@Matrim: There is one incident, well, a whole string of incidents that I wonder fit in with what you mean about characters going "dumb". But I think it'd be better to wait until you are safely past that part to bring it up. Keep us posted on your viewing progress. Also, I think he went with a pistol over a shotgun because you need to get in real close with a shotgun to make sure you actually kill someone and not just maim the crap out of them. He actually tries to walk up and get as close as he can but when Wee Bay comes back, Avon figures it out and takes cover.
saw this on another forum. pretty awesome [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoaCR0mL4Gg"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoaCR0mL4Gg[/ame] [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2JjP8ATI7s&NR=1"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2JjP8ATI7s&NR=1[/ame]
An example of an extraneous scene is the one from season one where McNulty takes Bubbles to his kids' soccer practice, he argues with his wife, Bubbles skeeves everyone out a bit, and they leave. When I finished that scene I didn't know any of the characters even 1% better. That's extraneous. As the show's progressed those scenes have been fewer and further between (though they had a habit of going there with the Subotkas every now and again), which has made the show more enjoyable to me. An example of the characters playing dumb is in season two when Daniels and Rhonda are in a meeting with Burrell and Valcheck, talking about the detail. At this point of the case they know that it's much bigger than just unions, they're pretty sure they can trace the drugs and the money up and down the line, and even though they know Subotka's not a "bad guy," they know pretty solidly that he's caught up in some bad shit. Valcheck throws a shit-fit that Subotka is no longer the primary target, and neither Daniels nor Rhonda have the wherewithal to lie to him and say "He's still our target, he's just bigger and dirtier than we thought. We have his nephew on the wire selling drugs, we're going to make a corruption case as well, but if you want us to bring him in, you have to give us more time." Everything we've seen of Daniels and Pearlman suggests they're more than clever enough to manipulate Valcheck in that scene. But they both just sat there, mute. It was the "dumbest" scene in the show so far. I understand why it was there, and it got the job done, and maybe my standards are a bit too high, but both the wife and I rolled our eyes at that one. I do. From what we know of Omar, if he's in a position to carry the shotty and not be seen, he carries the shotty. He's actually not carrying anything, he just takes the pistol off of the dude. Great scene. No, you're better off with a shotgun at any range up to about 40 yards. Anything beyond 40 yards (honestly closer to 10 yards - pistols are insanely hard to aim) and you're stupid to use a handgun unless you're Elmer Keith. Shooting freehand, outside, at night at what could be a moving target? Omar wouldn't bring a pistol for that job.
You make a good case about the pistol vs shotgun. As for Valchek, it's been a year or two since I've seen Season 2 but IIRC he's the one who's turned the faucet on for the detail to operate. He doesn't care about drugs or unions; he makes it very clear from the beginning that all he cares about is nailing Sobotka in revenge for the church window fiasco. How would Valchek be appeased if Daniels and Perlman lied and said they just needed more time to get the goods on Sobotka when they just showed Valchek how much they've already sprawled on the case? Why should Valchek believe them or accept that?
1) Because he's an idiot 2) Because they have a tape of his nephew selling drugs "Listen, Major Valchek. We haven't gotten Subotka yet, but we're close. Just last week we got his nephew selling heroin, we have his lieutenant disappearing cargo, and we'll have his son soon enough. Once we have that, we'll have Subotka." It's not even a lie. It's the god's-honest truth. At the time of that meeting they had a metric ton of stuff that pointed to Subotka being involved with an international smuggling syndicate, his family being drug dealers and his union being dirty as hell. Why wouldn't Valchek believe them or accept that? Not a single bit of it is a lie and they have plenty of recordings and pictures to back up their word.
IIRC, they thought Valcheck would have stopped the investigation if they presented that info. Provide less info - that Valcheck wouldn't realize was being done - and keep the investigation going.
Yup, that's what it was, because if Valchek was shown how much the detail had put into Nicky and not his uncle, he'd be pissed and shut it down. Also, the union are notorious for not talking so even if they have plenty on the nephew, the son, and the lieutenant, not a single one of them were ever likely to flip on Frank. But maybe Valchek decides to arrest Nicky anyway to try and flip him, that would mean exposing Nicky and losing the detail's source.
I'll have to re-watch it, 'cause I don't remember it being that way. That said, the scenario you guys present is entirely plausible.
One episode of season 3 left. Stringer just got killed. You know it's a great show when you end up feeling sympathy for a character as vile, evil and hateful as Stringer. They're so good at plot-arcs and thematics. David Simon is to those aspects of story what Aaron Sorkin is to dialogue. Which brings us to the dialogue... specifically, the dialogue of Omar to Stringer in the death scene. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KoKWf6pLs8 Ugh.
Season 3 and season 4 are the most brilliant of the lot. You've got plenty to look forward to, it gets better and better.
Halfway through season 4. I really, really appreciate the deliberate pace they set in the first half of every season, letting each plot point unfold so that you can see and appreciate exactly how shit comes to hit the fan. I'm only in episode five, but already I'm thinking "Poor Randy" every time he's onscreen. I thought the scene where the kids are talking about Chris being the "Zombie Master", followed by Dukie showing them that, no, he's just killing people, were incredibly powerful and well done. That's how you show, not tell, the audience what they need to know: These are still kids. But they're forced into situations where they have to make life-and-death choices. Gut-wrenching.
I'm halfway through Season 5 now and have to say that it's my least favorite season. Never before have I wanted to fast forward through large chunks of an episode.
Also, has any show been as hurt by the advent of affordable HDTV sets than The Wire? Until Season 5, I watched the show on old fashioned tube TVs or on my laptop but now that I'm used to HD video, it really looks cheap.
I've been watching it on DirecTV's Audience channel and they're showing the entire series in HD. They've been upconverting the original film for HD, but to be honest at times you can really tell that it's not true HD.
For me it was less boring than painful, some of the decisions made by characters were just unbearably stupid, and seemed over the top for their previously established characters (Ziggy was even more painful to watch in season 2, but at least he was consistent). And the guy who played the "bad" reporter was terrible.
Agreed, the whole thing with McNulty and Freamon was just too over the top for me. I'm surprised it's as bad as it is considering that Simon came from the land of journalism. The scenes at the paper might be spot on for all we know, but how it's playing out just seems over the top. I'm more interested in the Standfield/Omar feud (which looks like it could end soon).
The guy who played the "bad" reporter, Tom McCarthy, has an interesting IMDB apart from his small acting gigs. He wrote/directed The Station Agent, The Visitor, and Win Win and also co-wrote Up. I caught an episode of Season 5 on the Direct TV channel and from what I can tell they zoomed in on the video to make it widescreen; that's why everyone's heads look so big in the closeups. (They also do this with Seinfeld on some cable HD channel). You also lose part of the screen at the top and the bottom. I think they did upscale it to HD though since the series was originally shot on film (iirc 35mm). Ideally someday the whole series will be on Blu Ray, in 4:3 and not widescreen, and upscaled to Blu Ray specs. The newspaper parts of Season 5 maybe aren't as interesting as the rest of the show but I still mostly enjoyed it, especially upon repeated viewing. The Ziggy parts from Season 2 are a good comparison in terms of it dragging on, when it gets to the part where he buys a duck I always feel like, OK, I get it, he's a dumbass. What I noticed with the newspaper storyline is that in the first episode the Sun guys get lucky on one story having to do with drug dealers, implicating Nareese Campbell for the high dollar purchase of Fat Face Rick's property, and that's it. I kind of expected them to be more in tune with what's going on with the game but instead they get sidetracked by the fake killer storyline and one sort-of fluff piece on Bubbles. Sure, it's a telling indictment on the newspapers, but it didn't exactly come off as good entertainment. At least not by the standards set by this show.
I'm finally on season 4. I have to say the show pulled me in a lot more in season 3 than it had before, as you guys said it would. I really love the way the show is plotted - it's very deliberate, and you always know that whatever you're seeing is going to be part of a bigger picture; it's going to be relevant later on. I'm starting to care about some of the characters a lot more, although not so much for others. Some characters, like Kima, I actually care about less than I did at the beginning. The inner-city public school stuff is interesting so far. There are certain details that make it very authentic, and make it very clear that someone involved in the show has worked at a school like that. On the other hand, the phrase "tip of the iceberg" keeps coming to mind.
I cut Season 5 a lot of slack because it's basically trying to explain why the larger issues that the first four seasons cover don't get discussed in the media. It does feel a little extraneous, while the first four seasons feel almost of a piece, but that's inevitable considering what Simon set out to do.
OK, I finished season 4. I have to say that it left me wanting more. It didn't seem to have the same coherent narrative arc that each of the first 3 seasons had. Frankly, it seemed like they needed 2 or 3 more episodes to wrap everything up. I actually preferred season 3. Not that season 4 was bad, mind you. Like I said, it just left me wanting more. I've enjoyed watching this show. It's definitely engaging, and it's almost always intelligent and thoughtful. The attention to thematic consistency is impressive, and the plotting is carefully thought-out. Pretty much whatever is happening on the screen, you know it's going to matter to the larger plot. Very little happens just to happen. And I appreciate that. At the same time, I do feel like the show is missing something. I can't put my finger on what it is, though.
Real life. It is missing real life. With 100+ characters, there is no way every detail gets mentioned like real life would. Character advancements that normally would occur over the space of several weeks or months do so in two or three episodes (usually). That means stuff gets left out. It is the questions like where did D-lo learn to play chess? What is the history of the Greek? Who was Bubbles favorite teacher?
I do think character development may be the show's weakness. There are just too many characters to get to know any of them especially well. At the same time, the show will occasionally delve into their personal lives - especially the cops' - and those subplots tend to feel flat, forced, even annoying. My favorite characters are the ones who are developed through the course of the plot. Their choices and actions illuminate their character well enough - I'm thinking Stringer, Carver, Bubbles, Carcetti, a few others.
I think this is well put. When D'Angelo was taken out of circulation at the end of season 1 and then murdered in season 2, and then Stringer came up short at the end of season 3, that was the end of that. The show stopped having a message about the human condition and, in season 4 and early in season 5, was only about humanity's condition. But it's still a great, great show. I'm already looking forward to my first re-watch.