What i realized I love about The Wire is that there is so much subtext that there are things you don't even pick up until you've watched it multiple times. Like i didn't pick up that the reason why Bodie was so upset about Lil Kev's murder in season 4 (which eventually lead to his own murder) was because of the guilt he felt about essentially doing the same thing to Wallace in season 1 until probably my 4th or 5th rewatch.
An underrated recurring segment is the drug dealers in the background yelling out early-2000's Iraq War terms for drug names. "Got that WMD right here right here!" and "Pandemic! Come get that pandemic!"
Now that I have my hdmi situation fixed, I could use a rewatch. Feel like I’ve reached a long enough amount of time where I’ll only remember the big moments
How bad did they butcher the frames when they converted it to 16:9? I know Simon supervised the transfer but I generally dismiss these things out of hand.
This most recent 20th anniversary Wire pod is all about the social life of the cast while filming in Baltimore and the friendships and cliques that formed. My favorite part is Clarke Peters' (Lester Freeman) rented house dubbed "The Academy" which was the place the cast would go to drink wine, talk about art, cook tofu, listen to jazz, and watch Clarke play the sax by the fireplace. Just the most Lester Freeman shit ever. Also during season 4 the cast and crew all got on Dominick West's ass about "phoning it in" and they had an almost like an intervention about his lack of commitment in a hotel room.
If you like this show you should check out We Own This City. Same guys behind The Wire, but it centres more on plain clothes unit, corruption and takes place after the riot. Based on a true story, and also continues to use Baltimore as its back drop.
It feels like every show i've been watching lately has Wire vets on it. The Wire is inescapable, after you get hooked in you just notice Wire actors in everything
Was listening to the latest The Wire at 20 Pod. Jim True-Frost talking about Prez and his evolution in season 4 might have that character moving into my top 5 for the series. Also love that Jim's wife had a stint as a middle school teacher at an inner city school so he mostly drew from that along with Ed Burns experience. He said nothing Prez went through that season was unfamiliar to him because his wife already went through all of it.
Per the teaser for the next episode they're going to get into the cast being upset with Simon about their character's directions in season 5 and they implied the reason The Wire never got nominated for an Emmy is because David Simon pissed too many people in Hollywood off. That one should be spicy.
Another Wire Fun Fact I learned listening to this pod: MKW couldn't whistle so all these scenes of Omar whistling Farmer In The Dell were dubbed.
Off the top of my head in the past couple years we got (yes i'm using character names because it's easier) We Own This City - Marlo, O-Dog, Jay Landsman,Herc, Dookie, Poot, Donut, Slim Charles Barry - O-Dog and Bunny Colvin Black Bird - Bunny Colvin The Only Murders in the Building - Beadie Russel Jack Ryan - Bunk For All Mankind - Frank Sobotka The Old Man - Chris Partlow The Chi - Kima Greggs Star Trek Discovery - Kima Greggs The Man Who Fell To Earth - Lester Freeman Winning Time - Avon Barksdale Resident Evil - Cedric Daniels The Walking Dead- Carver Also you got Jimmy McNulty as Price Charles in the new season of The Crown coming up. Also Herc has a starring role in that upcoming Stallone Paramount+ mobster show. Missing Any?
Absolutely some problematic/questionable elements, but I think people are beginning to throw media literacy out of the window in order to criticize the show
You can tell the poster is getting off on his virtue signaling because of the obnoxious capitalization, and the "HAHAHA-ing" is very annoying. There are a MILLION cop-aganda shows out there--The Wire may have some dated elements but it is definitely not glamourizing the police. I stg I fucking hate those kinds of Twitter users. It's just fake-woke desperateness.
Trying to reduce each season of the wire to less than one sentence is already bad enough, but those descriptions miss the point completely. I agree it would be more scrutinized if it came out today, but if it came out today it would be a different show completely, as is evident in Simon’s recent show “We Own this City” (which I didn’t love but probably worth checking out, lots of familiar faces)
I mean a major theme across the show is everything can be corrupt. Don’t think I ever thought to myself once, wow, these cops are awesome. Going to be doing a rewatch with my girlfriend who’s never seen the show before. I’m hyped.
Where is the media literacy missing? The show endorses the entire squad beating a handcuffed Bird. The show endorses Omar's fake eyewitness testimony because the cops are sure Bird did it but can't prove it.