# The Wire



## Nixon (Feb 2, 2010)

After years of my two good mates telling me to watch that bloody series I finally figured out what all the fuss is about  Finished Season 4 last night.I did like 6 episodes last night.Sometimes I put on The Wire before i've even got out of my bed or made my morning joint  And im not a tv person..but it's the only series that seems to hit every angle for me.
Any other urbanite fans? Why is it so good? Favourite characters?


----------



## tar1984 (Feb 2, 2010)

I've watched s1 through to s4, i've not gotten round to s5.  It is very good.


----------



## Griff (Feb 2, 2010)

http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=282745&highlight=wire

Errr...rather large thread on it here. 

Never seen it meself, mind.


----------



## Reno (Feb 2, 2010)

If you can be bothered to do a search, there are probably at least 50 threads on The Wire on here.


----------



## kained&able (Feb 2, 2010)

Best show ever.

END OF.


dave


----------



## Nixon (Feb 2, 2010)

Cheers for the linky..That search function never works for me


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 2, 2010)

never heard of it


----------



## London_Calling (Feb 2, 2010)

Decent band.


----------



## the button (Feb 2, 2010)

The free CDs are good sometimes, but I preferred it when it was just about modern jazz.


----------



## HobgoblinMan (Feb 2, 2010)

It's not as good as Dark Angel.


----------



## Belushi (Feb 2, 2010)

Second best series ever after the Shield, but then I'm a shaven headed white man.


----------



## bendeus (Feb 2, 2010)

Blew me away. As you say, hits on pretty much every level.

Decent British showing in the cast, too


----------



## HobgoblinMan (Feb 3, 2010)

bendeus said:


> Blew me away. As you say, *hits on pretty much every level.*
> 
> Decent British showing in the cast, too



Not many lol's though.


----------



## Cpatain Rbubish (Feb 3, 2010)

It's addictive as fuck  Just started to watch it all from the beginning again


----------



## ATOMIC SUPLEX (Feb 3, 2010)

Nixon said:


> Any other urbanite fans?



No, everyone else here hates it.


----------



## Mab (Feb 3, 2010)

Yes yes yes, fantastic series.  I try to inform my "fellow Canadians" how America has ripped off and dumbed down the British material they have stolen. Watch the real thing. It is so frustrating, but again, another brilliant program.


----------



## JDM (Feb 3, 2010)

Nixon said:


> I did like 6 episodes last night.



I got into it last year... Had to watch it in binges of five or six episodes too!

Might watch the entire series again... Maybe drinking when McNulty drinks. Yeah, the wire pissed sounds like a good idea.


----------



## kyser_soze (Feb 3, 2010)

Mad Men is better.


----------



## Idris2002 (Feb 3, 2010)

kyser_soze said:


> Mad Men is better.



No. No it's not.


----------



## Crispy (Feb 3, 2010)

fight


----------



## skyscraper101 (Feb 3, 2010)

Brookside is better.


----------



## kyser_soze (Feb 3, 2010)

Yes. Yes it is.


----------



## sojourner (Feb 3, 2010)

skyscraper101 said:


> Brookside is better.



Only early Brooky though - back when we had Ba and Te, and our Sheila


----------



## skyscraper101 (Feb 3, 2010)

sojourner said:


> Only early Brooky though - back when we had Ba and Te, and our Sheila



oh aye, and Harry Cross. He was the original badman.


----------



## Superdupastupor (Feb 3, 2010)

Belushi said:


> Second best series ever after the Shield, but then I'm a shaven headed white man.



Good: someone else from the same school of thought as me. 

Mackey ftw


----------



## Spion (Feb 3, 2010)

kyser_soze said:


> Mad Men is better.


just started watching that. Two episodes and I'm finding it hard to like anyone in it or be very intrigued as to what will happen. I'll persist tho


----------



## twister (Feb 3, 2010)

*tenuous*


----------



## kyser_soze (Feb 3, 2010)

Spion said:


> just started watching that. Two episodes and I'm finding it hard to like anyone in it



It wouldn't surprise me if you found anyone to 'like' in it. Doesn't stop it being a better drama than The Wire IMO.


----------



## goldenecitrone (Feb 3, 2010)

Series 6 was the best tv ever. Why they only let a small number of elite viewers get hold of copies before burning the rest will always be a mystery to me. Omar's twin brother was just amazing in that.


----------



## Spion (Feb 3, 2010)

kyser_soze said:


> It wouldn't surprise me if you found anyone to 'like' in it. Doesn't stop it being a better drama than The Wire IMO.


Interesting. Why do you think it's 'a better drama'? Actually don't answer that unless you can do so without spoilers


----------



## twister (Feb 3, 2010)

goldenecitrone said:


> Series 6 was the best tv ever. Why they only let a small number of elite viewers get hold of copies before burning the rest will always be a mystery to me. Omar's twin brother was just amazing in that.


----------



## kyser_soze (Feb 3, 2010)

Spion said:


> Interesting. Why do you think it's 'a better drama'? Actually don't answer that unless you can do so without spoilers



It has all the same qualities as The Wire, but doesn't rely on any (familiar) character or situational tropes. The Wire, for all it's genius, is still a cop show. Also, there is this thing called 'Season 5' of The Wire which IMO trashed the series. I wasn't the biggest fan of S4, but S5 was just by-the-numbers pish.

I'll be honest, because of the characters, the period, the setting, I'd be very surprised if MM is liked by as many on here as The Wire.


----------



## London_Calling (Feb 3, 2010)

kyser_soze said:


> Also, there is this thing called 'Season 5' of The Wire which IMO trashed the series. I wasn't the biggest fan of S4, but S5 was just by-the-numbers pish.


"Fuck the casual viewer"

I thought it was the least precious work and the finest piece of realised irony I've ever seen. Poss the most ambitious as well.

 More generally, I thought it  completed the  season, muliti-season and character arcs very well.


----------



## kyser_soze (Feb 3, 2010)

S5 was unsubtle, painted-by-numbers rubbish compared to the rest of the series. Ambitious? Nothing like as ambitious as the first 3 seasons. It's nothing to do with being precious, it just wasn't that good.


----------



## London_Calling (Feb 3, 2010)

You're entitled to your view of course but, as a factual point, the overt story arc was subtle because all the TV reviewers and Wire pundits missed it. And it wasn't obtuse either. They had no chance with any subtext.


----------



## Nanker Phelge (Feb 3, 2010)

Season 5 stinks. Stop now while you still believe it's great.


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Feb 3, 2010)

Season 2 is passable.


----------



## Nanker Phelge (Feb 3, 2010)

I really liked Season 2. Taking it completely away from Season 1 was brave and as a police procedural it was a great, straight forward storytelling.


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Feb 3, 2010)

Not to mention that as they roll the credits on the final episode, they break into a great Steve Earle song that got me to go and get reacquainted with his music.


----------



## Yuwipi Woman (Feb 3, 2010)

Johnny Canuck2 said:


> Season 2 is passable.



A bit OT, but thanks for the recommendation of Deadwood*.  It's like profane, fucking Shakespeare.  Love the iambic pentameter dialogue.


* I started with Season 3 because I could get a copy at the library.


----------



## Nanker Phelge (Feb 3, 2010)

I went to see Steve Earle one evening only to be surrounded by middle aged old cunts (say, Nanker Phelge 38!) with cameras who spent the whole gig filming him and not watching, listening...I had to leave because the cameras were bigger than the applause.


----------



## London_Calling (Feb 3, 2010)

Yuwipi Woman said:


> A bit OT, but thanks for the recommendation of Deadwood*.  It's like profane, fucking Shakespeare.  Love the iambic pentameter dialogue.
> 
> 
> * I started with Season 3 because I could get a copy at the library.


How are you going to do it - assuming you're tacking The Wire, Deadwood and The Sopranos?

Agree, the dialogue in Deadwood is extraordinary. Difficult to imagine anything better than Milch's writing.


----------



## Yuwipi Woman (Feb 3, 2010)

London_Calling said:


> How are you going to do it - assuming you're tacking The Wire, Deadwood and The Sopranos?
> 
> Agree, the dialogue in Deadwood is extraordinary. Difficult to imagine anything better than Milch's writing.



I put item holds on various DVDs at the library.  I can only watch them in the order they're returned.  I'm used to this, so I won't have any trouble figuring out the story arc when I'm done.


----------



## London_Calling (Feb 3, 2010)

It's a great shame if you're not looking at them in order.


----------



## Nanker Phelge (Feb 3, 2010)

London_Calling said:


> Difficult to imagine anything better than Milch's writing.



The dialogue in Deadwood is fucking biblical. No modern show has commanded language like it.


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Feb 4, 2010)

Yuwipi Woman said:


> A bit OT, but thanks for the recommendation of Deadwood*.  It's like profane, fucking Shakespeare.  Love the iambic pentameter dialogue.
> 
> 
> * I started with Season 3 because I could get a copy at the library.



Yeah, the shakespeare thing came to me, too.


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Feb 4, 2010)

London_Calling said:


> It's a great shame if you're not looking at them in order.



I agree. I'd think you only get the full impact, the subtle, delicious buildup of character, of tension, going through it in sequence.

For example, how can you understand Swearingen without first getting the totally loathsome side presented in the early episodes, only to have his humanity slowly revealed.


----------



## goldenecitrone (Feb 4, 2010)

I am just reading the book David Simon wrote after spending a year with the Baltimore Homicide squad and it's very apparent that the people he wrote best in the Wire were the police as he had characters to base them on having hung out with them and got to know them. The dealers and the gangs are obviously more ficticious and cartoonlike as he had to let his imagination run far freer with them.


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Feb 4, 2010)

goldenecitrone said:


> I am just reading the book David Simon wrote after spending a year with the Baltimore Homicide squad and it's very apparent that the people he wrote best in the Wire were the police as he had characters to base them on having hung out with them and got to know them. The dealers and the gangs are obviously more ficticious and cartoonlike as he had to let his imagination run far freer with them.



I think the people he wrote best were the news people in the newsroom, and maybe the dockworkers, because that's something he knew about. Moving out one circle to the white cops, the cartoonishness begins. The next circle is the black cops, and the outer circle of cartoon hell, is the black street people.


----------



## Nanker Phelge (Feb 4, 2010)

The white cops where comical. McNulty was a joke all the way through....not helped by fairly poor acting.

The Season 2 and Season 4 characters were by far the most interesting and believable...even those that were annoying and patheic (ziggy!).

Bunk, Bubs, Omar, Marlo, Lester, Carver, Chris, Snoop, Prop Joe, Brother M, Bunny Colvin, Norman Wilson, Cutty.....etc..etc..

These characters made the show for me....I wanted to know these people and never really found out anything much about them...yet still wanted to stay with them and go on that trip.


----------



## Clint Iguana (Feb 4, 2010)

Most excellent and most adicitve. I also ended up binge viewing, watched all the seasons in about two weeks flat. 

once you have finished that ... you need to do Simon and burns next project, generation kill


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Feb 4, 2010)

Nanker Phelge said:


> The white cops where comical. McNulty was a joke all the way through....not helped by fairly poor acting.
> 
> The Season 2 and Season 4 characters were by far the most interesting and believable...even those that were annoying and patheic (ziggy!).
> 
> ...



The problem for me, was that the back story of poverty and drugs in black urban centers, is an important story that needs telling in a serious, realistic and gripping manner. This series tried, but I think what ultimately sunk it, was the writer's preoccupation with the story of political and police corruption. If you do some background research, you see that the main characters even look like the real life people they're portraying. I think that the writer had an axe to grind, and the drug/street story was added almost as filler to his real purpose, to expose this story of Baltimore corruption.


----------



## DotCommunist (Feb 4, 2010)

corruption being entirely divorced from street crime in such an environs obv.

I still maintain that you only watched it to try poor trolls about it. 

That said, th re-watch where Omar jumps the stories is a bit much. And yet, apparently grounded irl


----------



## goldenecitrone (Feb 4, 2010)

Johnny Canuck2 said:


> The problem for me, was that the back story of poverty and drugs in black urban centers, is an important story that needs telling in a serious, realistic and gripping manner. This series tried, but I think what ultimately sunk it, was the writer's preoccupation with the story of political and police corruption. If you do some background research, you see that the main characters even look like the real life people they're portraying. I think that the writer had an axe to grind, and the drug/street story was added almost as filler to his real purpose, to expose this story of Baltimore corruption.



That other story would have to be told by somebody else. He could only write about what he knew as that is all writers can do.


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Feb 4, 2010)

DotCommunist said:


> .
> 
> I still maintain that you only watched it to try poor trolls about it.



Maintain whatever you'd like. It's a free country. 

I watched it to see what it was that so many people were waxing so ecstatic about. I'll admit that I had my suspicions from the outset, but it wasn't just because people said they liked it. People said they liked Deadwood, too. It was the _way_ they were talking.

I went into it with an open mind, which is why I considered Season 2 to be good tv.


----------



## The Octagon (Feb 4, 2010)

Johnny Canuck2 said:


> Maintain whatever you'd like. It's a free country.
> 
> I watched it to see what it was that so many people were waxing so ecstatic about. I'll admit that I had my suspicions from the outset, but it wasn't just because people said they liked it. *People said they liked Deadwood, too*. It was the _way_ they were talking.
> 
> I went into it with an open mind, which is why I considered Season 2 to be good tv.



Hang on, you didn't like Deadwood?

How can you not like Deadwood?


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Feb 4, 2010)

The Octagon said:


> Hang on, you didn't like Deadwood?
> 
> How can you not like Deadwood?



I loved deadwood. DC is saying that I was simply trying to troll about the wire, because of its popularity here. I was pointing out that deadwood was also liked.


----------



## The Octagon (Feb 4, 2010)

Johnny Canuck2 said:


> I loved deadwood. DC is saying that I was simply trying to troll about the wire, because of its popularity here. I was pointing out that deadwood was also liked.



Ah right.


----------



## Spion (Feb 4, 2010)

Johnny Canuck2 said:


> The problem for me, was that the back story of poverty and drugs in black urban centers, is an important story that needs telling in a serious, realistic and gripping manner. This series tried, but I think what ultimately sunk it, was the writer's preoccupation with the story of political and police corruption. If you do some background research, you see that the main characters even look like the real life people they're portraying. I think that the writer had an axe to grind, and the drug/street story was added almost as filler to his real purpose, to expose this story of Baltimore corruption.


I think it's good that he had an axe to grind. I don't think there's been a TV series that disected and laid bare the connections in the society of a single city like the Wire did.

Sure, there were lows, but on the whole for me it was a landmark in TV.


----------



## Spion (Feb 4, 2010)

kyser_soze said:


> It has all the same qualities as The Wire, but doesn't rely on any (familiar) character or situational tropes. The Wire, for all it's genius, is still a cop show. Also, there is this thing called 'Season 5' of The Wire which IMO trashed the series. I wasn't the biggest fan of S4, but S5 was just by-the-numbers pish.
> 
> I'll be honest, because of the characters, the period, the setting, I'd be very surprised if MM is liked by as many on here as The Wire.


OK, I'm intrigued now after watching e3. Draper has a hidden past, he and his wife are going mad and the sexual tension/repression is incredible.

It's a slow burner compared to the Wire, there's less packed into it, less to try and understand


----------



## kyser_soze (Feb 4, 2010)

DD is a...complex...person, to say the very least.

You're right about it being a slow burner compared to The Wire tho.


----------



## BlackArab (Feb 4, 2010)

Johnny Canuck2 said:


> The problem for me, was that the back story of poverty and drugs in black urban centers, is an important story that needs telling in a serious, realistic and gripping manner.




JC have you seen _The Corner_? might explain why they didn't go in-depth this time around.


----------



## Crispy (Feb 4, 2010)

he doesn't like that either


----------



## BlackArab (Feb 4, 2010)

Johnny Canuck2 said:


> If you do some background research, you see that the main characters even look like the real life people they're portraying.



Very true also for Generation Kill.


----------



## BlackArab (Feb 4, 2010)

Crispy said:


> he doesn't like that either



There's no pleasing some..


----------



## krtek a houby (Feb 4, 2010)

kyser_soze said:


> It wouldn't surprise me if you found anyone to 'like' in it. Doesn't stop it being a better drama than The Wire IMO.



I watched 3 eps; desperately wanted to like it but didn't. Also tried Deadwood, West Wing and didn't get them, either 

Current faves - Being Human, True Blood, Law & Order SVU, Sons of Anarchy.

The Wire was simply incredible & at last George P Pelecanos is getting the recognition he deserves after his association with writing duties.


----------



## krtek a houby (Feb 4, 2010)

BlackArab said:


> JC have you seen _The Corner_? might explain why they didn't go in-depth this time around.



No spoilers, man - I have that still to watch!


----------



## Yuwipi Woman (Feb 4, 2010)

Johnny Canuck2 said:


> I loved deadwood. DC is saying that I was simply trying to troll about the wire, because of its popularity here. I was pointing out that deadwood was also liked.



I was suprised I liked the series because I really hate the town itself.  Deadwood (the town) is like one of those species of moth that lays its eggs inside a catapiller.  They grow in there until there's nothing left but an empty husk.


----------



## belboid (Feb 4, 2010)

BlackArab said:


> JC have you seen _The Corner_? might explain why they didn't go in-depth this time around.



I wouldn't be too bothereed, JC2 has  a bit of history of talking absolute shite re The Wire, last time (when he tried to make out it was clearly racist, and got torn a new one for his troubles) he just came out with a load of crap, was made to admit that most of it was crap, and then repeated it all again anyway!  Pisspoor trolling.


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Feb 4, 2010)

Crispy said:


> he doesn't like that either



Interesting............given that I've never seen it.


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Feb 4, 2010)

belboid said:


> I wouldn't be too bothereed, JC2 has  a bit of history of talking absolute shite re The Wire, last time (when he tried to make out it was clearly racist, and got torn a new one for his troubles) he just came out with a load of crap, was made to admit that most of it was crap, and then repeated it all again anyway!  Pisspoor trolling.



The human memory is a wondrous instrument to behold.


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Feb 4, 2010)




----------



## Nanker Phelge (Feb 4, 2010)

I loved the Wire. It was great TV. I never felt it to be as fantastic as some would suggest. I feel both The Sopranos and Deadwood were better shows, but in truth, the three of them together are the pinnacle of television drama and great character driven stories.

I felt the Wire was let down by some of the performances, and some scenes were clearly plonked in to move the plot along, but when it was great it was as good as any other show.

Season 5 really wasnt very good...but it still had enough.

Having just started watching Homicide, I'm prone to thinking that it's a much braver and smarter show than The Wire given when it was aired and how great the characters and acting are in it, and the restrictions placed upon it because it's on network TV. The characters are far more rounded, the tragedy of their day to day lives far better presented and the cast filled by superior acting talent.

I think the Wire might come to be considered over-rated...despite all the great things it has going for it.


----------



## MightyAphrodite (Feb 4, 2010)

Orang Utan said:


> never heard of it





kyser_soze said:


> Mad Men is better.





Idris2002 said:


> No. No it's not.





Crispy said:


> fight


----------



## Reno (Feb 5, 2010)

belboid said:


> I wouldn't be too bothereed, JC2 has  a bit of history of talking absolute shite re The Wire, last time (when he tried to make out it was clearly racist, and got torn a new one for his troubles) he just came out with a load of crap, was made to admit that most of it was crap, and then repeated it all again anyway!  Pisspoor trolling.



So nothing has changed then.


----------



## Bunjaj Pali (Feb 5, 2010)

Johnny Canuck2 said:


> I think the people he wrote best were the news people in the newsroom, and maybe the dockworkers, because that's something he knew about. Moving out one circle to the white cops, the cartoonishness begins. The next circle is the black cops, and the outer circle of cartoon hell, is the black street people.



Well I've never hung out with black drug runners and gang members on the streets of Baltimore so I may be naive, but they didn't seem at all cartoonish to me. It all seemed _very_ fucking real, which is what made it so compelling. Admittedly the more outlandish characters like Omar and Brother Mouzone were a little cartoonish but fuck it, a series so consistently good for 4 seasons needs a bit of dramatic licence. I also loved the Shield but I think that was, in comparison, cartoonish. The characters had nowhere near the depth or nuance and the acting was well dodgy. I mean Walton Goggins even looks like a cartoon







fucking great TV though. 

S5 of the Wire was disappointing. I just wasn't interested in the newspaper people. S3, IMO, was the daddy.


----------



## London_Calling (Feb 5, 2010)

If there's one person whe doesn't know what he's writing about it's our trolling twat from the frozen north.

JC - When you can quote black people from Baltimore who don't think it's authentic you have an argument, in the mean time I'll take the word of the hundreds of blacks and black Baltimoreans posting on the Wire message boards and The Wire Facebook pages, etc. - as well as that of 'real' people in the show like Melvin Williamns and Felicia Pearson, all of whom share the same opinion.

As usual, you're full of shit.


----------



## BlackArab (Feb 5, 2010)

Johnny Canuck2 said:


> Interesting............given that I've never seen it.



I would recommend you checking it out. If this is what you want: _the back story of poverty and drugs in black urban centers, is an important story that needs telling in a serious, realistic and gripping manner._ The Corner delivers.


----------



## krtek a houby (Feb 5, 2010)

Bunjaj Pali said:


> I also loved the Shield but I think that was, in comparison, cartoonish. The characters had nowhere near the depth or nuance and the acting was well dodgy. I mean Walton Goggins even looks like a cartoon...  fucking great TV though.
> 
> S5 of the Wire was disappointing. I just wasn't interested in the newspaper people. S3, IMO, was the daddy.



Sr4, for me was the greatest. 

Shane may look a bit cartoonish and acted that way but by gosh, the ending was jaw dropping


----------



## The Octagon (Feb 5, 2010)

jer said:


> Sr4, for me was the greatest.
> 
> Shane may look a bit cartoonish and acted that way but by gosh, the ending was jaw dropping



No Spoilers! I've yet to start on S3 of The Shield.


----------



## krtek a houby (Feb 5, 2010)

The Octagon said:


> No Spoilers! I've yet to start on S3 of The Shield.



Lucky you. I won't say a word...


----------



## belboid (Feb 5, 2010)

there's so much to enjoy in s3, the moment when Vic finally comes out is a blinder


----------



## krtek a houby (Feb 5, 2010)

belboid said:


> there's so much to enjoy in s3, the moment when Vic finally comes out is a blinder


----------



## Nanker Phelge (Feb 5, 2010)

belboid said:


> there's so much to enjoy in s3, the moment when Vic finally comes out is a blinder



Yeah...but that scene with Walter Coggins tossing his salad left me feeling a bit odd.


----------



## Dillinger4 (Feb 5, 2010)

What is 'The Wire' all about then? People keep talking about it.


----------



## kained&able (Feb 5, 2010)

Not everybody some people still pretend they have never even heard of it trying to be cool. Even though they posted the same thing on every other wire thread there has been.


dave


----------



## Blagsta (Feb 5, 2010)

goldenecitrone said:


> I am just reading the book David Simon wrote after spending a year with the Baltimore Homicide squad and it's very apparent that the people he wrote best in the Wire were the police as he had characters to base them on having hung out with them and got to know them. The dealers and the gangs are obviously more ficticious and cartoonlike as he had to let his imagination run far freer with them.



Try reading The Corner.  They spent over a year hanging out with dealers and users in Baltimore.  A couple of the people in the corner ended up working on or being in The Wire.


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Feb 5, 2010)

London_Calling said:


> If there's one person whe doesn't know what he's writing about it's our trolling twat from the frozen north.
> 
> JC - When you can quote black people from Baltimore who don't think it's authentic you have an argument, in the mean time I'll take the word of the hundreds of blacks and black Baltimoreans posting on the Wire message boards and The Wire Facebook pages, etc. - as well as that of 'real' people in the show like Melvin Williamns and Felicia Pearson, all of whom share the same opinion.
> 
> As usual, you're full of shit.



Look: you needn't take it so personally that I don't like the Wire. Also, I don't think that the writer is very good with black characters. That's my opinion. What is it about that that makes you see red?


----------



## London_Calling (Feb 5, 2010)

I'm not getting involved with you, and I'm certainly  not falling for the old chestnut of turning it to be about me.

I refer you to the post you quoted and look forward to a response to the middle para.


----------



## Flashman (Feb 5, 2010)

Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeit


----------



## Flashman (Feb 5, 2010)

Johnny Canuck2 said:


> Also, I don't think that the writer is very good with black characters.





Some n00b _may_ go for that...

Anyway I'm starting again looking like it's a yearly thing, fucked it really though as I've lent out half the fucking series


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Feb 6, 2010)

Flashman said:


> Some n00b _may_ go for that...
> 
> Anyway I'm starting again looking like it's a yearly thing, fucked it really though as I've lent out half the fucking series



What is there to go for? Some of the more paranoid types seem to think that everything I type is part of some sort of nefarious plot...... Life's actually too short for that. What I've said, is my opinion about the Wire. It _is_ possible to hold this opinion, you know.


----------



## spring-peeper (Feb 6, 2010)




----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Feb 6, 2010)

London_Calling said:


> I'm not getting involved with you, and I'm certainly  not falling for the old chestnut of turning it to be about me.
> 
> I refer you to the post you quoted and look forward to a response to the middle para.



But my response sort of _is _about you....... 

You come on calling me names, so it makes me wonder, why is this person getting so hot under the collar about something so trivial. But I agree, best to just let it alone.


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Feb 6, 2010)

spring-peeper said:


>



Actually, 

I'm out of town, just had a nap and a shower, on my way to a nice dinner. Even the cold weather outside is kind of fun..... for a day or two.


----------



## Flashman (Feb 6, 2010)

Johnny Canuck2 said:


> What is there to go for? Some of the more paranoid types seem to think that everything I type is part of some sort of nefarious plot...... Life's actually too short for that. What I've said, is my opinion about the Wire. It _is_ possible to hold this opinion, you know.



It is possible of course, but similarly with Dwyer, it's all a bit "the boy who cried wolf" isn't it.

I, and countless others, don't believe a fucking word either of you say. Which is, at the back of it all, a shame really, but you've made your bed...


----------



## spring-peeper (Feb 6, 2010)

.


----------



## spanglechick (Feb 6, 2010)

kyser_soze said:


> Mad Men is better.





Idris2002 said:


> No. No it's not.



more humour in the wire.  unless you envy don draper's aesthetic etc (and weird as it is, i have to accept not everyone does), there's little by way of cool character to be rooting for.

that said, Madmen has better writing, design and direction - and is a more creative piece of dramamaking.

and if you do love the aesthetic, it's no less than hypnotic.  I lo ve MAd Men more than the wire, but i'd recommend the wire to more people (and true blood to even more than that).

i sent season one of Mad men to my mum.  thought she'd like it being born in the mid forties.  dunno yet whether she liked itthat said, .


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Feb 6, 2010)

Flashman said:


> It is possible of course, but similarly with Dwyer, it's all a bit "the boy who cried wolf" isn't it.
> 
> I, and countless others, don't believe a fucking word either of you say. Which is, at the back of it all, a shame really, but you've made your bed...



Flashman doesn't believe a word I say. 

Life as I know it is over.


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Feb 6, 2010)

Maybe this is the problem. You're sitting there in your housing, and you're a drug user? And this show comes on, and it's Baltimore, and it's so cool with  the hoamees, and it doesn't matter if you can't understand the dialogue, that just gives it more grit , and it's like, unity between people, here and there, and you're a part of it, and like, life is just so hard. 

And who am I to come in between this level of unity? If people are grooving with the bros, it can only be a good thing.


----------



## DotCommunist (Feb 6, 2010)

heh, some of us are young enough to have grown up on a diet of naughty hip hop and and police dramas.

Sorry dude, you are simply to old to understand how the kids get it


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Feb 6, 2010)

DotCommunist said:


> heh, some of us are young enough to have grown up on a diet of naughty hip hop and and police dramas.
> 
> Sorry dude, you are simply to old to understand how the kids get it



  The guy who wrote the show, the guy who wrote the words that come out of the mouths of the cool black street people, is a white guy around my age, born in 1960, long before hip hop was invented.

I saw the actor who played Avon Barksdale, in some other drama. He was of average or better acting ability. I'd wondered if the acting in the wire was the fault of the actors or the writers. Seeing this guy in another drama, answered that question for me.


----------



## London_Calling (Feb 6, 2010)

Johnny Canuck2 said:


> The guy who wrote the show, the guy who wrote the words that come out of the mouths of the cool black street people, is a white guy around my age, born in 1960, long before hip hop was invented.


The first level of ignorance is in using the faux description  "the guy who wrote the show": The choices are either that 'the guy' is the show runner, that he shaped the story arc - the story guy, or he wrote the episide teleplay. These are separate jobs though one person may do more than one.

The second level of ignorance is to iassume David Simon wrote each teleplay when he wrote perhaps 30%, including only the first and last of S5.

The third level of ignorance is to assume steet 'consultants' weren't used at every stage of the writing process.

The fourth level of  ignorance is what I've already mentioned, I've seen  no criticism from anywhere in the black community whether in Baltimore or more generally - and we're still waiting for your examples, asked for now for the third time.

You'll notice each of those refers to straight forward factual inaccuracies.


----------



## Reno (Feb 6, 2010)

spanglechick said:


> more humour in the wire.  unless you envy don draper's aesthetic etc (and weird as it is, i have to accept not everyone does), there's little by way of cool character to be rooting for.
> 
> that said, Madmen has better writing, design and direction - and is a more creative piece of dramamaking.
> 
> ...



There is some very dark humor in Mad Men which is to be gotten out of certain attitudes of that period, but otherwise I agree with you. I don't actually see how the two shows could compare, they are completely different apart from that they both are first rate US drama shows. 

The Wire's achievement was that it got me interested in characters and subject matter I generally have no interest in. Mad Men deals with things that are already close to me, like old movies, an approach to period drama that follows the quote "the past as another country", 60s rather than ghetto cool, mid-20th century design. Betty Draper making yet another entrance looking dazzling in a Grace Kelly/Tippi Hedren way just get's me more excited than another gangland killing.


----------



## goldenecitrone (Feb 6, 2010)

Blagsta said:


> Try reading The Corner.  They spent over a year hanging out with dealers and users in Baltimore.  A couple of the people in the corner ended up working on or being in The Wire.



Forgot about that one. So that's where he got his other side of the dialogue from. May give it a go after I've finished with the Pregnant Widow.


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Feb 6, 2010)

London_Calling said:


> The first level of ignorance is in using the faux description  "the guy who wrote the show": The choices are either that 'the guy' is the show runner, that he shaped the story arc - the story guy, or he wrote the episide teleplay. These are separate jobs though one person may do more than one.
> .



Simon was the executive producer, head writer, and show runner. The show is his baby, and his vision and direction will inform every episode, and all that occurs within.




> The fourth level of  ignorance is what I've already mentioned, I've seen  no criticism from anywhere in the black community whether in Baltimore or more generally - and we're still waiting for your examples, asked for now for the third time.



Back when I cared enough to do so, I researched the makeup of the Wire's audience. Although it wasn't nonexistent, a black viewership was notably absent. In fact, a viewership was notably absent. The show received poor ratings.


----------



## belboid (Feb 6, 2010)

your 'research' was quickly shown to be ill-informed bollocks tho JC. Utterly worthless


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Feb 6, 2010)

belboid said:


> your 'research' was quickly shown to be ill-informed bollocks tho JC. Utterly worthless



Perhaps in your recollection. 

Given that you responded within two or three minutes, it means you didn't have time to go back and review the old thread, meaning that you're going by memory, about a thread more than a year old.


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 6, 2010)

Johnny Canuck2 said:


> The guy who wrote the show, the guy who wrote the words that come out of the mouths of the cool black street people, is a white guy around my age, born in 1960, long before hip hop was invented.
> 
> I saw the actor who played Avon Barksdale, in some other drama. He was of average or better acting ability. I'd wondered if the acting in the wire was the fault of the actors or the writers. Seeing this guy in another drama, answered that question for me.


i've seen him playing hendrix in some tv biopic on youtube - not good!


----------



## belboid (Feb 6, 2010)

Johnny Canuck2 said:


> Perhaps in your recollection.
> 
> Given that you responded within two or three minutes, it means you didn't have time to go back and review the old thread, meaning that you're going by memory, about a thread more than a year old.



well your attempts to justify your argument were spectacularly awful.  dismissing the superbowl as a minor game


----------



## Nanker Phelge (Feb 6, 2010)

Johnny Canuck2 said:


> In fact, a viewership was notably absent. The show received poor ratings.



It was getting around 4.4million viewers across all HBO Platforms up until Season 5...which had around 3.4 million for the first Episode.

This quickly tailed off to under a million per Episode (around the 800,000 mark).

Additional viewers caught up via HBO's on demand services, which for the final season was 5 times as many as previous Season.

In short viewers began to access the show in different ways.

I suspect it had also picked up a lot of viewers via DVD.

I never saw it on TV.....and have stopped watching any news shows as they air.


----------



## Yossarian (Feb 6, 2010)

London_Calling said:


> The fourth level of  ignorance is what I've already mentioned, I've seen  no criticism from anywhere in the black community whether in Baltimore or more generally



Has JC2 been expelled from the black community or something? 

The Wire's a great show and fine entertainment but you seem to have mistaken it for a documentary.


----------



## Yossarian (Feb 6, 2010)

Stuff White People Like #85: The Wire

_For the past three years, whenever you say “The Wire” white people are required to respond by saying “it’s the best show on television.” Try it the next time you see a white person! Though now they might say “it WAS the best show on television.”

So why do they love it so much? It all comes down to authenticity. A long time ago, someone started a rumor that when The Wire is on TV, actual police wires go quiet because all the dealers are watching the show. Though this is not true, it seems plausible enough to white people and has imbued the show with the needed authenticity to be deemed acceptable

If you need to impress a white person, tell them you are from Baltimore. They will immediately ask you about The Wire and how accurate it is. You should confirm that it is “like a documentary of the streets,” the white person will then slowly shake their head and say “man” or “wow.” You will be seen in an entirely new light.
_

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/03/09/85-the-wire/


----------



## Reno (Feb 6, 2010)

Yossarian said:


> If you need to impress a white person, tell them you are from Baltimore. They will immediately ask you about The Wire and how accurate it is.




...unless they are a white gay person. In which case they will immediately ask you about John Waters (Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble, Hairspray) and how accurate it is.


----------



## Nanker Phelge (Feb 6, 2010)

Reno said:


> ...unless they are a white gay person. In which case they will immediately ask you about John Waters (Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble, Hairspray) and how accurate it is.



Before I watched The Wire I thought all men in Baltimore dressed like this...


----------



## Dillinger4 (Feb 6, 2010)

I would like to see a collaboration between John Waters and David Simon.


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Feb 6, 2010)

belboid said:


> dismissing the superbowl as a minor game



Are we talking about the same thread?


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 6, 2010)

Reno said:


> ...unless they are a white gay person. In which case they will immediately ask you about John Waters (Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble, Hairspray) and how accurate it is.



he's in homicide a couple of times as a barman


----------



## Reno (Feb 6, 2010)

Waters is a fan on the Wire and he turns up on some of the extras on The Wire DVDs in interviews.


----------



## Idris2002 (Feb 6, 2010)

Yossarian said:


> Stuff White People Like #85: The Wire
> 
> _For the past three years, whenever you say “The Wire” white people are required to respond by saying “it’s the best show on television.” Try it the next time you see a white person! Though now they might say “it WAS the best show on television.”
> 
> ...



Someone needs to take the wee lad who does 'Stuff White People Like' aside and tell him 'dude, don't be a hater'.


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 6, 2010)

Dillinger4 said:


> I would like to see a collaboration between John Waters and David Simon.



see my post above - it's already happened to a degree


----------



## Nanker Phelge (Feb 6, 2010)

Orang Utan said:


> he's in homicide a couple of times as a barman



Yeah....I've started watching that and spotted him for the first time the other day.....It was quite odd.

In truth, I think I'm more fond of Homicide and it's characters than the Wire.


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Feb 6, 2010)

Dillinger4 said:


> I would like to see a collaboration between John Waters and David Simon.



It might end up looking something like this scene from Pink Flamingos.


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 6, 2010)

Reno said:


> ...unless they are a white gay person.



and if they are a black gay person, a crass person would ask them if they walk about the neighbourhood in their jimjams, whilst toting a shotgun.


----------



## Nanker Phelge (Feb 6, 2010)

Here's an interesting thing I just found from the NY Times - What do real thugs think of the Wire:

It's in lots of parts and I've only just found it - so here's part 1 and 2 - enjoy...or not: 

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/09/what-do-real-thugs-think-of-the-wire/

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/18/what-do-real-thugs-think-of-the-wire-part-two/


----------



## 8den (Feb 6, 2010)

Johnny Canuck2 said:


> Simon was the executive producer, head writer, and show runner. The show is his baby, and his vision and direction will inform every episode, and all that occurs within.
> 
> 
> 
> ...





Yeah right, there was a guardian article a few years back where it was stated by a couple of Baltimore heads who basically said "the only thing unrealistic thing about the Wire, is that you don't see anyone watching the wire". 

And yes the Wire had poor ratings, but that doesn't mean squat about the quality of the program.


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Feb 6, 2010)

8den said:


> And yes the Wire had poor ratings, but that doesn't mean squat about the quality of the program.



Of course not. It just means that the average person didn't watch it, but it is still of course available for appreciation by the intelligentsia, the cognoscenti, and the literati.


----------



## Reno (Feb 6, 2010)

Johnny Canuck2 said:


> It might end up looking something like this scene from Pink Flamingos.



Yup, because David Simon is well known for his interest in sex scenes involving chickens. 

I think it would be more like Omar Little and Dawn Davenport going on a murderous rampage together.


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 6, 2010)

Johnny Canuck2 said:


> Of course not. It just means that the average person didn't watch it, but it is still of course available for appreciation by the intelligentsia, the cognoscenti, and the literati.



what exactly is your point?


----------



## Blagsta (Feb 6, 2010)

Nanker Phelge said:


> I never saw it on TV.....and have stopped watching any news shows as they air.



Me neither.  First started watching on DVD from lovefilm.com after seeing it praised in The Guardian in 2004.  Then torrented it.


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Feb 6, 2010)

Reno said:


> Yup, because David Simon is well known for his interest in sex scenes involving chickens.
> 
> I think it would be more like Omar Little and Dawn Davenport going on a murderous rampage together.



I think John Waters would try to slip an interspecies sex scene in there somewhere, betwixt all that ghetto gore...


----------



## Reno (Feb 8, 2010)

Last Friday's Front Row on radio 4 had an interesting item on casting non-actors, much of it revolving around The Wire. It's still on iplayer/listen again. I didn't know that the girl who played Snoop had killed someone for real.


----------



## DotCommunist (Feb 8, 2010)

I loved snoop. Last words asking how her hair looked. Also for demolishing the accuracy drive-by shooting 'In B-more we aim to hit a nigga'


----------



## belboid (Feb 8, 2010)

Johnny Canuck2 said:


> Are we talking about the same thread?



absolutely.  I can hardly blame you for wiping it from your memory tho (and, to be fair, it _might_ have been the championship game, i cant remember now)


----------



## kyser_soze (Feb 8, 2010)

Yesterday's Observer Review had an article on Idriss Elba's musical project...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/jan/24/idris-elba-interview-the-wire


----------



## DotCommunist (Feb 8, 2010)

I really wish Driss the Londoners music was not shit. But it is.


----------



## Madusa (Feb 8, 2010)

i watched 2 episodes of The Corner...not feeling it. Does it get better?


----------



## BlackArab (Feb 9, 2010)

Nanker Phelge said:


> Here's an interesting thing I just found from the NY Times - What do real thugs think of the Wire:
> 
> It's in lots of parts and I've only just found it - so here's part 1 and 2 - enjoy...or not:
> 
> ...



Thanks for posting that, a truly fascinating read!


----------



## BlackArab (Feb 9, 2010)

Johnny Canuck2 said:


> Back when I cared enough to do so, I researched the makeup of the Wire's audience. Although it wasn't nonexistent, a black viewership was notably absent. In fact, a viewership was notably absent. The show received poor ratings.



I'm struggling with this one, why wouldnt black people watch the Wire? Not something I've pick up over here. Like someone else pointed out most people I know watched the box sets as it was first shown here on cable and quite late in the evening at that.


----------



## BlackArab (Feb 9, 2010)

DotCommunist said:


> I loved snoop. Last words asking how her hair looked.



That scene was definitely one of my favourites and demonstrated the strength of the writing, imo.


----------



## BlackArab (Feb 9, 2010)

Madusa said:


> i watched 2 episodes of The Corner...not feeling it. Does it get better?



Yep


----------



## Madusa (Feb 9, 2010)

watched the ''Fran's Blues'' episode yesterday and quite enjoyed that. It's coming together but there's only so much you can achieve in 6 episodes.


----------



## BlackArab (Feb 9, 2010)

Madusa said:


> watched the ''Fran's Blues'' episode yesterday and quite enjoyed that. It's coming together but there's only so much you can achieve in 6 episodes.



I'm glad you liked it. You're right about its limits, I'd guess thats why they expanded the theme and tried to cover more bases in The Wire.

Trivia: The real DeAndre McCullough plays Brother Mouzone's sidekick in The Wire (yes, I should get out more )


----------



## Badgers (Sep 24, 2010)

Was sure I saw Idris Elba (Stringer Bell) in London just recently.


----------



## kained&able (Sep 24, 2010)

Badgers said:


> Was sure I saw Idris Elba (Stringer Bell) in London just recently.


 
wouldn't be shocked thinks he is about for a film festival thingy at the minute.


----------



## Badgers (Sep 24, 2010)

kained&able said:


> wouldn't be shocked thinks he is about for a film festival thingy at the minute.


 
He is pretty unmistakable isn't he? 
I have been accused of seeing things/people before but I was really sure. 

Not an intimidating man I am sure, but for some reason I felt less inclined to say hello to him than I did when I saw Sandi Toksvig last week.


----------



## strung out (Sep 24, 2010)

just try imagining his character from family affairs as opposed to stringer bell






see? not scary at all.


----------



## Badgers (Sep 24, 2010)

strung out said:


> see? not scary at all.



That works for me.... 

I enjoyed (enjoying still) The Wire greatly so would have liked to say cheers or something. Not actually scared of the man just try to avoid saying hello to people who don't know me and I am not 100% on who they are in public places. Perhaps I am timid or shy or something?


----------



## Reno (Sep 24, 2010)

Not having a go or anything, but I don't understand why people feel the need to say hello to every famous person they see. I'd never do it, just out of respect for other peoples privacy. Imagine it the other way round, having total strangers come up to you every five minutes while you are trying to get on with stuff.


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 24, 2010)

i don't get it either - there's nothing to say to them, so why bother?


----------



## Badgers (Sep 24, 2010)

Reno said:


> Not having a go or anything, but I don't understand why people feel the need to say hello to every famous person they see. I'd never do it, just out of respect for other peoples privacy. Imagine it the other way round, having people come up to you every five minutes while you are trying to get on with stuff.



I saw Lionel Blair once and said fuck all 

If I like someone's work then I smile and thank them. 
Not stalking, not after an autograph, not swooning all over people.


----------



## JWH (Sep 24, 2010)

Reno said:


> I'd never do it, just out of respect for other peoples privacy. Imagine it the other way round, having people come up to you every five minutes while you are trying to get on with stuff.


 
I think it depends on who it is. Saying hello to someone just because they're famous is a bit lame but you might see someone whose writing/music/work/whatever has really inspired or interested you. I think it would be fair enough to go and say hi for ten seconds so long as you didn't bother them when they had a mouthful of sandwich and took the hint to fuck off if they obviously didn't want to engage. 

Aren't actors and performers mostly massive attention whores anyway and that's why they went into that line of business? And Idris can cry into his 900 thread count sheets at night in one of his homes about the downside of having a regular high-paid acting gig, unlike most actors.


----------



## Reno (Sep 24, 2010)

JWH said:


> Aren't actors and performers mostly massive attention whores anyway and that's why they went into that line of business? And Idris can cry into his 900 thread count sheets at night in one of his homes about the downside of having a regular high-paid acting gig, unlike most actors.



I never buy this arguement, even though celeb rags and tabloids try to sell us this idea all the time. In my experience the genuine artists (not coked up reality show wannabees falling out of limousines) who become famous, do it for the love of what they are doing and on the whole don't take any pleasure in having complete strangers approaching them all the time. 

I like to treat people they way I'd like to be treated myself, be they famous or not and I don't believe I have a right to impose on a stranger for no good reason. There is something disgenerous about expecting the worst from everybody (fame whores, all of them) and then to proceed according on that assumption. 

BTW, I know two people who got famous and they both are rather shy.


----------



## Badgers (Sep 24, 2010)

This is a bit precious. 

I wanted to say I enjoyed his contribution to a great show that really blew me away and I watch over.


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 24, 2010)

JWH said:


> I think it depends on who it is. Saying hello to someone just because they're famous is a bit lame but you might see someone whose writing/music/work/whatever has really inspired or interested you.


 
that's fair enough - i have only once gushed at a well-known person but that was john peel. i wouldn't do it for a mere actor or musician. their egos don't need feeding any more than is necessary


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 24, 2010)

actually, i take it all back as i remember i once literally bumped into adewale akinnuoye-agbaje (simon adebisi from oz, mr eko from lost) in somerfield on berwick street years ago. i was so flabberghasted at his accent when he said 'sorry mate', i said, 'shit, you're adebisi, aren't you? i thought you were american' and he went 'naah, mate, i'm from islington'


----------



## JWH (Sep 24, 2010)

Reno said:


> I never buy this arguement, even though celeb rags and tabloids try to sell us this idea all the time. In my experience the genuine artists (not coked up reality show wannabees falling out of limousines) who become famous, do it for the love of what they are doing and on the whole don't take any pleasure in having complete strangers approaching them all the time.
> 
> I like to treat people they way I'd like to be treated myself, be they famous or not and I don't believe I have a right to impose on a stranger for no good reason. There is something disgenerous about expecting the worst from everybody (fame whores, all of them) and then to proceed according on that assumption.
> 
> BTW, I know two people who got famous and they both are rather shy.


 
Well...I'm not defending the literal truth of everything I wrote and I think you may be being a little unfair to equate "I think most performers are attention-hungry" to "I expect the worst from everybody" but...if you're a performer and your entire career/calling consists of training yourself to become interesting to pay attention to (studying/practicing), trying to convince people to let you in front of people to attract their attention (casting) and then actually having people pay attention to you (performing), you've probably got a fairly high tolerance for being the subject of other people's attention, especially when most people are telling you how wonderful you are. And if you don't like a certain amount of attention from other people, then don't accept any leading roles in HBO dramas/agree to have your eek on the front of NME/get a job in the broadcast media and consider a job in Crystal Palace PizzaExpress instead.

FWIW, I've never gone up to a famous person in public while they were going about their private business (mostly because I don't hang around Hollywood or Camden/Primrose Hill, which seems to be where the people who create the media I consume tend to live).

Edit: this makes me think of the photo of Jack Nicholson being asked for an autograph of a photo of him as the Joker:


----------



## Reno (Sep 24, 2010)

You don't have to go to Primrose Hill to see someone famous, just to the centre of town, where the theatres and post production houses are. I work in Soho and I see someone famous every few days and some of them repeatetly. I'm getting conviced Frances De La Tour, Mark Almond, Stephen Fry, Rupert Everett and Boy George are following me around.


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 24, 2010)

i used to work on the kings road and there's celebs a plenty there


----------



## spliff (Sep 24, 2010)

Due to my alcoholic years I pass people in the street who say hello to me followed by my name and I've got no idea who the hell they are.

So I generally say hello to someone who has a familiar face. Most recently, Emma Thompson in the supermarket, Paul Morley looking in an estate agents window and Stephen Fry at a petrol station. I live in North West London and so do they I guess.

The strange thing about Stephen Fry though was that I saw him three days later, again at a petrol station but this time in North Norfolk. 
We exchanged greetings and looked at each other quizzically.  

He's not just following you around Reno, I think he's a serial stalker.


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Sep 24, 2010)

Badgers said:


> This is a bit precious.
> 
> I wanted to say I enjoyed his contribution to a great show that really blew me away and I watch over.



I don't think there's anything wrong with thanking someone. Most people would like that, famous or not.

But I think some of them are attention whores.  I saw Travolta on the street once. It was unexpected, and there he was in my face. I think I did a bit of a double take, although I didn't say anything. In any event, it was evident that I recognized him. And you could tell he got off on it.


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Sep 24, 2010)

Actually, I kind of wanted to speak to Mariel Hemingway, but the big handler/bodyguard with her put me right off.


----------



## JWH (Sep 25, 2010)

Reno said:


> You don't have to go to Primrose Hill to see someone famous, just to the centre of town, where the theatres and post production houses are. I work in Soho and I see someone famous every few days and some of them repeatetly. I'm getting conviced Frances De La Tour, Mark Almond, Stephen Fry, Rupert Everett and Boy George are following me around.


 
Have to say, having spent a chunk of my school and student days in Soho, I now hate the place with a passion. But I get your point.


----------



## Reno (Sep 25, 2010)

JWH said:


> Have to say, having spent a chunk of my school and student days in Soho, I now hate the place with a passion. But I get your point.


 
I must have had a better time as a student than you then, because I went to college there in the 80s and I still like Soho. Apart from that, I don't have that much choice over where in London I work...


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 25, 2010)

Reno said:


> I must have had a better time as a student than you then, because I went to college there in the 80s and I still like Soho. Apart from that, I don't have that much choice over where in London I work...


 
i had a friend who went to st martins, so was often in the phoenix and other late night places. never understood why she liked drinking in the coach & horses though.


----------



## Reno (Sep 25, 2010)

Orang Utan said:


> i had a friend who went to st martins, so was often in the phoenix and other late night places. never understood why she liked drinking in the coach & horses though.


 
My favourite place was the Dive Bar in Chinatown which sadly does not exist anymore. I used to hang out at The French House and then the whole gay scene exploded, which has become a little tired since, but was a big deal (if you were gay). Soho keeps constantly changing and re-inventing itself and it has all of life moving through it at all hours. Use it in the right way and it still can be a lot fun. After 27 years in London I still keep discovering new things about the place.


----------



## JWH (Sep 25, 2010)

Reno said:


> I must have had a better time as a student than you then


 
Sounds like it. You're probably better looking, funnier and richer too!


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 25, 2010)

yeah, i liked the dive bar. shame it closed. never went to french house. i did like the tiny clubs on wardour street like st moritz and another one whose name i forget.


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 25, 2010)

oh, push was the other one. on dean street. i miss those days. i could go out on a school night and be fine the next day.


----------



## Badgers (Sep 25, 2010)

Don't worry, I am watching a bit of series 4 now so he is dead to me anyway.


----------



## JWH (Sep 27, 2010)

Just worked out how Jimmy McNulty reminds me of:


----------



## JWH (Sep 27, 2010)

Question for those who have finished Season Three



Spoiler: Season 3



Brother Masone gives Omar  a gun and says "this being your town, I expect you to do it right" and then later says "what's done is done". One of the last scenes is Omar throwing a bag into the docks. 

Is that Omar killing his boyfriend for giving him up to Masone and then killing him as punishment?


----------



## Random (Sep 27, 2010)

No, I just think he was saying that a local could dispose of a gun better


----------



## kained&able (Sep 27, 2010)

also a show of trust on mosones part as he could have snitced and given the po po the gun.

Shows he views omar as honourable.

dave


----------



## JWH (Sep 27, 2010)

Oh, I see. I suppose that fits in with his character better.

(Bit of a spoiler, Dave!)


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 27, 2010)

mouzone


----------



## stavros (Sep 27, 2010)

JWH said:


> Just worked out how Jimmy McNulty reminds me of:


 





Marlo Stanfield (left) and Ashley Young (right).

I should also say that when Cheese first appeared in the second or third series, I thought how much he looked like Method Man without realising it was Meth himself.


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Sep 27, 2010)

Orang Utan said:


> i had a friend who went to st martins, so was often in the phoenix and other late night places. never understood why she liked drinking in the coach & horses though.


 
Yesterday, Reese Witherspoon had lunch in the restaurant where my kid works. Within a half hour, TMZ was on the telephone, confirming she was there, and asking what she'd eaten.


----------



## Steel Icarus (Oct 3, 2017)

001 410 9150909

Marlo's cell.


----------



## Steel Icarus (Oct 4, 2017)

I hope you rang it Badgers cypher79


----------



## moonsi til (Oct 4, 2017)

I called it!


----------



## Badgers (Feb 11, 2018)




----------



## Steel Icarus (Feb 11, 2018)

Awww, that's sad. Not that old. His was a terrific supporting character.


----------



## Nine Bob Note (Feb 11, 2018)

Don't fuck... with Querns!!

Wrong show, but memorable.


----------

