The Wire - Season Five

[elpollodiablo]

Good show, man! Yeah wtf is that guy thinking

[elpollodiablo]

Haha, hey check it out! The Arabber Preservation Society!

[andronicus]

Richard is not an asshole. Only an asshole would scare-quote shout out

Plus I would never misspell the name of the Granger movement.

I mean. 

You don't know me pollo.  So 'fuck your fucking mother'.

[elpollodiablo]

You're such an angry person

[andronicus]

I've come by it honestly.

[hannah]

I usually avoid Slate's Wire commentary because I hate it so much, but I checked it out this boring afternoon and did one li'l chuckle at this:

I've occasionally wondered whether Levy isn't a Wire prank that David Simon is pulling on himself. Simon, who's Jewish, has cast as the show's only identifiably Jewish male an actor who looks rather like himself—middle-aged, bald, stocky, big-headed, full-featured—and then made that character the most repulsive piece of garbage in the city of Baltimore. You have to admit that's pretty funny.

[Andrew_TSKS]

dudes, the av club interview with simon is up as well.

[elpollodiablo]

Sepinwall's interview was way better, IMO

I've read three Simon interviews today and his was best

[dieblucasdie]

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2008/03/the_wire_finales_final_montage.html

this is interesting (though the rest of Vulture's coverage is kind of lame).

so much stuff I didn't catch

[elpollodiablo]

I thought that thing was kinda lame too, actually. The only thing it illuminated for me were the names on the wall mural.

They missed Simon's cameo this season too, btw

[guanajuato]

Final thoughts on the Wire. Before season 5, I used to get lost in The Wire, I might as well have lived it. But let me go back, motherfucker, back to season 1. I was there. For the Wire season 1, before Bittorent became popular, back when we had to use Soulseek if we wanted live Neutral Milk Hotel CDS. I watched it on HBO every Sunday. But. Here's where my claim of "first" falls apart, because I didn't think much of it. I thought it was HBO taking advantage of the Sopranos, by trying to make a police procedural with cuss words and lesbian cops. (Even back then I thought lesbian cops were tired). The problem was, of course, that week to week the show was difficult to follow in this stage, and even though I can claim to be a Wire Original Gangster...I must also admit I stopped watching around episode seven.

And I didn't start watching it again, till season 4 was about to go live.

Back to final thoughts on the Wire.

I remember reading an interview, or maybe a comment on this forum about why Mcnulty disappeared for a while; because they didn't want a white hero. David S didn't want to take the Hero's Journey.

In season five, he couldn't help it. If anything he expanded the Hero's Journey, he fragmented it: several actors are carrying water, his refusal to fall into the old habits, caused him to go schizophrenic, therefore bubbles has the most of the journey, he takes the latter, mcnulty who took the first, ends up taking the back half -- daniels also, freeman also. all pieces of the schizophrenic hero's journey.

disclaimer: i hated season 5. the reporter characters had a lot to do with personal vendetta, therefore they rang false. they were clumsily drawn characters. omar died. it was way too easy to wrap up his story that way, and struck me as lazy writing -- it was transparently a cut thread.
disclaimer #2: i loved season five. other than the reporters sidestory. how many ways can you say lame?
a lot! it's good when you're being creative to expel the toxic waste, but the ax to grind reporter story...ugh.

but the rest of season five brought it. Made it. Hung it out.

Fucking Genius! I'll never forget you, Wire!

i know more about baltimore than i do my small home town. best show that ever lived. BTW freeman's wife was HOT.

 

[dieblucasdie]

Back to final thoughts on the Wire.

I remember reading an interview, or maybe a comment on this forum about why Mcnulty disappeared for a while; because they didn't want a white hero. David S didn't want to take the Hero's Journey.

McNulty isn't in Season 4 much because Dominic West took time off to be in some movies and spend time with his kids.

Also did you not recognize Shardene from Season 1?  I am not convinced of your OGness.

[guanajuato]

hah you mean like, 300!
ii know i read that somewhere, somehow i hunter-gathered that information, that david s didn't want a white hero.

nah...but it was a hard watch from week to week. i was like 24 at the time, working full time, going to college full time, drinking wine in the bathtub. i thought six feet under which started around the same time, was a better show, as did my ex. the wire was a show that had on sundays, and season 1 was a hard sell on a week to week basis. so my og cred is kinda lame! btw, in the montage at the end of season 5, did they forget about kima's relationship motherhood tangle?
now that the sopranos and the wire are a done deal, what do we have left? that psychiatrist show that is, like, on every hour? in treatment.
i suppose we'll have to sit and wait for a song of ice and fire and a new season of curb and entourage...

[dieblucasdie]

Well that most recent interview with Dominic West made it sound like McNulty's role in S4 was definitely his idea (and don't forget "The Forgotten"!)

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2008/02/the-wire-react.html

HBO's still got "True Blood" in the pipe, too right?  That seems up your alley, especially.

[elpollodiablo]

What about Generation Kill?

[elpollodiablo]

Also, while it seems sort of redundant to make a new thread for a show that's over, I can't imagine we're going to all of a sudden cease to talk about it. So go here.