Favorite characters: (How can you choose?)
Michael
Bodie
Prop Joe
Snoop
Daniels
Norman Wilson
Favorite scenes:
Snoop at the Home Despot.
Final meeting between Avon and Stringer.
Any scene with Bodie.
Any scene with Prop Joe.
The key to the show is that this imaginary world seems real to us because the people that inhabit this imaginary world seem real. There are no real heroes or villains, only characters with personalities and motivations.
Even someone who seems larger than life, like Omar, is a mortal who is successful only part of the time, and only because of hard work and planning (his detailed surveillance of the New Day gang in S4 is a highly successful counterpoint to the only marginally successful high-tech investigations performed by whole teams of po-lice over four seasons).
We should start a “spoilers” thread. Till then, though:
[spoiler]Avon asks Stringer at some point, “When is your meeting?” Stringer stares at him and stammers for a few seconds before answering. At that point I was sure he was lying to Avon about his answer: it seemed so clear to me that he knew Stringer was selling him out. I suspect now that he knew Avon had sold him out, but either he couldn’t believe it, or he couldn’t imagine avoiding his fate. It felt like a moment right out of Macbeth.
I forget what it was about the scene that convinced me that Avon knew Stringer had betrayed him, but there was something in the scene that did.[/spoiler]
Interesting point, and I agree, having had a similar conversation with my husband. If Omar had come up in a different life (like, not with No Heart Anthony as a brother and not in the streets of Bodymore, Murdaland), he would have been an awesome cop. Real po-lice. He had the instinct for it and the deep sense of justice.
A similar point could be made about Stringer Bell-- he was the post-modern Andrew Carnegie or J.P. Morgan. If he had been able to get his MBA at Harvard instead of the street, imagine how successful he would have been. Same person, different context, very different result in life. He could have parlayed his sociopathy into a fortune, in the esteemed traditiuon of the American robber barons.
I was thinking something similar about Randy (while watching the S4 episodes just last week), with his entrepreneurial spirit and ingenuity. That’s why it’s so heartbreaking the way he was broken and his soul was killed at the end.
Maybe not a Carnegie or a Morgan, but definitely some drive to succeed and a motivation to work for it.
That’s what I loved about S4: they really portrayed the boys at the end of innocence. All of the kids, not just Randy, had potential. Randy was just the one living in a stable home.
The System, not unlike the Gods of Greek mythology, is indifferent to the travails of mere mortals. The charitable efforts of individuals can help, but only through direct intervention:
[spoiler]Bunny (and, to a lesser extent, Parenti and Wee-Bey) saved Namond. That Namond is the only one who is not swallowed by “The Game” is all due to the focus and actions of individuals.
Carver tried to save Randy, but he screwed up by trusting the kid’s welfare to the System. It was Herc’s incompetence that gave him up to Marlo, and police incompetence that left his home vulnerable, and the foster system that prevented Carver from protecting him after that.
Cutty tried to save Michael, but Michael’s (justified) distrust of adult men probably had already set his story in motion.
Prez tried to save Dukie, but in the end had to focus on what he could do for the majority of the kids, rather than what he could do for one.[/spoiler]
The System (like The Game) can’t be reformed by individuals; It has its own momentum, and inasmuch as reform means changing this momentum, it requires the participation of powerful people pulling in the same direction to change it.
Also, the self-interest of powerful individuals within the system is always helped by going with the flow – Real reform tends to work against the individual’s self-interest.
I’m rolling the dice on these seasons. I’ve heard too many good things to let it go without giving it a chance. And if it is even on the same level as Deadwood, I’ll stop doubting and suck cock by choice!
Well better late than never, thought I’d just chime in for everyone who recommended I check the Wire out. Just finished watching series 1 (as in ten minutes ago) and I agree it’s some of the best TV I’ve ever seen. It’s definitely not an easy show to follow, partly due to the twists turns and less than ideal amounts of exposition, but then in the latter case that just makes it all the more realistic. I didn’t turn on the subtitles, but I did think about it a few times.
Series 2 added to my lovefilm queue and sent straight to the top. Thanks Dopers, you’ve done me proud.
The point, for me, when it went from “this is quite good” to “Damn, I’m addicted to this!” was the final scene of the first episode of the second season. The elements of the story had been placed and I just couldn’t wait to see how they would pan out.
I will say that using the subtitles is a good idea. Even if it’s just because you are enjoying it so much that you can’t bear the idea of missing a single line.
Apologies for only skimming this thread before posting.
My (24-year old) daughter recently started season 1 from Netflix, and I gave her two peices of advice: 1. Give it time, and 2. Turn on subtitles. She is now in love with The Wire (guess I raised her right) and I am jubilant to have another person besides my husband to discuss it with.
Every episode felt as compelling as watching a whole movie. A good one – not some Will Farrell piece of crap. I am jealous of my daughter as she can watch the whole thing unfold for the first time, while I can only rewatch and relive the great and small moments that comprise the best tv series I ever had the pleasure to view. There may someday come a tv show that tops The Wire – it would have to be some fucking miraculous event, and I can’t imagine it. I’m bereft that it’s over. Is there a support group somewhere . . .
I just started season 5. I’d say season 4 was without a doubt some of the most powerful television I’ve ever seen. I’m incredibly sad this is the last season.
Bunk is a wonderfully entertaining character. His drunken whining for McNulty at the bar is one of my favorite moments. I was also surprised that after really despising him for quite a while, Carcetti has grown on me.
One of my favorite, more quiet scenes is in S2. Beadie Russell’s having coffee with an ex so she can pump him for information. You can see that she hates using this guy, and he sees it too, and he helps her, but only because he sees that she does hate using him. They respect each other. That scene would have been written totally different on any other show.
Just finished Season 2 this evening. Really, really like it. But after two seasons I will say this: it is absolutely a cop show. It’s a good one, but it’s a cop show.
The central narative of everything that has happened is the criminal activity of the bad guys, and the pursuit of said bad guys by cops. That’s a cop show.
I think you’re mostly right, but the cops/criminals main thread is used as a backdrop to touch many different kinds of stories, stories that would never show up in most cop shows. I mean, no other police drama would spend almost half its season run-time with smuggling dock workers and their lives and problems, giving them equal weight to the police side. Also, watch Season 4, which takes a fascinating (and heartbreaking) look at middle-school-aged kids growing up with The Game around, and tell me this is just a cop show.
I refused to watch The Wire for many years. I’m a Black female born & raised in Baltimore I was tired of the exploitation of my city but this is the best example of what life was like in the late 80’s early 90’s. It’s real & real ugly it’s also a true intelligent look at the death of an American city. It’s an exploration of the failure of the “war on drugs”. Truly one of the best television shows ever.
That makes three from the Atlantic isles that I know of then, him plus Dominic West and Aiden Gillen. Again chalk this up to some serious acting prowess on Elba’s part, I never would have guessed he was British.
