I think Bodie, had he come through life on a different path, would have been pretty solid po-lice. He's whip-smart, able to put up with all sorts of shit from those above him in the chain of command without complaint, and there does seem to be a certain sense of an ethical core about him.

Flip side; Herc seems like the natural choice to be a proper crim (not just a slightly crooked cop). Could easily see him being an unquestioning henchman for a group like the Greeks.

It ends with a scene of such absolute violence that I could barely watch it.

And isn't that what most violence should do? I mean I'm just now so aware of how we've become desensitized.

The horror I was feeling felt, in fact, fundamentally human.

The show does not pull any damn punches and it is, in its way, revolutionary.

When I look at all the young talent that was in The Wire I never saw Michael B Jordan as becoming the breakout star. I don't think he has the It Factor but moreso he's the case of hard work beats talent and choosing a great selection of projects.

I thought Mack Wilds would be a breakout star.

Who did you think would be bigger after the Wire?

Update:

I feel like from his Sinners performance MBJ DEFINITELY showed he has the It Factor.

i saw someone once rag on stringer because he’s working his community college business education like it’s S&P 500, but it occurred to me on my latest watch through that his problem is a different sort of ignorance: the fish being asked to describe water. he was born into the game. it seems to me that he doesn’t recognise that fact. you can see this when he goes to deal with the property developer guys, who proceed to take him for a run. how can you identify the qualities of a thing you’ve never stepped outside of? even realising he needed to study black market economics would have been a step forward. but even that never occurred to him.

Love the scene of Bunk and Mcnulty investigating the woman shot in her apartment by Wee Bey and all they say is fuck the whole time while solving the whole puzzle. Brilliant sequence …

Its the closest thing The Wire can get to "wholesome" lol. In another life these two would be bros. First time but thanks to YouTube I have a lot spoiled for me so I know Bodie and McNulty develop an amicable relationship to an extent. This scene w bunk and Omar in s1e7 had me grinning and feeling like I was listening to a real, casual conversation.

Its also "so fake its real" in terms of their attitudes. Bunk is trying to get Omar to divulge info so he does the classic cop technique of being chill and laxed to get him to open up, but Omar knows it and Bunk Def knows Omar knows. So the back and forth about high school, lacrosse, having a code feels quite genuine.

…. He didn’t catch on to the fact that stringer thought he was snitching when Bodie told him about Hamsterdam?

Bodie picks up on it pretty quickly, and immediately proves he isn’t wearing a wire anywhere

But what if Bodie was legit confused and just walked away?

Would stringer have had him killed?

Started 4th rewatch of The Wire yesterday. Excited to get back into it again. Meanwhile, also watching WAR on HBO. Excellent. Anybody else tap in?

I just finished watching the show for the first time and immediately started it over again. I am so fascinated by all of it and am wanting to consume all of the best discussion about the show.

What is the best podcast about the show on Spotify? I’ve listened to a few episodes of Down in the Hole with Van Latham and Jamelle Hill. It’s super entertaining and if it’s regarded as the best I’ll keep with it but I’m wondering what the more experienced fans think. Is there anything that takes a deeper dive?

Thanks in advance!

Systemic flaws trap everyone which character protrays that the best and why?

seriously, I'm talking about an irreplaceable void here!

I suspected this show would have left a hole in me, but thie McNaulty wake scene (on 5x10) made me realise things wouldn't have been the same after this show end.

The speech, the laugh, the music... it's like everything was designed to make me cry and realise an era was ending.

I loved this show, it's probably the best one ever imo, but it hurts so much when it comes to an end!

I still haven't rewatched it, but I do hope the second time will be as good as the first time!

and for you? When did you realise that the void would have been devastating?

Almost through season 3 and I'm loving it. Part of my problem is part of my watch time has been while my focus wasn't 100% on the show.

I just had to look up Devonne and figure out why she was important - without saying too much.

Excited for the rewatch already

Hi guys,

Recently, I've rewatched seasons 3, 4 and 5, and I noticed something regarding Marlo that I think the writers are trying to tell us. Marlo is not as much a player in the game as he is a product of the game. He is part of the game, a phenomenon that pops up in every new era.

Even Avon tells Stringer in their last scene together: "There will always be a Marlo. No Marlo, no game."

Avon understood that guys like Marlo (and maybe Kenard when he grows up) are not your typical players with basic human empathy. They are psychopaths who are pure products of the game, and they will always be there.

The only difference is that the game has become "more fierce," as Slim put it, and as a consequence of this new, fierce, cold version of the game, creatures like Marlo thrive and live. Even Bey knew that.

He told Namond, "Not like back in the day, how Marlo would have found himself on the back of a car trunk on the way to Lincoln Park." Guys like Marlo pop up in every era, but in his day, they were taken out before they could grow.

I think that essentially is the disagreement between Avon and Stringer regarding Marlo. Stringer and Joe saw Marlo as a potential partner in the co-op who had to adapt to the new ways of doing business. But Avon, Wee-Bey and even Slim understood that guys like Marlo need to be dealt with because they're products of the game, a part of it, a force of it. Unlike Avon and Omar, who are just players in the dope game.

I think the times Cheese personally pissed me off most aside from betraying Prop Joe would be between telling Chris about Butchie or when he brought up Michael about possibly snitching. This man Cheese was different. What y’all think?

When Johnny Weeks' body is found in Hamsterdam, the cops see it as just another death during the operation. (He probably died of an overdose before the operation started.)

Homeless drug addicts die all the time. Neither the cops nor ordinary people pay much attention. It's another death added to the stats, another person nobody cares about.

But come to think of it, almost every death in The Wire is treated this way, not just Johnny Weeks'.

D'Angelo's death was shocking, but what surprised me more was how quickly everyone moved on. None of the cops cared about his death (except McNulty). The Barksdale crew mourned him for a bit, and that was it. Everyone went back to what they were doing like nothing had happened.

We're shocked by these deaths because we've followed these characters and their stories.

But in the world of The Wire, nobody really cares unless they knew the person personally.

Omar may go down as a legend on the streets, but that doesn't mean anyone is particularly upset about his death.

It’s the same with the 14 unidentified women found in the shipping container. Whether the cops are trying to solve the case or dump it on someone else, nobody seems all that upset about their deaths.

Sometimes they show a little emotion, but it doesn't last long.

The real world isn't much different. Even deaths that make the news get forgotten pretty quickly. Most deaths don't even get that much attention.

That detachment is one of the reasons I love The Wire, especially when it comes to the cops.

Simon talks about this in the Season 1 DVD commentary. In a city with 200 or 300 murders a year, it's just business as usual for cops. Even cops who want to do real police work don't expect solving cases to change anything.

I remember some of the actors who played cops saying something similar. Before filming, they spent time riding along with cops. The actors were shocked to see people who'd been shot or stabbed, but the cops were drinking coffee and chatting like it was just another day.

Season 4, Episode 2, what is Bubbles charging when he tells a customer it’s “six and a bit”? A bit is 12.5 cents. As far as I know, it’s always two bits when used with American money.

I posted the other day when I was on S2 about how unlikable McNulty is. In S3 I feel like I'm getting way too much Jimmy and he's more of an asshole than ever. in 3.10 he calls himself the smartest cop across three districts which tells you the self awareness is right there with the unlikability. So I'm starting to wonder just wtf went on with this character and a couple of theories crossed my mind.

One is could it be a deliberate tactic to have an anti-hero who gets gradually worse over time - like the frogs a slow boil pot, to see what how the audience reacts.

Another more interesting scenario: Maybe they didn't anticipate how the character would come off. They gave Dominic West top billing. Why? There had to be at least a handful of characters that attracted more viewers. This would explain why S2 had a lot less Jimmy, maybe that was based on him flopping in S1. As for giving us too much Jimmy in S3A, maybe his contract locked him in for more screen time than he was getting. So they gave us more jimmy that was more a-hole figuring 'let's take a shot'.

Last quick comment, maybe Jimmy in S3 wouldn't bother me as much if the show wasn't getting so tedious, but it seems like they're really dragging things out. And from what I read on this board it gets worse in S5

I know a lot of people hate Season 5. Good reasons in that. However it was clever that they invented a serial killer to get the funding to catch Marlo and his enterprise. The same people who murder over 13 people and many more in Season 5. I mean it's like Chris and Snoop were a serial killer duo. However due to the nature of their crimes and their locations, the murders were dismissed compared to the sensational serial killer of homeless people that tugs the heartstrings of the public.

Why do people hate on it so much? Before watching I heard the story and characters were boring and it’s the worst season of the show, but after finishing it I think it’s better than season 1. The Sobotkas and Greeks were great characters and the location of the ports was perfect. The ending was bittersweet as well, the cycle continues.

It was nominated for Outstanding Drama Series for all 5 seasons.

I know awards don't mean anything but it's nice to see a major award show recognize something that the biggest TV org refused to acknowledge for the most part.

How do you interpret this line? Well its clear that Mcnulty is a workaholic ambitious and selfish asshole most of the time but his life isn't boring and he had at least the goal he set for himself but I think the thing he fails to realize is that there is no final stage of life everything resolved. What I don't fully understand is: was Mcnulty trying to improve his life or trying to escape his private life and didn't want to face the fact, that he failed as a father and is a bad partner no matter who is on his side.

Other than that, the generall wisdom of this line should be that we are too fixated on certain things and miss other things like being with our kids or family or just sitting peacefully on the couch and watching TV with someone you care about, but this quietness and peace gets e.g. for me pretty boring sometimes and causes some anxiety even.

Maybe its not that bad to wait for moments that may never come but maybe they do, nothing is certain and 100% but at least one has a purpose in life. What's your take on that quote?

First of all, I'm sorry if this isn't the right place to post this.
I recently finished watching The Wire for the first time, and my algorithms know it. I've been getting recommended content based on the show on Reddit, YouTube, etc. which is how I found the YouTube channel "CITY OF CORNER". At first I was actually really enjoying the videos! They're just nice, short videos with interesting insights into the show. Perfect for when I'm making lunch or doing housework.
However, I just let a few of his videos run back to back on autoplay and I can't help but notice how cringeworthy (for lack of a better word) some of his writing sounds.
I'm not accusing him of using AI, but it's a very AI kinda style. ie. "It's not ___, it's ___" and "the [thing in the show] is a [random noun], and it's [verb/adjective relating to the random noun]".
I know this sounds kinda hateful but I just noticed how frequent it is, so I was wondering if anyone else on this subreddit watches his videos and either agrees or thinks I'm being too negative.

Also, you know what they say about assumptions, but he sounds like a white dude which makes me feel incredibly uncomfortable when he directly quotes the n word. But he might not be white so that's not the biggest issue.

EDIT: I just found the clip that pushed me to make this post. He says "The Wire hands you people in chairs and asks what you'd actually do in that chair. Daniels
is the chair you misjudged." come ON dude

I was rewatching the episode when Stringer meets up with Marlo and suggests the co-op idea to him. After the meeting is over Marlo instructs Chris to tell their people to tool up.

Thing is, that was before he knew Avon was getting out or anyone from the Barksdale / Bell organization even started beefing with Marlo. Was Marlo thinking about making a play on the Barksdale corners irrespective of Avon starting shit up or was it more of a cautious move in case the co-op decides to move on him?

This might be a hot take, but Stringer Bell pissed me off more than Marlo did.

Yeah, Marlo is a ruthless psychopath, and Jamie Hector is so convincing that his performance scares me at several points. The guy thinks nothing of death, including his own (“the point is they wore it”). And yet, that also means he doesn’t pretend to be anything other than what he is.

Stringer Bell, meanwhile, is also ruthless, he’s responsible for some heinous murders, and has a narcissistic streak about him, and he also reeks of hypocrisy. The scenes where he’s comforting Breanna in the wake of D’Angelo’s “suicide” are among the most disturbing moments in the whole show, far as I’m concerned. Stringer taking this stance as a reformer, a visionary, it all felt pathetically naive at best, and gratingly self-aggrandizing at worst. It was deeply satisfying to see his downfall, first at the hands of Clay Davis’ con and the pact between Omar and Brother Mouzone.

And to be clear, I know that there are characters who were more worthy of hate than either of these two, I’m just keeping the focus on Stringer and Marlo.

I know there have been vocal criticism on their Greek, but for those who speak Spanish, is the stuff they say accurate to how the language is spoken? Or is this another Breaking Bad situation where the Spanish is phoned in?