The Wire - S2- Episode 3- Hot Shots...the show that just keeps getting better..

[shadowkat]

Lovely day, walked around the park, saw people that looked like they had meandered off the tv show the wire lounging about, and wandered back to work - where I've been attempting to resolve a rather amusing cluster-fuck regarding the installation of an air conditioning unit on the roof - for a data center upgrade, which is being delayed due to the failure to procure and install the platform to place it on. (Long story - but the Wire amused me even more than usual in part because of it.)

How is it possible for a tv series to get better with each and every episode, or stay this consistently good? I haven't seen a weak episode since maybe 5 and that episode was still better than 90% of the stuff I've been watching on tv of late. (Should probably take a moment and let you know what I'm watching? Nah. You can guess on your own.) People actually thought season 2 of the Wire wasn't that good? Ooookay. Mileage varies and all that, I guess.

Tonight I laughed my head off again. It's hilarious in places.


Burrell? Oh, I've met this guy throughout my career. I do feel for him though. And it is a rather realistic portrayal of the insidiousness of institutional racism in the US and what persons of color or women have had to do to get ahead. Play dirty ball, stroke the right feathers, stab the right backs...kiss the right palms and asses. You don't really get it - until well you see it up close and personal. But with Burrell and Daniels in The Wire - it really is depicted quite well. And they work as brilliant mirrors of each other. You have honest cop Daniels who wants to advance, but also wants to be able to look himself in the mirror each morning and feel pride in his job, Burrell - who wants to advance, is convinced he can make a difference, and is willing to do what it takes for self-preservation and to work the system within reason of course, and finally the Senator who is as crooked as they come.

I'm falling for Dominic West's damaged Irish cop with a heart of gold, McNulty, but have the oddest feeling that no one else who loved this show liked this character or understands my love of him? Granted he is a familiar trope, but they aren't giving in to the stereotype. He isn't wonder cop, he just sets things in motion and he doesn't give up, he is interested, he's basically like Greggs, he adores solving cases - being a cop, but unlike Greggs he has sacrificed everything - his kids, his wife, his family, his own wellbeing and that of his friends to be a cop and solve cases - he puts the cases above everything else with a tunnel visioned doggedness that doesn't always work out as he wished. A damaged character that makes sense to me. The pitbull tenacity, often self-destructive, and often far too micro for one's own good. McNulty is the sort that gets caught up in his own ego, that he fails to see what he's doing to those around him. There's an excellent scene between McNulty and the two men who know him well, have worked with him - Lester Freeman and Bunk - the best cop team I've watched in a long long time.

Lester: McNulty has got himself a theory.
Bunk: You genuis of deductive reasoning.
Lester: He's going to tell us...(and they proceed to tell McNulty everything he has figured out about the case ...)
Bunk: That would you deigned to come here and help us with?
McNulty - sheepish: When you'd figure it out?
(Russell and Bunk tell him. They aren't Cole, they aren't dumb. They don't need McNulty's smart white irish ass to tell them what is what. But they are wonderfully good at putting him in his place, yet at the same time...patient and friendly about it. There's a friendly comraderary that feels real and lived in. That I loved so much about Homicide Life on the Streets and have not seen depicted on a tv show in quite some time. )

Another great scene - hilarious and oh so true - is between Lester, Bunk, and the crew who can't speak a word of English and have five different dialects - all from Russia and Asia. At one point Bunk and Lester, fed up, start speaking gobbley gook back at them. It is hilarious and a sly jab at all these cop shows on television where everyone speaks English. Sorry, but you can't be in a NY or Chicago or big city police department and not run into suspects who don't speak English. Or interview a bunch of people on a Russian ship, and expect them all to speak English. This is what I love about The Wire and why I'm completely ruined for shows such as Bones, Castle, Law & Order, CSI, NCIS, etc...
they have pristine offices, sterile labs, great clothes, perfect hair and makeup, look like they walked out of a modeling agency, and drive expensive cars, have expensive phones, and crimes get solved like a snap. Sorry, no. No city in the US has that type of money. Police Departments are funded by tax payer dollars. (Okay, maybe the police department in Beverly Hills...or the rich suburbs, but not the inner cities.) The Wire gets it right.

Poor D. He's being screwed at both ends. Although at least Avon kept him from o'ding on bad coke.
The Hot Shots of the title. Stringer is screwing his wife? Girlfriend? Mother of his kid? Can't say I blame her - Stringer is hot or Idris who is playing Stringer is hot. He's got to be hands down the most attractive looking actor on this show, with Omar a close second. Distant third is McNulty.
Although I do wonder about Stringer's taste, she's whiny.

There's more female characters in S2. We have the two gal robbers who Omar hooks up with - in a wierd way. Beatrice Russel - who appears to be taking Shakima Greggs place on the team. Shakima is second year Pre-Law. (Yep, she's aiming to become a lawyer, just like I thought.) Rather like Russell.
And the scene with Landsman who told her to wear muted pants suits, to counter act the pin-strip lawyer act of Bunk and the tweeds of Freeman...was also hilariously funny. Landsman is hilarious whenever he is on screen. Has some of the best lines.

But so does Russell - loved her line - in regards to the female prostitutes being shipped in the white slavery trade to the US. 50,000 working here alone.

Bunk: Damn, they need to set up a whole agency just to police them.
Russell: What they need is a union. (Great line and oh so true.)

That's how you survive in these jobs by the way - gallows humor. You make fun of the insanity.

I keep having to rewind bits of the Wire, got fed up finally - and put on close-captioning to hear the scene between the Coroner - Dr. Frazier (the doc with the afro - who I adore and I've definitely seen that actor before somewhere) and McNulty. Great scene - a tiny gem. So many gems here.
Every detail, every piece of dialogue...it all matters. Haven't seen anything this tightly written in a long time...not sure ever, maybe Homicide? Most TV shows tend to be written rather loosely..due in part to commercial breaks and in part to the speed you have to produce the show, and how many episodes you have to turn out yearly. The Wire only had to turn out 13...and had plenty of time to percolate - since they had to do a bit of shopping around first. (Farscape is another series that benefited from a percolation period or fermentation period.)

Oh and the whole bit about poor Daniels. Who tells McNulty - I got a law degree, I don't need to be down here with a law degree. (Sigh, I can identify...law degrees aren't what they are cracked up to be.) Now, that he's finally decided to turn in his papers, resign, early pension and become a lawyer, Perez has convinced Valcheck to blackmail Burrell into putting Daniels on the Wire for the Sobotke smuggling operation. LOL! Looks like Daniels, Perez, Freeman, Bunk and McNulty are destined. Most love affairs don't go this well.

I may have to up my netflix ante to three discs a week - not coming fast enough and not enough episodes on each DVD for my taste.

Comments

[candleanfeather.livejournal.com]

The knots are tightening in this episode.

I'll be curious to hear how you read the relation between Stringer and Donnett (D' s girlfriend). It just raises my shackles for a lot of reasons where fidelity has not much to say. It's depicted with a great insight and a lot of finesse.

You explained your love for Mac Nulty really well. He's not my favourite but I certainly like him and he demonstrates certain traits of character I greatly appreciate: in regard to the women he has an affair with he knows to recognize his wrongs; he has a very humane way to look at the people he is chasing. He perceives their virtues and their worth even though they are criminals, he is able to care for them. It happens for Omar, for D and others.


"We have the two gal robbers who Omar hooks up with " = love. They may not be major characters but they are very well portrayed.

Just a little thing, it's Prez, (short for Prezbylewski, I'm not sure for the spelling)and not Perez. The guy is from Polish ascendence.

"and put on close-captioning " I need to, or I don't understand much, they often speak too quickly, there's slang and the Baltimore accent... The French dubbing is a catastrophe: flat, dull voices (probably all white ones) playing the characters like they do on every standard cop show: same intonations, same rythm... They just kill the characters.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

I need to, or I don't understand much, they often speak too quickly, there's slang and the Baltimore accent...

Do you put it on French subtitles? Or English? I was wondering... I'm familiar with the accents and had to put it on for last night's episode finally, because I got tired of rewinding the same scene twenty times (Dr. Frazier mumbles).

The French dubbing is a catastrophe: flat, dull voices (probably all white ones) playing the characters like they do on every standard cop show: same intonations, same rythm... They just kill the characters.

Hee. The last time I visited France, way back in 1984, I remember watching a Burt Reynolds and a John Wayne film dubbed in French - which were hilarious, because the voices they used were clearly the opposited of Reynolds and Wayne. For Foreign films?
I've learned to go with subtitles and not dubbing, because with few exceptions - the dubbing is bad.
No inflection and dull. The only films I can't do that with are animated - Persepolis and the Japanese Anime films - I have to get the dubbed version or I get a headache trying to read the thing and watch the animation.

Sorry about the repeated mistakes on Prez's name, I can never remember which it is.

[candleanfeather.livejournal.com]

I began with French subtitles then on rewatches went with the English ones. The French translation is not that bad (except in some places: Omar's "the cheese stands alone" becomes "I'm the law" or something like that)but it doesn't have the richness of the original dialogues. It's always the problem with slang and popular language; they don't translate well.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

No, they really don't. I've been listening to Nina Simone - who has a song Ne quite me pas - and everything time I attempt to translate it in my head to English - it loses it's meaning. I can't speak French or write it, but I can read some of it and understand some spoken French...

An "the cheese stands alone" doesn't really mean "I am the law" - it has a deeper meaning. Slang often can get emotion across better than formal speech. It's why I use it so often - I can say more with
the word "folks" than "people" or "you guys". But it is almost impossible to translate. Is there even a French word for motherfucker?

[candleanfeather.livejournal.com]

"Is there even a French word for motherfucker? " No, not really. Tell me if I'm wrong, but it seemed to me this word has several meanings or nuances depending on what circumstances it's used. It can even be a little admirative in a weird way. If I'm right in French you'd have to use several different words like "salopard" equivalent to bastard which can also take different nuances - even affectionate or admirative ones in a weird way - or "emmerdeur" or "semeur de merde" (same idea that "emmerdeur" but more rude and always very negative): litteraly someone who sows shit meaning someone who is an expert at creating disorder and chaos, someone highly ennoying.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

You're correct like a lot of English slang words - it has multiple meanings, several contradictory. The literal meaning is of course
having sex with one's mother. But the slang meanings range from bastard, to insane or unimaginably bad, to sowing the shit. All depends on context.

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

I liked season 2, especially its final episodes(the penultimate episode is brilliant), but I found the Ziggy character annoying.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Ziggy does have a decent scene in last night's episode - which defines his character a bit - he's trying to match up with his Dad and cousin Nick (Nick who is a bit of an SOB.) We see him abnormally subdued at the bar, not his usual crazy self - because, he states he came into some money finally - but he doesn't appear overly proud...he watches as the bar-tender gives a down on his luck customer a wad full of bills - stating they are from his Dad.
And he has this weird frown on his face. Odd character, haven't quite been able to figure him out yet.

Do agree though, outside of that scene? He grates on my nerves too.

[shapinglight]

Next time I watch The Wire I'm definitely putting subtitles on. It's something I have to do more and more for American shows (currently have to do it for Caprica). I know I missed a lot the first time.

I don't know if people think season 2 isn't good (I think it's wonderful), just that I suppose they prefer seasons 1 and 3.

I like McNulty. He's not a favourite, but I like him. If nothing else, he's provided one of the great TV catchphrases (IMO), in his constant puzzled "What the f**k did I do?"

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

They mumble a lot on American TV shows, not helped by the use of music, background noise, and often voice-overs. I'll give The Wire credit at least for not making the dialogue impossible to hear by adding all the other noise. (The worst is probably Grey's Anatomy. That show had a scene which had voice over, dialogue, and music with lyrics. Although, I think the infamous Little Finger scene in Game of Thrones is possibly worse - or at least it's the first time I could not hear or make out what a character was saying due to insanely loud sexual moaning in the background. I rewound that one five times, before I finally gave up and put on close-captioning.)

[shapinglight]

I think I may give that scene a miss when I rewatch that episode. I don't think it tells you anything you actually need to know.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Which one? The Infamous Little Finger scene?
It actually does - but you can also get all that information in a conversation between Catelynn and Tyrion in the books.

What the scene tells you are three important things:

1. Little Finger loved Catelynn enough to fight for her and be critically wounded (this is a repeat)
2. He decided to switch from physical fighting to mental manipulation and the use of whores - after that.
3. He sees sex as a tool to manipulate others and is not turned on by it himself. This is a metaphor for how he manipulates Ned, and various other characters. Little Finger is an Iago character - he never actually kills anyone, he manipulates someone else into doing it. Just as he doesn't sleep with either whore. He makes Ned Stark believe he needs him, that Little Finger cares...just as he manipulates Catelynn into believing this.

But the most important bit to take out of that scene? Is that Little Finger can get someone killed without lifting a finger. He is a master manipulator - and how he became that way and why is explained in detail in that scene. (If you didn't figure that already without watching it ...I knew it already, but I also read the books, so I can't tell if you needed that scene to figure it out if you haven't. Some people on my flist insist that you did, other's insist you don't.)

[shapinglight]

But the most important bit to take out of that scene? Is that Little Finger can get someone killed without lifting a finger. He is a master manipulator - and how he became that way and why is explained in detail in that scene. (If you didn't figure that already without watching it ...I knew it already, but I also read the books, so I can't tell if you needed that scene to figure it out if you haven't. Some people on my flist insist that you did, other's insist you don't.)

No, I'd figured that out for myself the first time we met the character.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

It's odd, some people did and some didn't (of the non-readers - all the reader's know it already of course.).

I thought the series explained it already with the Ned/Littlefinger and Littlefinger/Catelynn scenes...but whatever.

One of the flaws of Game the series is also a flaw of the books - Martin over-writes. He doesn't trust his reader or audience enough, and goes over-board on the exposition. Compare to The Wire - which trusts it's audience to figure it out and doesn't waste time on lengthy and often gratutitious scenes of exposition. The Wire is amongst the few tv shows that I've seen to date that doesn't waste time on exposition and let's you figure it out for yourself. Game and Buffy - I think both did, because they are fantasy series and the world has to be explained, while the Wire is placed in our world...but, you still don't need to do as much explaining as they do.

For Game - it's not just a problem in the tv series - it's a problem in the books as well.
We get Little Finger explained five times in three different points of view.

[shapinglight]

For Game - it's not just a problem in the tv series - it's a problem in the books as well.
We get Little Finger explained five times in three different points of view.

Oh dear, not sure how I'm going to get on with these books, then. I'm a great believer in show, don't tell when it comes to literature.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

The books will drive you crazy then. There's a great deal of tell in them. We spend long chapters...where we are told after the fact what happened to another major character. Martin's odd about what he wants to show and what he wants to tell. Also a lot is implied...which makes the books a bit confusing. Someone had to explain to me the whole Jon Snow parentage bit - because I'd made it all the way past Storm and I still was clueless. And apparently it is explained in that book.

They aren't for everyone. I have issues with them. There's bits that are rather wonderful and you'll love. Others that will make you want to throw it across the room in a fit of annoyance, and long passages that are just boring. Also very bleak books. Lots and lots of gory character deaths. And you are in the points of view of very young children during some of these gory deaths and torture sequences...

In a lot of ways I prefer the TV series. Much more entertaining. Little-Finger scene aside. (I agree it was gratuitous. Amusing - in the commentary to the Wire - West is discussing gratuitous breast shots in The Wire and I kept thinking, yet still not as gratuitous as Game of Thrones. HBO and their need for sex scenes...) The series is partly more entertaining because we don't spend as much time in the young kids points of view, and also it moves faster.
More of the complexity of the story is introduced - and much much earlier. The villians are painted far less black and white and it feels less like a young adult novel.

[shapinglight]

I can understand why GRRM might regret making the characters so young. Dany's story in particular would have been completely icky if Emilia Clarke had actually looked like a teenager instead of in her early twenties.

I suspect I'm going to prefer the show too ultimately.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

I suspect I'm going to prefer the show too ultimately.

Unless you have a great deal of patience and get turned on by child adventure fantasy novels...with lots of gory war scenes.

I'm about ready to give up on the books to be honest. So much of the story, far too much of it, is told in flashback. Lots of unreliable narrators and we're constantly being told that we think is true, isn't.

[shapinglight]

That's okay as a narrative device if it's only for a short while, but if it goes on and on, I can see it would get quite tedious.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Agreed. It worked fine for a bit...but after a while, I realized that almost all the plot threads and mysteries were resolved through flashbacks or explained through flashbacks.
So, as a reader...you think, wait, did I miss something? You flip back, and uh, no, you didn't. It did not happen on the page - it happened off the page and the writer hasn't gotten around to showing it to you until now.