Posts for category ‘the wire’

The run-down of The Wire season 5, epidsode 8 was quick…..this one on 9 is quicker. Watch the series finale tonight on HBO, here are the bullets for episode 9, Late Editions:

• Even if the wire is illegal, I guess it’s still worth it to Lester Freamon to select the pertinent or non-pertinent check box…..if they want to make a case down the road.

• David Simon makes a dig at Walmart via Snoop and her healthcare comment to O-Dog.
• “Marlo runs a tattered ship.” – Levy the Lawyer

• “Capitalization they call it.” – Gus and Simon’s dig at the Chicago based owners of the Baltimore Sun, the Tribune Company.

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The final episode of HBO’s The Wire is tonight. I missed doing write-ups of episodes 6 & 7 while I was out of the country (here’s 5). Until there is a nine, here’s a quick bullet point review/thoughts about episode 8, Clarifications [click for official HBO recap].

• I must admit that I’m pretty nervous for Jimmy. He’s got balls, we all knew that….but Dominic West displays the right amount of acute discomfort while his McNulty character is in the spotlight of the mayor and those, such as Rawls, who absolutely despises Jimmy. In any case, McNulty setting this whole thing up for him to take the fall, and not others such as Carver, is honorable in my eyes.

• Then again….Jimmy is alone, isolating himself from Beadie and his co-workers (although, some are voluntarily along for the ride because of the beneficial side effects – even the prick, Frank Barlow, and his blackmailed trip to Hilton Head for a round of 18).
• “Hey kiddo. – Hey McNulty.”

• Poot Carr is revisited working at a shoe store….he just got “tired” of the game. However, I find it curious that Poot hasn’t learned any lessons as a result of his absence from the corner. His bad advice to Dukie is simply to bang for a couple more years until he is old enough for real job. I know this is social commentary from the writers, but it just doesn’t seem viable, especially in that Poot doesn’t display what should be an intrinsic knowledge that Dukie is not made for the game. Shouldn’t he be able to size up Dukie just by seeing him?

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Crownin’ Me

“In business, in life, what you learn to appreciate the most is a dependable man. One day, same as the next.“ -Vondas

I’ve got questions: Are the Greeks untouchable or what? Are they dealing with Marlo because they have no choice? It’s clear that Vondas’ words are a warning to Marlo. But it’s hard to tell just how much leverage these Greeks have, the size of their operation. Are they in Baltimore by choice or by necessity? When it comes to ideals of reliability, the Greeks and Marlo aren’t speaking the same language.

We rarely see Marlo show emotion. He’s a competitor with a perpetual game face. But when Marlo is walking away from the meeting, when he’s crowning his head, that’s the rare emotion. You can see the hubris in his step, a peacock walk.

Forgive me for not knowing, but when I looked up Marlo’s page on Wikipedia, his nickname in the show is listed as ‘Black’ — why have I not heard this before?

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Is Omar Real?

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Episode 4 contained so many great scenes.

Cedric Daniels in Erv Burrell’s Office

Burrell has the goods on Daniels, it’s the very last card up his sleeve. I think Erv genuinely believes that Cedric hasn’t gone behind his back to Carcetti in an attempt to usurp him. Why would Daniels? He knows that Burrell has him by the balls; Cedric wouldn’t be there with hat in hand otherwise. Erv knows this as well. He’s trying to use that last amount of leverage to intimidate Daniels, and it’s working. So much is communicated with silence. Burrell has Daniels eating shit like Ron Burgandy.

“…My answer will be to decline the position and say I serve at your pleasure. Sir? Sir?”
-Daniels, Deputy Commissioner of Operation

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Marlo’s Return Visit to the Greeks

I love the dialogue of both Vondas and the Greek. Perfectly timed and well written, their delivery is so rhythmic, they could bring a certain level of comfort to any situation. The characters simply convey an adroit aura about themselves. Very calculated men, surely a prerequisite to running an international crime ring. Hard to imagine that the actor who plays Spiros Vondas, Paul Ben-Victor, once played Moe in a made-for-TV movie about the Three Stooges.

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I definitely meant to get the episode 3 write-up out before episode 4 came on, but time is a muther. Episode 4 was great though, you can really see everything coming together. My goal is to get some thoughts on it posted by Monday night.

[the wire: season 5, episode 1 write-up - "more with less"]
[the wire: season 5, episode 2 write-up - "unconfirmed reports"]

In talking about The Wire with my friend Chris in a DC coffee-shop, specifically episode 2 of this season, we both came to the conclusion that this McNulty crime-scene tampering scheme left a bit of a bad taste in our mouths. Is this plausible? It just seems too risky, too half-baked…or with McNulty, half-Jamesoned. By all means, I have faith in the writing. This captivating series has got me enthralled to this point, so a little faith on my part is justified. But it seems like they’re setting the bar a little high for themselves. However, in the end, Simon is giving us what we want.

The Wire needs to go out with a bang, leaving us satisfied. Personally, I have no problem with how the Sopranos ended. But with The Wire, David Simon wants to build a consensus. He doesn’t want his audience to focus on how the series ends, rather the topic of his work: the education system, police & crime, political structure, and the media’s connection to it all. The media, being the general publics connection to government services; it’s obvious that it would be the focus of the fifth and final season. At face value, season 2 at the docks doesn’t seem to fit into the equation. But if you don’t think the origin of the drug trade, labor union involvement, mob influence, and a statement on the nation’s trade are key factors in this epic, then I’m not sure why you are watching in the first place.

This girl asked me on Sunday, “The Wire? What’s that about.” My knee-jerk reaction was to say it was a cop show that takes place in Baltimore. Guess like Lupe Fiasco, I had to dumb it down. Next time I’ll say, as David Simon has put it, “It’s a show about an American city.”

On to episode three….

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Wanted to get this out earlier…but better late than never. Yes, I do have HBO On-Demand. No, I am not cheating ahead. But I will watch that exclusive On-Demand special they have called ‘The Wire ’07: 2000: Bunk/McNulty’ and perhaps put together a post on it. And in checking, they have a couple other featurettes entitled ‘The Wire ’07: 1962: Prop Joe’ and ‘The Wire ’07: 1985: Omar’ — looking forward to it.

[the wire: season 5, episode 1 write-up]

opening quote
“This ain’t Aruba, bitch” -Bunk

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“Career case, huh?” -Sydnor
“Baby, I could die happy.” -Freamon

We know Lester. He wouldn’t be content with just making a name for himself and riding off into the sunset; Freamon is not in it for him. His goal is to expose the gape in the system for the benefit of everyone.

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Ok, so as I understand it, about a year has passed in “Wire Time” since the last episode. Actually…about 15 months, thanks to a Wire run-down from the House Next Door [courtesy of Howie the Hype Guy]. I appreciate the extended “previously on the wire” part at the beginning….but I didn’t feel caught up enough. Luckily, about a week ago, I was able to re-watch the last episode of season 4…flipping around the tube by chance. But I’m sure everyone wasn’t able to do this….so, David Simon, this being the final season, I would’ve valued a longer time-lapse montage with tight music much more. Yea, I know….the Sopranos did this before their last season. Well….it worked, didn’t it?

I’m curious….since Bunk, Ed Norris and ‘Professor’ Landsman have been doing the copy machine/lie-detector trick (among similar hijinx, I’m sure) for about 20 years, how do they decide who gets the McDonald’s, the royal treatment? It’s been so long, you’d think they would have a system sheerly because of the monotonous attitude they convey; the decision can’t be random. Common sense would say that the police would choose the one who they think would be fooled the easiest, but you can’t always use ‘common sense’ and ‘Baltimore cop’ in the same sentence. Besides, I’m sure there have been many times where both perps would easily give up the info just the same. I can picture Bunk now, cigar in his mouth, taking bets that his choice will be fooled with the grand lie.

Public Enemy #1: Marlo Stanfield — He has Chris Partlow go down to the courthouse and look up the criminal record of Sergei “The Russian” Malatov, the all-purpose enforcer for The Greek. Sergei aka “Serge” aka “Boris”, who is really Ukrainian, is jail for the rest of his natural life. As he’s leaving, Chris sees Jimmy McNulty outside the records office and gives him the ‘sucka please, you can’t catch me’ smirk. But that’s exactly why Paltow is gonna get caught up, perhaps with Marlow doing the deed himself [ok, broad speculation]. Partlow should’ve shit his pants when he saw McNulty, knowing he left Malatov’s file on the counter, and that Jimmy is good police.

“I slur when I’m tired, that’s all.” - are we really to believe that ol’ Beadie Russell didn’t hear all that loud bar music in the background?

Loved the response when Jimmy asked Sydnor about the port case. “Naw, I don’t know…I wasn’t with you.”

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• Poor, poor Michael Jordan. This is going to severely curb his gambling habits. Really, why do athletes get married anyway? Honestly, I really don’t care how much “support” Juantia gave Mike…more so, how much she put up with….I’m sure there was a lot of crap that she did not deserve. But to be getting $168 million out of MJ’s estimated $400 million fortune in the divorce settlement? She sure wasn’t there all those times in high school and college when he was putting in the work to make himself a better basketball player.

• A bunch of quotes/wisdom from Charles Barkley at SlamOnline.
• In case you never caught it, here’s a great article from the New Yorker by Margaret Talbot, Stealing Life: The crusader behind “The Wire”

• The economy is about to get a boost from the NBA in a couple days.
• Fat ‘Toine Walker….confused? Or just plain stupid?

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