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HBO is airing a marathon of The Wire remastered in HD (one season per day, Dec 26-30)

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T

TarpitCarnivore

Member
jhmtehgamr20xx said:
Who would you say is the best, then?

Personally I love Omar but I also agree he's not the best character. I think that honor maybe goes to Stringer. Seeing him go from a solid partner to more or less fucking over the Barksdale family and trying to go legit, and have all of that crashing down, was something to behold.

But really, he only takes it by a razor; there are so many characters that are in the same ballpark as him, it's not even funny.
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Stringer, Presbo, Bubbles, Bodie and Carver are some of my favorites who span multiple seasons. They all go through huge transformations in their development.

Frank, Nicki, Ziggy, Dookie, Cutty, Prop Joe, Marlo for characters with shorter seasons.

Omar is a fantastic character with some memorable lines. His courtroom appearance goes above and beyond the Omar Comin stuff. But there isn't the depth of character, imo, as there was with the ones above.

HIGH DEF JEFF said:
It goes way past the chip on Simon's shoulder newspaper plot. Its the Red Ribbon Killer shit that people hated. It was fucking stupid. Hamsterdam was hard to swallow as a plot line..Red Ribbon was some Dexter level garbage.
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Yes, this 100%.
 
J

jhmtehgamr20xx

Banned
HIGH DEF JEFF said:
It goes way past the chip on Simon's shoulder newspaper plot. Its the Red Ribbon Killer shit that people hated. It was fucking stupid. Hamsterdam was hard to swallow as a plot line..Red Ribbon was some Dexter level garbage.
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Wasn't it said that Hamsterdam was based off a real initiative, if I'm not mistaken? I'm sure the school project in Season 4 was, it wouldn't surprise me if Hamsterdam was too...and I'm not talking about Amsterdam ;)

The Red Ribbon thing...I dunno. If he was able to make that a convincing M.O (which he did), then I don't see how it's contrived. Maybe the governor's reaction to the victims being homeless was overblown a tad. IRL I doubt any city in America would have put that much manpower on a homeless killer, even in a re-election campaign, which I don't remember that being the case in Carcetti's instance.

I still think Season 5 gets unfairly attacked on and you bringing up the ribbon stuff actually shows me why some of that criticism is unfair b/c, like you illustrated, there's Hamsterdam in Season 3 but that isn't held against that season at all.

And is the ribbon thing really that out-of-place with a show that has a character like Omar?
 
T

Trey

Member
Doc Holliday said:
I hate Marlo, true fucking evil!
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Marlo is probably one of the better elements of the show. He's a large reason why season 4 works, and he makes season 1 and 3 better by further contextualizing the Barksdale empire in contrast to his.

And then his robotic efficiency makes for great scenes like the car sex situation that prompted my original post. It's funny.

Also, that Avon-Stringer scene. Damn.
 
E

equippedwithtowel

Member
jhmtehgamr20xx said:
Wasn't it said that Hamsterdam was based off a real initiative, if I'm not mistaken? I'm sure the school project in Season 4 was, it wouldn't surprise me if Hamsterdam was too...and I'm not talking about Amsterdam ;)

The Red Ribbon thing...I dunno. If he was able to make that a convincing M.O (which he did), then I don't see how it's contrived. Maybe the governor's reaction to the victims being homeless was overblown a tad. IRL I doubt any city in America would have put that much manpower on a homeless killer, even in a re-election campaign, which I don't remember that being the case in Carcetti's instance.

I still think Season 5 gets unfairly attacked on and you bringing up the ribbon stuff actually shows me why some of that criticism is unfair b/c, like you illustrated, there's Hamsterdam in Season 3 but that isn't held against that season at all.

And is the ribbon thing really that out-of-place with a show that has a character like Omar?
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I think the guiding principle there is that truth can often be stranger then fiction. Just look at some of the crazy news stories that pop up every year and how the press deals with them.

The way the red ribbon killer story was handled ties into Simon`s overarching commentary on the role the press is playing is being an accurate portal into the problems of modern american cities.
 
G

Guzim

Member
String realizing that Clay Davis played him is such a great scene. And it's one of the reasons why I love this show.
 
G

Guzim

Member
I remember watching this for the first time and being so happy when they finally caught Stringer on the wire.
 
T

Trey

Member
Guzim said:
Fun fact: Originally Omar was supposed to take a piss on Stringer afterwards.
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I'm really glad they didn't go that way.

Stringer is easily one of the best characters in this show, not least of which due to Elba's acting.
 
Y

yoplay

Member
Damn. Someone needs to start a poll featuring who is the best cocksman in television history. What I mean by that is: who banged the hottest chicks on a television series. McNulty has to be up there right? I doubt anyone tops the sheriff from Banshee though. Someone with privileges, get on that.
 
T

Trey

Member
Colvin should've went down swinging. Rawls and Burrell twisting the knife after barely escaping the guillotine in their own right is some cold shit.
 
G

"God's Beard!"

Member
Man, I've been watching this show for the first time ever on HBOgo knowing nothing going in, and it became one of my favorites really fast. I was raving to people right after I finished watching season 4.

But the first couple episodes of 5 have completely sucked me out of it. The whole McNulty thing is just as ridiculous as Brother Muzone. Those are pretty much the only two really bad parts of the series to me. But so far it just doesn't seem nearly as tight as previous seasons. 4 was awesome.
 
T

Trey

Member
It was really cool in a tragic way how Colvin and Stringer both tried to change the game from either side of the law, and they both failed spectacularly. And their respective penances are emblematic of the nature of their environment: Colvin crushed underfoot by his superiors who played politics, and Stringer by street execution.

There's also small but cool things I noticed on this rewatch that I was oblivious to before; namely Burrell missing a putt when he tells a bald faced lie to Daniels.
 
A

Apt101

Member
ChiefEdiri said:
Not even close.
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I thought Stringer (and McNutty from the other side) held most of the, ahem, strings of the story beats together, and stubbornly forged ahead while other characters grew. His end was therefore fitting and came at the right time. He is pretty much the face of the series because of that. It all winded down once he left, with his demise having an obvious effect on all of it.

That said I can understand why many consider him the best character. He might not have had the most entertaining arc or best lines, but that doesn't really matter when considering a story as a whole.

My personal favorite was Avon. That character served the precise purpose he was supposed to for his run. For sheer sensationalism, Omar.
 
L

Lumpy Onion

Member
Since I don't have the time to watch the entire series again I decided to just record S4. This was my favorite season of them all for me. I really liked how self contained it was. Looking forward to watching again since I remember about 5% of what happened since I saw it so long ago.
 
E

ElFly

Member
IIRC the (season 5)
Red Ribbon serial killer is just unnecessary. Aren't all the victims just Snoop's victims, killed with the nailgun?

Lukas Japonicus said:
You might wanna put some spoiler tags on that comment.

And no, it wasn't unnecessary. There's a crystal clear reason for it. Did you even pay attention?
Click to expand...

I watched it like a decade ago, sorry I don't have photographic memory

As I remember, they start finding bodies
behind the boarded houses? IMHO that'd be reason enough to cry serial killer
 
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