the wire appreciation

  Iain C said:

The free CD's were decent though. What a joke that you have to subscribe to get them...

The mp3 bit on their site is pretty good, fuck the cds.

  telikan said:

  analogue wings said:

Halfway through series two here. I agree that McNulty the smirky everyman seems a bit fake compared to some of the other chars, and that gets even worse in S2. The whole thing is frighteningly addictive though. Love the pacing!

 

If you haven't gotten to episode eight yet, you'll really appreciate how over the top McNulty is and not really care how realistic his character is. Epic cold opening.

zomgz episode 8 is sitting on my phone waitng for me to finish work and watch it.

actually they DO seem to be setting him up for a big fat humbling experience...

my only really qualm with this show so far (currently on season 3, episode 4) is that nobody EVER cares about maintaining the chain of evidence. nobody uses gloves when handling anything, they don't ever put anything in evidence bags or even seem to care about contaminating crime scenes. it's not a huge deal, i guess, but it really takes me out of the reality of everything else, especially when it's something that's so easily remedied.

also, the seasons are too short and needs more omar.

and a random side note, stringer is pretty much exactly like my brother in law in so many ways. i mean, he's not a drug tycoon or anything like that, but the clothes, the facial expressions, the mannerisms, the way he talks to people, etc. except that my brother in law lives in the suburbs of sacramento, works for UPS corporate, has 2 kids and plays golf, which just makes it that much more hilarious to me. i imagine that that's how he pictures himself in his head though, like some badass brotha who holds it down on the streets. lol.

finished the whole series over the weekend.

anybody know why the final season was only 10 episodes? seemed kinda rushed by the end there. still good. season 5 was probably my least favorite because it seemed underdeveloped. the whole newspaper subplot never really felt complete, we didn't really get to know any of them enough to have the same kind of effect like with the dock workers in season 2.

i enjoyed all the other seasons equally, but 4 was probably the most moving. the deaths were just shocking and it's probably the only realistic portrayal of what US public school was like for me. plus, whenever you're dealing with kids it's always hard to stomach. s4 left me feeling pretty depressed.

it was sad to see omar go out like that as well, but i knew it was coming sooner or later. fitting the way it went down though.

  catsonearth said:

anybody know why the final season was only 10 episodes?

Simon said they felt like they only needed ten episodes to tell the story.

I was under the impression it was because of the writers strike?

I think people should give more credit to season 2, Zig was crazy fun.

  vasio said:

I was under the impression it was because of the writers strike?

No, a lot of people think that and I don't know why. They finished filming like two months before the strike even started.

i liked season 2. was a little weird at first trying to learn all the new characters, but it really expanded the world and made it more rounded. s2 was when i really realized that the show was going to delve much deeper than most shows ever get into "the system". also liked that the dock workers were cameo'd in season 5. nice touch.

as for s5...i dunno if i agree that they only needed 10 eps. like i said, a lot of it felt less detailed than the previous seasons. we got to know many of the students in s4, lots of dock workers in s2, but hardly any of the reporters in s5 aside from their duties as reporters. i think they wrapped it up pretty nicely and it definitely made sense and all that, but 2 episodes could have rounded it out and given them time to let us know something about them outside of being in the news room for a few mins here and there. plus, i though gus was a cool character...would have liked to see more of him.

also, titties

god i love the wire. i just finished season 5 last night. 5 was i think my least favorite b/c it was def. rushed. it probably had the most skimmed storyline and most obvious symbolism and most obvious parallels (like politics btw diff. agencies/in schools/on street etc)... but it was still really good.

  Idrn said:

on a small note, i noticed in that last episode, during a pretty paltry scene wherein some corner kid was waiting out for a friend, during the questioning by another kid on that he would be another couple of hours they artificially went to the effort of putting in fake cold steam coming from his mouth. i mean, its such a paltry thing, completely inconsequential, but they went to the effort of doing something like that just to accentuate the fact that he was waiting and it was, in fact, a cold day. and its like that is the spirit of this program - not giving a fuck about success, just making a piece of intensely studious art.

ya i think my fav example of this is the bullet-proof vest scene (taking it off) with the sweat marks on the back of the guy's shirt. just great attention to detail.

  catsonearth said:

also liked that the dock workers were cameo'd in season 5. nice touch.

 

as for s5...i dunno if i agree that they only needed 10 eps. like i said, a lot of it felt less detailed than the previous seasons. we got to know many of the students in s4, lots of dock workers in s2, but hardly any of the reporters in s5 aside from their duties as reporters. i think they wrapped it up pretty nicely and it definitely made sense and all that, but 2 episodes could have rounded it out and given them time to let us know something about them outside of being in the news room for a few mins here and there. plus, i though gus was a cool character...would have liked to see more of him.

yes

so i finished season 1 the other day and am about 1/3 through season 2. man, avon was so much cooler than marlo.

anybody started watching Generation Kill yet? Its created by the writer(s) of the Wire and resembles it in a lot of ways. If you thought the Wire was an honest and visceral portrayal of crime and police, Generation Kill is pretty much the same concept transposed on the Iraq War. Not so much the both sides of the equation aspect but just how depressing and realistic the world they create around you feels.

  Awepittance said:

anybody started watching Generation Kill yet? Its created by the writer(s) of the Wire and resembles it in a lot of ways. If you thought the Wire was an honest and visceral portrayal of crime and police, Generation Kill is pretty much the same concept transposed on the Iraq War. Not so much the both sides of the equation aspect but just how depressing and realistic the world they create around you feels.

what? sounds odd

  Awepittance said:

anybody started watching Generation Kill yet? Its created by the writer(s) of the Wire and resembles it in a lot of ways. If you thought the Wire was an honest and visceral portrayal of crime and police, Generation Kill is pretty much the same concept transposed on the Iraq War. Not so much the both sides of the equation aspect but just how depressing and realistic the world they create around you feels.

yeah i've been watching it. i like how some of the guys play themselves, but it seems like some of the command is way too incompetent to be real. i dunno though, i guess it's all based on that book so i suppose it must be pretty accurate. it also seems to be a bit harder to follow than the wire. military terms are way more confusing than the wire's street slang.

i'm watching it now and waiting for friendly fire

  olson said:

  Awepittance said:

anybody started watching Generation Kill yet? Its created by the writer(s) of the Wire and resembles it in a lot of ways. If you thought the Wire was an honest and visceral portrayal of crime and police, Generation Kill is pretty much the same concept transposed on the Iraq War. Not so much the both sides of the equation aspect but just how depressing and realistic the world they create around you feels.

 

yeah i've been watching it. i like how some of the guys play themselves, but it seems like some of the command is way too incompetent to be real. i dunno though, i guess it's all based on that book so i suppose it must be pretty accurate. it also seems to be a bit harder to follow than the wire. military terms are way more confusing than the wire's street slang.

yeah at first it was hard for me to follow and yeah haha the incompetence is hard to fathom

overall im liking how inglorious it is, it doesn't try to gloss over the horrors of war.

i'm also impressed by the effects on the show, especially the gunshot tracers and explosions look pretty fuckin real.

re tauboo: yeah half the time the tension in the show is built up from waiting for just some really bad accident or fuckup to happen, so far it seems that most of the real danger they've been subjected to has been due to either a command fuckup or equipment problem.

My friend has been on at me for weeks to watch it, and he's finally here with the DVD. So I guess I shall go and watch it soon.

  Awepittance said:

anybody started watching Generation Kill yet? Its created by the writer(s) of the Wire and resembles it in a lot of ways. If you thought the Wire was an honest and visceral portrayal of crime and police, Generation Kill is pretty much the same concept transposed on the Iraq War. Not so much the both sides of the equation aspect but just how depressing and realistic the world they create around you feels.

been watching it as well. i like it, but its really hard to follow because i honestly can't tell any of the soldiers apart (except for the dude that played ziggy on the wire, of course...and the guy who is always talking about the white man). they all look like a bunch of generic white people all wearing the same outfit with the same haircut. it may be realistic, but goddamn does it make following a story difficult. not that there's really much story to follow. the characters are pretty much interchangeable for the most part, so nothing specific ever gets muddied.

the other thing that sucks is having to watch all the annoyingly ignorant banter between the soldiers. i mean, i understand fully that it's a realistic portrayal and that is how a lot of people in the marines act, but seriously...i have to deal with that shit enough in the real world that watching it on television grates on my nerves a little bit. at least with the wire the characters had some redeeming qualities that made you identify with them. the only reason i feel any sympathy towards the marines is because the us government can't even be bothered to give the poor bastards a few packs of energizers to power their gear.

still, i don't think the point is for me to idolize the characters or anything, so whatever. i do like the show a lot. just not an easy one to watch.

  catsonearth said:

  Awepittance said:

anybody started watching Generation Kill yet? Its created by the writer(s) of the Wire and resembles it in a lot of ways. If you thought the Wire was an honest and visceral portrayal of crime and police, Generation Kill is pretty much the same concept transposed on the Iraq War. Not so much the both sides of the equation aspect but just how depressing and realistic the world they create around you feels.

 

been watching it as well. i like it, but its really hard to follow because i honestly can't tell any of the soldiers apart (except for the dude that played ziggy on the wire, of course...and the guy who is always talking about the white man). they all look like a bunch of generic white people all wearing the same outfit with the same haircut. it may be realistic, but goddamn does it make following a story difficult. not that there's really much story to follow. the characters are pretty much interchangeable for the most part, so nothing specific ever gets muddied.

 

the other thing that sucks is having to watch all the annoyingly ignorant banter between the soldiers. i mean, i understand fully that it's a realistic portrayal and that is how a lot of people in the marines act, but seriously...i have to deal with that shit enough in the real world that watching it on television grates on my nerves a little bit. at least with the wire the characters had some redeeming qualities that made you identify with them. the only reason i feel any sympathy towards the marines is because the us government can't even be bothered to give the poor bastards a few packs of energizers to power their gear.

 

still, i don't think the point is for me to idolize the characters or anything, so whatever. i do like the show a lot. just not an easy one to watch.

i felt the same way after like 2 episodes but now that its up to 5 i can really recognize a lot more characters and faces.

do you get all the code names? hitman and assassin and all the numbers and shit? hitman 2 actual? what?

i get some of it, but not all of it. most of the jargon is actually just words to signify the first letter of the word, ie. "oscar mike" means O.M., which i take it means "on the move". i'm not sure what hitman means, i think it might just be the name of the different crews, H team or some shit. "assassin" is probably A team. "actual" means you're talking directly to a command officer, i think. so "godfather" is "hitman actual" because he's the commanding officer of the hitman unit. i dunno, its confusing because all the words mean very specific things, a company, a platoon, a unit all refer to different sized groups of soldiers that i can never ever keep track of, so i'm probably fucking it all up.

  catsonearth said:

been watching it as well. i like it, but its really hard to follow because i honestly can't tell any of the soldiers apart (except for the dude that played ziggy on the wire, of course...and the guy who is always talking about the white man). they all look like a bunch of generic white people all wearing the same outfit with the same haircut. it may be realistic, but goddamn does it make following a story difficult. not that there's really much story to follow. the characters are pretty much interchangeable for the most part, so nothing specific ever gets muddied.

that's funny because there's another (white) guy from The Wire in it.

can't say i share your problem.

  tauboo said:

  catsonearth said:

been watching it as well. i like it, but its really hard to follow because i honestly can't tell any of the soldiers apart (except for the dude that played ziggy on the wire, of course...and the guy who is always talking about the white man). they all look like a bunch of generic white people all wearing the same outfit with the same haircut. it may be realistic, but goddamn does it make following a story difficult. not that there's really much story to follow. the characters are pretty much interchangeable for the most part, so nothing specific ever gets muddied.

that's funny because there's another (white) guy from The Wire in it.

 

can't say i share your problem.

is there? who is he in the show and who did he play on the wire?

btw, not being able to tell anybody apart also has a lot to do with the fact they're all wearing the same uniforms and wearing helmets or goggles that cover the tops of their faces most of the time. and there are two guys that look a lot alike except one of them has different eyes. i always get them confused - the guy who rides next to ziggy and the dude with the really light eyes. from afar they look like the same person to me.

Just finished season 4, what a fucking show this is, I love it. Only one more season to go though, will there be no more in the future?

Though white people have a natural aversion to television, there are some exceptions. For white people to like a TV show it helps if it is: critically acclaimed, low-rated, shown on premium cable, and available as a DVD box set.

The latter is important so that white people can order it from Netflix and tell their friends “they are really into <insert series> and I watched ten episodes in a row in the weekend. I’m almost caught up.”

If you attempt to talk about an episode they have not seen yet, they will scream and cover their ears. In white culture, giving away information about a film or TV series is considered as rude as spitting on your mothers grave. It is an unforgivable offense.

Recent series that have fallen into this category include The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, and most recently The Wire.

For the past several years, whenever you say “The Wire” white people are required to respond by saying “it’s the best show on television.” Try it the next time you see a white person! Though now they might say “it WAS the best show on television.”

So why do they love it so much? It all comes down to authenticity. A long time ago, someone started a rumor that when The Wire is on TV, actual police wires go quiet because all the dealers are watching the show. Though this is not true, it seems plausible enough to white people and has imbued the show with the needed authenticity to be deemed acceptable.

The popularity of this show among white people has create a unique opportunity for personal gain.

If you need to impress a white person, tell them you are from Baltimore. They will immediately ask you about The Wire and how accurate it is. You should confirm that it is “like a documentary of the streets,” the white person will then slowly shake their head and say “man” or “wow.” You will be seen in an entirely new light.

If you are not from Baltimore but the white person you are talking to is, they might start asking you a lot of questions. In this situation, you should just say you left when you were young but you still have a lot of cousins there but you don’t like to go back to visit. This will remove all doubts and they can go back to telling you about how John from Accounting needs to “stop snitching” about their two hour lunch breaks.