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Remember when I kept mentioning how the Wire reminded me a lot of Richard Price's novels and films, notably "Clockers" (which flips between a drug dealer and the cop tracking him) and Freedomland?
How both are similarly structured with the story spreading out, with large ensemble casts? And are social criticism? Well...guess who writes episode 2 of S3 The Wire? Richard Price. And I can tell.
From Wiki: Price's novels explore late 20th century urban America in a gritty, realistic manner that has brought him considerable literary acclaim. Several of his novels are set in a fictional northern New Jersey city called Dempsy.
During his commentary of episode 2 - he states that characters like Omar, you got to be careful not to over-use or over-expose. You don't want to see them too much. Or you lose the very thing that makes the character appealing - that mystery, engima. These are characters that live outside the lines. They are in a prison for their ideals, so operate outside of society. For example doing a spin-off for the character Kramer would be a mistake. He's not wrong. He also mentions how he wrote the dog-fight scene by asking someone to provide information on it. Because he had no interest in seeing it. His focus in his stories is on the gray-areas...the criminals in normal areas...showing the gray area. In Clockers - he did a scene where the kid drug dealers see the cops in a mall - so he plagarized a scene from Clockers for this episode - where the kids find the cops in the movie theater. He states this is what he likes to write about, the small stuff, the gray areas of the life - not the big moments, the score, the win - no, he prefers to write the smaller character stuff, the real stuff.
Price is worth searching out if you are into this particular trope. I've seen quite a few of his films and read both Clockers and Freedomland. Freedomland is about a child's disappearance, and
how it affects everyone in the community. There are no good guys or bad guys in Price's novels or for that matter really in the Wire. His commentary on episode 2 is also worthwhile. He discusses the writing process a lot. For example - coded political back-talk scenes - incremental jockeying between the political issues, and nothing direct - he admits having no ability with, and how hard it is for him to write - and he had to get help from another writer to break it down and understand what needed to happen. The chess-game between the two characters. Damn-it, he just spoiled me on Aiden Gillen's character's ambitions. So stopping now - in case he spoils me on anything else.
The Game is the Game - Avon Barksdale.
( Wire S3 - episodes 1 &2 )
How both are similarly structured with the story spreading out, with large ensemble casts? And are social criticism? Well...guess who writes episode 2 of S3 The Wire? Richard Price. And I can tell.
From Wiki: Price's novels explore late 20th century urban America in a gritty, realistic manner that has brought him considerable literary acclaim. Several of his novels are set in a fictional northern New Jersey city called Dempsy.
During his commentary of episode 2 - he states that characters like Omar, you got to be careful not to over-use or over-expose. You don't want to see them too much. Or you lose the very thing that makes the character appealing - that mystery, engima. These are characters that live outside the lines. They are in a prison for their ideals, so operate outside of society. For example doing a spin-off for the character Kramer would be a mistake. He's not wrong. He also mentions how he wrote the dog-fight scene by asking someone to provide information on it. Because he had no interest in seeing it. His focus in his stories is on the gray-areas...the criminals in normal areas...showing the gray area. In Clockers - he did a scene where the kid drug dealers see the cops in a mall - so he plagarized a scene from Clockers for this episode - where the kids find the cops in the movie theater. He states this is what he likes to write about, the small stuff, the gray areas of the life - not the big moments, the score, the win - no, he prefers to write the smaller character stuff, the real stuff.
Price is worth searching out if you are into this particular trope. I've seen quite a few of his films and read both Clockers and Freedomland. Freedomland is about a child's disappearance, and
how it affects everyone in the community. There are no good guys or bad guys in Price's novels or for that matter really in the Wire. His commentary on episode 2 is also worthwhile. He discusses the writing process a lot. For example - coded political back-talk scenes - incremental jockeying between the political issues, and nothing direct - he admits having no ability with, and how hard it is for him to write - and he had to get help from another writer to break it down and understand what needed to happen. The chess-game between the two characters. Damn-it, he just spoiled me on Aiden Gillen's character's ambitions. So stopping now - in case he spoils me on anything else.
The Game is the Game - Avon Barksdale.
( Wire S3 - episodes 1 &2 )