers/607898/21 "2011-12-31T18:28:41Z")
The Greek was certainly an asset for Homeland Security, or at least contrived to make himself an asset. I don’t beleieve it’s ever made clear whether the man at the FBI is the agency contact for the Greek asset, or if he feeds the Greek important information in return for career busts. My take is it’s semi-official, thus giving the Greek immunity - should he ever need it. That would make targeting the Greek quite pointless, which seems consistent with David Simon’s general perspective on that world. ---
**Author:** ![PrettyVacant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/49beb7/32.png) [@PrettyVacant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PrettyVacant)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-answer-my-questions-about-the-wire-spoilers/607898/22 "2011-12-31T18:30:46Z")
> [@](#): > > What ever happened to that stripper chick from Season 1? LOL. Keep watching. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-answer-my-questions-about-the-wire-spoilers/607898/23 "2011-12-31T22:25:25Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > As far as I remember, McNulty fucks up the entire works in the first five minutes of the first episode! > > Spills the beans about something to some judge and brings down a rain of shit on everyone. Thats why everyone thinks he is an asshole. > > I liked the first season, but found the rest getting progressivly more tedious. All due respect and everything, I think you missed way more than I did. What McNulty “spills the beans” about is the fact that there’s a kingpin operating (Avon Barksdale) who is obviously responsible for a string of homicides, and the department is treating each one as a separate incident instead of connecting the dots, which is pointless and stupid and once revealed makes them look really bad, which leads to the whole first season and the name of the show itself. And he was considered a dick before that. (Please correct me if I have that wrong, anyone…) > [@Quimby](#): > > I would also suggest you check out Alan Sepinwall’s episode by episode analysis of The Wire. He has two versions, one for people who are watching for the first time and one for people who had seen the entire series and were rewatching. Really great stuff. Half the episodes are on his personal blog What’s Alan Watching and the other half are on his [Hitfix.com](http://Hitfix.com) version of the blog. > > He was the TV writer for my local paper and a huge fan of the Wire. The analysis is really well done and helped me learn the characters better when I watched the series a few summers ago. Thanks for the tip, I will. I’m not sure yet if I’m enough of a fan to relive it all again with subtitles, but it’s possible. Because having now seen 3.5 seasons of it, I acknowledge that it many ways it is brilliant BUT… I can respond to those who cite it above Breaking Bad as the Greatest Television Show in the History of the World that no, it isn’t. BB is. In order to be the GTSIHOTW, you have to be, among other things: 1. Intelligible without a glossary, dictionary and subtitles. 2. Intelligible without a map and diagrams. 3. Brilliant and engaging in pretty much every single episode. The only show that comes closest (_The Fly_ being a point of debate on Point #3) is BB. And I broguht it up in this context to say that I’ve seen every episode of BB at least 3 times and will undoubtedly see them all many more times int he future. The only reason I would consider reliving the Wire is purely to understand it better, not because the entertainment value was _ **that** _ great. Is there any good commentary or essay anywhere written by someone who grew up in a similar milieu regarding the accuracy of the show? ---
**Author:** ![PrettyVacant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/49beb7/32.png) [@PrettyVacant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PrettyVacant)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2012, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-answer-my-questions-about-the-wire-spoilers/607898/24 "2012-01-01T01:27:04Z")
Are you serious? Have you any idea how provincial you sound? To quote David Simon “Fuck the casual viewer”. If you’re ever going to ‘get’ The Wire - and believe me you really, really don’t - work harder. [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qulcqNMHVic) ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2012, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-answer-my-questions-about-the-wire-spoilers/607898/25 "2012-01-01T04:04:58Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > Is there any good commentary or essay anywhere written by someone who grew up in a similar milieu regarding the accuracy of the show? [Here you go.](http://www.freakonomics.com/2008/01/09/what-do-real-thugs-think-of-the-wire/) “Thugs” talk about the show. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-answer-my-questions-about-the-wire-spoilers/607898.md?page=1)