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The Wire rewatch: I Went to Hampsterdam and All I Got Were These Lousy Spiderbags


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The Target



So this is the first episode, I had forgotten Snot Boogie was called Snot Boogie, and that whole letting him play even though he always he steals the money cuz this America is classic.



I'm not sure if this episode was originally the pilot or if there was an unaired pilot. And this is an unimportant little detail but McNulty refers to D as Avon's cousin, but that could just be because he doesn't know the exact relationship (later on Wee Bey is told to give little cuz a ride to the Low Rises, but I don't think that's meant to be taken literally asa relationship marker), because he is also specifically referred to as Avon's nephew within the Barksdale crew.



But this made me wonder how much of the Wire was planned in advance. It seems like with a show with such a large cast would have trouble planning long story lines for anyone but it's most major characters as keeping so many people around that long could be difficult. Yet I have the impression (based on foreshadowing) that many things were planned in advance (like Stringer's whole arc for example).



I was struck though how much more Stringer seemed to be a part of things, and yet at the same at a distance while Avon is really far off and we barely see him. Part of this could be the function of these two within the organization, Stringer is there to keep Avon out of jail to some extent (that line to D about not planning to know what jail was like, they must have been planning to put him in jail this early on), and as a character I find Stringer more complex yet both more accessible and inaccessible at the same time and a lot of that I think is Idris Elba, Wood Harris is good, but he's no Idris Elba.



Bubble's photocopied money scam might just be the stupidest fake money scam I've seen, he couldn't even spring for color copies? I'm not sure I quite appreciated the sheer ridiculousness of it (and that it actually succeeded at least once) before getting a good look at the fake money this time. I lobe Bubs, but..



And I know he's the show's anti-hero and drives a lot of the action but McNulty really annoys me and the more I see him the more I dislike him, the annoying smirk especially. Ok that's all for now.


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But this made me wonder how much of the Wire was planned in advance. It seems like with a show with such a large cast would have trouble planning long story lines for anyone but it's most major characters as keeping so many people around that long could be difficult. Yet I have the impression (based on foreshadowing) that many things were planned in advance (like Stringer's whole arc for example).




I think very little apart from the main arcs of certain characters like Stringer and Michael were planned out. All those little things like having the same kid pretending to be Omar shoot him later on that are awesome in retrospect were clearly just good fortune. They get too much credit. I think it's like Breaking Bad in that sense.


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More thoughts:


Barlow, the guy who had DeAngelo's case said:"Two eyewitnesses and a statement" does that mean that Dee talked and incriminated himself in some way? Because it's one thing for a bunch of supreme headfuckers like Bunk and McNulty to get him to talk. But Barlow? Christ. Is that why they pulled the stunt with the dead witness in the first place (claiming that he was a deacon) and why Maury was so pissed at Dee?



Also: interesting that Barksdale only got the Towers in a year. And they were almost knocked out before too long, despite Avon being hugely paranoid. And then they lose it all despite their best laid plans because of Royce. It's a hard life.





and as a character I find Stringer more complex yet both more accessible and inaccessible at the same time and a lot of that I think is Idris Elba, Wood Harris is good, but he's no Idris Elba.




I like Stringer but I can't give an objective take since I started with Season Three. As of the first few episodes he comes off as even more sociopathic than Avon. I think it's only S2 that really rounds him out. Right now he's just a really pragmatic hard case.




Also: love the talk about chain of command (happens about three times) and how the camera focuses on Daniels' superior's rank as Daniels heads off to run round him to do Burrell's bidding.



Also Also: Jimmy McNulty pissing in front of an oncoming train, ignoring all the good advice he's getting that's just telling him to move out of the way? While also talking about the Barksdale case? Subtle...


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Also the line about where McNulty doesn't want to be (Marine Unit), so that's obviously where he ends up at least temporarily. And I think the Wire establishes early on that someone like McNulty isn't going to have a happy ending just because he's a "hero" (or anti-hero as it were).



Oh I'm not saying that Stringer is rounded right now as of this episode, he's not (like we don't know about his ambitions for legitimacy and eventually running things like the coop , trying to real business deals, getting conned by Clay Davis and that stuff is very important to understanding him), but he's more interesting and compelling right from the start than Avon.



The gaining and losing the towers so quickly (and then they were torn down) along with the rise and fall of Marlo, I think it's all quite deliberate, it's a short, violent life. From a gangsta point of view if you're lucky you go out in a blaze of glory and if you're not you're forgotten like Marlo.


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I won't be participating in the rewatch, as I watched the entire series (for the fourth time) about six months ago.



I remember the first time I watched it, I thought Stringer Bell was #1/Avon well into the second half of season one, with the real Avon just being a high-ranking soldier. There was just something about their dynamic that made me think Stringer outranked Avon. Strange... Although I also believed that Loras Tyrell and Lancel Lannister were the same character the first time I watched season one of GoT too, so maybe the perception problem lies with me :P


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The Target

But this made me wonder how much of the Wire was planned in advance. It seems like with a show with such a large cast would have trouble planning long story lines for anyone but it's most major characters as keeping so many people around that long could be difficult. Yet I have the impression (based on foreshadowing) that many things were planned in advance (like Stringer's whole arc for example).

Yeah, I was thinking the exact same thing, namely after Barlow's comment to Bell after D's acquittal.

Speaking if those court scenes, in retrospect it really drives home how terrifying it must have been seeing the Barksdale hitters, each slowly strolling in. I got the sense of intimidation the first time around, but knowing what we know about these guys, that was a really exquisitely staged showing of pants-wetting menace.

Also: "You ain't even fuckin' beige..." One of the funniest fucking lines in the series.

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Also Also: Jimmy McNulty pissing in front of an oncoming train, ignoring all the good advice he's getting that's just telling him to move out of the way? While also talking about the Barksdale case? Subtle...

And the Bunk's mouse story... Foreshadowing possibly Gant, or more likely Brandon (or maybe both)

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pilot was pretty strong. i do think that the use of cousin is indeed a continuity error. just something that was changed after the pilot. in the pilot, him being a cousin is more about avons approach to family. but, as a cousing, the connection isnt really through anyone the way that a nephew is. that specifically allowed for the mother to be important in what ended up happening


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I wasn't gonna watch the new mini-season or whatever of 24, but now I hear it's got the actor who played Chris Partlow on it so I just might.

Isn't Catelyn Starks actress in it as well? I never watched the original 24 though. Anyway I'll watch the pilot tonight and post some thougjts :)

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"I don't know shit bout jail" Oh Avon

I always see people say The Wire starts off slow? Idk maybe it does but I was immersed in the story from the beginning. I think the pilot does a tremendous job of introducing all these characters. Love the scene where Wey Bey pulls over the car to remind D about the rules.

"Hamilton wasn't no president" Wallace :crying:

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Maybe it's slow if you started off with say the episode where Stringer gets killed and then go back to the pilot, anyway it's a huge cast from the beginning, you need to get to know people, but I don't think it's slow even so, and every time I see it I catch things I missed before, or see things in a new way, it's always interesting.


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"I don't know shit bout jail" Oh Avon

I always see people say The Wire starts off slow? Idk maybe it does but I was immersed in the story from the beginning. I think the pilot does a tremendous job of introducing all these characters. Love the scene where Wey Bey pulls over the car to remind D about the rules.

"Hamilton wasn't no president" Wallace :crying:

Maybe they just mean in comparison to how good it got. Season 4, with the addition of the kids, was so amazing.

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Rewatch: the Detail and the Buys



I think the most interesting part of these two episodes is probably the chess scene where D schools Bodie and Wallace in Chess, what he understands and what he doesn't understand is brilliant and also the foreshadowing. It's clear Bodie understands the game better than D, because in Chess the king may stay the king, but on the streets that doesn't mean Avon will running the west side forever (and as we know he doesn't), the understanding about the pawns though, yeah. Stringer as the queen is funny because obviously there's a time where in reality (though not technically, since technically it's always the Barksdale crew) Stringer is significantly more powerful than Avon, simply because Avon is jail and Stringer isn't, and then of course Avon, Stringer gets killed and Avon goes back in. What do y'all think Wee Bey is? A knight? Bishop? Most of the foreshadowing here is pretty obvious from hindsight, although if we agree that the major arcs were planned in advance and the rest wasn't that makes wonder how much foreshadowing Simon put in that was never used as a sort of just in case, because there is stuff foreshadowed that I don't think was definitively planned, like Omar and the kid that kills him.



As for other stuff, I always completely forget how stupid Prez and Herc are together and useless Prez seemed before he discovered his super phone number skills.



Stringer and Donette. Totally missed that it started so early before.



We meet Omar, probably one of the most interesting characters in the show, I feel a little sad because I know what's going to happen to his boyfriend, but on the other hand life is never boring with Omar around.



McNulty and Bunk are great at working a witness together, but a good part of the time McNulty was acting like a child having a temper tantrum because he didn't get his way, I'm not saying he should have participated in the raid, but there were better ways to handle it.



Reposado, sorry you don't have time to do the rewatch, but you gotta do what you gotta do.


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