The Wire [question(s)]...

[mr. logic]

The Omar stuff in the fifth series was complete bollocks too, though this often gets overlooked.

[Endicott]

if you mean him jumping out a window, that's based on a real events, with a higher window if memory serves

[Large Noise]

The Omar stuff in the fifth series was complete bollocks too, though this often gets overlooked.

The most unrealistic part of season 5 is Omar successfully sheltering himself from a hail of bullets by hiding behind a sofa.

[hermitical]

Most other bits covered, but here I'd ask, are you sure? I've seen it a few times and I don't remember Bunk saying that. Also I think Omar was probably savvy enough to change that shotgun from time to time. Unlike say, Bird.

Was there something about the shoot out at the stash house where shells were found that were linked to Omar by Bunk? Or something similar?

[sevendaughters]

I liked Omar as a figure representing a constant threat of the unknown and random chance even in a world that seems so heavily determined by rules, social status, and structure. If you analyse a lot of his arc, like teaming up with Brother Mouzone after a showdown at the Back Alley Corral or being a local Al Capone distributing to the poor in lieu of welfare's failings, it maybe doesn't stack up. When you watch back there are these devices that are used that feel slightly clunky if you're watching it as a text of realism (like the chess game in S1, or most of the quotes that open the episode, the Bosch hell montage in Hamsterdam) but I think they're all well worth it.

[Endicott]

Was there something about the shoot out at the stash house where shells were found that were linked to Omar by Bunk? Or something similar?

If there had been he would have charged him. Bunk saw children near the stash house having a pretend shoot out and heard one of them say that he wanted to play Omar now, so he put two and two together but nothing he could prove. I don't recall anything similar, doesn't mean there wasn't of course which is why I've asked.

[mothman]

The All The Pieces Matter oral history of The Wire is a good read.

[greenman]

Oddly enough I think the journalism stuff is interesting, and as for McNulty, I think you can easily see this as a result of Bodie's death. He only comes back into the homicide dept to catch Bodies's killers, and then the rug gets pulled out from under him. It's in character. Anyway I like the interactions, how Freamon is interested for exactly the same reasons, with him being sick of not having enough resources, and how Sydnor gets sucked in, and how Bunk and Greggs are simply appalled.

But yes, it ain't a masterpiece, so it's noticable coming after S4, which really, really is a masterpiece.

I would say the journalism stuff is interesting but the characters aren't ever really developed that well, they just stay more archetypical which is obviously very different to the kids in season 4.

I think they'd have been better off making the serial killer angle less heavily plotted with McNulty and Fremon doing far less and Templeton running with it more by himself and spend the time making him a bit more interesting rather than just a standard ambitious asshole.

Only having 10 episodes rather than 12-13 probably didn't help either.

[Urinal Cake]

The best part of S5 in fact the whole thing is Slim Charles ascent. The kind of drug lord you want.

[Ferris]

I think the implication was that Omar got away with shootings and robberies because violent crime was so rife the only people who would be after him were the overworked homicide detectives, and they had multiple active investigations at a time. The BPD were diverted towards higher-profile cases at the behest of bosses - ain't nobody give a fuck about a rip and run turned bad down on Lafayette. That, and drug-murders have lots of witnesses who ain't seen nothing so they never put a lot of resources into those types of crimes.

Additionally, the BPD's bureaucracy means there is very poor intra-departmental knowledge-sharing and information sourcing, so even though Bubs and McNulty know Omar to the point of knowing he is "No-Heart" Anthony's brother, Keema Greggs has no idea who he is and she's always depicted as a good cop. There's no centralized information source for the streets or for the cops, which is why urban legends happen, and larger than life stories are the currency of conversation. Omar isn't some kind of walking legend - he's only known to those in the know. Bunk has to go through McNulty to speak to Omar.

Mouzone is based on a criminal element of The Nation that was big in Philly and NYC in the '70s-'90s. Slightly anachronistic, but not massively so (especially in the early 2000s).

I bloody love the Wire though, so I'm going to defend it regardless.

[Utter Shit]

The best part of S5 in fact the whole thing is Slim Charles ascent. The kind of drug lord you want.

If they make a season 6, Slim Charles should now own 98% of the world's wealth and live in a house made entirely from diamonds. Absolute G.

I liked Omar as a figure representing a constant threat of the unknown and random chance even in a world that seems so heavily determined by rules, social status, and structure.

Completely agree, which was made his eventual death all the more poignant, a victim of the same thing...not exactly a random encounter but casual to the point of indifference, some little kid just spotting him and blowing him away without a thought, where endless gangsters have failed to kill him. And of course it ties in with Michael's rise to become the new Omar.

[jobotic]

Yeah Michael's dead by now isn't he?

Just remembered the bit when Snoop knows that guy is from out of town 'cos he knows fuck all about Bmore Club Music. Ace.

[Sin Agog]

Has being bored to tears by Idris Elba in dozens of movies since affected any of your Wire rewatches?

[Endicott]

Nope^[1]. I didn't watch Luther because it was shit. Thought he was fine in Marvel. Can't think of anything else I've seen him in^[2]. Beasts of No Nation is still on my to watch list.


<sub>[1] But I am unaffected by this type of thing. I don't get affected by knowing an actor from something else, nor does it bother me to hear a favourite song flogged to death on the radio.

[2] Prometheus has been wiped form my memory banks.</sub>

[Hat FM]

Yeah Michael's dead by now isn't he?

or still walking around in his dressing gown robbing people :)

[Mister Six]

Yeah, seeing Omar live to a (relatively) ripe old age and Bubs get off the junk kind of took the edge off their younger versions' stories.

[sevendaughters]

I remember writing an essay on The Wire for my masters and can't quite remember how I phrased it but I think I remember intimating that perhaps it was a bit dodgy that Michael's status as an abuse victim also leads him to being, what I read as, a gay bandit. Like that is the implication, right? That he's become Omar as both bete noire and masculine threat.

Might crack the series out early next year. DVDs of it are a buyer's market right now.

[Utter Shit]

Have any of you read the Wire companion book, Truth Be Told? It's one of the few TV tie-in books that I would say is essential to getting the most out of the related show. So much extra info about the episodes, little details you might have missed etc, as well as background knowledge, interviews with relevant parties...it definitely added to my enjoyment of the show.

[Endicott]

I remember writing an essay on The Wire for my masters and can't quite remember how I phrased it but I think I remember intimating that perhaps it was a bit dodgy that Michael's status as an abuse victim also leads him to being, what I read as, a gay bandit. Like that is the implication, right? That he's become Omar as both bete noire and masculine threat.

He could be gay but the only time we see him being intimate it's with a girl so it seems that isn't what the show is saying. He becomes a bandit, yes, following in Omar's footsteps, as a stick up artist.

[Gulftastic]

Randy was the biggest heart breaker. When we first meet him in season 4, he's a cheeky little lad, cleverly making money by working hard. After the awful conclusion to that season he gets put into the system, and when we next meet him in 5, he's a jaded young man who's had to build a tough wall around himself to survive. All the little kid is gone.

[sevendaughters]

He could be gay but the only time we see him being intimate it's with a girl so it seems that isn't what the show is saying. He becomes a bandit, yes, following in Omar's footsteps, as a stick up artist.

in the last scenes we see him in, sticking up dealers, he is with another guy. it is open to interpretation of course.

[Utter Shit]

I didn't get the gay vibe at all...Not out of the question but it feels like the Omar/Michael symbolism would be a little on the nose for The Wire if Michael was gay too.

[sevendaughters]

there's also the bit where Michael is like "who cares" when he hears Junebug has to be killed for questioning Marlo's sexuality, also the sort of strange parody of a nuclear family they have with Dukie as wife and Bug as their son, this is just how I read it though I can see some won't.

[Urinal Cake]

Well being a victim of male abuse could possibly make him think he was gay too for letting it happen.

But the feeling I get is obviously due to the abuse he sees sex in terms of a power dynamic. Take Cutty where he first thought Cutty was another pedo but then called out Cutty for sleeping with single mothers using their sons as bait.

I took the 'who cares' as a sign of Omar-like pragmatism- you don't kill someone for talking shit.

[Utter Shit]

I trust we all think it's brilliant and hilarious that Cutty's real in-world name is Dennis Wise.

[EOLAN]

I trust we all think it's brilliant and hilarious that Cutty's real in-world name is Dennis Wise.

That is making me chuckle way more than it should. Never realised previously.

[Utter Shit]

I know it's just a coincidence but it's such an unlikely one, and two such opposite characters. It's beautiful.