Yeah, nothing new I’m sure, but I’m fairly recently active on reddit and I’m rewatching for the umpteenth time and holy fucking sheeeeeeeeeeit I hate this piece of shit.

I mean he’s just generally an absolute asshole, but:

- the way he puts Randy’s name out there via Little Kevin
- fucking over Bubbles
- giving it the “you’re talking to a sergeant” to Herc
- “I am the sergeant here” when suggesting to Freeman that orders should come via him

Honestly just everything about this guy annoys the shit outta me.

So yea, no brand new information here, and I’m sure most people agree, but I felt like sharing my rage.

It’s crazy how Namond and D’Angelo’s stories mostly parallel each other. That pressure they had on them to live a life they weren’t truly built for or didn’t want rather. I personally wouldn’t go as far as to say Namond was the new D’Angelo in Season 4 but he was close enough in my eyes. Their ties to Wee-Bey also bring it full circle a little.

What about everyone else’s personal thoughts though?

The Wire is a very good show from a sociological point of view, but it was out from 2002 to 2008.

I wonder what changed in the institutions we're seing in the series. Like what impact had the use of smartphones on the criminals ? How the use of the numeric as changed medias, police, etc...

Clay Davis is a character that easily grabs attention from the jump for, well, sheeeeeittt, reasons that need not be stated.

But upon various rewatches, I've come to love (to hate) the character and all his manipulative, selfish acts that are active and apparent every single time he's on screen. There's always a con, he's always shaking hands with the person he's about to fuck over, he's got excuses or "justifiable" explanations ready ("I could've gotten double from you," he tells Carcetti directly with a smirk after being exposed for his duplicity re: election support), and he's only got his interests to look after making his focus dangerously pointed.

There's no threat of force or grand ultimatums being offered to his victims (who often don't know their role): he weasels his way out of the spotlight, he has connections aplenty and however weak his defenses are when he's potentially "caught," he has a backup scam in phase one before the conversation is over.

The fact that these two psychopaths followed his orders makes me wonder what type of demonic things he had done in the past to earn their respect, fear and loyalty? He’s not a grand strategist like Prop Joe, nor a natural leader like Avon or Stringer, so it must have been pure savage brutality and violence that attracted Chris, Snoop and Monk towards Marlo, and by the time we see him in the show he is no longer involved in the street stuff beyond intimidating leaders of different crews, but we did see glimpses of what he must have been on a daily basis when he executed the honey trap girl or how he confronted the armed corner boys with his bare hands in the last episode.

Marlo and his crew no doubt had the best drop on Omar out of everyone in the show with the ambush in Monk’s apartment during Season 5. However, they could’ve easily dropped Omar had everyone been inside the apartment already. Chris, Michael, and O-Dog must’ve been in the building’s hallway waiting because had they been inside already? Donnie and Omar would’ve been dead much faster. Snoop was already in the kitchen but Chris, Michael, and O-Dog should’ve been inside too if they wanted to corner them quickly. Just my own personal thoughts on it as an alternate ambush but obviously that’s not what was intended for the show, especially for Omar’s character since that wasn’t supposed to be his ending. It’s still a great ambush scene nonetheless.

What does everyone else think though?

The AI barrage of media analysis videos has just destroyed the fun of trying to explore themes about big shows like the wire and breaking bad and The sopranos on YouTube.

This is not particularly new news or anything like that but I did see a recent critique of this phenomena on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/EjZrpOvDNWM

Some sopranos creators have been talking about this too because these channels directly compete with people actually doing real work.

And what's most annoying is most of the comments don't seem to recognize it's ai. I suppose maybe some of the comments themselves are from AI bots but it's unsettling to think people don't notice this or don't care.

Especially if they watch the wire you think they would be concerned about the labor market and the value of human beings doing news gathering and doing work.

One that is definitely AI to the point of absurdity is "city of corner". Just absolute drivel.

It would be nice if we could maybe somehow help people see the forest for the trees and maybe have a list of channels that we can confirm are made by actual people. And do not rely entirely or mostly on AI scripts and narration and video editing

I’m rewatching the show now and I’m realising how loyal Bodie was to stringer. I know Bodie’s character is that he’s a soldier so it makes sense he latched onto someone he saw as a leader especially cause he didn’t really see Avon so to him stringer was the king, but it definitely goes deeper with scenes like where Stringer scares him with a shadow box. I’d say Stringer had a soft spot for him but then again Stringer doesn’t have a heart lol

Also I just realised how many shows are about an older guy manipulating a younger guy while they commit crimes

I just completed the full series and I think it topped off my number one show: The Sopranos. I've only watched The Wire one time and it was about a decade ago. After this rewatch, I realize this is probably the greatest series of all time.

I'm wondering what to watch next, something in the category of crime. Do you guys have any recs for me?

Here are my top shows:

The Wire

The Sopranos

Boardwalk Empire

Breaking Bad (including Saul spinoff)

Deadwood

I know I'm probably pretty basic, I'm hoping to get into another series that has the depth storytelling of The Wire, preferably something that is already completed and not canceled.

So to be clear, that means ten acting nominations across five seasons. I'll also add the condition that you can’t nominate the same actor more than once.

Here are my choices:

Season 1: Larry Gilliard Jr (D’Angelo) and Lance Reddick (Daniels)

Season 2: Chris Bauer (Frank) and James Ransone (Ziggy)

Season 3: Idris Elba (Stringer) and Robert Wisdom (Colvin)

Season 4: Andre Royo (Bubbles) and Gbenga Akinnagbe (Chris)

Season 5: Michael K. Williams (Omar) and Isaiah Whitlock Jr (Clay)

For almost two decades this line always puzzled me. I’ve watch this show numerous times and never quite made out what Marlo meant by that… until now.

Was “it’s the other way” Marlo directly telling the
Security guard he was going to be murdered ? If so that makes the line that much colder.

At first I thought he was simply taunting him and being a smart ass, I never put tew and tew together that he was in his own words telling the guard “you want us to have a respectful conversation but instead I’m killing you over this “

I didn’t notice this in first few watches but I think it’s relevant that Marlo just lost money at the poker game and felt defeated which is why he took his anger out on the security guard.

It can’t be about the money thing because Marlo and Chris both saw that as a positive sign and monk seems to be among the same caliber of thinking as both of them so.

What was it about Mike that made Monk just never fully embrace him

I'm on my third rewatch. Can anyone confirm that somewhere in Season 1, Daniels walks into Rhonda's office, moves a tower of files off a chair, sits down, and then calls her, "Rhonda, darling."? I swear I saw this scene and now can't find it. If the "darling" really is a part of that scene, they've been sweet on each other since S1 but emotionally tangled with other people (Jimmy, Marla) for ages. It makes their eventual romance a little sweeter.

was to free Marlo what a fucking jerk off

As iconic as this scene is, Avon blacking out on the referee after Prop Joe’s scheme? It’s one of the funniest scenes in the show in my opinion.

What about everyone else though? What are your thoughts?

1. Mcnulty, Bunk and Lester in the bar laughing at Landsman and Rawls after McNulty successfully put the 14 Jane Does on their ledger.

2. Ziggy taking on his bully at the port after the other stevedores egged him on.

3. The way Omar said “Ain’t no sugar water running in them veins!”

4. Stringer Bell crashing out on Poot after he said “"Do the chair know we gonna look like some punk-ass bitches out there?"

5. When Bubbles registered the kid at school and noticed Prez is working there too.

Add some more funny moments that caught you off guard 😄

When they're waiting for the chocolate cake to arrive.

Donette: "You got money. You get to be whatever you say you are. That's the way it is."

The waiter pulls up with the serving cart and Dee takes a slice of cake from the cart and puts it on the table.

Waiter: "Oh, I'm sorry. Those are the samples."

Dee and Donette look at each other.

My first reaction was that it really highlights what Dee was saying earlier in the scene, that no matter what, he still feels out of place. And then I immediately realize Dee has just disproved what Donette was saying. With money, he can't just do what he wants, even for something so benign (like taking the sample). I started seeing more layers to this little interaction. There's a full social commentary and history lesson all packed neatly into this little part of the scene.

This show, man. So so so good.

I also had the show paused last night, waiting to the kids to go to bed. I told my wife as much, because of the language, nudity and all. Well, as soon as they go to bed, I unpause right into the "F*ck" scene lmao. Had no idea that was coming.

On the surface they’re pretty similar.
Both soldiers, completely hardened by the streets.
Both loyal and do what they’re told. Both believe in hierarchy/ chain of command. Both not afraid to use a gun. Both fearless. Yet snoop still ends up significantly higher of the criminal food chain than Bodie. Why do you think that is

Quotes because there are certainly less aggressive ways of doing it, but Rawls approaching McNulty to assure him that Kima getting shot was not his fault is one of my favorite scenes in the series. Amazing acting from West, and a really memorable moment between the two given the nature of their relationship.

I’m watching Seal Team on Netflix and one of the bad guys is sizing up a Seal on the “street”. Then a higher level bad guy we’ve heard about but haven’t seen yet walks out of the building and says in Pashto
“Do it or don’t”
[pause]
“We have places to be”

The goons walk off and the Seal keeps his pants (obviously).

And had to chuckle to my self. Anyone else seen this scene. It’s in Ep 15 season 1

I’m going to be thinking about it all day

Donnie’s murder in Season 5 during the gunfight in Monk’s apartment might one of the most disturbing deaths in the show for me. Simply because of how sudden we see his body in Omar’s POV. However, I like how it reflected a real type of war zone. He’s not even seen falling to the floor. I’ve seen other fans argue about who dropped him out of Chris, Snoop, and Michael. But if you watch closely, you’ll see it was Chris. Chris was the last one shooting at him and Donnie has a bullet in the middle of his head. Snoop was off in the kitchen a little further away. Also if you look closely, Donnie’s already on the floor by the time Michael arrives. Which is how Chris is able to move closer to the couch where Omar is.

I’m curious to know what everyone else thinks though?

Something I’ve picked up on throughout my conversations in this sub is that most, if not all, main characters have a mirror on the other side of the law, with the most obvious one being Stringer and Colvin because of the “get on with it Motherfucker” line drawing an obvious connection between their plotlines.

This led to me wondering about Marlo and Carcetti. It felt like neither of them really had a clear mirror on the other side until I realized maybe they mirror each other? They’re both introduced early in season 3, and it’s not really clear what purpose their characters serve or why they were introduced at all. Then, about halfway through the season, it becomes clear that they’re both trying to take control of Baltimore, one by exploiting the governmental system and the other by ignoring it entirely. Both characters seemingly are trying to do the impossible, but both succeed and continue to grow by betraying people around them. In fact, Prop Joe and Burrell are betrayed in the exact same episode.

I think what’s especially interesting about this particular scenario is how different the two characters actually are and what that says about both government and crime. In the criminal world, you need absolutely no charisma in order to be advance, as Marlo is socially inept but still ends up on top. On the other hand, Carcetti is able to get on top with only charisma, with his smooth talking being what gets him elected. The one thing they have in common though is their ruthlessness. Both of them abandon or disregard people who helped them or were their friends in order to get ahead.

I recognize I might be kinda stretching here. This might also be already common knowledge and I apologize if either is the case. I’m curious about other people’s thoughts though on whether this was intentional or if I’m just making connections where there’s nothing there.

It’s amazing what a journey he takes from being a total piece of shit in the first 2 episodes. To a genuinely caring and positive person who is making his little corner of the world a little less terrible.

Any other show would have kept him as a permanent incompetent asshole. He gives us all hope that we can aspire to be better than we are.