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The Wire (2 Viewers)

Looks like Jonathan Abrams has a new book out called All the pieces matter: the inside story of the wire.  He is a guest on the si media podcast with Richard Deitsch that dropped today.

 
The Ref said:
Wow.  I loved AOE.  Lost days of my life playing that game.
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Ms. GPJ is typically very permissive of how I spend my time. But I got up to about level 6 on Clash of Clans and she basically told me to knock that #### off and grow up. :(

 
all this chatter about it in here made me start rewatching again.  The last episode of season 4 may be the best episode of tv ever

 
Evilgrin 72 said:
I'm picturing you in the middle of S4E5 sitting in a chair staring at the ceiling as the episode plays.  Finally, you grab the remote and hit the guide button and begin scrolling through the available real-time programming.  With a sigh, you're about to resign yourself to continuing the episode when suddenly, like a bolt of lightning from Olympus...

"OOOOH !!!  ERNEST GOES TO JAIL !!  AND IT JUST STARTED !!!!!"

You then glance over at little Cletus, see that he's still enthralled with the ball of string and dead mouse he's playing with, grab the bag of homemade pork rinds the Mrs. left before heading out to her shift at the quarry, and settle in for 90 minutes of hilarity.  Hopefully Cletus doesn't look up when Ernest appears on screen for the first time and you guffaw loudly and fling pork rinds at the screen in unhinged, primal bliss.  Otherwise, you're going to have to pause and get up to get him a can of cake frosting for lunch.
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That was pretty much how I stopped watching house of cards mid season.

 
funny- rewatching this thing too.

either forgot or didn't realize that S2 wasn't that good. S1- still epic and superlative tv.

and lol at noonan. best oblivious/contrarian schtick on the bored.

eta: I'm most of the way through S2. some weak acting from the younger cast and writing a bit muddled.

 
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Wallace just got interviewed during halftime of the NBA Celebrity game.  He said the Wire was his favorite role ever.  He also predicted Cavs over Rockets in the finals fwiw.

 
PIK95 said:
Wallace just got interviewed during halftime of the NBA Celebrity game.  He said the Wire was his favorite role ever.  He also predicted Cavs over Rockets in the finals fwiw.
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I am just happy to finally know where Wallace is.

 
Long Ball Larry said:
Looks like Jonathan Abrams has a new book out called All the pieces matter: the inside story of the wire.  He is a guest on the si media podcast with Richard Deitsch that dropped today.
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abrams mentioned that Reg Cathey (Norman) died a few days ago.  I now see that he had cancer.

He also mentioned that Season 2 had the best ratings of any season when it actually aired, primarily attributed to the fact that it mostly white people.  Many of the people involved in the show felt the show was ignored in the emmys largely due to the fact that it was about poor people of color.

He also said that he was working at the Los Angeles Times during season 5, which was going through a lot of the same things, and that the show hit everything perfectly in its representation.  Also that Scott Templeton's character would have been better fleshed out if they could have gotten those couple more episodes.  

Maybe all of this is known (and it least some of fit with parts of things that I knew), but those were the things that stood out.

 
Now that I am into season 5 it does go off the rails a bit.  I remember this from every other time I watch it but get so wrapped up in how awesome the first 4 seasons are.  I just don't buy the McNutty and Freamon plot at all.  It's so out of character, especially for freamon

 
killface said:
Now that I am into season 5 it does go off the rails a bit.  I remember this from every other time I watch it but get so wrapped up in how awesome the first 4 seasons are.  I just don't buy the McNutty and Freamon plot at all.  It's so out of character, especially for freamon
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I don't know that I agree.  I mean, he took his lumps for 13 years or whatever for marching to his own beat.  I think that once the fire was rekindled, he was up for putting his full weight behind doing what he thought was "right".

 
Long Ball Larry said:
I don't know that I agree.  I mean, he took his lumps for 13 years or whatever for marching to his own beat.  I think that once the fire was rekindled, he was up for putting his full weight behind doing what he thought was "right".
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Chalk me up as thinking season five gets a bad rap. I have no problem believing McNulty would try a stunt like that and I wasn't surprised that Bunk wanted nothing to do with it and Freamon was okay with it.

 
El Floppo said:
funny- rewatching this thing too.

either forgot or didn't realize that S2 wasn't that good. S1- still epic and superlative tv.

and lol at noonan. best oblivious/contrarian schtick on the bored.

eta: I'm most of the way through S2. some weak acting from the younger cast and writing a bit muddled.
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And S3 back to the goods. 

I watched the mini series, the Corner when it first came out but not since. Curious if that holds up too

 
El Floppo said:
And S3 back to the goods. 

I watched the mini series, the Corner when it first came out but not since. Curious if that holds up too
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last ep of S3- the scene with stringer and avon on the penthouse terrace overlooking the harbor... sooooo good. the second it started I viscerally remembered every moment of it from when I first watched this. just a great, great season.

I'm blanking on S4 right now- but will probably start it tonight and I'm sure it will all come back. I don't remember if I even watched S5.

but getting back to The Corner... I'd need to watch it again, but that miniseries absolutely blew me away- even more (at least in my memory) than The Wire. I want to say from memory that it's my tippy-top best TV show ever. some of it might just be being thrown into that world for the first time in such an honest, jaw-dropping, eye-opening and gripping way- and that the wire was essentially a continuation of the same.

 
what a stupid plan Orlando had.  Wants to buy a bunch of drugs and basically try to move it directly in the territory of the most notorious dealer in the whole city.  Even if he didn't get caught by the Feds, he would have been dead for sure.

 
NewlyRetired said:
El Floppo said:
I'm blanking on S4 right now- but will probably start it tonight and I'm sure it will all come back. I don't remember if I even watched S5.
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season 4 was my favorite season.  The theme that season was the schools.
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the re-binge continues.... finished S4 last night. 

what's great about the show is how it takes micro and macro and continuously keeps it all moving forward and building on each, each episode and season. S4 got far into everything- relationships, parenting, the corner, schools, after-school, police, city hall... just breathtaking, even with mcnutty more in the background. for whatever reason- not quality- I didn't remember much of it, but that only made the reviewing that much better. astonishing too the high level of performances they got from those kids. 

 
PinkydaPimp said:
Anyone read this yet?  I just downloaded the audio book version.   Going to check it out while commuting. 
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About halfway through "All The Pieces Matter," the oral history of The Wire. It is a treasure trove. If you're a fan of the show, I can't recommend this book more highly. Not sure how it would be as an audio book, since - as an oral history - they would have to keep interrupting the narrative to tell you who's talking. And it's been very helpful to have internet access while reading, because there are plenty of characters/actors they interview who I can't place by name and need to look up.

But that aside, this book is everything you would wish it could be and more. SPOILERS - I was a little late for work this morning because I was at the part where they're telling Idris Elba that Stringer was about to be killed. They wouldn't tell the actors ahead of time because they didn't want that knowledge to impact their performances. He was furious. And then the plan was for Omar to urinate on his dead body, but Idris was so mad that he said he'd walk off the set before he'd let them do that to his character. He thought he was losing his biggest role ever, and David Simon was trying to tell him how big he was about to be thanks to his performance on the show.

This chapter also talked about finding Snoop, along with how a lot of the show's creative staff hated the idea of going inside City Hall and doing a political show, but Simon insisted. Along those lines, he makes a compelling argument for why Season 2 had to take place in the white community of the docks. 

I could go on and on - about how McNulty and Bunk became best of drinking buddies in real life, how they conceived and filmed the F murder investigation, amazing stuff from Bubbles about security chasing him away from the food table because they thought he was a street junkie, etc, etc., etc. My wife is already sick of the book because I have to stop and read her an excerpt every other page or so. To sum up, if you are a fan of The Wire, this book will be one of the best things you read all year. 

 
The_Man said:
About halfway through "All The Pieces Matter," the oral history of The Wire. It is a treasure trove. If you're a fan of the show, I can't recommend this book more highly. Not sure how it would be as an audio book, since - as an oral history - they would have to keep interrupting the narrative to tell you who's talking. And it's been very helpful to have internet access while reading, because there are plenty of characters/actors they interview who I can't place by name and need to look up.

But that aside, this book is everything you would wish it could be and more. SPOILERS - I was a little late for work this morning because I was at the part where they're telling Idris Elba that Stringer was about to be killed. They wouldn't tell the actors ahead of time because they didn't want that knowledge to impact their performances. He was furious. And then the plan was for Omar to urinate on his dead body, but Idris was so mad that he said he'd walk off the set before he'd let them do that to his character. He thought he was losing his biggest role ever, and David Simon was trying to tell him how big he was about to be thanks to his performance on the show.

This chapter also talked about finding Snoop, along with how a lot of the show's creative staff hated the idea of going inside City Hall and doing a political show, but Simon insisted. Along those lines, he makes a compelling argument for why Season 2 had to take place in the white community of the docks. 

I could go on and on - about how McNulty and Bunk became best of drinking buddies in real life, how they conceived and filmed the F murder investigation, amazing stuff from Bubbles about security chasing him away from the food table because they thought he was a street junkie, etc, etc., etc. My wife is already sick of the book because I have to stop and read her an excerpt every other page or so. To sum up, if you are a fan of The Wire, this book will be one of the best things you read all year. 
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Agreed.  Im almost done with the audio book and its been great insight into the show.  THe audio book version works for me as i can listen while i commute.  My only issue is that the voices were not the actors themselves.  Slightly annoying.  But otherwise great book.

 
El Floppo said:
the re-binge continues.... finished S4 last night. 

what's great about the show is how it takes micro and macro and continuously keeps it all moving forward and building on each, each episode and season. S4 got far into everything- relationships, parenting, the corner, schools, after-school, police, city hall... just breathtaking, even with mcnutty more in the background. for whatever reason- not quality- I didn't remember much of it, but that only made the reviewing that much better. astonishing too the high level of performances they got from those kids. 
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According to Jonathan Abrams (and surely others before him), the actor who played Prop Joe (Robert Chew), was hugely influential on the kids and their performances.

 
PinkydaPimp said:
Agreed.  Im almost done with the audio book and its been great insight into the show.  THe audio book version works for me as i can listen while i commute.  My only issue is that the voices were not the actors themselves.  Slightly annoying.  But otherwise great book.
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Reading this post led me to iBooks and an immediate download. I have some work travel next week so I know what I’m reading in the airport. 

 
McNulty: Hey Bubs, how come you got all this wisdom but your life's so ####### hard?

Bubs:  I been wondering that myself.

 
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Nathan R. Jessep said:
Finished Season 4 and have started 5. Hated to see Bodie go down. :sadbanana:   I have no clue why I didn't watch this show sooner. :wub:  
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I’d say it’s even better on watch 2 (and 3 and 4 and 5 etc...). You catch a lot of connections that you may have missed the first time through. The example I always use is that Randy is Cheese’s son (method man). 

 
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