AWOL — Blame The Wire
Sorry for the lack of entertainment and engagement, lately.
I’ve had 10 ideas for a post up here at my cabin since Saturday night, and haven’t got to any of them.
…For a decade, I’ve been admonished to watch the early 2000s HBO series, The Wire, which I may have touched on in an earlier post. When I got Amazon Prime, I saw they are adding older HBO series, included. No ads. The Wire is one of them.
Many months ago I watched Season 1/Episode 1 and was mystified, didn’t get it. Months later—i.e. recently—I took it up again and after a few episodes of development in the first season, well, it’s as the French say: tu as tout compris (You have understood everything). Incidentally, I was first told that when I remarked about eating a big lump of pungent French cheese on a crust of a French baguette, chased with a swig of Bordeaux, while the latter two were still in my mouth.
How pathetic? I’ll tell you: I watched the entire Season 2 yesterday, between about 10am and 3am.
And I can’t stop. I’m 3 episodes into Season 3.
My favorite quote in the entire season so far? Well, oftentimes you, as a watcher, have to do some detective work yourself; so that when a guy sits down with someone else, it’s not obvious the connection, relationship, history. This is why you have to pay for drama of this quality. Perhaps they tout compris.
In this case (Season 2/ Ep 2 or 3) it was a black, section commander 6 months from filing retirement papers at 30 years in. He’s lamenting to an older, uncle figure about how the city is worse than when he began and what does that say about him.
“It’s all about drugs, now, and that’s sweeping leaves in the wind. It’s human nature.”
This series, though drama, ought to be required viewing in any college course about politics, and the money, influence, career advancement and pension status that oils the werkings.
Update: just in case you askin, I adore Omar.
Update 2: I dare you to give me critical distinctions between the the lawless and the law enforcers. Is “the law” your distinction? Well, it’s certainly a distinction, but it’s certainly not critical. This series will have you rooting for and loathing the good guys, rooting for and loathing the bad guys. The government is the middle man, always getting its cut.
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Omar comin’ yo
Yes he is. Omar comin’ yo.
If all you niggas coulda seen me lafing my ass off during his testimony in Bird’s trial.
youtu.be/oYj7q_by_2E
I watched them one after another while recovering from surgery. Once you get past the slow (but necessary) opening episodes, it’s a can’t-stop-watching series.
Now that you’re all swept up in it, can I tell you how the whole thing ends? Or would that be bad?
“Now that you’re all swept up in it, can I tell you how the whole thing ends? Or would that be bad?”
Shut the fuck up, my friend. …Or I’ll cap you’re videoin’ ass, ‘nigga’.
we’re in season 5 now. Been steadily doing about 3 per night for a while. Some times I just get sad though. You start to love the children and I found myself crying.
Great stuff though.
Well, well…
I watched the 5 seasons back to back last year while fucked up on antibiotics fighting a bacterial infection to a lower leg wound that got infected in sea water. Omar is indeed the best! “At this distance? With this caliber? Hell even if I miss I don’t miss!” Was quickly on to poataoe starch and probio after that. Leg back to normal and so is my gut. But oh, the dreams!!
I envy you, Richard. To be able to go back and blow through that whole series for the first time (again).
I’ve forwarded this post to a friend of mine who I’ve been trying to get to watch this show for ages. Let’s see how persuasive she finds you…
;-)
Omar is my favorite tv character. I don’t think its possible to write a character more badass.
The Wire…
A Most Excellent Series from HBO…
I was not really into The Wire in the first half of Season 1 since Season 1 is where all the major ensemble characters are mostly being presented and positioned for future episodes… but somewhere in Season 1 there is a lengthy scene where Bunky, the carousing good looking homicide detective and male friend of the intermittent main lead Jimmy McNulty both end up investigating a fascinating kitchen murder scene of a young black girl… Watching them dissect the crime from top to bottom and listening to them ONLY use ONE word derivation terms to cover every legal evidence and forensic discovery of significance… Fukity Fuk Fuk… Fuk.. Fuk… Fukitty.. Fuk Fukkity… Fuk… was the moonshot for me… and their dialogue and the scene was not irritating or out of ordinary but was the beginning of what makes The Wire great… from there on it was and has been total addiction for me since that unfolding genius of that scene.
The Wire is not your grandfathers or even your fathers HBO series… it displays a huge ensemble cast where constant minor characters shift forward and become riveting major characters and then recede back to minor status again or leave the stage by extreme prejudice.
The Wire has you emotionally rooting for sociopathic killers and then has you turning on them and wishing you could kill them yourself just a few episodes later… it has you fascinated and disgusted by the intrigue involved in the hidden dealings of city officials at every level… seeing how incentive is crushed and independent brilliance is chastised by the embedded but very evident and disgusting protocols that govern all official city work.
Then suddenly The Wire morphs again and changes tone by going to ground and showing the root of the criminal life of a Baltimore city… the Kids… everywhere locked into… forced into… Anti-life paths of violence and theft and drugs as the main avenues of success for them… and yet there are some city Kids (and city Adults) in The Wire… thankfully… That fight this destructive lifestyle to try and go in a different direction… a better direction… any other direction… and win or lose you get to see what they are up against.
One could go on for quite a bit about the merits of this HBO series… but I will close with an agreement with Richard on the standout character in the series… whose entrance into any scene in the series wakes you up and is riveting like no other…
Omar…
I am surprised he didn’t get his own series from HBO after The Wire ended he is that good… But I see on IMDB.com he has gotten a lot of work since The Wire finished production.
The Wire will have you riveted… one way or the other… take a stab… LOL.
Do You Feel Me Bro… :o)
/ADV
Yeah, the actor who played Omar is a pretty prominent figure in “Boardwalk Empire.”
Thanks…
I Will Put That Series On Da List… :o)
/ADV
Loved that series…it brought back memories good and bad…mostly good. I lived in Baltimore from 79 to 81, downtown two blocks from the Inner Harbor. I learned all about fight or flight in that hellish environment.
Update 2: I dare you to give me critical distinctions between the the lawless and the law enforcers. Is “the law” your distinction? Well, it’s certainly a distinction, but it’s certainly not critical. This series will have you rooting for and loathing the good guys, rooting for and loathing the bad guys. The government is the middle man, always getting its cut.
Shiiiiiiiiiit! This post of yours makes me want to re-watch the entire series.
One of my favorite shows. I thought the good guys were more crooked than the bad guys most of the time. You should know what you’re into when you’re involved in the drug game. I suppose you should know what you’re into on the supposed good side, but at least there isn’t pretense for the drug world.
Hmm. I remember watching a few episodes when it started, not being that impressed. I was comparing it to “Deadwood”, at that time, my favorite show. I had a friend that raves about it still, but never really wanted to go back and watch it. But hearing you say it takes time to develop makes me think about giving it a second chance. How do you stack it up against “Breaking Bad”? I know you liked that, and that is, for my money, the current all time, best show ever on so many levels.
Two completely different shows. BB focusses on a single main character that makes the show. TW has a dozen that ebb and flow from main character to minor and back. The latter is an infinitely more complex show. BB is a family story in a drug setting. The Wire is a top-to-bottom social critique that integrates literally everything, above and below the surface, of which drugs are one aspect.
I love both but TW is for me infinitely more real life.
I live in New Orleans, and the whole series could have been a commentary on circumstances here – from crime running the city, to corrupt politicians to eff-ed up education system, etc. That is how I felt, anyway, when I watched the series 2 years ago. Now, the series is not only NOT dated, but also holds a lens on how our whole damn country operates. Genius work.