[Gothos]

it's OMAR, bitch! Of course, he wouldn't say that, he doesn't swear at all. And yeah I tend to whistle that at work from time to time - nobody gets it sadly
and yeah. it's the best show EVER.

[Aptorian]

I love how casual he is about it. He just waltzes into a neigbourhood and asks for the dope and money and they give it to him because he's scary as fuck. OMAR COMING!

[amphibian]

Aptorian Sharktopus, on 13 September 2011 - 01:29 PM, said:

I've been on a Wire binge recently. Almost through the second season now. Damn this show is good. Why did I never watch this before? It's like watching a small movie every episode. All those story arcs weaving in and out between each other. I love the characters too. I think Bunk is my favorite so far. He's like a big fuzzy cigar smoking teddy bear that can't hold his drink. Omah is awesome as well. I've taken to whistling his little tune now and again.

Bunk can hold his drink. It's just that he and McNulty drink an absurd amount and then go DWI-ing to their after hours spots to drink some more.

Those scenes are showing the strong friendships, the heavier topics of discussion and that these are people who are also willfully acting against the good of society/actual laws in their own ways. They're not necessarily all that much better than the crooks. It's just that they're on one side and the dealers are on the other.

Thin line between heaven and here...

[tiam]

ive got all five seasons on DVD and love them. I find I cant watch just on and hae watched a series a day before. Seriously the best show ever. I havnt seen the Sopranos yet but thats meant to be just as good.

Also best Omar scene is him robbing a stash house in green silk pyjamas with no gun

This post has been edited by Orb Sceptre Boat: 13 September 2011 - 10:52 PM

[amphibian]

I loved how Omar used Cheese to snatch the supply. The courtroom scene was great, but the sheer guts it takes to do Prop Joe and Cheese like that is insane.

[tiam]

amphibian, on 14 September 2011 - 03:23 AM, said:

I loved how Omar used Cheese to snatch the supply. The courtroom scene was great, but the sheer guts it takes to do Prop Joe and Cheese like that is insane.

Actually the court room scene is probably the best vintage Omar. I think series 4 was my favorite.

[End of Disc One]

I think I'd say season 5 is my favorite even though most fans don't like it as much. Sure it's a bit ridiculous and strays away from showcasing real life issues you would expect to see in an American city. But it was entertaining.

3 is up there too; I absolutely loved the Stringer/Avon arch in that season.

[amphibian]

End of Disc One, on 26 September 2011 - 02:28 PM, said:

I think I'd say season 5 is my favorite even though most fans don't like it as much. Sure it's a bit ridiculous and strays away from showcasing real life issues you would expect to see in an American city. But it was entertaining.

3 is up there too; I absolutely loved the Stringer/Avon arch in that season.

Interesting. Most people go with 4 as their favorite - as the kids are so relatable.

For me, 5 suffered because it was a truncated season. For a combination of financial and showrunning reasons, the Wire crew decided to make it a short season. Because of that decision, it felt to me like the newspaper crew was shoved on us and didn't develop organically like other characters had in other seasons. I have zero problems with the concept, but I felt like with a show like The Wire, more episodes are a good thing and can't really understand why the showrunners wanted a short season.

[tiam]

Briar King, on 16 September 2011 - 02:35 AM, said:

4 was good, so was 3. I still have never finished 2 as I completely lost interest in the whole port arc and got back into the show for 3 till the end.

Should definitely put the time into series 2. One of my favorites even though its a bit off the topic of drug trade.

amphibian, on 26 September 2011 - 08:32 PM, said:

End of Disc One, on 26 September 2011 - 02:28 PM, said:

I think I'd say season 5 is my favorite even though most fans don't like it as much. Sure it's a bit ridiculous and strays away from showcasing real life issues you would expect to see in an American city. But it was entertaining.

3 is up there too; I absolutely loved the Stringer/Avon arch in that season.

Interesting. Most people go with 4 as their favorite - as the kids are so relatable.

For me, 5 suffered because it was a truncated season. For a combination of financial and showrunning reasons, the Wire crew decided to make it a short season. Because of that decision, it felt to me like the newspaper crew was shoved on us and didn't develop organically like other characters had in other seasons. I have zero problems with the concept, but I felt like with a show like The Wire, more episodes are a good thing and can't really understand why the showrunners wanted a short season.

The Serial killer story was a touch farfetched yet I found the newspaper people quite interesting despite the shortened series.

[worry]

It seems farfetched because it's fiction. Weird stuff happens all the time in real life. Stephen King talks about this phenomenon (via fictional proxy) in Lisey's Story, and I find it to be true. His main example was a lost dog traveling across the US to return to his home, how it seems like a fantasy that would never work in fiction (except in a kids' story), but it actually happens fairly often in real life. I mean I hear a new story every year or two about this very thing.

Not that I didn't have the exact same reaction you had the first time I watched Season 5. Just that upon reflection, and the more I think about it, the less unlikely it all seems. I mean, we live in a world where OJ Simpson killed two people, was haphazard about it, tried to escape in a big car chase, was clearly guilty, and then a racist police force framed him anyway and blew the whole case. So in that light, McNulty's plan doesn't seem so much like cynical fantasy to me. Though Lester accepting it so readily is still a little wonky. I think that has to do with the aforementioned shortened season though. In fact, if I could add a few more episodes I would probably put them at the beginning of the season, before the action we get. So we can see the return to cynicism rather than just infer it all, especially with McNulty.

[polishgenius]

For me, it wasn't so much that it was unrealistic, more that it was something of a high-concept, something the show was never designed for. Sure, it could happen, but it doesn't make it any less a Movie Idea. The payoff was fantastic, though.

The bigger problem with season 5 was the journalist plotline and the fact (this a problem that it shared with season 4, but the school section was much stronger so it was less notable) that the actual wire was relegated to something that was just in it to keep in touch with the name, making it feel a bit rushed.

[Serenity]

My favourite tv show, bar none. Season 4 was perfect, imo - the kids were such amazing actors.

[Agraba]

I finished The Wire recently.

Holy shit, I love this show! I've gotta say, I think it's better written than any of the other shows out there. That's probably the effect of it being the most recent show I've watched, but I feel like I'll still love it a while from now.

Season 3 was my favourite. I loved the whole dynamic between Stringer and Avon. How Stringer was electing to be too passive, and too infatuated with the idea of professional, while being completely ignorant to the importance of establishing your real estate. And Avon, who acts like he's Stringer's bestest bud, but passively resents him for being so... passive while he was canned. I just love how he exploded on Stringer when he asked Slim Charles to hit Clay Davis. He doesn't lift a finger towards Marlo while he's in the joint, because he's such a professional businessman, and now he wants to do this? I especially loved their final interaction scene, when they're having such an intimate buddy-moment reminiscing on the balcony, after Stringer already informed on Avon to Major Colvin, and Avon already agreed to give up Bell to Brother Mouzone. The greatest part about it was, I feel like they were actually being genuine in their love for each other. Until that phrase "it's just business" comes up, which is such a consistent symbol of enmity between them.

Colvin helped make it my favourite season as well. Well, Colvin and Carver. I love how, even though the entire city turns against him, Carver is keen enough to hold his respect for him. I especially loved the speech Colvin gave him near the end, explaining what real policing is. Carver had one of the greatest character developments, and that speech was probably the biggest turning point in transforming his mentality from thinking that policing is mainly about busting heads. That was one of my favourite speeches, and Colvin is one of my favourite characters.

I loved Dennis "Cutty" Wise. Despite the fact that he's a bit of a male chauvinist, he's still one of the morally upstanding, and good characters. He had these three little scenes that made its own separate story, and I loved it - him getting ripped off by Fruit, one of Marlo's slingers whom he asks to sell his "gift" product for. He and Slim attacking Marlo's people, and him having a clear shot at Fruit but refusing to kill him, letting him run away. Finally, near the end of the season, a tense and wordless exchange of looks between him and Fruit, while he's trying to get kids back into his gym.

Anyway, that's just the third season, which I love the most, but I love all the seasons. Maybe I'm least fond of 5, but that has mostly to do with the fact that it was only ten episodes, and it seemed a bit rushed at times. I have no problem with the far fetched plots. The two resoundingly far fetched plots in the show were probably Hamsterdam and the Homeless Killer, and I loved them both. To me, it's fine if a plot is a little unrealistic, as long as people's behaviour in those situations are pulled off well, and I feel that they were.

My favourite characters are Cutty, Bubbles, and Frank Sobotka. I probably don't have to justify Bubbles (and I already did Cutty). I know Frank is a bit of a strange choice, as he only had the one season. But he owned that season. Well, he and his nephew Nick seemed to own that season, but he shone in my eyes. He's introduced in such a way that you think he's just a criminal doing some dirt, but you get to know him intimately, and his intentions. You even think, yourself, that his acts don't justify his noble intentions, and that might turn you off him, but he starts coming to terms with this very idea himself. Especially when he sees where his influence drove his son and nephew. He's one character whose grief I probably shared more vividly than with most other characters, especially since he himself was realizing that so much of his situation was his own fault. To me, personally, the end of the second last episode of that season, when he's walking towards the Greek and you know they're going to kill him, was the most gut wrenching scene in the show.

McNutty, my mainest man! I bring this up because I can see that he's an easy character to hate. He gets so blindly invested in his convictions that he often fails to see the entire scope of the situation. However, while his passion is often misguided, I find it endearing. That small part of me that says "yeah, stick it to the man!" certainly appreciates a lot of his scenes. Particularly the one where he's berating Ronda after their discussion with Levy, going into one of my favoured speeches about how shit doesn't get done because "everybody has a future, and everybody remains friends" (I'm paraphrasing). We all know that in Season 4, when Lester stirred shit up with the subpoenas, and they brought in the unit-killer to give them that speech about how Major Crimes will be all about street rips, and they were too "wise" to argue, they all wished McNulty was there to raise hell against him. Like it or not, McNulty is the main character. Well, I guess that's debatable. He's the main character in the same way that Fiddler can be regarded the main character of the Malazan series. He appeared in both the first and last scene, and is very much in the foreground throughout.

Well, I have a million other ways I can sing my praises for the show, but I think I'll end my book of a (necro) post here.

This post has been edited by Agraba: 17 April 2012 - 11:31 PM

[worry]

One of my favorite scenes in Season 3 is the one where Bubbles goes through Hamsterdam at night, and it's an utterly hellish place (quite a lot moreso than it is in the daytime). It really complicates things, because even though the war on drugs is a stupid miserable time-wasting failure and Colvin is entirely correct about that, it doesn't mean that heroin isn't a cancer with the potential to rot a neighborhood from the inside out. Plus that scene is just downright creepy.

[Gothos]

Aye, whenever I think of that scene I cringe and shiver. It sure does look like hell.