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[NOTE: Many of the following posts were taken from the "Fan Trailers" thread and put into their own thread here. --"Curiosity Inc."]

Hey AYB, I'm up to episode 11 of season 4 of The Wire. I don't want to spoil it for you, but episode 10 has a scene in the opening minutes that would make Rorschach wince.

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"Heard them Walthers like to jump some" "As will you, with one in your elbow."

Oh no!! I was going to watch that episode right after I've finished checking up on here, but now I'm gonna be watching in fear!...something tells me it's going to be a lot worse than Bubbles getting beaten up with a baseball bat.....At least it'll come and go quickly if its in the opening minutes...
eek!

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Oh my god! Damn! I just saw it. I need a minute before I can continue the episode.


I hate that fucking cop!

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I'm thinking we need a thread dedicated to The Wire. I know there's a few fans of the show on this site.

But, yeah, this was the one moment from the show where I cringed watching it, and said "fuck!" out loud. Now you see why I brought up Rorschach. I wonder how Snyder will handle the finger breaking scene in his movie?. The advantage of the scene in the episode is it's so unexpected, and that it happens to a kid (poor Donut!). Plus, since there's no music, you really hear the snap!. So, Snyder, I hope you take note!.

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"Heard them Walthers like to jump some" "As will you, with one in your elbow."

Yeah we absolutely need a thread...perhaps Curi would be so kind to split our off-topic posts into a new thread!
It's funny how the guy getting beaten to death at the end isn't as affecting as a few fingers getting snapped

Btw I never really understood why Michael hated him, or Cutty for that matter. And did he intend to have him killed or did he think he'd literally be made to "go away"?

Oh, and Nitroforce, I like the idea but Unforgettable really doesn't work for me. It'd work if the clips were longer and all violent, and that's why I'd imagine it'll work very well in the film's first scene... but if you have a download link for the latest trailer, I'd sure love it

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As Omar would say, "indeed"!.




It's sort of implied that Michael was molested by him. Michale was very mistrusting of him, and didn't want him around. He also didn't seem to want his brother around him either. Remember that scene where Michael goes to his brothers school to pick him up, then panics when he finds his step dad picked him up?. He's relieved to find his brother is just doing his homework and nothing else. I think Michael was molested by him as a boy, then the Dad went to jail. This might be why he's so protective of his friends. It's also likely that Chris was molested by someone too. He seems to pick up on what Michael is trying to say, and then later, instead of dealing with the guy the way he would anyone else, (by taking him to one of the vacant houses) he gives him a brutal beating. I'm not sure Michael understands just what Chris was going to do about it though. But I think he will be in their debt.

Also, Michael suspected Cuddy might be a molestor as well. Cuddy, to him, seemed "too friendly". When Cuddy lays his hand on his shoulder, he moves away. Also when he goes to the boxing match with Cuddy, he makes sure one of the other boys is going. And when he gets a lift home, and they drop the other boy off, he tells Cuddy he'll walk home, so as not to be left alone with him.

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"Heard them Walthers like to jump some" "As will you, with one in your elbow."

Ah, it makes sense now. Indeed! Thanks!
Who's your favourite character btw?

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Hard to pick just one. I like McNulty as he's usually pretty entertaining, and his ability to pick up women is pretty admirable. So it kind of sucks he's barely in season 4. Bunk always has great moments, particularly when he's drunk (which he frequently is). Last two seasons, if I had to pick one, I'd say "Bunny" Colvin. He has a great arch in season 3, and always gives great speeches. He's "good police".

You?.

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"Heard them Walthers like to jump some" "As will you, with one in your elbow."

Enough "Wire" already

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So it's Rorschach and Prozac and everything is groovy

Yeah, McNulty's great - but I respect how they've resisted the temptation to keep the focus on him. The sad thing about him is that he's his own worst enemy, although not any more (it'll be interesting to see if it continues to go well for him)...he was kinda like Rorschach in the sense that he looked for justice no matter who gets in the way. It was such brilliant drama when Kima was shot and he blamed himself...

Bunk's cool. His scenes with Omar (who's definitely one of my favourite characters) are among the most interesting this season...

Yeah, Bunny's a good man. At the end of the season I was pretty convinced that Hamsterdam was worth keeping. Really felt sorry for him, but he seems to be doing alright now.

Carcetti is turning out to be one of my favourites as well... not a very nice guy at first, cheating on his wife etc, but there's part of him that truly wants to do good. He's naive, but his character journey across season 3 was amazing, and the speech (though a little cheesy) was pretty damn impassioned. Found myself rooting for him to become mayor.

Ziggy was also a really good character. Annoying as fuck, but by the end I couldn't help but feel sympathetic for him. He's kind of like a cross between De Niro's characters in Taxi Driver and Mean Streets. And like in Mean Streets, he has a cousin who "helps him out" all the time and feels he's ungrateful, but simply looks down on him. I hated the cousin - he reminded me of my brother!

My favourite character is probably Bubbles. His attempts to get clean in Season 1 were just heartbreaking, especially when Kima's absence ruined his chances. That opening scene where he sits on a park bench looking around is still, for me, one of the finest scenes of the show or of TV in general. I'm really annoyed at Herc atm for his selfishness, but it looks like Bubs has got his revenge, eh!



It'll be split, okay? Right Curi?

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Are you trying to Curi favour??

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So it's Rorschach and Prozac and everything is groovy

Thank you Curi! You're the best!

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No, thank you. Keeping the Wire posts separate from the Trailer posts made this the easiest extraction I've ever done. The relatively short thread length didn't hurt, either. I'm just sorry I couldn't get to it sooner, but real life called me away for a few hours, as it so often does.

Anyway, I have to admit that I'm not terribly familiar with The Wire. You see, I'm a college student actively trying to avoid being hooked on too many TV shows for fear of cutting into what little free time I already have. So please, sell me on The Wire.

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This is truly a madhouse. And I'm the lunatic running it. I've spent three years wondering if I should be proud or ashamed.

Downloaded the first season a while back and I saw the first three episodes or so and I loved them. An instant favorite. However, my computer went through some major hard disk trouble and all my files were erased and now I'm debating on whether or not I should download it again because I don't want to have any "unnecessary" space on my computer. I'm thinking I'll just shell in the cash for the whole series. It's worth it.

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My unofficial and offical work-> http://www.youtube.com/movieboyandco

Try Megaupload or watchtvsitcoms.com. They stream episodes of The Wire which I've been watching there, for the same reason as I don't have much space on my computer. Sometimes the episodes get taken down, but they're always put back up again.



OK, here goes. I'll tell you about the what the show is about, but I'll try to go into as much detail as I can.

The Wire is set in some of the worst areas of Baltimore. It mostly involves the police efforts to try and combat the drug trade, but the show has a very broad scope, and focuses on a particular aspect of the city every season. Each season is less than 14 episodes long. Season 1 focuses on the drug trade and a task force that is brought together in order to set up wire taps (hence, "The Wire") and investigate one of the shows main crews, the Barksdales, who are involved in some way in each season. In Season 2, the story moves to the docks, tracking where the drugs come from, and the daily lives of the men who work as long shore men. Season 3 deals mostly with politics and police bureaucracy, and one lieutenants plan to keep the drug trade in order. Season 4 then moves to the schools, where we see the daily lives of the teenagers, most of whom eventually move on to work as drug dealers. And finally, Season 5, which deals with the Baltimore media.

So, basically, the show builds this huge picture of the city of Baltimore, all levels of the police, drug trade, and politics. Kind of like what the Dark Knight tried to do with Gotham, actually. It has a large cast of mostly black, mostly character actors. I'd say it has probably the strongest cast on television, as I can't think of a single wink link on the show. Which is very impressive, as the show features 20-30 characters, all fully realized and fleshed out.

One of the shows strengths is it's realism. Baltimore in The Wire is seen as a pretty bleak place, and nothing is sugar coated. Some characters go on to prosper, but most don't and the show never pulls any punches. It treats it's character with respect, and there are virtually no stereotypes. It's not as contrived as most cop shows (although it's more than just a cop show). If a character makes a mistake, it's not written as if it was put there just for the sake of plot, and there are always consequences.

Yet there's also a lot of genuinely funny moments, so the show is not always grim. In one scene, a detective plays the theme song from Shaft in his car, as him and his partner try to make a bust. In another scene, two characters must give the news to their significant others that they are returning back to the crime unit they each promised they would not go back to. Instead of showing us each conversation, we simple cut back and forth to each couple having dinner, both in silence, both ending with their significant others walking away from the table, both left alone. The way the scene was directed was terrific.

That's really all I can say about the show without this becoming a very long post (which it's becoming). I wont say it's the best show on television, but one could certainly make that claim and it would be hard to argue with them. But if that doesn't convince you to watch it, in Allan Moores own words, "possibly the most stunning piece of television, full stop".

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"Heard them Walthers like to jump some" "As will you, with one in your elbow."

That sums it up well. I read a comment about it the other day that struck me as true: each season plays more like a 13-hour film than a TV series. It's done so well, I just wonder about that Watchmen miniseries that could have been...

I'm not at all surprised that Alan Moore likes it...while it doesn't force opinion, it's subtle message is a distrust of authority. It's dark but it's also very positive - simply by presenting the characters realistically, it shows no-one is less human than anyone else, and that when someone suggests that someone is there's usually a racial factor involved. Because people are black, they go poor. Because they're poor, they resort to crime. But it's so often implicitly suggested in the media that because people are black, they choose a life of crime.

Anyway, it's an outstanding show. Like t3cii said, it builds up a large scope of the city, but I think more importantly it's hard not to care about the characters, like them or not, after a while.
The only fault I can think of is the difficulty of getting into the second season after it completely changed the focus. Season one was much more straight-forward and easy to follow, but I think the show came out better because of the switch....kind of like Godfather part II to part I, it was arguably the better "film".

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Yeah, I agree. The thing is, the show usually starts up pretty slow. And this change was pretty drastic. But I liked how it wasn't as cliche as "there's a new bad guy in town, lets get the old team back together". Rather, they were brought back
together due to the police Major's spite targeted at Frank Sobotka. You'll notice the team is no longer together later on, and doing wire taps is barely a part of the show.

AYB is also right about the show not trying to preach to the viewer. Omar (the guy picture in AYB's post) is just one of the shows interesting characters. He's a stick up artist, someone who waits around for a drug deal or robbery, then robs that person or people. He walks around in a black trench coat and carries around a shot gun. When people see him coming, they give him a wide birth. He is almost a Robin Hood type figure, robbing from the rich (mostly drug dealers) and giving to the poor. He's tough and lives by a certain moral code and takes shit from no one. He's also gay. Yet this never plays that big a part of his story. There are no scenes of him struggling with his sexuality, or scenes of him trying to give an "I'm here, I'm queer" attitude. He's just gay and that's it. The show makes no judgment toward him or try to tell us how we should feel about him. Again, another very non stereotypical character.

I'd be interested in hearing others opinions on the show. AYB and myself just so happened to be watching the same season at the same time, and we had interrupted two threads talking about it, which is why this thread was created.

I also came across this trailer for the 4th season. The music is very well chosen and actually matches what's going on screen :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnaIejRDWIo

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"Heard them Walthers like to jump some" "As will you, with one in your elbow."

Same with Kima. Her relationship with her girlfriend is very real and any problems they have aren't related to their sexuality. It's a progressive show, but it isn't forced. Icing on the cake.

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Just bumping this thread, as I've just watched episodes 11 and 12. I need to talk about it somewhere, but only one of my friends has seen the show, and I don't think he's that far into the season, and I don't want to try IMDb because of all the spoilers. But episode 12 is quite a stunning episode. The last 5 minutes in particular, probably one of the strongest finishes to an episode yet. The part where Carver talks to Randy..gah! This is damn good television!.

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"Heard them Walthers like to jump some" "As will you, with one in your elbow."

Haven't seen a single episode.


Looks like I am missing out big-time. Problem is getting the time to watch the show. I have this on a must-see list.

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