It's been a hot minute since we've discussed "The Wire"

Just finished what I think is my 3rd re-watch.

-There is no one - NO ONE - on the planet that is more natural PO-lice than Lester Freamon.


-Every second that Marlo was on screen, I hated him. He's a colossal piece of shite with NO redeeming qualities. That's obviously the intent of the show, but I never hated watching him as a character. I think that may make him the best antagonist I've ever seen in a TV show. Every other great TV "bad guy" I can think of has a bit of humanity, humor, or some other redeeming quality to them. Some of the GOAT "bad guys" weren't even bad guys and really didn't do anything wrong (Walter White). shite, compare him other antagonists on the show. Avon was charming and generous (gave Cutty $15k for the gym). Stringer wanted to tone down the violence and was working his way through community college. Snoop had a construction hobby and Partlow sought justice against child molesters. Marlo, though, was just an outright piece of shite, and I loved every minute of it. Props to actor Jamie Hector. I looked him up on IMDB, and it looks like he was a long term fixture on "Bosch". Will definitely check that out soon.

-Speaking of, the Greeks were dumbfricks for selling directly to Marlo. Prop Joe was a pro. A relatively lowkey fella that didn't cause much trouble and fought to end corner wars for the sake of business stability. Marlo was a loose cannon. The Greeks had to have had some familiarity with what was happening on the streets. The ~$150k clean money suitcase bribe was not even close to worth risking the stability. Who knows who they're stuck selling to post S5 (Marlo still?) after Cheese unfortunately can't help fulfill buying the connection from Marlo.

-Kima was originally supposed to die at the end of S1, but other actors convinced David Simon to keep her around. I wish that they didn't. Ratting out McNulty and the GOAT Lester in S5 was a trash move.

-Always with the "Boris".

-S5 was a lot better than I remembered it being. Definitely the weakest season, but still better than 99% of anything that's ever been on television. S2 is still the highly contested GOAT.

-People always go on about character growth being important for a series, but there really isn't much here and I like it. People don't necessarily change significantly over the course of ~5 years. Bubbles and Prez improve themselves. Cutty I guess does, but he really came out of prison reformed and only briefly dabbled getting back in the game. McNulty quit drinking and got back into the family life, but eventually realized it was stupid and got back into his heavy drinking, womanizing, murdah solving ways. Everyone else pretty much finishes the series (or dies) being the same as they started. **ETA: forgot about the S4 kids. Namond, Michael, Randy, and Dukie all change significantly over the course of 2 seasons (about 2 years). That's pretty natural for youngins in either shitty or significantly improved situations (Namond).**

-Real life Hamsterdams would absolutely work.

-Y'all think that Cutty was diddling boys? I lean towards no, but he did get weird about the training/mentoring sometimes.

-Omar was really entertaining. I get WHY he was the most popular character on the show. But he was maybe the 5th or 6th most interesting character to me.

-Most underrated scene in the series: Freamon and Bunk drunk at a bar. Freamon (being natural PO-lice) keeps talking about going after Marlo, and Bunk is 100% locked in on pussy. LINK

-I'd have a beer with Jay Landsman.

-When I die, I hope to get a pool table wake at the nearest Irish bar.

-It's crazy how early some major characters are introduced. Bunny gets a few random scenes in S2 and you think he's insignificant on the first watch. And I've always thought that a random kid killed Omar. I paid more attention to the show this re-watch than usual (not a "background" re-watch, a proper one) and that little "yo" was introduced in S3.

-One man, one vote.


-Gun to head: S2, S3, S4, S1, S5