Feb 17, 2018 This book is a must read for anyone who's a big fan. I'm like 3/4 of the way through and there's so many cool factoids about the making of the show and how all of it relates to real happenings in Baltimore and experiences David Simon and Ed Burns. f---, it's been like five years since I've watched the show all the way through, I think I need to do another rewatch.
Mar 1, 2018 onto season 4 now episode 5. Please god Snoop gets killed soon. Apart from that loving season 4 so far despite Stringer(dead) & Avon both gone.
Mar 4, 2018 Michael Lee now joined the Marlo & his crew. Chris beat the s--- out of his stepdad who molested him most likely.
Mar 12, 2018 watching final episode tomorrow. What an amazing show. Season 5 has been great saw some people say it wasn't great. I was suprised Lester went along with McNulty's serial killer idea seemed out of character. Michael Lee killing Snoop was great. I found her a very annoying character. Marlo & Chris were great tho.
Mar 13, 2018 I had similar sentiments about Snoop until midway through season 4. She's a great character. I loved Stringer at first but now think he was 1.) A piece of f---ing s---. 2.) A f---ing idiot. Th Standfield organization was Godly and Marlo is the undisputed GOAT. I saw your previous comment about Chris beating Michael's step father to death. Did you put together that Chris too was a victim of abuse when he was younger?(Not a spoiler btw)
Mar 13, 2018 Yeah was thinking that as well about Chris being molested. Chris is one of my favourite characters I agree about Stringer bit overrated I prefer Avon.
Mar 14, 2018 I am finished it now. Wow what a series. My favourite show of all time. So many layers to the show with so many great characters going down different paths in life etc. I was very happy for Bubs at the end getting back into his sisters house. Looks like Dukie will be like a Bubs junior. A shame Cutty had no appearance he was a good character. My favourite was Series 4 which shows how good the show was after Avon(bar 1-2 appearances) & Stringer were gone. Some of my favourite characters Avon Marlo Chris McNulty Bubbs Bunk
Mar 14, 2018 I'm about midway through season 4 on my third time watching it all the way through, and I was thinking the same about Stringer. I still love the character, but it really hit me just how many dumb decisions String and Avon made and how much smarter and more careful Marlo is. @Mikey I never had a problem with season 5 either, but I'll see how it fares on my rewatch this time through.
Mar 14, 2018 I think Avon hit the nail on the head... Not hard enougj for the streets and not smart enough to go legit. As far as Marlo goes I've posted this before and thid article kind of perfectly sums up why I think Marlo is the GOAT From the vast cast of characters that lived in David Simon's recreation of Baltimore, there was a favourite for everyone: Bunk's honesty and humour, Omar's unique brand of gangsterism, Stringer Bell's style, Bubbles' good cheer in the face of adversity. But Marlo Stanfield was not a character to elicit much love. In the latest of our Wire blogs written by you, the readers, stupidmansuit (aka Ben Davie) argues that Marlo was the very essence of the world that David Simon was trying to explain: Many see Marlo as the most "evil" being on The Wire. He lacks the humour and profane wisdom of the more popular B'more denizens, but I believe he is key to understanding the show's themes. He is, in effect, the ultimate bureaucrat, one who plays the system without empathy or fear. His sole aim is the increase of bureaucratic power – both his own power within the bureaucracy, and the power of the bureaucracy itself. Although he is certainly a person without a moral backbone, it is not really a question of good and evil at all, but of efficient success. Marlo's methods are the same approach taken by (say) Rawls; the only difference is the bureaucracy is the drug distribution system, so the brutality is more overt. The system itself is the evil, Marlo is just another player, albeit more successful than most. He may come across as robotic and emotionally dead, but I don't think he's some unreal satanic bogeyman. He does still have feelings and desires, but he has obtained absolute control over them in order to succeed. Marlo allows himself to evince real care only with his pigeons. Emotional reliance of any kind on other humans is detrimental to playing the game so he has denied this to himself and uses his pets as a substitute, a means to safely bond with something. The first time Marlo makes an impact is when his underlings are about to punish Bubbles and Johnny for leaning on their car, threatening them with a handgun. Marlo takes in the situation and says simply 'Do it or don't. I've got places to be." He instantly puts himself above trivial concerns; he shows neither anger nor compassion. He has merely sized the situation up, judged there is no threat or benefit to him therein, and leaves it as not worth his time. His decision-making is calibrated to winning "the game". Marlo's utilitarian analysis is perhaps most marked when he decides Michael's fate. He clearly has a slight fondness for Michael (he chose him after all), and agrees with Chris he's unlikely to be the snitch. "But you willing to bet your life on it?" he asks, and the decision is made. He acknowledges his inability to put human relationships first in his last exchange with Joe, who he clearly also felt some bond with: "I treated you like a son" "I wasn't made to play the son. Close your eyes...it won't hurt none". On two crucial occasions rivals underestimate his ruthless efficiency: when Avon tries to set him him up by having a girl hit on him, and when Prop Joe presumes he can "civilize" him. Both Avon and Prop Joe believe they see themselves in Marlo and miscalculate as a consequence, fatally in Joe's case (and fatally for the set-up girl too). Marlo doesn't rely on heart and emotion like Avon, and he doesn't share Prop Joe's desire for friendship and community - and these traits which make Avon and Prop Joe so human also prove their undoing. Marlo knows his name is everything for his power, so it is no surprise that the slur on his street cred provokes the one moment of genuine anger, the "my name is my name" speech played so beautifully by Jamie Hector. It is significant that Omar is the one who called him out, as Omar is the other character who relies on his name for his power - "Omar be coming" etc. Omar understands that the deathgrip Marlo has on the projects is inextricably entwined with his reputation and his name. He found Marlo's Achilles heel, calling him out and challenging him as a coward - trying to play on his street honour, like some modern gunfighter or samurai. If word had got back to Marlo it could have succeeded. The value Marlo places on his street rep above all is shown when Herc tries to take him in to meet Bunny Colvin. He simply refuses with a stony "ain't gonna happen" and faces Herc down until Carver (wisely sensing the violence about to boil over) pulls him off. This was the only time in the series when someone stood up to the police in a face-to-face confrontation, as most of the underworld know the danger of hurting or killing a cop. Marlo knows this too, but his name on the street is more important than anything to him, and he was quite prepared to start something serious with the police to protect it. "My name is my name" trumps all. A few words need to be said of Jamie Hector's masterful portrayal. He brings an eerily unsettling permanent stillness to the role, as though every little action has been perfectly measured in advance. The very absence of any distracting tics or movements make him mesmerizing and terrifying to watch, a being of pure will who cannot be dominated. When he finally snaps the impact is all the more profound for the absolute restraint that preceded it. Lest you think I am celebrating Marlo for cracking the code of the game, I think he may be the classic victim of the system. In The Wire the overarching organizational machinery is geared to generate Marlos, people who have been forced to leave their humanity behind to succeed. I thought long on Joe's "Its hard work civilising this MFer". The systems we've created to live together in civilized society are the same soulless forces that create monsters like Marlo; paradoxically, civilization itself is its own worst enemy.
Mar 17, 2018 On the last ep of season 4. Legit the best season of anything to ever grace television. 4 > 3 > 1 > 2 I'm interested to see how 5 holds up for me.
Mar 21, 2018 Three eps into season 5 and, so far, I think the problem with it is the pacing, which is something I didn't notice last time. In that book I mentioned earlier about the making of the show David Simon mentioned they had 12-13 eps worth of material like the previous seasons, but HBO only let them have 10. The show feels just a little too fast-paced (I know, calling any part of the Wire "fast-paced" is lol) and I feel like it's just not quiiiite as detailed and meticulous as the other seasons. I think Ed Burns had moved on at this point too. If you read that All the Pieces Matter book, it becomes clear that Burns was just as vital as Simon, especially in keeping each other on track and making the show the best it can be. The other issue is that McNultey is f---in insufferable. I mean, he's supposed to be, but man it's painful watching him crash and burn. And I think that's why many people have a problem with the serial killer storyline, because it's the most unrealistic thing in the show combined with the biggest a------ in the show at his worst. This is a Jimmy we've already seen countless times, and after seeing him clean up in S4 it's hard to watch. Of course, in real life, people relapse, and this show doesn't give people happy endings just to give them happy endings. But it is just kind of ground that's already been tread, and the serial killer thing does get a little hokey when condensed into 10 episodes. But the Bubs stuff is great. The newspaper stuff is great (I know some people hate it and I might be slightly biased cuz of my journalism background). Marlo, snoop, chris, prop joe, Slim Charles, and Cheese are obviously great. Just saw Omar for the first time this season (RIP Butchie ) and the Marlo vs Omar s--- is bout to pop off. I also love how they continue the Duke/Michael storyline into this season cuz it really shows how cyclical things are. And how they connect everything with Avon and the Russians and the Greek to really bring the whole story around. It's a shame they had to cut some storylines completely (like stuff with Randy being Cheese's son and more Cutty appearances) in addition to condensing the ones they did get to tell. I'll leave my final verdict til I finish cuz I'm just getting into the meat of the season. But even the Wire at its worst is better than 95% of TV.
Mar 25, 2018 So after my third complete watch I think the following is pretty cemented for me: 4 > 3 > 1 > 2 > 5 2 gets way better upon rewatches, 5 gets a little worse. But 5 still really comes together in the end even if the accelerated pace and hokeyness of parts of the homeless murder stuff taints it a bit.
Mar 25, 2018 I thought Lester going along with McNulty in season 5 for the fake serial killer was out of character
Mar 25, 2018 The Lester thing didn't bother me too much—he'd been in the department for I think 34 years at the end of the show. He'd already been buried for 17 years for speaking up on the department's bs. Then he climbed his way back out and did police work for five years and was promised a huge change only for the mayor and politics of it all to pull the rug out from under him again—not to mention all the s--- he put up with during those five years of police work depicted on the show. I'm reading one of David Simon's books right now (Homicide, I read The Corner a year or two ago) and they make it sound like a lot of cops tend to retire in their late 40s to early 50s and then work a second career unless they're looking to climb the ladder like Valcheck or Rawls or Burrell. So I think Lester felt pretty done no matter what. He wasn't about to finish off his career being fed their bs in a department with no money to do what he does best.
Apr 16, 2018 i know its old news...but i just realized McNulty is Dr. West in Eminem Relapse INTRO hahahaha
Apr 16, 2018 The Wire's final season may have infuenced Relapse i.e Serial Killer storyline. Bit of a reach but Eminem did say he was a big fan of The Wire.
May 11, 2018 I got angry when I heard HBO scrapped the idea of Season 6 of The Wire (which would introduce latino community) according to David Simon
