The Wire - Spoilers in here!!!!!

[Keef]

I was just thinking about starting this, when I saw that Piers had also suggested it, so here we go, a thread full of spoilers and chat about the show and the characters we liked, and what we thought about what happened.

DO NOT READ ON IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS!!!!

Oh, and you'll probably want to avoid the official website too, I stumbled across a major spoiler the first time I looked at it, and knew what to expect at the end of season 3, which was a real shame!

[SeanMacGabhann]

Good shout Keef

Where to start tho, eh?

Online I've seen plenty of best moment/character type threads so in that spirit

Favourite Character (not same as nicest person obviously!)

Plenty choose from - and some of them are only minor - but I thought the whole Stringer Bell arc was great and Idris Elba played him really well. And his ending, when it came was great.

Favourite Scene

The one that keeps sticking in my mind was the one with McNulty and Bodie in the park. the sun was shining, Baltimore looked better than the show usually portrays and a reprehensible character (he shot Wallace FFS!!) is finally realising the whole game he plays is rigged. Could he change? Just a few minutes later we found out...

[mockney piers]

I think he'd already changed though. He'd aged quickly over the years and it was the end for him and the game in one form or another (witness poot in series 5).

But agree about that scene, it portrayed in one scene such an enourmous unburdening and foreboding, brilliant.

It is bizarre that you hate him for the Wallace thing, but over the next 5 series he becomes the character I care about more than any other, with exception of Bubbles I guess (and Beadie..mmmmm)

[Keef]

Stringer was great. However, I loved Prop Joe, and Omar. Prop Joe because he just had great lines, and delivered them like a cross between Don King and the oracle. Omar because he was just cool and hard as f**k, but he wore pyjamas, and loved his Cheerios for breakfast!

Fave scene... Hmmm, the end for Stringer was really well done, and Brother M was another fave character. (Aint nothing more dangerous than a nigger with a library card" what a line! The scene where Stringer tells Avon what he did to D was another good one.

There really are too many good characters, and too many great scenes to chose from!

[Keef]

It is bizarre that you hate him for the Wallace thing, but over the next 5 series he becomes the character I care about more than any other, with exception of Bubbles I guess

Exactly bloody right!!! Although lets not forget he basically bottled it over Wallace, and Poot had to do the dirty in the end.

[Keef]

Another great scene, the one between Omar & Bunk. A man got to have a code!

[mockney piers]

alos true.

Yeah, prop Joe gets a big mention, I'm glad the wisodm of Joe gets more and more screen time as it progresses.

He died well to "That boy always was a disappointment"

[SeanMacGabhann]

Another thumbs up for prop Joe here

Have you scene the young prop Joe scene on youtube?

Why not have a look

[Keef]

Okay, so lets talk series 5, what did you think? I enjoyed the street stuff as ever, but the newspaper bit bored me to be honest, and I found the whole McNaulty storyline just pushed the boundaries of believable a bit far. For the first time the series seemed a bit hollywood to me.

After series 4, the story I wanted was the story of Randy, who we'd last seen fighting for survival in a childrens home. All we got was one scene where we saw that the home had made him hard and bitter. I thought he was a great character, and would have liked more background on his story.

Still a very enjoyable series, and better than most things on telly, but I'd have to say it was my least favourite. Although I expected at least one of them to die, I was gutted my 2 favourites went so early too, kind of made the last few episodes seem somehow empty.

[Keef]

Sean, is that the "chronicles" scene set at his school in 1962? On the official site there is also a young Omar in 1982, and McNaulty & Bunk's first night shift as partners.

[SeanMacGabhann]

Agreed it's the least good of the 5 series. The McNulty storyline barely redeemed itself and the newspaper stuff didn't bore me it just.... well the bad guy was the only bad guy who was one-dimensionally bad. The internet is full of newspaper people who love the Wire but feel the writer let his own experiences get in the way a bit and there is truth to all of that

that said while the middle of series 5 was comparatively average (but relatively great) I thought the last few episodes were worth the whole thing. Snoop driving Michael to his execution only to have the tables turn and only THEN did she reveal a soft side... another great moment

[mockney piers]

I know how you feel about Randy, but that cameo scene said all that needed to be said really.

No foster parent had been found, and the system had significantly hardened him up. We know not what the future holds for him, but he won't be making any debating teams.

Very sad tale.

Aslo know what you mean about series 5, I said to SB that it was the first one that felt like entertainment.

Still some great stuff, and it manages to end without you feeling the need for more, which can't have been easy.

[SeanMacGabhann]

Yep - that's the one. I think the whole lot are being bundled with the 5 series box set

And enough with the SB stuff Mr Piers ;-)

[Keef]

I know how you feel about Randy, but that cameo scene said all that needed to be said really.

Yeah, guess so. I think I was just hoping for some happy ending somewhere... I mean did they have to show us poor Duquan shooting up at the end?!?!?!? One of the most heart breaking bits of the whole thing for me. Help him Bubbles please!!!

Snoop driving Michael to his execution only to have the tables turn and only THEN did she reveal a soft side... another great moment

Spot on!

[mockney piers]

For me the end was about how it's all a circle really, and neatly negated the need for more series.

So Bubbles has found some sort of redemption, but there are always more walking down his path such as Duqant.

Omar was replaced by Michael, McNulty by Greggs (perosnal) and Sidner (career)

[Keef]

And however much money he has, much like Avon before him, Marlo will always be street. "Just a gangsta I suppose". ;-)

[mockney piers]

true dat

[SeanMacGabhann]

Truly this is the best "let's have Keef, Piers and Sean only" thread ever ;-)

But we are enjoying it so that's the main thing

Something I did like about the newspapers in 5 - How all of the major themes that dominated the first 4 series, and 5 as well, are only so much backstory to people's lives. Communities are no longer communities not just because of "the baddies" or drugs or whatever - but the things that made them communities - local schools and local papers amongst them - are no longer local. There are no roots. And when important stuff happens.. it doesn't get reported or even if it does it's "below the fold". We are all just walking dollar signs..

Errr. or am I reading too much into it?

[mockney piers]

actually you're on to something there.

The newspaper allows us more of a hook than the detached voyeurism of a tv watcher.

Suddenly we're seeing Baltimore through the same lens most of us would view it through if we were actually resident there, safe in the waterfrontcondos or in the counties, whingeing about how our tax dollars are being wasted on this, or how the system isn't doing enough about the schools, violence...eerrr serial killers!

But i'll admit it wasn't the most engaging of plots or set of characters, apart from the news desk editor, he was cool

[SeanMacGabhann]

He was cool as F***

And he directed the final episode

And the first 2 episodes of series one

And in the creator's earlier Homicde: Life on the Street

err... I'm a fan

Another great scene - Rawls in THAT bar in series 3

What was it.. 3 seconds long? Took me 10 minutes to recover

[Keef]

Can't remember that, will have to rewatch!

Was interesting how all the "Main characters" who were killed on the street, thus breaking our hearts, were dropped from the paper because they didn't have the column inches for some street kid getting shot.

Truly this is the best "let's have Keef, Piers and Sean only" thread ever

I'm hoping others will join in... Jah has seen the whole thing!

[SeanMacGabhann]

Ditto Mark

And I believe Bon3yard. And CWALD...

[mockney piers]

Indeed. Here every teenage killing makes a headline, especially in London, but you can sense we're on the brink of being desensitised to it.

You can easily see how in a city of almost 300, mostly drug related murders a year, in a city the size of Sheffield, that another corner kid's death barely even registers though.

So far we've had two dozen youth murders in a city of 12 times the size of Baltimore!!

[giggirl]

The Wire isn't exactly full of laughs but something made me crack up at the beginning of Series 2. One of the detectives talking about white guys selling drugs who come right up to you and say "hello, I've got the drugs, have you got the money?". Quite funny when you think of all the effort the black kids in the projects go to to avoid talking about drugs. Erm, you had to be there.

[mockney piers]

Aww, I dunno, I thin it's packed to the brim full of comedy, it just doesn't play for cheap laughs.