The Wire - S2-Episode 4 - Hard Cases
Jun. 30th, 2011 09:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatYou sick of me posting about The Wire yet? Look at it this way, there's only three more seasons to go...and I could be posting about work instead or my life or the weather.
And the episodes just keep on getting better and better, although I do admittedly want to know if Rawls ever gets that stick taken out his ass or gets it? Half want to search out spoilers to find out. But resisting, this is not a show I want to be spoiled on. Half the fun is in the discovery.
My favorite character is back! YAY!!! Apparently my favorite characters are different than other people's favorite characters... I love Shakima Greggs. Tough, but still female, and not super powered. Also no skimpy outfits. Nice. We also get more of the cigar smoking robber gal working for Omar, who looks completely different than Greggs. There are definitely more female characters in S2. Love the diversity in casting - it really does look like an inner American city. That's the problem with most American Television Series - they don't look like real life in the city, maybe in a suburb in Johnson County, Kansas or Mainline, Pa, or Westchester, NY or somewhere like that - but not the city.
Also, the small details about wage, union, working the system, and the politics of it...are pitch perfect. Right down to the costumes - those big orange jackets - we wear them on the Railroad as well - they make it clear that you are a government worker or dock worker or city worker. Also bright so you stand out. I don't - just have to wear the vest on site tours.
Put on the closed-captioning again - because Lance Reddick's Daniels is almost impossible to hear over my air-conditioning.
"If I hear the music, I'm gonna dance" - Shakima Greggs.
There's this great conversation between Daniels and Burrell and then later Daniels and Rawls.
Daniels insists that he gets to pick his own people to Burrell. He calls Burrell on it - states:
"He picked me by name didn't he? You two are trading horses, and you want me in the corral."
When Burrell confirms it. Daniels states, "alright, but this is what I want - if I bring in the case and make you Valcheck happy, I want the unit to stick, to be permanent within CID and my people to stick with me."
Burrell agrees, but Lou Rawls has to approve the list and pull them.
Rawls: "No, Lt., I have to approve everyone on the list - you work for CID and I'm in charge of CID. Don't worry, Burrell wants you. That means I want you too. You get everyone on your list.
But McNulty. No McNulty. "
Daniels: "That bad eh?"
Rawls:"The only way that asshole is going to get off that boat is if he quits or drowns, if I have anything to say about it, so help me God."
[But I want McNulty to work with Greggs and Daniels and Freeman again - that was a great team, I loved them together! Please tell me that some stick boy accidentally kills Rawls and it works out?
Then again, don't. Better that doesn't happen - because that would be incredibly cliche. Wouldn't it?
Although, will admit that Rawls and Burrell are hilarious. There's an early scene in the episode, where McNulty strides into CID and salutes Rawls, who stops dead in his tracks and turns and glares at McNulty with his mouth open and pure fury in his eyes. The guy playing Rawls is a favorite character actor of mine - as far back as the tv show As Life Goes On - he starred as Patti Lupone's husband. Every time he pops up - I go, oh cool! And he is wonderful in this part.
The man I love to hate. ]
There's a lot of cool little plot threads in this episode. We have Bunk and Freeman finally get McNulty to go after Omar. Or hunt for Omar. When Russell asks who Omar is - both Freeman and Bunk just look at her. So McNulty - tries to find him, can't, until he runs into our old druggie pal Bubbles...who is back on the streets with another boy using...Bubbles and Omar just repeat themselves. McNulty manages to get Bubbles to look for Omar in exchange for a pass on his shoplifting. His tax to the government so to speak. Not something Bubbles wants to do - because Omar is a stick-boy that wanders about with a six-foot shot-gun. He does find him though, Bubbles does not McNulty, through Omar's cigar smoking female henchwoman (gotta love the fact that Omar has henchwomen!).
Meanwhile D - possibly the most honorable criminal in the story next to maybe Frank Sobotke, keeps trying to do the right thing - and tell his uncle Avon to shove it where the sun don't shine. Avon tells D that he needs to play along - that if D does - he'll shave some time off both of their records. Avon's plan is clear - he put rat poison in the heroine - killed ten people and framed the Officer giving him and Wee Bay a hard time - with the crime. That officer who dissed him and his boys, goes down for it. Meanwhile - Avon gets off. Totally realistic, and so well played. And it doesn't end there - the prison guard/warden who figured out that someone caused all the deaths - tells his comrades and fellow guards/wardens that he's pretty sure it was Avon who did it. "I'd lay money down that Avon did it, not that officer he accused. " But they have no proof that Avon set the officer up, just the proof Avon gave that the officer did it. Smooth operator Avon. D still trying to be honorable - tells Avon to leave him out of it - that he no longer wants anything to do with Avon or anyone Avon is associated with. How D came out of that family with an actual conscience - I've no clue.
Each one of these subplots is set-up beautifully. No lengthy exposition. They just tell you the story. The difference between telling and showing in a nutshell. A lot of tv shows, actually most tv shows - spend a lot of time on exposition - setting it up. And since they don't have the time to actually set it up - they try to take a short cut and do the old, speech or monologue scene or lecture. Where the writer proceeds to explain to the audience through the mouth of one of the characters what happened. The Wire doesn't do that - instead we are shown piece by piece.
Meanwhile we have Ziggy and Nick - who got in trouble for their camera deal from Frank Sobotke, who asks them to return the cameras - but they refuse. Too late, says Nick. Can sort of see Nick's dilemma. Ziggy, Frank's kid, on the other hand - I want to see smacked upside the head - although he does have an attractive dick - I'll give him that. Far bigger than one would think actually.
(Ziggy takes a photo of his dick in the bar (the boy has no shame or self-control) and puts it on a terminal guy who is making him crazy - computer. The guy comes back and is furious and we get to see the photo, normally we don't get to see it.) Ziggy also goes against Nick's advice not to throw money around and shows up in a tacky and rather expensive Italian leather jacket. Why Nick tolerates the kid, I've no idea. Maybe he has no choice?
This brings us to Freeman, Bunk and Russell who are attempting to solve the impossible homicide case that McNulty saddled them with. Which is why Rawls hates McNulty. Russell states that it's no good getting the checkers and dock workers to talk, they are all union guys and won't talk to the police. (They are actually worse than the project guys. In part because they have more power = being a)white, and b) union employed. Unions are a mixed bag. They protect people but they also cause problems for people who can't get work or get stuck inside union jobs. And every union is different - you really can't generalize - found this out the hard way when I joined the Railroad which has and I kid you not, over 300 unions. Mine? It just sold half its employees down the river to save the other half's jobs. The people in Exception 4 and below - are losing two paid holidays in order to save 17 jobs for ticket takers and station cleaners. I lucked out being in Exception 5, but barely. Also unions tend to be a bit corrupt - you see it in the Wire - the union is funding the Senator with money they made off of smuggling deals, which the Senator helps them cover up. That's how the women got brought into the states.)
There's a great back-and-forth between Russell and the two homicide cops on the quay.
Russell: I was working in a toll booth. Patrol cop for the port authority is more interesting. Plus the pay is higher. It's 33 plus benefits as opposed to 22.50.(That's per hour) (ETA: Guessing it is actually 33,000 a year, and prior 22,500 a year - which makes more sense actually). You can't survive with two kids on 22.50 an hour. My husband went to Houston some time ago and never came back.
Bunk: So you didn't always want to be cop?
Russell - just smiles.
$33,000 per year isn't much, but it's about what you get. Prosecuting attorney in NYC can make between $35,000 - 50,000 a year, same for legal aid and defense. Cops get maybe $30,000 - 60,000 tops. Overtime does make up for it. Although it's hard to get overtime approved. Depends on your unit.
Now consider for a moment - minimum wage is 7.50 an hour...if it's hard to get by on $22, 500 a year (before taxes) how hard do you think it is to get by on 7.50 an hour or roughly less than $10,000 a year? Dock workers probably make about $20,000 a year, if that - since unions do guarantee 10.50 or above. Although this was back in 03-04 so, I'm guessing more like 5-6 dollars an hour. The minimum wage was raised in about 2008, I think. May have been earlier. To put in context? Michele Bachman who is running for President in 2012, wants to do away with the minimum wage entirely - this would mean that company's can pay people whatever, if the people aren't in a union or work for the government. So basically the working class starves. Bachman and her Tea Party co-harts doesn't see this as being a problem. Someone should lock Ms. Bachman in a room and make her watch The Wire. [Edited the above, because I realized in the shower I screwed up - it's 22.50 - a year ($22,500 not 22.50 an hour. No way a toll booth operator gets that much.) Could have been right first round. Hard to tell.]
Oh...and before I'm off to bed, I'm ending with two favorite scenes with my gal, Greggs.
Greggs is waiting in a traffic jam, her girlfriend is driving, Cheryl. Cheryl keeps saying don't do anything. Think what a lawyer would do. (A lawyer would sue their asses, waste a lot of time, and get no where.) Greggs finally says fuck it and hops out of the car and arrests the dude who is trying to pee on another car or just exposing himself. He taunts her - hey lady, this isn't your concern. Greggs - "I'm not just a lady!" And she cuffs him. (love that scene). Meanwhile Cherly groans.
Later, Greggs and Daniels discussing her joining his team and how Cheryl is not going to understand and she made a promise. Daniels commisserates, Marla isn't going to understand either...she wants him to be a lawyer. (Daniels like me, has gone to law school - he just needs to pass the Baltimore bar exam..but he doesn't really want it.) Later, we see them
both at the dinner table trying to tell their wives, and getting the same response - both wives stalk off in a huff. And I'm thinking - ladies, you married cops not lawyers, deal with it.
Next disc comes on Friday...stupid discs don't have enough episodes on them. Why can't they put three to four episodes on these discs? It's not like they have anything else on them. Buffy had four to five episodes on each disc, I do not understand this. Granted these episodes are longer.
And the episodes just keep on getting better and better, although I do admittedly want to know if Rawls ever gets that stick taken out his ass or gets it? Half want to search out spoilers to find out. But resisting, this is not a show I want to be spoiled on. Half the fun is in the discovery.
My favorite character is back! YAY!!! Apparently my favorite characters are different than other people's favorite characters... I love Shakima Greggs. Tough, but still female, and not super powered. Also no skimpy outfits. Nice. We also get more of the cigar smoking robber gal working for Omar, who looks completely different than Greggs. There are definitely more female characters in S2. Love the diversity in casting - it really does look like an inner American city. That's the problem with most American Television Series - they don't look like real life in the city, maybe in a suburb in Johnson County, Kansas or Mainline, Pa, or Westchester, NY or somewhere like that - but not the city.
Also, the small details about wage, union, working the system, and the politics of it...are pitch perfect. Right down to the costumes - those big orange jackets - we wear them on the Railroad as well - they make it clear that you are a government worker or dock worker or city worker. Also bright so you stand out. I don't - just have to wear the vest on site tours.
Put on the closed-captioning again - because Lance Reddick's Daniels is almost impossible to hear over my air-conditioning.
"If I hear the music, I'm gonna dance" - Shakima Greggs.
There's this great conversation between Daniels and Burrell and then later Daniels and Rawls.
Daniels insists that he gets to pick his own people to Burrell. He calls Burrell on it - states:
"He picked me by name didn't he? You two are trading horses, and you want me in the corral."
When Burrell confirms it. Daniels states, "alright, but this is what I want - if I bring in the case and make you Valcheck happy, I want the unit to stick, to be permanent within CID and my people to stick with me."
Burrell agrees, but Lou Rawls has to approve the list and pull them.
Rawls: "No, Lt., I have to approve everyone on the list - you work for CID and I'm in charge of CID. Don't worry, Burrell wants you. That means I want you too. You get everyone on your list.
But McNulty. No McNulty. "
Daniels: "That bad eh?"
Rawls:"The only way that asshole is going to get off that boat is if he quits or drowns, if I have anything to say about it, so help me God."
[But I want McNulty to work with Greggs and Daniels and Freeman again - that was a great team, I loved them together! Please tell me that some stick boy accidentally kills Rawls and it works out?
Then again, don't. Better that doesn't happen - because that would be incredibly cliche. Wouldn't it?
Although, will admit that Rawls and Burrell are hilarious. There's an early scene in the episode, where McNulty strides into CID and salutes Rawls, who stops dead in his tracks and turns and glares at McNulty with his mouth open and pure fury in his eyes. The guy playing Rawls is a favorite character actor of mine - as far back as the tv show As Life Goes On - he starred as Patti Lupone's husband. Every time he pops up - I go, oh cool! And he is wonderful in this part.
The man I love to hate. ]
There's a lot of cool little plot threads in this episode. We have Bunk and Freeman finally get McNulty to go after Omar. Or hunt for Omar. When Russell asks who Omar is - both Freeman and Bunk just look at her. So McNulty - tries to find him, can't, until he runs into our old druggie pal Bubbles...who is back on the streets with another boy using...Bubbles and Omar just repeat themselves. McNulty manages to get Bubbles to look for Omar in exchange for a pass on his shoplifting. His tax to the government so to speak. Not something Bubbles wants to do - because Omar is a stick-boy that wanders about with a six-foot shot-gun. He does find him though, Bubbles does not McNulty, through Omar's cigar smoking female henchwoman (gotta love the fact that Omar has henchwomen!).
Meanwhile D - possibly the most honorable criminal in the story next to maybe Frank Sobotke, keeps trying to do the right thing - and tell his uncle Avon to shove it where the sun don't shine. Avon tells D that he needs to play along - that if D does - he'll shave some time off both of their records. Avon's plan is clear - he put rat poison in the heroine - killed ten people and framed the Officer giving him and Wee Bay a hard time - with the crime. That officer who dissed him and his boys, goes down for it. Meanwhile - Avon gets off. Totally realistic, and so well played. And it doesn't end there - the prison guard/warden who figured out that someone caused all the deaths - tells his comrades and fellow guards/wardens that he's pretty sure it was Avon who did it. "I'd lay money down that Avon did it, not that officer he accused. " But they have no proof that Avon set the officer up, just the proof Avon gave that the officer did it. Smooth operator Avon. D still trying to be honorable - tells Avon to leave him out of it - that he no longer wants anything to do with Avon or anyone Avon is associated with. How D came out of that family with an actual conscience - I've no clue.
Each one of these subplots is set-up beautifully. No lengthy exposition. They just tell you the story. The difference between telling and showing in a nutshell. A lot of tv shows, actually most tv shows - spend a lot of time on exposition - setting it up. And since they don't have the time to actually set it up - they try to take a short cut and do the old, speech or monologue scene or lecture. Where the writer proceeds to explain to the audience through the mouth of one of the characters what happened. The Wire doesn't do that - instead we are shown piece by piece.
Meanwhile we have Ziggy and Nick - who got in trouble for their camera deal from Frank Sobotke, who asks them to return the cameras - but they refuse. Too late, says Nick. Can sort of see Nick's dilemma. Ziggy, Frank's kid, on the other hand - I want to see smacked upside the head - although he does have an attractive dick - I'll give him that. Far bigger than one would think actually.
(Ziggy takes a photo of his dick in the bar (the boy has no shame or self-control) and puts it on a terminal guy who is making him crazy - computer. The guy comes back and is furious and we get to see the photo, normally we don't get to see it.) Ziggy also goes against Nick's advice not to throw money around and shows up in a tacky and rather expensive Italian leather jacket. Why Nick tolerates the kid, I've no idea. Maybe he has no choice?
This brings us to Freeman, Bunk and Russell who are attempting to solve the impossible homicide case that McNulty saddled them with. Which is why Rawls hates McNulty. Russell states that it's no good getting the checkers and dock workers to talk, they are all union guys and won't talk to the police. (They are actually worse than the project guys. In part because they have more power = being a)white, and b) union employed. Unions are a mixed bag. They protect people but they also cause problems for people who can't get work or get stuck inside union jobs. And every union is different - you really can't generalize - found this out the hard way when I joined the Railroad which has and I kid you not, over 300 unions. Mine? It just sold half its employees down the river to save the other half's jobs. The people in Exception 4 and below - are losing two paid holidays in order to save 17 jobs for ticket takers and station cleaners. I lucked out being in Exception 5, but barely. Also unions tend to be a bit corrupt - you see it in the Wire - the union is funding the Senator with money they made off of smuggling deals, which the Senator helps them cover up. That's how the women got brought into the states.)
There's a great back-and-forth between Russell and the two homicide cops on the quay.
Russell: I was working in a toll booth. Patrol cop for the port authority is more interesting. Plus the pay is higher. It's 33 plus benefits as opposed to 22.50.
Bunk: So you didn't always want to be cop?
Russell - just smiles.
$33,000 per year isn't much, but it's about what you get. Prosecuting attorney in NYC can make between $35,000 - 50,000 a year, same for legal aid and defense. Cops get maybe $30,000 - 60,000 tops. Overtime does make up for it. Although it's hard to get overtime approved. Depends on your unit.
Now consider for a moment - minimum wage is 7.50 an hour...if it's hard to get by on $22, 500 a year (before taxes) how hard do you think it is to get by on 7.50 an hour or roughly less than $10,000 a year? Dock workers probably make about $20,000 a year, if that - since unions do guarantee 10.50 or above. Although this was back in 03-04 so, I'm guessing more like 5-6 dollars an hour. The minimum wage was raised in about 2008, I think. May have been earlier. To put in context? Michele Bachman who is running for President in 2012, wants to do away with the minimum wage entirely - this would mean that company's can pay people whatever, if the people aren't in a union or work for the government. So basically the working class starves. Bachman and her Tea Party co-harts doesn't see this as being a problem. Someone should lock Ms. Bachman in a room and make her watch The Wire. [Edited the above, because I realized in the shower I screwed up - it's 22.50 - a year ($22,500 not 22.50 an hour. No way a toll booth operator gets that much.) Could have been right first round. Hard to tell.]
Oh...and before I'm off to bed, I'm ending with two favorite scenes with my gal, Greggs.
Greggs is waiting in a traffic jam, her girlfriend is driving, Cheryl. Cheryl keeps saying don't do anything. Think what a lawyer would do. (A lawyer would sue their asses, waste a lot of time, and get no where.) Greggs finally says fuck it and hops out of the car and arrests the dude who is trying to pee on another car or just exposing himself. He taunts her - hey lady, this isn't your concern. Greggs - "I'm not just a lady!" And she cuffs him. (love that scene). Meanwhile Cherly groans.
Later, Greggs and Daniels discussing her joining his team and how Cheryl is not going to understand and she made a promise. Daniels commisserates, Marla isn't going to understand either...she wants him to be a lawyer. (Daniels like me, has gone to law school - he just needs to pass the Baltimore bar exam..but he doesn't really want it.) Later, we see them
both at the dinner table trying to tell their wives, and getting the same response - both wives stalk off in a huff. And I'm thinking - ladies, you married cops not lawyers, deal with it.
Next disc comes on Friday...stupid discs don't have enough episodes on them. Why can't they put three to four episodes on these discs? It's not like they have anything else on them. Buffy had four to five episodes on each disc, I do not understand this. Granted these episodes are longer.
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no subject
Date: 2011-07-01 09:01 am (UTC)Also, Ziggy is very, very annoying, isn't he? That said, I felt kind of sorry for him for most of the season because he was so stupid and pathetic and so out of touch with reality.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-01 04:06 pm (UTC)It's odd, but you sort of do. Or I did too. He's stuck. His father is about everyone else...and barely sees him - which is why I think he's constantly acting out - to get his Dad's attention.
I feel like I've forgotten quite a bit.
The show is filled with so many tiny little details...impossible not to forget them I think.
Certain details you don't think important, come back and really are.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-01 12:42 pm (UTC)Your discussion of Beadie's salary and the working class is very much on theme for season 2. Nick's father worked for a factory that went under - I think you can see it in the background a lot, crumbling away - work at the dock is dwindling, the working class is being squeezed out, so everyone's ripe for corruption and smuggling.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-01 04:02 pm (UTC)Nick's father worked for a factory that went under - I think you can see it in the background a lot, crumbling away - work at the dock is dwindling, the working class is being squeezed out, so everyone's ripe for corruption and smuggling.
Noticed that. Nick's constantly mentioning how he doesn't have enough - that if he can only get some more hours - so he can get a place for himself, girlfriend and child.
And that's why he gave into Ziggy's plea to steal from a container. Frank tells him that he should have just come to Frank - because stealing from the container means that ships are less likely to dock. If they can't trust where the cargo goes...they'll dock somewhere else. Hurts everyone. The ripple effect on this show is great - how everyone's actions, no matter how disconnected they seem affect other people in a variety of small and big ways.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-01 04:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-01 06:00 pm (UTC)"(gotta love the fact that Omar has henchwomen!)." Love it too.
"How D came out of that family with an actual conscience - I've no clue." In fact the more you discover the universe in which the criminals of the Wire have been living and have grown up, the more you marvel at the decence and humanity some of them are still able to display in various circomstances. That's really what a great strength of this series.
Each one of these subplots is set-up beautifully. No lengthy exposition. They just tell you the story. The difference between telling and showing in a nutshell. Yes totally. On rewatch I adored how Mac Nulty and Greggs were shown chasing Omar in season 1 and the same in season 2. It's very modest but it rings so true.
")" Here I disagree, because solidarity is pretty much what's left to them.But you have more episodes to find out about their situation: the picture is far from complete. It's also part of a tradition of the working classes, a tradition that finds in History more than sufficient reasons for. Of course it doesn't mean that systematically distrusting the authorities or their representants is a good thing and I agree that what they're doing is not right by any means and has had criminal consequences but it doesn't make them worse than the people who sling drugs.
"". Nah, not at all! I'm really happy to be able to discuss that with you.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-01 09:17 pm (UTC)I wasn't very clear here. To clarify? What I meant was that they are worse for the cops than the project guys - in that it is easier for the cops to bring down Barksdale's organization or get informants than it is for them to solve a crime on the docs. I didn't mean that what they do is worse - ie. helping ship smuggle illegal contraband vs. slinging drugs. So we do actually agree, but I was unclear and did not state it well. Sorry about that. You are already working at a disadvantage here - since I'm writing in my own language and you are kindly reading it - because I can't do it in French.
On the socio-economic front? The show does a very good job of delineating the differences between the dock workers and the projects. Note - Ziggy and Nick have graduated from high school, the vast majority of the union workers have. The projects kids dropped out of school in the 8th grade. Once the dock worker's kids leave high school, possibly even before - they are guaranteed a job on the docks and in the union. If their family is hurting - they are given money to get by. Their drug of choice - unlike the kids in the projects, is a legal one - alcohol, which they can afford.
They aren't sleeping in low income government paid apartments, but in row houses. The union provides health benefits.
The reason they don't talk to the cops - is the union has trained them. Note the guy that the homicide detectives attempt to interview, the one who found the dead women with Beatrice Russell?
That guy states that he doesn't have to go anywhere with them unless he's arrested. And if he is - he wants his union rep and union lawyer to come with him. Compare to the first season - when Brodie gets interviewed or D or Wallace? There's no union. There's just Stringer and Avon - and how fast they can send their lawyer.
Also, they get beat up and no one does anything.
That's racism. The white immigrant doc workers have more rights than the black American kids living in the projects. The immigrants get a legal job and benefits. The kids and people living in the projects - don't. They are treated differently by the society around them.
As for their crimes? One permits illegal contraband, turns a blind eye - even if it is a bunch of women being sold into the sex trade (which is basically slinging human beings as drugs) - although to be fair, Frank didn't know about the women nor did he know about the sex trade. The other deals drugs. One is far more violent than the other...with a lower survival rate. Ziggy is more likely to survive than D'Angelo and Wallace and Brodie (unfortunately). Just as Nick is more likely to survive. They are also more likely to stay out of prison, because of all the protections in place - which are not in place for D'Angelo and Wallace and Brodie.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-02 09:40 am (UTC)I agree with your depiction of the socio economic description The Wire is making of the situation of the two groups.One is much worse than the other, one group is on the margin of the society and with very little chances for the individuals that are part of it to be ever allowed in , the other is still in it. But the show is also asking the question "for how much longer"? Already we have the white drug dealers. Where do these kids come from? What's their story? Is their situtation so much better than this of the projects kids? Perhaps for now - one of them is reminded he is not black and obviously they are mimicking the drug culture of the projects - but what about their own kids? What does it tell us that their models come from criminal organizations? The show doesn't answer, but opens -I think- all these questions. In other words, with the African American people living in the projects, The Wire focuses on an already long marginalized group (if not for ever)because of racism and the evolutions this marginalization entails; with the people on the docks the series examins different ongoing processes of marginalization due to economic and politic evolutions, processes where ethnicity doesn't matter so much (which doesn't mean not at all). As you'll see the workers on the docks are mixed even though the Wire choose to focus on white characters as leads for this exploration.
Hope this is clear enough and make the nuances of what I want to say appearant because making indepth analysis is not easy when you have to struggle with the language at the same time.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-02 02:19 pm (UTC)Very clear - thank you. I admire you ability to do this in another language. Also envy it. ;-)
In writing my posts - I try to remember the language differences. Even between Americans there are problems. For example - an older guy in Arizona thought "hipster" meant "1960s hippie", no, it translates in modern times as young 20-30 something, upwardly mobile, artist or professional, often someone who follows a popular trend. (trend-setters). But this is largely determined through context.
I use a lot of slang in my posting, because I prefer the casual conversational voice - since I use the more formal voice or syntax at work. But I'm guessing the down-side of using a conversational tone - is mis-communication.
Already we have the white drug dealers. Where do these kids come from? What's their story? Is their situtation so much better than this of the projects kids? Perhaps for now - one of them is reminded he is not black and obviously they are mimicking the drug culture of the projects - but what about their own kids? What does it tell us that their models come from criminal organizations? The show doesn't answer, but opens -I think- all these questions.
Agreed. This is something I've been arguing for a long time now - with people offline. That the problem isn't racism, but classism.
Racism is of course one of the symptoms. But what is happening, and you see it in the Wire - which aired between 2003-2006 at the height of the Bush era - is the beginnings of the class divide or economic gap between two groups. By the time we reached 2011, approximately 4-5% of the US population has the wealth. The middle class such as it is - is slowly disappearing. Frank, McNulty, Beadie Russell, Nick, all of these people came from that middle class. But they are slowly being marginalized.
As the middle class disappears, and formerly white collar workers find themselves in low paying blue collar jobs or worse homeless,
the economy dives. Because your main consumer is the middle class.
They buy the majority of your products. Also the products they buy change. Items that are popular in a depressed economy tend to be ones that provide cheap thrills or instant escape. Studies have been done that show chocolate bar sales and alcohol and cigarette sales go up during a depression. Marginalizing the middle class results in a depressed economy and eventually crime and violence.
The laid-off or depressed white workers, who used to be able to become successful - become resentful of those who take their jobs.
Nick hates people like Stringer Bell (for example). The racism and xenophobia that erupts is often a side-effect of that depressed economy or a better word, is that it doesn't so much erupt and become more pronounced.
And we have become a materialistic and consumer driven society - placing personal value on material acquisition. You are successful if you have not one but two places of residence - the beach home and the city home or the city home and the country home. You own real estate. You own not one but two expensive cars. You have the big-screen tv. Etc. This results in a reaction by those who cannot afford these things...and as the gap between the working class and the rich gets wider, and the middle class dissolves...society becomes increasingly more violent and you see a broader criminal element and far more corruption.
If permitted to go on for too long with one group, the majority, feeling increasingly like the slaves of another group - the rich leisure class - War erupts, either civil or worse. Examples: The French and Russian Revolutions. Even the American Revolution to a degree, although the American Civil War is a better example - that was a direct result of the Industrial Revolution. OR as Karl Marx would state - the rise of the proletariat. The last time this happened - in the 1930s - we ended up with a rise in fascism. We see
that happening again now in the US and Europe...with the Tea Party in the US. The Wire is doing a great job of depicting how this comes about and why.