We’re up to Season Four going through the Netflix and On Demand routes to see all of The Wire and have yet to see (with the closed captions on) anybody reveal the words behind the acronym DNR. “Do Not Resuscitate” from House and The Sopranos and probably other medical shows, doesn’t fit the context of wiretaps and surveillance where the acronym has been used on The Wire.
Lookups on acronym sites give “Dialed Number Recording” which makes the most sense so far to me.
Do you know if there’s an even better set of words for it as it would be used in that show?
They toss it around from the first episode of the first season without ever bothering (at least in my memory of it) to spell it out. I even went to the HBO website for the show and have yet to find it there. Maybe I just haven’t looked well enough.
I just figured some of you fans of the show could set me straight.
That fits my memory. They say “DNR” quite often but never the full expression for what it really mens. I assume they either felt it was common knowledge or they wanted it to be an insider term for real fans.
It’s an “as advertised” show of top quality. Your praise of it has been my main motivation to see it from the start. Do you happen to have a comprehensive list of SDMB threads that deal with the show? I have started one (list that is) based on a keyword search for “McNulty” which I assumed would be in most threads on The Wire but I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m missing some that way.
Would there be much to gain by starting a new thread on the show for late-comers?
For one thing I’m curious if other people have a favorite character from the show. Mine, at the moment, is Omar. He and Brother Mouzone are like Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. Bubs is cool, too.
It’s a little odd because, in my Criminal Procedure class we called the same thing a “pen register.” "DNR"mght be a regionalism, or even a Baltimorism. Or perhaps a cop-ism, whereas pen register is a lawyer-ism.
Very helpful Wiki link. Thanks. I seem to recall a highlighted/linked reference to DNR (that went to a similar article on “pen register”) in some HBO synopsis I had read, but never did see the direct link to “DNR” itself and/or the spelling out of the words themselves.
It might make for a fun spin-off thread to see how many “taken for granted” acronyms there are in common parlance.
And I could accept the “regionalism, or even a Baltimorism” usage in the show.
It might be tricky. I remember the main story arcs for each season, but I’m not so sure about the sequence of some stuff. The series is all one, as far as I’m concerned, and I’d worry about dropping spoilers.
Omar for me too. And Bodie – Bodie doesn’t get much love. That’s understandable, considering what he did, but he was a great character. And Marlo – I couldn’t take my eyes off Marlo. And Slim Charles – loved him too.
Hello Again, yeah. I think Pearlman the lawyer used pen register.
No argumant here on either of those folks. And I quickly developed a fondness for “Prez” as soon as he was confined to the office “even if the place was on fire.” Since I’ve yet to see the last two seasons, my impressions are all from the first three.
But I told my wife that the girlfriend of the guy Bernard who’s out buying up cell phones all over I-95 reminded me too much of Yvonne Kriddle.
Yes, the spoilers aspect is a real concern, especially since I wouldn’t want to know too much about the last two seasons beforehand.
But I’d sure like to revive some of those threads from the first seasons just to ask some questions or offer some opinions or interpretations of those things.
It’s a lot to ask for a show that’s been off the main track for years now, but I have indeed gotten hooked on the show.
All I can say is that dead eye he lays on McNulty when he lets him know it’s his last case with the unit is about as cold as anything I have seen on TV.
And I need to put in a good word for Bunk, too. Excellent acting in every scene he’s in.
Zeldar, I’m exactly where you are (just finished season 3), and I love, love, love, love the show. I’d be happy to discuss it in some way that we can keep spoiler-free.
My fav character: Omar. Is his blind mentor supposed to be a reference to Greek mythology or something? Like some kind of seer? I know also Omar is supposed to really like classical mythology, so maybe . . .
I also really like both Stringer and Avon, although I didn’t like Avon till the end of this season. Stringer is just way too hot. OMG. Idris Elba.
Marlo is disturbingly cool-headed. Still don’t get what he’s about. Am kind of fascinated by that butch-y girl he has in his crew. Not many females in the drug world (except for Omar’s girls, I guess).
Oh yeah, also, damn but they did some fine casting for this show. Every actor is remarkable. And I think above all that, the accents are breathtakingly accurate. The guy who is second-in-command to Colvin (for some reason, I thought he was the same guy who worked the boats with McNulty but maybe I’m wrong) has a quintessential Baltimore accent. And even the way people like Prop Joe say, “two” and “do” is sooo Baltimore. They must have used regional actors.
I think Carcetti is another great example of casting. Doesn’t that guy’s appearance and mannerisms just exemplify the snake-oil politician? I was totally set up to dislike him, but found myself sympathetic to him at the end.
Oh, and I want to add that while there are no “good” characters, I think there are some characters that are portrayed consistently in an unflattering light and seem to have no redeeming qualities. Burrell and Rawls, for example
I hated Carcetti and, to be honest, found that entire storyline pretty uninvolving. But he was well-cast. He also did an excellent job of hiding his Irish accent - the only time he slipped was in the scene where he was playing Battleship and pronounced H as “haitch”.
I’m particularly sensitive to the excellent acting in the Rawls character. It’s like I’d like to see something that indicates he has a soul, and there are little moments when it does appear he gives slightly more than a rat’s ass about anybody and anything but himself and his department’s arrest statistics, but he always manages to short-circuit any effort to sympathize with him.
I almost fell out of my chair when the camera reveals him at the gay bar when Lamar (another excellently developed minor role!) is in there trying to locate Omar. It just added another layer of unfathomable to the Rawls mystique.
On the other hand, I see Burrell as the type who steals the pennies off a dead man’s eyes.
Excellent links. I’m going to try to remember to come back to them after I see the last two seasons.
Snoop is a piece of work, for sure.
Am I wrong or was there a similar analysis of The Sopranos by some real-life wise guys during the run of the show? I know the fascination with Goodfellas and The Godfather by known mobsters as well as the cast of The Sopranos was legendary.
If we could only get some real old-timer to pass judgment on the authenticity of Deadwood! I just watched a Robert Klein special on HBO last night and he seemed to cast aspersions on the way cowboys talked. Narrow-minded in my opinion.
Guessing here–I can’t be arsed to read Katz, and don’t think it was assigned back when I took crim pro. But given that the case was decided by the Court in 1967, I suspect that a ‘pen register’ at that time was actually someone sitting there at the phone company writing down all of the outgoing numbers dialed from a particular line. For lawyers, the technology involved was never all that important–all that matters is that someone or something is making a record of the calls from a particular line. So the name ‘pen register’ stuck, even as the technology progressed, as a shorthand for whatever method or device happened to be used to make such a record.
Cops, on the other hand, are probably more interested in the specific working details of whatever unit they happen to be using. So they call it by its proper name, rather than this odd anachronism.
BTW: The Wire is fantastic. I need to go back and have a watch of the whole thing again, if I can find the time.
I have trouble with spatial relationships, and with math (and I’m not a puzzler like Prez), so despite watching four or five times, I still can’t figure out how the telephone code worked. They skipped the 5 or started with the 5 or something. Can anyone explain it in a way that a three-year-old can understand? I should go on “Are You Dumber Than A Hopper?”
(I’m also still puzzling the deal Al Swearengen made with Ms. Isringhausen too, and that has nothing to do with spatial relationshps.)
