What makes The Wire so special is that almost every character feels human. Nobody is completely good or completely evil. Even the smallest characters have motivations and stories that make sense.

The writing doesn’t beg you to love anyone. It just lets you understand them.

And somehow you end up caring about people who barely get five minutes of screen time.

What’s one small moment in the series that made you appreciate just how brilliant the writing is?

I’m about to wrap up Season 4 and something I can’t get over is how upset Bodie was when Marlo’s people killed Littlw Kevin. Especially when Bodie was the one who shot Wallace under a similar pretense. Lil Kevin was killed under the pretense of being a snitch and so was Wallace. In the show Poot even told Bodie “this ain’t no different than what we did to Wallace”. So why is Bodie more angry now with little Kevin than he killed Wallace? I genuinely don’t understand.

Stringer has Bodie kill Wallace for snitching but eventually stringer and Bodie both turn into snitches themselves

Makes me wonder, how many characters actually stuck to the no snitching code?

Me personally is Cutty staring down fruit
right before the season 3 ending montage.

Terrific acting by both of them.

So I don't shock easy...But I was just thinking about how rare the Wire is in terms of it's absolute authenticity and what went flashed through my mind as I was thinking this was the show All In The Family.

I mean geez. That was a sit-com. At least if I had to pick a genre that would be the one but it was, like the Wire, pretty damn honest.

The shit Archie would say. Wow. And the way Archie and Edit would relate to the black family the Jeffersons....

I am kind of taken aback that a comedy show is what came to mind but they are both incredibly brave examples of television.

Unsurprisingly, Omar is my favorite character. Can someone please tell me he gets justice by the end of the show? There’s a parallel between Omar and what Beadie was saying to McNulty at the end about family, and Omar had no one left after Butchie died. No one seemed to care except Bunk (..sort of?) when they found out he died, I just want him to be remembered!! I hate thinking that Marlo and his group beat Omar.

Sorry if I’m not making sense, I’m still upset he died:(

Finished S5 recently and wondering if Levy ever suspected Herc of giving Marlo's number to the police?

Nothing suggested he did, probably thought someone Marlo knew or his supplier probably gave it up and he thanked Herc for his involvement and invited him for dinner.

Levy is smart so I always wondered whether he suspected Herc?

The thing I absolutely love about this show is that it makes me work. And what I mean is that the show shows you how profoundly broken this society is. And you feel it. But you do not just feel the brokenness but you also feel the pushing and pulling and shaking and crashing and repairing that everyone is doing to try and handle all of the brokenness. And by watching this you actually feel as if you are also doing some of the pushing and pulling and bleeding and sweating.

In some crazy way the show has astonishing integrity. We are all part saint and part SOB. Nobody is on a pedestal and everyone visits the gutter.

All church crowns will stay in tact today gentlemen

I'm on the 5th rewatch and it just hit me... At the end of the first episode DeAngelo is looking at the murdered witness Gant, and as he walks away the camera keeps showing the statue with a boy playing what it looks like to be a flute or a harmonica. I thought to myself that it represents a whistleblower! What do guys think?

We know you can be in the game and not be an evil person(Wallace)

We know you can even kill a person and not be evil(Poot)

But can you have multiple bodies like slim and still not be evil? By season 4 and 5 slim is basically second in charge for prop Joe. We know the number 2s for the other major organizations in the show(Stringer and Chris) are both extremely evil people.

Is slim and exception? Or is he just as bad as them?

What’s the highest level of rank we see on the show a person can have while still being a “good” person” ?

Maybe corner lieutenant?

I recently went back and watched some of the best rated episodes of Breaking Bad. It was great to look back on a show that had me hooked at the time, episode after episode. Truly brilliant TV.

But the appreciation, it somehow stayed at a more surface 'pure entertainment' level. Which made me reflect on why The Wire, for me, just cuts more deeply.

Watching The Wire feels like inhabiting a world. At first, you’re learning its rhythms, its language, the things people leave unsaid. Gradually, it seeps into your pores. You stop feeling like a visitor. These people and places become familiar, and their disappointments begin to carry the weight of something you’ve lived through. It's like donning a VR headset.

Breaking Bad had me hanging on every episode. But I remained conscious that I was watching a brilliantly constructed drama. The Wire drew me into the texture of ordinary life so completely that the plot sometimes felt secondary to simply being there.

Breaking Bad made me want another episode - The Wire made it difficult to leave. Just sharing my random thoughts - sorry if I am articulating something obvious to many of you.

Watching for the first time as a marylander who lives near Baltimore, and its funny to me whenever there's a scene supposedly set outside of Baltimore that's very obviously filmed in the city.

Some that stood out to me:

• one of the philly shots (when bodie and shamrock drive there in the van) was filmed on the stretch of I-70 in West Baltimore
• the Newark ICE office mcnulty visits to find the russian girls was filmed at state center, literally down the street from The Pit
• The scene where Carcetti visits the governor is filmed in the Baltimore Circuit Court, the same building featured prominently throughout the entire series (even though annapolis is only a ~45 minute drive from Baltimore)
• The Caribbean bank Marlo visits to launder money is actually a bank on North Avenue (recently famous for the "abolish ice" billboard on the roof)
• Most of the philly scenes are filmed in west baltimore

I find the arc of Justin pretty good and I think it gets overlooked here. What do you guys think about it? From being a corner kid in Marlo's crew to getting out of that lifestyle by focusing on boxing. It is a direct contrast from Spider, who goes from boxing to the streets.

Is it just me or the character playing Stan Valchek looks and speaks exactly like Donald Trump?

I’m still not sure what it is, but I’m pretty sure I want some!

Man, I just finished this show today and I gotta say one of if not the greatest show I ever watched along with the Sopranos and I just gotta say, the show stayed true to its themes to the end and they gave such a amazing conclusion to all the characters. My personal favorite was marlo, because despite not having to ever work on the street a day in his life again he’s still chooses to be a gangster yet everyone has already forgotten him. Another conclusion I loved was obviously bubbles, he was able to actually break free from addiction, which was very heartwarming to see. But it’s really the fact that no one truly got a perfect conclusion at the end . Probably time for a rewatch now lol. But I’m still processing the ending as I’m typing this rn. The game is the game i guess….

I think Bodie was a knight by the time he was killed

He was promoted during barksdale reign

Knights can threaten both squares that queen(chris) & rook(snoop) were at before knight(o-dog) took him out

Who was what in the show? If All the pieces matter

On my 2nd re-watch of the show and just started episode 4 in season 1.

I just finished laughing my ass off from the opening scene, I must not have been paying attention on my 1st watch of the show as I don't recall it being this funny.

The way this scene was shot, the script, Lester sanding down a mini table and smiling.

They just don't make tv like this anymore.

*chefs kiss*

Clay wouldn’t be able to shmooze a fed court like he did with the city court . Bond wanting the credit for nailing clay is the perfect cover for not passing the baton to federal court too.

I used to resonate with this quote, but life has a way of showing you that there is much to lose if you do not play. Regret, lost relationships, unfulfilled desires. You can definitely lose if you do not play.

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Im on my 5th watch and just realized that the reason no one knew Avon and Stringer wasn't because they built this whole organization themselves. I just realized that Avon inherited the organization from his brother and only had the crown for a year before season 1. So that explaines why they werent prepared for Omar and why they werent prepared to deal with Marlo. They were still ironing out the details of running this organization they inherited. Also explains why Avon had no record he didnt come up from the corner he inherited a VP position from his brother.

If you have, would you share the basic concept/title? I’m not in college or planning to go, but I’ve always thought this would be a fascinating topic…