re: OFFICIAL "The Wire" M/TV Board rewatch thread (current discussion starts ~p. 53)

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This to me is the big question of this season and the frustrating thing about David Simon and his politics. I know Frank (and Simon) thinks his goal is noble, but really all it is is another type of crony project that really isn't needed. Saving (blue collar) jobs is a real hot button issue this election cycle in particular. But what gets lost is that Frank is not just trying to save his job, but ensure that the same job is there for generation after generation AND in the same location. That may have been the ideal in the mid 20th century, but it is not the norm historically or sustainable. It is tough for those that lose jobs no doubt, especially older guys like Frank or Horse, but without some creative destruction, we'd never advance and eventually stagnate. Instead of trying to make your kids and grand kids and great grand kids become Stevedores, do like the lobbyist' great grandfather and educate your kids so they can do something else. Or if there isn't enough work in Baltimore MOVE. Your ancestors did. At some point they moved from Poland to the US presumably because there wasn't enough economic opportunity for them in Poland, so maybe if your kids want to be longshoremen, they may have to move to Philly or Houston or some other port where there's more work or find other work, there are other jobs beyond WalMart or McD.

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I will say this about Frank though, it's not just keeping the job there for generations...it's about trying to keep his union guys employed. Like dredging the river for example...that would open up other docks and get more/bigger ships into the channel, which means more work. So even if they end up automated to a degree, there will still need to be people there to run the machines, and a deeper channel means more opportunities for that.

Similar to something like truck drivers. I think truck drivers will always be a necessary evil, at least for a long time still.

S3E1&2.

Time After Time

Bodie schooling Poot and company. It's crazy how he sees the game differently than most of those dudes.

Is this the worst opening/intro song version of the series? It's fricking terrible.

So Carv is running shite......and fricking up. How fitting. And it amazes me at how open they are about beating peoples' asses as the police. Crazy that this was only about ten+ years ago and how different things are these days. He would get fired for something like that today (just threatening to do it).

SLIM MOTHERfrickING CHARLES!!

String trying to run this shite like a legit business and ignore the street side. It's not an awful strategy, but he's got to be careful and not completely ignore the street side, like Avon said last week. And Poot calling him out on it and damn near got beat to death by String. That was a hilarious scene.

I see you, Kalechi, you New Iberia haircut prick motherfricker..

Motherfricking Marlo!

In the same vein as the "following too closely" thing I mentioned last time, they are just sitting less than a block away snapping pics all day long at the corners. In broad daylight. Clearly they have to be seen by some people.

Carcetti already making shady moves.

MOTHERfrickING CUTTY!

Man, they aren't wasting any time at all bringing all of these new characters in. Slim Charles and Cutty are probably my two favorite characters in the series, nad they are both introduced within like 15 minutes of each other.

Also so much bureaucratic bullshite already. I know that's the main focus of S3, but we already see Carcetti smoothing over things with Burrell to get him on his side and underhand the mayor.

Man, Avon is straight running shite in prison. Dude waltzes across the baseball field and not only does the game stop, but people can't even look in his direction and have to turn around. That's power right there. Damn.

"What makes you think they'll promote the wrong man?"
"We do it all the time."
That's the bullshite right there. So true. And what's funny is that the drug people are smart enough to NOT promote the wrong man (Drac), even though he's Prop Joe's nephew.

Side note: I just noticed Cheese's last name is Wagstaff...so I assume he's related to Randy (S4)? I never knew that. (Per Wiki, he is Randy's father according to David Simon, although that is never stated on the show)

Daniels and Marla playing the game too. Even pretending to kiss and like each other to further her political career. Daniels is a good dude for doing this for her, although he gets something out of it as well.

I don't get the Cutty thing. Was that a test to see how he would do approaching that dude with the package to sell? Avon wanted his help expanding territory or whatever, but did they give him that shite knowing Fruit was gonna frick him over and take the package/money? That seemed kinda weird to me.

Bunny noticing how little of a frick these kids seem to give, so much so that this idiot offers him drugs two or three times without noticing that he is a cop.


All Due Respect

String selling Avon on doing things his way. We'll see where that goes.

The dogfighting scene seems sort of out of place and unnecessary for some reason.

I love how Marlo chauffeurs around a nine iron in the front seat.

"He called you by name, String." We'll see how String reacts to that versus how Marlo reacts to something similar later on.

I don't get the Cheese/dog thing...how were they set up by those other dudes? Seemed like a fairly legit fight on both sides, but Tri tells Cheese that he was set up. That part lost me..

Man, Rawls is running some arse in these meetings. Dude is going hard at these guys. Damn.

Herc and Carv seeing Bodie and Poot at the show was awesome. Still one of my favorite things about the show is the cop/criminal interactions outside of the game. "See you tomorrow.."

Kima slowly turning into McNulty being bored at home and heading back out to the bar to get hammered and chase pussy.

This whole thing with Cheese and the dog is just weird. Seems like a lot of time wasted to get to the joke of Cheese killing an actual dog instead of people.

Damn, I couldn't remember when Daniels and Pearlman started hooking up, but I didn't think it was this early. She gets around apparently..

I do love how this show makes it seem like you simply show up to a bar and get laid automatically.

Bunny getting his Hamsterdam idea going.

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Kima was driving the car in the garage and was literally like 20-30 feet behind him. But still, it was just a poor job all around. And it's a common theme, as I will discuss with my S3 thoughts.

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i was thinking when they followed the van with the hookers they were awful close, especially since there basically o other cars on the road

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I mean in terms of the Greeks being willing to help him out. Spiros wanted to kill him, but the Greek was like nah, let's talk to him first. It wasn't until he got word from his mole in the FBI that he was like "Okay, let's do it your way" as Frank drove to the key bridge

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Actually, you have this backwards, The Greek wanted to kill him, Spiros suggests they could talk first and had the idea to help Ziggy. When the Greek gets the call from his FBI guy he says "your way will not work" to Spiros. He also commented that Spiros had affection for Nick. Anyway the whole plan was they could lean on the witness to help Ziggy but as Bunk and Lester told Nick, that wouldn't have mattered since he confessed and told them where he got the gun. Spiros didn't know that then but would have found out and then without that leverage, my guess is the Greek would have ordered them to take Frank out. His best option was to cooperate and if he had lawyered up he would be clear and saved the Union from decertification.

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he could have walked that to a barksdale corner to sell. it's just a cheap way to give them some startup money but without actually having to give the money. it's just the introduction to him being removed from the streets, esp in its modern version

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I guess. So in a way it was sort of a test. Let's give him some product and some orders and see what he does with it. Some of my favorite scenes are when Cutty has a gun in his face. Dude doesn't flinch and just stands there eyeballing the dude.

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i was going to save this, but if you want a comparison think about spiros in season 2

"but my name...is not my name"

real criminal there

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You mean the Greek...it was him that said that I believe. But yeah, good call. It's cool how shite like that reflects back (and forward) on other similar situations. String doesn't care that Omar is using his name. Marlo later does, big time. And the Greek, the most "made" out of all of them, doesn't give a frick because it's not really his name anyway.

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You mean the Greek...it was him that said that I believe

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It's Spiros that says "my name is not my name and to them you are only the Greek" and the Greek says "and of course, "I'm not even Greek "

But yes, this is an excellent observation, it shows the contrast between the gang banging mentality and the business. Stringer wants to be the Greeks, even though he never connects with them.

ETA: whoa that's twice now we are on the same page

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yeah and if you want to get into that even more, with the string callout, string doesn't really care because he's trying to make B/B more like the greeks. avon wants to keep it more "street". string wants to run it like a real business. "business...always business", says the greek. "buy for a nickel; sell for a dime"

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Actually, you have this backwards, The Greek wanted to kill him, Spiros suggests they could talk first and had the idea to help Ziggy. When the Greek gets the call from his FBI guy he says "your way will not work" to Spiros.

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Correct, my bad. Definitely flipped that.

i would love to have a series on how b/b came together.

I think Avon always accepted that the bubble would burst whereas stringer wanted to use the drug trade as a conduit to legitimate business.

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Yea I didn't get that at all. I knew the white skinny dog was going to win so I was thinking maybe it was just faster but they didn't really show the fight. Tri jus pointed to the red rag on the ground... no idea.

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I think this has something to do with dog fighting protocol. The reason they were rubbing Dawg down with a base (milk or soap -sometimes vinegar is used, apparently) is to demonstrate they hadn't put something illicit on the dog's coat - pheromones or something distracting. But, the other dog was being rubbed down with something else, thus the reference to the rag.

Who knows for sure, but the truth doesn't really matter now, does it? What matters is what Cheese believed, at least from Jelly's perspective, right?

Jake, you ought to know all of this - SWLA is one of the last bastions of dogfighting and, dare I say, "cockfighting" in the U.S.