The Wire comes to BBC2 (Spoiler free, please)

[YouSir]

It was Nicky Sobotka, no?

Nope, as they said, it was Johnny Fifty, he was with the homeless guys that McNulty and Lester were talking to, nice touch I thought.

Next episode's gotta see Slim Charles go down, or disappear; Marlo wouldn't leave someone so loyal to Joe still wandering around like that. And Cheese'll get it, probably from Marlo for generally being a fuck up.

Will the co-op react though? Surely they couldn't let Marlo go on dropping two charter members and even if he's got the supply now he's still a massive liability.

 

[Spion]

Will the co-op react though? Surely they couldn't let Marlo go on dropping two charter members

Do they know it's Marlo tho?

 

[London_Calling]

Or in other words . . . Joe represented one kind of leadership, based on a degree of consensus while Marlo represents pure dictatorship.

Except Joe controlled everything by having the connect.

The co-op had a veneer of cooperation but that's because Joe was a good manipulator or propagandist, imo.

 

[Spion]

Nope, as they said, it was Johnny Fifty, he was with the homeless guys that McNulty and Lester were talking to, nice touch I thought.

Oh, I musta missed that. I'm sure Nicky reappears somewhere tho

 

[Spion]

Except Joe controlled everything by having the connect.

The co-op had a veneer of cooperation but that's because Joe was a good manipulator or propagandist, imo.

True. That's why I said a degree of consensus

 

[YouSir]

Do they know it's Marlo tho?

Mhm, 'spose they could mark it down as Omar. But if Cheese re-emerges with Marlo's crew and they connect it with that County guys going down after arguing with Cheese then the dots are connected. Plus Slim Charles is still out there, he'd know it wasn't Omar and and he'd spread the word.

 

[Refused as fuck]

Had a legitimate reason to say "we've lost The Wire" at work just now. I felt cool as fuck saying it.

Even though I was only talking aboout a programming cable.

 

[DotCommunist]

Do you guys like watch episodes with a notepad and pen at the ready?

well, when I watched it the first time round I did so in three-ep bursts. While the superficial elements of cops n robbers, gangsta stuff and that stayed with me I found myself thinking about the deeper structures and themes a lot (iirc I was still studying when I watched it first time and was in the lit-crit mindframe)

watching it a second time is even better, because I'm getting a proper feel for subtle connections that got lost in my initial watch, under the sheer appreciation of awesome.

 

[El Sueno]

I find that if I watch three episodes in a row, I start to miss things. Once it's all done, I'll be watching it again from the start.

I reckon you could watch any season in any order, as it'd be just as interesting to find out the back-story of certain events/characters and treat earlier seasons as 'prequels' as opposed to watching it all in the correct order.

 

[madamv]

God I hope that Omar is triumphant in his taking down of Marlo. Thats a muther who totally deserves what he got coming to him, and more....

Meanwhile, why do we keep getting a lookin at the reporter bloke who wanted to change jobs? I suppose he is going to get some big story on the Clayton trial, but anything else?

 

[El Sueno]

I just spilled some coffee down my front, then cleaned myself up dabbing my shirt with paper towels in the toilet just like Landsman in the finale of S4 when Bubs pukes all over him. All that was missing was the festive tie. And a further 15 stone in weight. And... well, let's not get pedantic. A lot of things.

Made me smile though. Although I was rather aftaid I'd get back to my desk and find my colleague's hung 'imsel.

 

[hektik]

Why did the Cheese give up Prop Joe so easy? I know Marlo gave him Hungry Man, but it was his uncle. Don't get that.

also, from season 4: proposition joe put cheese on the package re-up to marlo that he was going to direct omar too - meaning that cheese would potentially be in the firing line for when omar came calling for marlo.

I guess cheese realised that he was never going to get any higher up the in game than where he was - in previous times, this would have been ok, and he would have accepted it. not any more. the game is more fierce.

 

[Gromit]

Carcetti playing english nobility on Shanghai Knights right now is most lol.

 

[starfish]

Yeah twat, licks arse, actualy. Carver dont fuck with him.

 

[wtfftw]

I thought Joe would get killed but didn't expect it to be so soon.

 

[starfish]

I thought Joe would get killed but didn't expect it to be so soon.

Aye, Marlos a real shifty fucker .

 

[Gingerman]

Omar can fly he walked into that one last night,do you reckon McNulty and that journo knew they were both bullshitting about the 'phone call'?

 

[fen_boy]

The McNulty serial killer thing is the biggest pile of shit story in any of the 5 series. It just doesn't make any sense at all and there's no way that Lester would help him, it's like two completely different characters - I don't know how it ends, but I hope McNulty gets caught.

 

[London_Calling]

Heh It was always going to get to this point.

The question to ask - imo - is does the writer/s know what he's doing or has he lost the plot?

If you accept he knows what he's doing, the challenge becomes working out WTF is going on, what is it the writers are discussing here?

If not, you just write it off as shit and vote it as the worst series of the five the next time someone posts a poll.

It certainly has a very different feel to the preceeding four series.

 

[DotCommunist]

on a minor aside there was a nice long 'shiiiiiiiiiiiiit' from Clay Davis last night.

Always be wary of a man who refers to himself in the third person

 

[fen_boy]

 

[London_Calling]

Follow the lie.

Upscale the lie beyond city level.

Think about that time in that society.

The big clue of last nights hour was maybe the speech by Bond: "Public trust of public servants . . . " etc.

And remember the lines spoken in the first scene of the series.

 

[Crispy]

Thing is, if I wanted to get a clever insightful essay on the iraq war and the lies told to make it happen, I'd read a magazine or website. I watch the wire cos it's good telly with consistent realistic characters, gripping drama and satisfying plotlines. S5 throws lots of that out the window.

 

[fen_boy]

Is that what it is then? This serial killer is a metaphor for the WMD that were never found in Iraq???? And Marlo is Saddam Hussein?? Have the writer's actually said that? Sounds like a load of old shit to me.

 

[El Jefe]

Thing is, if I wanted to get a clever insightful essay on the iraq war and the lies told to make it happen, I'd read a magazine or website. I watch the wire cos it's good telly with consistent realistic characters, gripping drama and satisfying plotlines. S5 throws lots of that out the window.

I did find the serial killer storyline implausible and out of character, and even though I take London Calling's point about its intention, it is nonetheless a real shark jump. But what saves S5 is that provided you can tolerate this central conceit, the rest of the writing works round it perfectly, they haven't thrown the baby out with the bathwater.

 

[El Jefe]

Is that what it is then? This serial killer is a metaphor for the WMD that were never found in Iraq???? And Marlo is Saddam Hussein?? Have the writer's actually said that? Sounds like a load of old shit to me.

i think you're being a little bit literal.

 

[Gromit]

Thing is, if I wanted to get a clever insightful essay on the iraq war and the lies told to make it happen, I'd read a magazine or website.

If you wanted.
But you don't.
Neither do loads of others.
Which is maybe why people sometime feel the need to slip it into popular media.

 

[Orang Utan]

i don't think it's like that really - certainly parallels are to be made, but it's not the big secret that lc thinks he's so cleverly deduced and that no one else has seen

 

[El Jefe]

If you wanted.
But you don't.

and you know that how exactly?

 

[El Jefe]

i don't think it's like that really - certainly parallels are to be made, but it's not the big secret that lc thinks he's so cleverly deduced and that no one else has seen

it's a bit nauseating, isn't it?