The Wire

[SerMixalot]

Admittedly I've only seen bits of Season 5 but I took this scene to be the opposite - that Omar was a small fish in a small pond. That violence led him to a wasted life, made more poignant by the school & Wallace aspects showing us that kids were oftentimes herded into that life.

I took it as the news being completely out of touch with what was going on inthe community they served. Everyone in lower class black neighborhoods knew Omar and he is gunned down (kind of like a Billy the Kid without media attention).

[Paladin of Ice]

As evident by the fact that Gus completely missed the death of Omar as being news. It was a choice another dead black man in Bal'more or a fire and he went with the fire. The Baltimore City Editor isnt aware of the death of this legend.

To get technical, Gus missed it because the younger reporter, Alma told it to him in a rather non-descript way without mentioning names "Black male, 34, shot in store." On the other hand, when he was told about Joe Stewart dying, Gus immediately said "So someone finally got to Prop Joe, huh?"

Had anyone said that Omar Little had been shot, I think Gus would have known in a second.

I took it more as a generational divide thing, combined with how there are many different worlds in a single city that never, or at least seldom come together.

[Caligula_K2]

To get technical, Gus missed it because the younger reporter, Alma told it to him in a rather non-descript way without mentioning names "Black male, 34, shot in store." On the other hand, when he was told about Joe Stewart dying, Gus immediately said "So someone finally got to Prop Joe, huh?"

Had anyone said that Omar Little had been shot, I think Gus would have known in a second.

I took it more as a generational divide thing, combined with how there are many different worlds in a single city that never, or at least seldom come together.

I think it was also supposed to indicate how cuts in news budgets affect the news we get- if the crime reporter who was fired had been there, he would definitely have known who Omar was.

[Lummel]

Admittedly I've only seen bits of Season 5 but I took this scene to be the opposite - that Omar was a small fish in a small pond. That violence led him to a wasted life, made more poignant by the school & Wallace aspects showing us that kids were oftentimes herded into that life.

It reminded me of season 3 when McNulty is 'dating' the Democrat campaign analysist/co-ordinator woman and when she asks him if he's going to vote he tells her that none of what the politicians talk about connects with the world that he knows about and lives in.

The newspaper is meant to mediate between the different worlds but can't maybe tell the story of a Prop Joe the way that we have experienced it through drama, even if it has enough reporters with local roots and connections to hear the news and understand its significance.

[Castel]

Gus immediately said "So someone finally got to Prop Joe, huh?"

Pretty sure that that was Bunk.

As for Omar, the small fish thing is exactly the kind of thing that the newspaper editors would say, and that's the divide. Omar Little and his antics had a huge effect on the local crime lords, who themselves had an even bigger effect on the community, more so than any newspaper ever did. Calling him a small fish in a small pond is reducing that entire subculture (which is not really even a fair descriptor given how big it is) to something not important or worth printing, and depending on their readership it might not be.

The idea that the drug world is the "small pond" says something sad in and of itself really.

[SerMixalot]

To get technical, Gus missed it because the younger reporter, Alma told it to him in a rather non-descript way without mentioning names "Black male, 34, shot in store." On the other hand, when he was told about Joe Stewart dying, Gus immediately said "So someone finally got to Prop Joe, huh?"

Had anyone said that Omar Little had been shot, I think Gus would have known in a second.

I took it more as a generational divide thing, combined with how there are many different worlds in a single city that never, or at least seldom come together.

interesting, good thoughts

[Independent George]

A friend returned my DVDs last week, and so I began a re-watch. I completely forgot about the subplot in S1 where Bubs tries to go clean just as Kima gets shot, and McNulty hands him a twenty and asks him go back to his old haunts to gather intel. That was heartbreaking.

[Black Wolf Smith]

I have notice quite a few The Wire actors on other things the last few weeks ( not the Adian Gillien, or Idris Elba they are kind of big time now)

JD Williams /Bodie and Hassan Johnson/Wey-Bey were both on The Good Wife

Clarke Peters/Freemon was on Person of Interest

Michael Kenneth Williams/Omar was/will be on No Reservation w/ Jaime Hector/Marlo who happen to show up

Jim True-Frost/Prez was on 666 park aveune

Reg E. Cathey/Wilson has been playing Querns on L & O: SUV ( he played a Querns on OZ way back)

[Morpheus]

I have notice quite a few The Wire actors on other things the last few weeks ( not the Adian Gillien, or Idris Elba they are kind of big time now)

JD Williams /Bodie and Hassan Johnson/Wey-Bey were both on The Good Wife

Clarke Peters/Freemon was on Person of Interest

Michael Kenneth Williams/Omar was/will be on No Reservation w/ Jaime Hector/Marlo who happen to show up

Jim True-Frost/Prez was on 666 park aveune

Reg E. Cathey/Wilson has been playing Querns on L & O: SUV ( he played a Querns on OZ way back)

Carver made a brief appearance on Homeland.

[Crown]

Carver made a brief appearance on Homeland.

Yeah, and Stringer Bell is on the music video of Mumford and Sons'

. Awesome stuff.

[Maltaran]

Yeah, and Stringer Bell is on the music video of Mumford and Sons'

. Awesome stuff.

Not only is he in it, he directed it.

[Crown]

Not only is he in it, he directed it.

I noticed that after I posted here. I love the guy.

[Calibandar]

Stringer Bell and Omar are actually in a western together, comes out next year.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2385255/

Obvious Elba has big roles next year in Pacfic Rim, Thor Dark World and stars as Nelson Mandela in a biopic as well. His career has really taken off more than anyone else on The Wire.

[TrackerNeil]

One thing I really like about The Wire is that the public officials like Carcetti and Rawls and Burrell, venal and petty and self-interested as they are, rarely if ever do anything outright illegal. They put their authority at the service of their ambition, certainly, which is corruption of a sort, but most of them don't suborn witnesses or take bribes, etc. (Clay David a notable exception.) In fact, you get the feeling that most of these guys would shy away from real nastiness; for example, at the request of the mayor Burrell agrees to put an investigation on ice for awhile, but he never tries to sabotage it entirely. Not that he's acting honorably (far from it), but he's not trying to let murderers walk free. That's a neat way to go in terms of writing.

[Independent George]

Season 3, Episode 05 of my re-watch. The pieces fit so much better when you see it again.

It starts with McNulty in Stringer Bell's copy shop, and Stringer offers to sell him a condo. Skip to the end, he introduces Avon to Clay Davis and Krawcuk. Tries to sell him on real estate, on the new game. The money game. I didn't see it the first time, but I see it now. Avon knows what he doesn't know; but Stringer doesn't. Stringer's smart, but he's naive. He's in over his head. Clay Davs and Krawcuk... they smell blood.

Avon and Stringer sit in the penthouse, reminiscing about the old days. Stringer was going to own the neighborhood, Avon was going to war with an AK. Even back then, Stringer had the ambition, even then. That's when I knew. I was rooting for him. I wanted Stringer to own that neighborhood.

Back again to the middle. Stringer meets with Marlo, and gives him the hard sell on the Co-Op. Offers to launder his money. He leaves, and Marlo tells Chris to have the troops tool up. Stringer thinks he's selling, but all Marlo smells is weakness. Stringer just lost, but doesn't know it yet. That's when I understood - he's the tragic hero of this story. A man of talent and ambition that will fall just short. If he'd have just been a gangster, he could have won at it; if he'd have just been the bank, he could have won at that, too. But he wants both, and will lose at both. He's doomed, and this is the story of his fall.

God damn I love this show.

[Black Wolf Smith]

I left out Elba and Gillen as they both have blown up. Both are in movies, and on a TV show. Elba has Luther, and Gillen is on GOT. I was going to say its funny I have not seen West in anything seen 300, but he looks like he is still working a lot, I guess I just have not seen what he is doing lately.

[AsharyaTarstark]

The Wire gets all this love and OZ gets none. Smh...Both brilliant shows, but sigh...

[Lummel]

Oh Dominic West has been in a few things in the UK. A TV series set among TV journalists in the 1950s, he played an infamous serial killer in a one off TV drama and he's done some theatre.

"One thing I really like about The Wire is that the public officials like Carcetti and Rawls and Burrell, venal and petty and self-interested as they are, rarely if ever do anything outright illegal." Well they are playing the game the same as the drug dealers aren't they? I mean if you see the drug organisations and the political/bureaucratic organisations as parallels to each other then you see that the players have to play games and conform to rules to get to the top and stay there.

I think we can even be more generous to Carcetti and maybe Rawls even Burrell too, they do get things done, solve (in a manner of speaking) the problems that appear before them and carry water for their superiors. Of course it is all in service to their ambition and solving problems includes sweeping things under the carpet or further down the road - but that certainly struck me as being realistic.

[Black Wolf Smith]

The Wire gets all this love and OZ gets none. Smh...Both brilliant shows, but sigh...

I love the Wolf/Fontana/Simon merry go round. Law and Order(s) to Homicide:Life on the Street to OZ to The Wire and back to Law and Order(s)

They all used a lot of the same actors, many who had small parts on one, would go on to star another.

[AsharyaTarstark]

I love the Wolf/Fontana/Simon merry go round. Law and Order(s) to Homicide:Life on the Street to OZ to The Wire and back to Law and Order(s)

They all used a lot of the same actors, many who had small parts on one, would go on to star another.

Yeah someone from OZ guest starred on LAO like every other week. The cast from OZ seems to have a brat pack: Lauren velez, David Zayas, Jeff Lindsay, and Scott William Winters on Dexter, Dean Winters, Christopher Meloni, Kathryn Erve, Kirk Acevedo, Reg E Cathey and the entire cast of OZ on LAO, J.D. Williams, Seth Gilliam, Lance Reddick etc on The Wire.