HBO's The Wire - You come at the king, you best not miss.
- Thread starter AFAB
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- Jun 13, 2020
I thought Stringer Bell's apartment was unrealistic.
He was a criminal at the end if the day and he couldn't even get an A on his community college paper in a subject he was passionate about.
I don't think he was always as smart as he was portrayed to be.
He was a criminal at the end if the day and he couldn't even get an A on his community college paper in a subject he was passionate about.
I don't think he was always as smart as he was portrayed to be.
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2020
It's remarkably funny how, a decade after pointing out awkward but obvious truths about urban crime & corruption, David Simon & friends had to forget everything about it to adopt the BLM/Prog ideology that black misbehaviour is above any criticism, and all of their crimes must be ignored or legalized.
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2018
That's the joke. Avon Barksdale even addressed it: not hard enough for the streets, and maybe, just maybe, not smart enough for the legitimate world out there.
Stringer Bell was basically the smartest person in the room. Cunning, sure, but could never outsmart everybody.
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2018
Great show. One of the few shows that's absolutely worth the hype.
TheHarbinger
kiwifarms.net
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- Mar 22, 2022
There's a scene in season two where D'Angelo Barksdale is talking to a group of prisoners about The Great Gatsby. And he says that Gatsby was just a liar who collected a giant shelf of books that he never read. And it was all just a front to fool people into thinking that he wasn't some criminal gangster and fit into high society. But in reality he hadn't read a single one of those books and they were just there being wasted.
Stringer's apartment is filled with stuff he never uses. Including a collection of books. Samurai swords and waterfalls. It was just to make him look smart. He and Avon had all these properties like tow truck companies or nightclubs. But spent their time in the back of a funeral home or hiding in a warehouse.
He was portrayed as an idiot and murderer. Who winds up shot dead. In a housing development that he was being ripped off for by a bunch of real estate developers and politicians. Even in the fifth season Clay Davis calls 'Russel Bell' a moron whom he 'ran wild on' for $250K. After he dies Marlo puts it out onto the streets that Bell died begging to "suck cock" to save his own life. He wasn't ever really shown to be smart and ends up dead and humiliated.
- Joined
- Sep 28, 2022
stringer just wasn't as smart as he thought he was, that was his central character flaw
it's easy to feel like a genius when you're dropping econ101 buzzwords in front of an audience of high school dropout hoodrats (who have to kiss your ass anyway because you're their boss)
but the second he stepped out of the drug dealer bubble he was just another mark with more money than brains for people like clay davis to take advantage of
it's not like all his ideas were dumb though. the whole co-op thing had some real potential, could have grown into a serious drug cartel. but they weren't able to see (or not willing to accept) that something like that doesn't work when there's psychos like marlo (and to a lesser extent stubborn guys like avon) involved and nobody has the authority to really control them.
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- Jan 29, 2023
The follow up series We Own This City was even worse I swear to god they namedropped Mike Brown over 8 times in the first 20 minutes. I couldn't finish it. The Wire was peak cinema.
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2018
Hamsterdam has to be my favorite sub-plot of The Wire. Legalize drugs, see what happens. Yes, your district turns safer because that crime is segregated into another part of town. But, Hamsterdam was proven to be hell to manage, hide, and be around in.
Onto Idris Elba, if you listen carefully, you could hear his English accent slip up when he has to yell or be angry. Very good acting.
- Joined
- Oct 16, 2020
Love the ending. Highlighting the corruption of everything. 90% of cop shows paint them as absolute saints instead of the other side of the coin benefitting from crime. It's extremely frustrating so The fact The Wire was doing it 2 decades ago still surprises me.
They did a mini series called the Corner based on a true story that is a sorta prequel. It was pretty good.
- Joined
- Sep 28, 2022
yeah the wire really had a sense of bleak realistic cynicism that is rare in media
>politicians are corrupt, they lie and scheme and defraud people
>cops are corrupt, they lie and break the law and play politics for their own personal gain
>criminals are corrupt, dishonest, antisocial and cruel
>reporters are corrupt, literally make shit up for clout
TheHarbinger
kiwifarms.net
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- Mar 22, 2022
Lots of show have corrupt cops. The Shield was mostly about highly corrupt cops. Oz had corrupt prison guards that would even murder. The Sopranos had corrupt FBI and cops. Dexter was about a serial killer cop. True Detective had corrupt cops involved in pedophile gangs or land theft. Breaking Bad had a few corrupt cops (this was Mike's entire backstory). Sons of Anarchy was filled with dirty cops and ATF agents.
The Sopranos was like that in the end as well. Where even the FBI agents are so jaded with America's direction that they help Tony kill another mob boss.
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- Jan 17, 2024
Most accurate representation of black people in a major TV show ever.
- Joined
- Oct 16, 2020
Corrupt cops in the sense that it's blatant and not forgiven. The Shield is corruption out of this Punisher like need to enact justice. They mention the corruption but then pass it off as this unfortunate necessity in a world where the police are just so shackled by red tape they're unable to do what they want to do: make people safe. Blue Bloods is by far the best example. Law and Order, Phallus Lupis's baby, is probably the next best example. A lot of these cop serials push a narrative and when they show corruption in the police it's immediately rooted out by our protagonists that believe in truth and justice above all. Dexter I don't view as a cop show. It'd be like calling Burn Notice a cop show. The Wire is conservative with it's take. It's not this complete condemnation but makes the viewer grapple with the actions of the police. It's smart enough to let the audience form an opinion instead of preaching and beating them over the head with a MESSAGE. Oz, another HBO show does the same thing with it's guards, Sopranos, another HBO show, does the same thing. Breaking Bad, an AMC show, does the same thing. Sons of Anarchy, a Hulu show, does the same thing.
There's this strange pattern I'm seeing...
DeepoxxChokya
kiwifarms.net
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- Apr 25, 2023
It's an ok show.
One annoying thing that doesn't get brought up is how the lil hustlin nigga (no I'm not looking up his name, fuck you) goes through this story arc where he goes from selling candy just like the white folk then, after he gets beat up in a group home, shows up like a season later as a hard as steel nigga.
That's a liberal fantasy that niggers becomes niggers through a broken system instead of them being retarded niggers by birth.
One annoying thing that doesn't get brought up is how the lil hustlin nigga (no I'm not looking up his name, fuck you) goes through this story arc where he goes from selling candy just like the white folk then, after he gets beat up in a group home, shows up like a season later as a hard as steel nigga.
That's a liberal fantasy that niggers becomes niggers through a broken system instead of them being retarded niggers by birth.
TheHarbinger
kiwifarms.net
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- Mar 22, 2022
There's a lot of nigger worship on The Wire. Like where the dumb White security guard can't solve the crossword puzzle. But the intelligent nigger character, who is a career drug robber, knows the names of the Greek and Roman Gods and Goddesses. When in reality he'd be illiterate and beyond stupid. Or the White cop turned teacher needs the nigger orphan of drug addicts to instruct him how to use a computer. Or the dumb White cop can't solve a major homicide but the nigger dyke rookie female solves the crime by simply visiting the scene and tracing the bullet trajectories.
This was one of the biggest criticism of The Wire when it first aired. How every single nigger murderer is simply excused for their crimes because "the system made them into criminals". And none of them are ever held accountable. Nothing is their fault. David Simon used to rage on his blog over this often whenever some big race related crime became a talking point in the news media.
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2018
All in the game.
Gravityqueen4life
kiwifarms.net
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- May 29, 2019
yeah, i felt that too. Its like the writers wanted Stringer to be a sophisticated master mind and not a above average intelligent thug that let his ego get the better of him. He was a big fish in a small pond but as soon as he wanted to go to a bigger pond and play with the bigger fishes, he got played himself.
Now Marlo, was a gary-stu through and through but atleast he got the ending he deserved. Not what he wanted.
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- Joined
- Sep 28, 2022
marlo and stringers respective endings are like mirror images of each other
stringer wanted so bad to get out of the game with a pile of money that he got himself killed over it.
meanwhile marlo never wanted out, but got forced out by the plea deal. he got everything stringer dreamed of, without having to try at all, but it's worthless to him because all he ever cared about was the game and the street cred, and that is now lost to him.
TheHarbinger
kiwifarms.net
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- Mar 22, 2022
Marlo and Omar as well. Their names are anagrams as well. Marlo and Omar L(ittle). Marlo wants to be the kingpin for the street fame. In the end he's walking the streets and all anyone is talking about is how Omar was surrounded by 50 guys with AK-47s and still kept fighting. Meanwhile Omar died by a little kid. Marlo though is a kingpin who beat the police out of murder charges and no one even cares and the corner dealers he fights don't even recognize him. He walks up to them and says "do you know who I am?" and they don't even know Marlo.