Tonight is the night! I am so excited!
I already posted this thread, to the sound of crickets. Maybe it’s just you and me, eh? Join me on the older thread, I guess. You and I can talk amongst ourselves.
It was a promising start, and I’m really looking forward to the new season. It’s a little hard now to imagine The Wire world without Avon and Stringer, but it looks like the writers and producers have given us a new cast of interesting characters.
I loved the opening sequence with Marlow’s hitwoman (I still haven’t gotten her name) buying the nail gun, and the look of horror on the salesman’s face as he began to realize that she wasn’t the kind of “contractor” he thought she was. I also thought …[spoiler]…it was clever of the producers to break the “rule” of drama that when you see a gun in the first act, it will go off by the third. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one here who expected to see someone killed with it. Should we start a pool on which episode will feature the first death by nailgun?
Smart strategy Chris and the girl have of leaving their corpses in abandoned buildings that they seal back up after they leave. The bodies won’t be found for weeks or months, if ever. What do you think the white powder was that she sprinkled over the body? Lime, to speed up decomposition? [/spoiler]
For Dopers who don’t live in the mid-Atlantic region, I must highlight the character of Marcia Donnelly, the assistant principal of Edward Tilghman Middle School. As a Baltimore native, one of the few problems I have with The Wire (and most other films and TV shows set in Baltimore, except those of John Waters) is the almost complete absence of characters who speak with a real East Bawlamer accent. The actress playing Connelly is clearly a native, ‘cause she has it. Prez’ uncle did, too, and, to a lesser extent, so does Bunny’s (now Cedric’s) second in command. But Marcia’s is the clearest and best so far.
For me, that accent connotes the real heart of what makes Baltimore unique. It is not like any other accent. It’s not a southern accent. It was most common on the blue-collar east side of the city back when Bethlehem Steel was the area’s largest employer, but most of my childhood friends, up in the Northern suburbs, spoke that way. (To my intense frustration, except for a few phrases, I can’t do it.) My favorite example of Bawlamerese is the phrase for where we all go for summer vacation: Danny Ayshin*. For more examples, see here.
Back to the show, my favorite line was Bunk saying, as Lester left, “Look at that bow-legged motherfucker. I made him walk like that.”
- Down [to] the ocean.
Snoop. I didn’t realize she was a girl until they showed the corkboard with Marlo’s enforcers on it and it said her name was “Felicia Pearson, aka Snoop.” Apparently that’s her name IRL too, unless IMDB has it wrong.
I’d say lime. I was thinking of those abandoned buildings as “West Side Mausoleums” by the end of the ep.
Yeah, I laughed my ass off at that one too.