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Have we seen anyone other than Prop Joe and Omar ever talk to Butchie knowing who he was? I think the whole point of the character as a blind barman is that he's hiding in plain sight basically. I doubt very much he'd be alive (unless he left Baltimore) if Marlo and company knew he had a part in the S4 robbery and heist.

But they didn't kill security guards for standing up to provocation, or shoot people for calling them gay.

Maybe not...

But killin one of your own loyal soldiers so you could get with his old lady, thats cool.

This ain't Robin Hood in the Hood.

No, but that's different in a couple of ways. Firstly, because it's based on passion rather than business, secondly because D'Angelo was already in the game in a way the the security guard wasn't. It's not really comparable.

Still a punk move.

You're supposed to have your peeps' backs.

Mind you I do understand that people are people.

Also it was something that Stringer had to hide for the very reason that it was, like knocking off Gramdma's church crown, against the code.

I'm worried about the serial killer plot as well, although I can understand McNulty being desperate enough to do it. And I don't think there are really problems with the patrol officer. Jimmy didn't just put the body in another position to make it look interefered with, he did it to, I assume, change the libidity, and he'll fix it before th crime lab comes back. (Note that the also chalked the drywall smear on the guy's pants near his jacket hem, where the patrol officer wouldn't have seen it ieven if it had been there.)

But what I'm more disappointed about is the newsroom so far. Of course it's only been two episodes, but at this point Gus seems a paragon and Whitting and Scott both seem irredeemmably bad at their jobs. We haven't seen such black & white characters in The Wire before. It reads to me like Simon is unintentionally giving his own profession a pass, saying its problems are the fault of a few bad apples. Sure, fabulism is a problem with journalism (believe me, I know -- I went to **klang** law school with Steve Glass), but it's not the most serious problem with journalism -- laziness, tunnel-vision, and lack of investigatory zeal are much more serious because they are so banal and commonplace.

OTOH, we'll have to see how it plays out in the rest of the series.

--Alex

HA.

That was awesome.

Is it a jest, or a spoiler?

I think you can read it safely without harming your enjoyment of the season in any way.

Bless you lass.

Uh hey so we are having technical difficulties with the old thread so just start talking about S% Ep 1 here. How about that Snoop!

I'm more concerned about Carcetti being not just as an asshole, but a completely retarded asshole. Seriously, for someone who's supposedly got political ambitions as far as seeing the office that they got elected to as nothing but the stepping stone for the next office that they aspire to be elected to, shouldn't Carcetti be concerned with DOING HIS JOB so that he actually CAN get elected governor eventually?

And it's not just regular political incompetence Carcetti's got; dude can't even be bothered to pull the oldest trick in the book as far as scapegoating Royce with all of his screw-ups while moving heaven and earth to paint the picture that he's really trying to change things but that Royce scorched earth things so badly that everyone blames Royce while giving Carcetti a free pass.

At this rate, is it wrong for me to hope that Carcetti ends up so utterly screwed by the end of the season, that he ends up pulling a Bud Dwyer and killing himself during a press conference? Especially given the media aspect of season five?

I'll probably give this a miss. No spoilers.

Just want to remind everyone this is where regular-HBO folk talk about the show, so we're one episode behind the OnDemand people.

So, the episode summaries suck this year. Compare the s5 premiere with the s4 finale. I plan on rewatching the premiere later this week, like I usually do with The Wire, because it's so fucking good, but my scattered inebriated-at-the-time thoughts will have to do for now.

So the executive editor's name is James Whitting. Fitting because he is the whitest guy ever. Looks like the staff is used to stories being scrapped because of his social standings.

Clark Johnson is great as Gus Haynes. Really, he had a lot of great lines. One of the best was when he was wondering why the younger journalists were standing around looking at the fire. I'm interested in how he will deal with upper-level management and how he is a mentor to the new reporters. I like how he already seems wary of golden boy Scott Templeton.

Just to get this straight, which co-op dealer did they link to Nerese Campbell? Fat-face Rick? That's why I want to rewatch, to get these smaller details right.

I liked how the police department already deteriorated between seasons, especially how bright and rosy Daniels' new day seemed at the end of season 4. And I thought Seth Gilliam did a remarkable job as Carver tried to maintain order during the daily rundown.

No Randy or Namond, which makes sense, I suppose, since they're out of the game. I'd like to see a bit of Randy sometime this season, just a status update if nothing else. I thought what Michael was trying to do for Dukie was nice of him, trying to get him out of the day, and also selfish, trying to drop Bug off with him. Michael doesn't seem that interested in being a brother anymore. I guess the game changes what you care about.

Herc and Levy working together should prove very interesting. I love the POV of Levy's operation, too.

All the pieces matter. Thrilled to have Sergei back in the picture.

Ranking the theme songs (4, 3, 1, 2, 5) and the premiere teasers (4, 1, 3, 2, 5), carried over from the Ep1 ondemand thread, s5 is at the bottom of this list in both instances. The keyboads in the Steve Earle song seemed so low-tech and unpolished, but like someone said, that could be the point. I did however love the way the title sequence was organized visually. And the teaser was just H:LOTS rehashed, which was unfortunate. But I still loved the actual episode and feel like the media is the perfect way to end the season, because it connects all the worlds of Baltimore so easily.

Carcetti really fucked things up. I understand he inherited the mess, but he was looking pretty green. I felt a little sick to my stomach when the Davis investigation trumped 22 murders. The FBI and Carcetti/Rhonda's boss fighting over felt real though. Something like that would really improve Carcetti's chances of becoming governor, I think.

I love how defeated McNulty looked at the end, and Landsman letting him have his old desk back. McNulty fell off the wagon fast and quick, and since Beadie Russell is so damn great it's pretty painful to watch.

Isn't Omar always introduced in episode 3? Guess we'll have to wait a bit.

Was Marlo trying to take over East Baltimore at the co-op? I definitely need to rewatch that.

There was something pretty heroic about the detail watching Marlo like that. Just trying to make sure no more bodies were dropped.

Partlow at the hall was classic.

If we get one happy ending in the series finale, can it be Bubbles? Please?

I dl'ed it from iTunes last night. It's mostly ok.

I didn't get that from Michael at all. He was dep[icted playing a game with Bug and showing a lot of affection for him, so I don't think that's what we were supposed to get out of that. His concern was more getting Dukie away from the corner, which he's not really cut out for.



Yep.



I agree, except I'd transpose 3 and 2. The S5 theme just doesn't really work for me like the the other seasons did, but I suppose that could change.



Wow - never noticed theat before - but I just checked Wiki and you're absolutely right. He always makes his first appearance of the season in Ep3. Presumedly S5 will be no different.

<<Was Marlo trying to take over East Baltimore at the co-op?>>

Don't know about taking over, but he's defintely trying to bully the other co-op members. And Slim, who's never wrong, seems to think he's up to something big.

-Mark

If the season is going to go completely off-tilt as far as Jimmy engaging in a scheme that even Shane Vendrell would find retarded and potentially capable of backfiring in the worst possible way, I so freaking want to see the entire thing end with at least an acknowledgement of how stupid the plotline is (maybe have Kima outright namecheck "The Shield" as far as her reaction to Jimmy's insane scheme being her asking Jimmy if he got the idea from watching "The Shield" to pull something so utterly stupid).

Marlo's never been about the "co-operative" part of the co-op. His largest failing I think is that he's shortsighted. He wants more, more and more territory, but he doesn't have the overall vision to see how to turn territory into power.

Marlo can keep collecting unwilling corners and growing his territory, but at some point without a larger plan beyond holding down real estate it's going to get to be too big and unmanageable.

He's like Avon without a Stringer.

Agreed - the only thing he's concerend about is making sure everyone knows he "wears the crown."



That, and his utter ruthlessness. It may be effective in scaring everyone away from saying a bad word about him and taking smaller cuts on the package, but I think in the end, that's what will backfire on him. It's got to finally reach a point where enough people realize there's no reasonsing with him or trusting him, and that he's got to go, not matter what.

-Mark

Although that probably does also fall into his failing of being "shortsighted," now that I think about it.

-Mark

He showed up in episode two of the third season.

Yeah, I could be jumping to conclusions about Michael. I just wonder what Bug would be like if he didn't have Dukie. Being a soldier could really cut into Michael's family time.

I think Fatface Rick has had a few small speaking parts in the co-op scenes, maybe. He's definitely been mentioned since season 1, usually by Avon or Stringer. (I love how there can be entire character arcs of people never or hardly seen. RIP Little Man.)

The continuity of the show is nearly impeccable - I'm sure the creators have a "bible" outlining all these characters and their relationships.

Speaking of details and continuity, I was re-watching season 4 as it re-aired on HBO over the last couple of weeks, and caught something in the final episode that I think is a nod back to an early season 3 episode.

In the second episode of S3, Wee-Bey and Avon have a conversation about Cutty in the prison yard, where Bey recalls the story of how Cutty shot a guy on the corner of somewhere and somewhere, in broad daylight, then called the police to tell them to come pick up the body. In the final ep of S4, when Colvin goes to see Wee-Bey, Colvin says corner boys like them will wlays be able to remember which corner someone was shot on, and he names what I assume was a famous gangster. Bey laughs, and replies by naming the street intersection. I don't have the S4 episodes at hand and was unable to confirm on the web - does anybody know if this was a callback to Cutty's famous hit?

Don't mean to derail the S5 talk, but this has been nagging at me...

-Mark