Comments on: all the pieces matter

By: Professor Coldheart

Professor Coldheart — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 02:16:04 +0000

Hmm. I think the humor in The Wire lies in absurd or ironic situations, not in zinger dialogue. Take, for instance, Rawls asking McNulty, “where don’t you want to go?” Or Omar sticking up a corner in Brooklyn as the last scene of the season. Neither of those are comical in the sense of setup, build, punchline, but they’re clever callbacks. I laughed out loud at both those.

If that ain’t your thing, then yeah, The Wire doesn’t have it.

By: drederick

drederick — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 02:01:54 +0000

There is one glaring flaw in The Wire: the humor. Often it will appear that the writers are trying to make some attempt at humor but it always fails horribly. It’s fine to have unfunny characters, but I strongly get the sense that the writers are trying to be funny at least some of the time.

(Note that I’ve only seen seasons 1-3).

Contrast this with The Sopranos. Chase’s dialogue in general is just better and more insightful than what you see in The Wire, but where it’s really noticeable is in the humor.

I find the world of The Wire intrinsically more interesting than the world of The Sopranos, and the writers of The Wire have a lot of experience and insightful perspectives about life and “street people” and whatnot, but it is pretty clear to me that these writers are noticeably inferior to David Chase when it comes to the act of writing. If you somehow were able to transfer the knowledge of The Wire’s writers into David Chase he could make a significantly better show about the same thing.

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 01:27:21 +0000

Yeah, I was living in Washington during the ’80s (born and raised until my dad decided he DIDN’T want to raise his kid alone in an area where the local upscale mall actually had a drive-by shooting) and living in that city, watching it rot, was terrifying. I think that’s part of where my distaste for Republicans came from, because if there really WAS a War on Drugs, Reagan and Bush weren’t fighting it on their fucking doorstep, that’s for sure.

By: JHaas

JHaas — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 17:32:10 +0000

We need to consult, because there a few options on the cameo front.

By: Professor Coldheart

Professor Coldheart — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 15:58:33 +0000

D’oh! It’s only this week.

I begin each entry with a vague paragraph about the season’s themes, then a header in bold (below the cut) that announces the season itself. So when you see Season Two, abort!

By: Erin

Erin — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 15:44:45 +0000

When McNulty and Moreland reconstruct a months-old crime scene, using nothing but measuring tape, eyeballs and the word “Fuck,” you know just what’s going on.

This scene was so good.

We’ve only gotten through half? two thirds? of S1 so far. I’ll have to restrain myself from looking at your S2-5 stuff because below-the-fold text is not hidden from me in Bloglines.

By: Professor Coldheart

Professor Coldheart — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 15:18:16 +0000

“Thirteen years?”

“And four months.”

Also - there’s apparently a surprise cameo by a later season player, just standing around in the background, in S1. I haven’t confirmed it with my own eyes; I’ll leave it to you to find.

By: JHaas

JHaas — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 14:58:16 +0000

Watching the Wire through for the second time, I can tell you that the world is even tighter and smaller than I thought the first time.

Re: Race - I thing the biggest reason is that there isn’t “the black character who talks about race” is that there are roughly one billion more black characters on this show than on any other. And despite being a police procedural, every character is exceedingly well drawn, black and white. Despite all of the other awesome in the first season, some of my favorite moments are character moments. Rawls gently holding out the double bird and stating in a serious but measured way, “These, McNulty, are for you.” When Norris asks where Lester’s from, Lester’s almost non-ironic, “Pawn Shop Unit.” Omar coolly pulling McNulty and Greggs into a graveyard meet. And the look on Prez’s face when he finds out he’s good at something.