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

Dude. Erase that shite.

OWSA:
I believe you said this is your 1st watch so I can understand that you cant slow down. I couldn’t either on the 1st watch. Cant wait to see what happens next.

BB:
I see why Idris got all the attention and to this day we see he is great. But yeah its criminal Royo didn’t get the recognition he deserved. He is on the Fox show Empire currently.

Coco:
Even Rawls drop the N word when he was bitching at Jimmy lol. Stringer was my favorite character as well. Intimidating the witnesses.

Avon and Stringer had their setup running like a well-oiled machine. And Dee didn’t have the chest for the game.

I said the same thing earlier, why didn’t those idiots just jump in the car and take off lol.

I don’t think Jimmy was sorry about anything, he was just pissed the judge put his name on it and it was going to come back on him. Jimmy is a hard headed mother fricker (but he is great). He had it in his mind he was going to bring Avon down and nothing was stopping him. I think seeing the FBI wiretap made him even more determined. Can’t remember if someone said in a future episode Jimmy is his own worst enemy.

Ep 1.

"....kid forgets his jacket, nose starts running, some a-hole, instead of giving him a kleenex, starts calling him Snot"

Snot Boogie - as much as anything, the story of Snot Boogie really sets the tone for the next 5 seasons. In this world, west side, east side, Ballmer....people really cant change who they are. Good po-leece, Strang, Frank, corner kids, Bunny, Bubs, McNutty, Marlo, and on and on and on...

as we'll see thru the next 5 seasons, the characters we see now are the same to their core now as in the future. Without giving too much away, any character who tries to "change" for the better fails miserably....save one in Season 4, who I wont name at this time.

Snot Boogie couldnt change who he was even if he tried. This is the central point for 5 seasons, these people cant change, they're just trying to get by, being who they are. It's the game, pawns, queens, kings, castles, who they are is who they will always be, there is no true redemption in Ballmer, everything has a steep price.


"shite rolls....piss trickles...."

- cant believe how juvenile Herc and Carver are at this point in the beginning, they really are just a couple punks


"this one here is going up your narrow Irish arse, and this one here is going in your fricking eye........you have my complete and undivided attention"

-already, not 20 min in, we see the numbers game the homicide squad is playing, worrying way more about the stats than actually solving crimes. Which is why Bushy-Top is such the thorn in Rawls' & Burrells' side. He may be many things, an a-hole, a cheat, a drunk, a good samaritan, but make no mistake, he is not a politician


- ah, Bodie. Rolling his eyes in discontent already. D barely gets his intros out of the way and Bodie already has his bullshite detector on high.


"wrong war, brotha, not since them towers fell...."

-once again, really sets the stage for the overarching problem - Is Jimmy the only character with the pure motivation to do good, at the expense of himself and everyone else around him?


."God Dammit, you're going to make me go another round"

- the first of many times Bunk and Jimmy drinking. Poor Bunk, you have no idea.....


"you shot the mouse? with your 9 ?"



Ep 2:


Starts off with more of the struggle we'll come to see over and over again. Bunk wants to sweep the Gant states' witness thing under the rug, and Jimmy cant understand why anyone wouldnt want to push this up the major. McNulty's perpetual tug of war........Jimmy urging Bunk to "cover himself" and Bunk warning Jimmy not to do what he's thinking about doing and "watch your arse"

- Love the banter between Judge Phelan and McNutty, the necessary evil of each one in the other's career

-Daniels about to try and lay down the hard line on Jimmy's behavior going forward, and Prez fires off a round Perfect way to set the stage on the character


"he sends me good police, might get it in my head to do good police work"

-Love that line, really drives home how fricked up the department is. And then makes you think....is it really like this just in Baltimore? or is my police force at home just as fricked? Deep down, I think we all assume it's like this across the country


"Do I know you?"

-never truly appreciated the fact that this is the first time McNulty and Bodie meet. In the pit, on the couch..........not yet Jimmy


-"suction with Valcheck"

.....the fricking kiss of death


-"What the frick did I do??"

Really Jimmy? really?? You dont know? and he delivered that line with such sincerity. And Daniels in 30 seconds lays out how to (a) close cases and satisfy his urge to be good poleece and (b) play the game with the guys upstairs. Of course McNulty treats him with such disregard at this point, just another suit


".....Poo Blanchard, no one is going to miss that motherfricker, right?"

-Bunk and Jimmy already have D showing chinks in his armor. I love the way Jimmy was surprised at how good of a cop Kima really is, sets a great foundation for a great partnership. But, what a great scene, the rhythm, the dialogue, the timing


-no matter how it shakes out, Avon really is a family man, as much as he can be

-Never liked that scene with Herc, Carver and Prez rusting up shite in the towers. Always seemed out of place, I think there couldve been a better way to get that point across - 2 hotheads and a dipshit with a badge

- she may be a complete bitch, but Daniels' wife is as savvy with the game as anyone. Street thug, lawyer, police......she gets it




I never appreciated just how well these first 2 episodes really set the stage for the entire series. We are not only introduced to every key player, but also get to know them, and what makes them tick, their motivation. High points and low points notwithstanding, the success and praise of this show really can be pinpointed back to just how masterfully this first 120 minutes were put to film.

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OWSA - admit it - Season 2 - while I'll admit not exactly what I was expecting, either - has won you over by now, right?

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It's alright, but nowhere near season 1. I'm really just trying to power through this series TBH.

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as we'll see thru the next 5 seasons, the characters we see now are the same to their core now as in the future. Without giving too much away, any character who tries to "change" for the better fails miserably....save one in Season 4, who I wont name at this time.

Snot Boogie couldnt change who he was even if he tried. This is the central point for 5 seasons, these people cant change, they're just trying to get by, being who they are. It's the game, pawns, queens, kings, castles, who they are is who they will always be, there is no true redemption in Ballmer, everything has a steep price.

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I disagree. Two of the characters do a complete 180 by series end, they both have the best story archs of any characters.

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I disagree. Two of the characters do a complete 180 by series end, they both have the best story archs of any characters.

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when I first typed that, I had two characters in mind. But ultimately I redetermined that one of them was actually a ___________ all along. And even though on the surface he "changed his ways" at the core he was always a _________

curious to see a few months down the road if you and I would compare notes as to which characters we think went thru the biggest change - for the better or for worse

Uncle Stu- great write up


I know who you are talking about in Season 4.

I think I know the 2 you and 13Saint talking about. Guess we have a long way to go to find out lol

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I forgot that Johnny getting his arse kicked for the fake money was what got Bubbz helping the cops originally.

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Seemed like Bubs was already a CI for Greggs and Johnny getting his arse kicked was the reason he was helping this time.

He was. Kima mentions to Jimmy that they had done some work together before.

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I'll say this about McNulty, for as much of a shitbag human being as he can be, I think deep down he legitimately wants to shut down Avon and Stringer for the shite that they're getting away with and seeing the murdered witness in Ep 2 triggers that. Does it feed his ego that if it happens he could get an ego boost from it? Sure. Is he like a spoiled arse kid in that he doesn't care who he drags through the shite to make it happen? Sure. And does it help that he might get to play with some cool shite like FBI quality surveillance in the meantime? Absolutely. But the core of his motivation is to take down Avon and Stringer early on.

As to why he goes back to the Judge, I think it's simply that he knows he can get shite moving a lot faster by jumping chain of command even if it pisses EVERYONE off and possibly results in consequences for him. He only sees what he wants to be the end game, taking down Avon and Stringer. frick everything and everyone else.

And let's face it, if you've ever worked in government at any level it is absolutely fricking ridiculous the level of "chain of command" bullshite you have to wade to get where you want to get going, even on the small shite. I can absolutely relate to that.

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Yeah, I agree with that. That's what it seemed like to me, like he went to the judge and started sort of throwing it in his face that the witness got merked, because he knew that would stir up some shite and he could get his chance to set up a badass surveillance system like he saw with his detective buddy. And he feels bad about doing it that way, but ultimately not bad enough to not do it.

One of my favorite things about the show is the interactions with the police and the criminals. Like when they were sitting in the pit with Bodie, D, and Poot. It's cool that they all knows what's up and what's going on around them, but they are there just to shoot the shite and try to dig up information.