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

Here's an unpopular opinion: Omar is the worst and least believable character in the show.

Everything about him is absolutely ridiculous. He's hitting huge "jugs" and has been doing it for years, seemingly. He would have been dead a long time ago.

I'm sure he was robbing the most feared drug dealers on a consistent basis for years. The scene where they throw dope out of the window km the pit is retarded.

Eta: he's almost comic relief

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I'm sure he was robbing the most feared drug dealers on a consistent basis for years. The scene where they throw dope out of the window km the pit is retarded.

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Don't be so obtuse

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Vice: I’d like to start by talking about Omar – he’s a character who lives and dies by his code. Is he sympathetic to you?

Donnie Andrews: Yeah. He had his moments, like when I was out there. You know I might do something or beat somebody, then go home and think about it. Or I might take somebody’s money, but then I’d always leave them with something. You had your moments, and they made Omar exactly the way I was. David [Simon] wrote ‘The West Side Story’ [the initial Baltimore Sun article about Donnie] after my conviction in ’86 and they basically had everything down-pat. The gay part they took from a guy called Billy Outlaw, he was a gay stick-up guy.

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Except he’s not wholly a fictional creation – his life and modus operandi was inspired by Donnie Andrews, a former stick-up artist, convicted murderer and all-round Baltimore bad-arse. After spending 18 years in jail he’s been working with his local communities back in Maryland and there’s currently a film being made of his life by Brad Pitt’s production company. I recently had a chat with Donnie.

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Were there other stick-up artists like you back then?
Yeah, there was a whole gang of us. A stick-up artist... you take your modern-day gangsters and you put them in a hat, you got the Dapper Don who had Sammy The Bull, Al Capone had Frank Nitti. These are guys who were enforcers, they make the gangsters – if it wasn’t for us, them guys called gangsters wouldn’t exist. They didn’t have the muscle or the heart that stick-up artists had, so these guys just had more heart and were willing to take more chances.

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I like this rewatch because it’s an incentive to watch closely for a few episodes at a time and not drift off during a series binge. Here are some thoughts, nothing earthshattering.

I watched for a clearer idea of the police organization and chain of command. It clicked when the two majors are in a meeting with the Deputy Burrell, and then Daniels comes in and sits a row behind them. That was a helpful visual. I also didn’t realize the gulf between the Homicide and the Narcotics Unit. When Daniels tells Kima to overnight a report on Barksdale, he mentions that she could ask Homicide for help but they probably wouldn’t share notes. Also, when Daniels wants Kima to sit in on the D’Angelo interrogation, McNulty barely knows who she is. So I better appreciated their later conversations understanding that they were starting from scratch in the Detail.

With Barksdale’s organization, I’m more interested in characterization, particularly clues that Wallace and D’Angelo might not fit lockstep with the crew. Wallace has some telling little traits right off the bat. He bumbles with the change but knows Hamilton wasn’t a president. D’Angelo cracked in the interrogation room, but he also seemed hesitant at other times in the first two episodes. He seems conflicted about Bodie beating up Johnny Weeks (white herion addict), and that was not a confident stride away from Gant the Witness’ murder scene. Later, when Bodie defiantly leaves the conversation with Bunk and McNulty, D’Angelo peeks over his shoulder and stays put.

One thing about the Pit players: Bodie has reorganized and improved his dealing operation by the end of Episode 2, and in the next shot Poot is passed out on the orange couch with his feet propped up.

i haven't kept up with this thread, however i watched season 5 again a few weeks ago and man, I enjoyed that season much more after the second watch.

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D gets somewhat of a bad rap b/c there is this biased view that everyone in "the game" is some super-violent thug

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I agree with this.

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he was always above the really gross things and became spoiled and thinks the rules don't always apply to him

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I don't agree with this. I'll tell you why I don't agree with this by season end.

I do love the scene McNulty and Buck are analyzing the apartment with the fridge. Such well done series of exchanges,

frick, I didn't see this earlier.

I'm into this.

I'll need a slight refresher on episodes one and two, so I'll just check out "Wirepedia," but I'll plan to watch episodes three and four this weekend.

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Without reading the whole thread, what episode are you guys on?

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Cokes is running it - we just started this week, we're talking S1E1 and S1E2 this week, shifting to S1E3 and S1E4 next week - 2 episodes per week.

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He bumbles with the change but knows Hamilton wasn’t a president.

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I never took it that Wallace paid enough attention in school to know who was/was not a president. I took it more along the lines of, this poor kid who has barely spent any time in school, and spent way more time in the streets only know of about 5 or 6 people who were president - Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, Bush, and Clinton

it's not that he knew enough about about American History to distinguish Hamilton as NOT being a former president, it's that this kid is so far removed from a proper education, he doesnt have a clue who Hamilton was. I think that's the point they were trying to get across

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He seems conflicted about Bodie beating up Johnny

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I wouldnt say he's conflicted as whether or not to allow the beating....but more resigned to the fact that (a) this fricker has to get beat down, and (b) I dont want to watch it happen

this is where D is a bit soft, he has the swag to be a criminal, he just doesnt have the stomach for the messy parts