tritium: The Wire why not.

Street walking cheetah with a heart full of napalm (

tritium) wrote,
@ 2008-03-03 20:55:00

The Wire why not.
Allison and I recently got into The Wire. Thank you, Netflix! We've seen all of season 1 and four episodes of season 2. It's remarkable to me that, despite people calling it the best show on TV, it may well be the best show on TV. Some things about that:

* For the first season, everything was spot-on: the directing, the acting, the writing, everything. The second season, not so much. Like, there was a noticeable quality drop between the last episode of the first season and the first episode of the second season. It's getting better, though.
* It's a rare show whose comic relief involves police brutality, but there it is.
* The show is confusing, but not because of the slang, which is pretty easy to pick up. It's the narrative structure, which is light on the exposition, and the camera work, which doesn't make it easy to distinguish characters. If it weren't for Television Without Pity, I'd be even more lost than I am now.
* How does a show with a majority black cast still manage to have a magical negro?
* I don't care nearly as much about the dock workers as I did the Barksdalies. And I could do without seeing so much of Ziggy's penis, thank you very much.
* Maybe my favorite dialogue, so far:

Bodie: Think the man got paid? Wallace: Who? Bodie: Man who invented these [Chicken McNuggets]. Wallace: Shit, he richer than a motherfucker. D’Angelo: Why? You think he get a percentage? Wallace: Why not? D’Angelo: Nigga please, the man who invented them things just some sad ass down at the basement of McDonald’s, thinking up some shit to make some money for the real players. Bodie: No man that ain’t right. D’Angelo: Fuck right. It ain’t about right. Its about money. Now you think Ronald McDonald go down to that basement and say “Hey Mr. Nugget, you the bomb. We selling chicken faster then you can tear the bone out. So I’m gonna write my clowny ass name on this fat ass check for you.” Shit. Man, the nigga who invented them things still working in the basement for regular wage thinking up some shit to make the fries taste better or some shit like that. Believe. [pause] Wallace: Still had the idea though.

That's some top-notch writing, right there.

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	moondispatches 2008-03-04 05:12 am UTC (link)
	Dang, I was so disappointed with 2nd season on my first viewing. But when I gave this show a second pass, I found that I actually preferred the dock case to the Barksdale one. And the chicken nugget scene was top notch. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	tritium 2008-03-04 04:38 pm UTC (link)
	It certainly has its charms, what with the fact that it reaches way the hell up to global politics and way the hell down to the family problems of the Sobotkas, in a very seamless way. But so far I haven't felt for the stevedores the way I felt for the Barksdale crew; this last episode fixed that a lot. We'll see. (Reply to this)(Parent)

joshfisher
2008-03-04 10:15 am UTC (link)

We just saw the last episode of Season 3--already mourning how few there are left. Had the same amazement at the Magical Negro thing. I think in the first 3 seasons, the early episodes of Season 2 were the weakest. But I suspect, like moondispatches, if & when I see them again I'll feel otherwise. And it got better and better from there. Season 3 was really spectacular.

If it's not the best thing I've ever seen on TV, I don't know what is. (And to cheer you up on Season 2, no spoiler, but you're a couple of episodes from another truly wonderful dialog.)

A lot of times, when the show ends I just sit there stupefied trying to take in my last hour.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	tritium 2008-03-04 04:40 pm UTC (link)
	Allison is excited for season four, which apparently features the Baltimore public schools in a major way. Me too. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	doraphilia 2008-03-04 06:09 pm UTC (link)
	season 4 left me convulsing in sobs every night after watching. I'm not even someone who gets that into "save the children!" stuff and education policy. but it just ripped my heart out. (Reply to this)(Parent)

fiberpunk
2008-03-04 03:54 pm UTC (link)

The good news is that the stevedores are mostly out of the picture after this season, and the third is similar in focus to the first.

I really appreciate the way that the show deals matter-of-factly with class; the Sobotkas are a family whose opportunities have continually shrunk to the point where they are now doing criminal acts to make ends meet, and yet they feel as if they firmly belong in the white middle class. Nicky's disgusted when Ziggy starts acting like the black east-side drug dealers because he's convinced that they're entitled to mix with better sorts of people, and yet he and his uncle are constantly being tossed out of that company.

It's actually my favorite season. And it features the emergence of Stringer Bell, entrepreneur.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

tritium
2008-03-04 04:43 pm UTC (link)

I've read that the second season is about "the betrayal of the American working man," which is important and all, but really, zzz. They're working hard on making it interesting, though.

Stringer Bell, entrepreneur was nicely set up in the first season, but his biggest act in that direction so far was actually pretty dumb -- dropping cellular telecom stocks because he was concerned that the cell phone market was saturated.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

	doraphilia 2008-03-04 06:11 pm UTC (link)
	I have to ask a stupid question. Which negro is the magical one? (Reply to this)(Thread)

	tritium 2008-03-04 06:29 pm UTC (link)
	Lester Freamon. At least in the first season. Not in the second season, so far as I've seen. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	joshfisher 2008-03-05 12:25 am UTC (link)
	I even think they picked "Freamon" to suggest Morgan Freeman. It's the sort of thing they would do. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

doraphilia
2008-03-05 12:29 am UTC (link)

See I really have to disagree here. To me, the "Magical Negro" archetype is the following things:

1) all-knowing, omniscient and infallible
2) possesses some element of witchcraft, black arts, voodoo (this can be very very subtle)
3) humorously one-diminesional
4) helps the white people without seeming to question anything

I don't think he fits any of these things. I think the beauty of the wire is that every character is deeply flawed and messed up and wonderful. I think Freamon is just as messed up and unique and real as the rest of them. If anything, it's a little "cute" how he makes wooden figurines but beyond that I don't find him to fit this archetype at all.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	tritium 2008-03-05 02:37 am UTC (link)
	They have fleshed out his character a lot, and I'm sure they will continue to do so. But when he was first introduced, he was this wise, mysterious old black man, who sat in the back, making doll furniture and listening to jazz, but when they couldn't find a picture of Avon, he used his old connections in the Golden Gloves to dig up an old poster. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	xanthussaves 2008-03-05 06:53 pm UTC (link)
	Lester falls from grace quite a bit in the latest season. It turns out that Bunk is the one with morals and a real belief in honest police work. (Reply to this)(Parent)

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