** The HBO Series "The Wire" Question & Answer Thread **
- Thread starter CoTtOnMoUf
- Start date
That's what I'm talkin about!
The only thing I didn't like about the last episode was they didn't wrap up Randy's story. He was Prop Joe's nephew (Cheese's son), he was already showing hustling skills at a early age and the cops basically pushed him into a life of crime: orphan, life in group homes, etc. The kid was a beast in the making! That's what I mean by it would've just recycled. That would've been a good storyline, that would be something like I would imagine Avon and Stringer coming up and taking the Towers.
Jumbo Six is the name of his dope. Like Blue Majic that whats his name had in the 70s.
Break out your Colin Powell because this is some academic shit:
In the Life of ‘The Wire’
New York Review of Books
October 14, 2010
By Lorrie Moore
Set in post–September 11 Baltimore, the HBO series The Wire—whose sixty episodes were originally broadcast between June 2002 and March 2008 and are now available on DVD—has many things on its rich and roaming mind, but one of those things is Baltimore itself, home of Edgar Allan Poe, H.L. Mencken, Babe Ruth, and Billie Holiday. Baltimore is not just a stand-in for Western civilization or globalized urban rot or the American inner city now given the cold federal shoulder in the folly-filled war on terror, though it is certainly all these things. Baltimore is also just plain itself, with a very specific cast of characters, dead and alive.
Eminences are pointedly referenced in the course of the series: the camera passes over a sign to Babe Ruth’s birthplace, tightens on a Mencken quote sculpted into the office wall of The Baltimore Sun; “Poe” is not just street pronunciation for “poor” (to the delight of one of The Wire‘s screenwriters) but implicitly printed onto one horror-story element of the script; a phrase of Lady Day wafts in as ambient recorded music in a narrative that is scoreless except when the credits are rolling or in the occasional end-of-season montage.
Read the rest here:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/oct/14/life-wire/
In the Life of ‘The Wire’
New York Review of Books
October 14, 2010
By Lorrie Moore
Set in post–September 11 Baltimore, the HBO series The Wire—whose sixty episodes were originally broadcast between June 2002 and March 2008 and are now available on DVD—has many things on its rich and roaming mind, but one of those things is Baltimore itself, home of Edgar Allan Poe, H.L. Mencken, Babe Ruth, and Billie Holiday. Baltimore is not just a stand-in for Western civilization or globalized urban rot or the American inner city now given the cold federal shoulder in the folly-filled war on terror, though it is certainly all these things. Baltimore is also just plain itself, with a very specific cast of characters, dead and alive.
Eminences are pointedly referenced in the course of the series: the camera passes over a sign to Babe Ruth’s birthplace, tightens on a Mencken quote sculpted into the office wall of The Baltimore Sun; “Poe” is not just street pronunciation for “poor” (to the delight of one of The Wire‘s screenwriters) but implicitly printed onto one horror-story element of the script; a phrase of Lady Day wafts in as ambient recorded music in a narrative that is scoreless except when the credits are rolling or in the occasional end-of-season montage.
Read the rest here:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/oct/14/life-wire/
i know but what is the reference?
CUB2006
Banned
I sold my 1-5 season for $80, and used the $80 towards the boxset...got the nice box set with the bonus footage for $75
Bestbuy tried to "Eddie Long" me... Nigga please!!
someone sniped me on ebay and got it for $26
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...023931&ssPageName=STRK:MEDWX:IT#ht_500wt_1154
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...023931&ssPageName=STRK:MEDWX:IT#ht_500wt_1154
It's basically saying that things represent the environments and characters in the stories of Dickens. Piss poor surrounding, ects.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matthew-pearl/are-you-dickensian_b_362552.html
Peace,
The Wire is the best television series ever. There won't ever be anything like it again.
Wire is the best crime drama ever.
The Wire is the best television series ever. There won't ever be anything like it again.
What was the point of making Omar gay?
Was it to dispel stereotypes about gay men or was it to create a totally unique character? Does he have something from his childhood that might've steered him towards homosexuality or what?
I never caught between the lines aspect of Omar being gay.
Was it to dispel stereotypes about gay men or was it to create a totally unique character? Does he have something from his childhood that might've steered him towards homosexuality or what?
I never caught between the lines aspect of Omar being gay.
almost every hbo series throws the gay community a bone... no pun intended.
omar on the wire, vito on the sopranos, lafayette on true blood, adibisi and others on oz...
That's what I'm talkin about!
Wasn't Randy looked on as a snitch? That being the case, how far could he had of gone in the street game? I dont think he could have been a boss. No one is going to run with or follow a snitch.
Also, I didn't know Randy was Cheese's son. Thanks for pointing that out.
I think it the Omar character was an attempt to make something totally unique. Think about it. Omar was gay. That is a lifestyle that is totally frowned upon in the street game. Still, Omar was very respected and feared in the game despite him being openly gay.
I thought Omar was great in the show and his character gave a new dimension to the show.
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There was no point to making Omar gay. And that's the point. On EVERY OTHER show, a character being gay is a big plot device. On the Wire? Not even. That guy on the Sopranos was gay and it was a big fucking deal. Omar's being gay didn't mean shit. It wasn't a plot point except a few insults. Brandon being killed could've easily been a woman. Omar was only supposed to be a couple episodes, he wasn't supposed to be a "gay gangsta superhero".
As for that "something from his childhood" thing you mentioned, well look at who became Omar at the end? Michael. And what happened to Michael? A nigga from jail touched him as a young boy.
Nah, it wasn't to give the gays a bone. Just like with Rawls. You keep waiting and waiting for him being gay to be a big plot and it means jack shit. And that's the point the Wire was trying to make.
Randy was labeled a snitch and beaten merciless at the group home. By the time Bunk visited him in the 5th season, he'd changed from the soft, smart and funny kid we knew into a hardened shell of himself.
Randy was Cheese's son and David Simon said they would've touched on that during the 5th season, but had to make cuts.
true but then again chris got touched too. i thought mike was to turn into a lil chris
exactly...which is why i say they threw it in there to throw those folks a bone. the rawls situation was a great example.
as for omar, i think being gay was just as big a part of his characters make up as his other unique aspects... like how he stuck to his "code". so it may not have been a big plotpoint but i doubt he would have been as interesting to people had he been your average stickup cat.
Dude was just a homothug it's not that deep..."between the lines"...get the fuck outta here
Man Oz didn't just throw them a bone...that was like 6 yrs worth of cooked meat no pun intended
Damn so that was official...I know a while back we speculated it was just coincidence...damn...I like that they didn't connect tho that woulda been cheesy (again no pun intended)...it's the reality that dudes have kids they have no idea about/no involvement w/ even tho they live in the same city or w/e damn
Him being gay made him more "interesting"? To each their own...aside from skippin over "love" scenes his being gay had no affect on the story/my interest in his character...to me what made him interesting was his code and his disdain for drug dealers...it wasn't that he was just taking their $$$/drugs he seemed to relish in it and enjoy fuckin they shit up...it wasn't simply about getting paid
I think Omar being gay had more to do with the very large gay population in Baltimore than anything else. And you have to remember that Omar was not suppose to go past ep. 6 of th efirst season.
mannn interesting as in odd... and original. hbo won awards for the complexity of that character. part of that was the fact that he was a homo which is usually sttereotyped as weak. part of that is that he adhered to his code which you would usually think would put him at a disadvantage in his line of work. and the rest is just the other lil nuances... he was a complex dude.
and yea there were a few scenes they coulda left out but unlike oz, they usually didnt go overboard with the faggotry on some shock tactic shit. thats where oz fell off in my opinion. i think they just turned into the jailrape hour when they ran out of ideas or something. i stopped watching during the last few seasons.
im sure that played a part and yea im conflicted about them extending his role. i mean he was an ill character but when you look back at the show as a whole, he was one of the few pieces of the show that wasnt that realistic. like it was mentioned above, they turned him into a ghetto super hero/ robin hood.
We ASSUMED Chris was touched. We don't know if he was. Maybe his sister's kids had been involved with an abuser. I think it was all but implied that he turned into the next Omar (complete with light skin bf).
Nah. If there's one thing David Simon doesn't do, it's "throw anyone a bone". Omar was gay because people in the world are gay. That's it. Same with Rawls. People are looking too deep. Being gay wasn't supposed to be an Omar issue. Most of the people he robbed didn't even know he was gay. Hell, Omar's first couple episodes were great and we didn't find out he was gay until a few episodes in when he was rubbing that faggot's hair. Comparitively, Omar's "code" was a HUGE issue.
Yeah. It was all but implied when that rogue officer stopped Randy and took his 200 dollars he got from Marlo.
Officer Walker: What's your name?
Randy: Randy. Randy Wagstaff.
Officer Walker: Oh, I know you ain't lying. Wouldn't nobody make up no shit like that.
You figure Cheese had the kid when he was 16 ish. Randy's mom was prolly a hoe and chose the best nigga to attach to her son.
This. Niggas seem to want him being gay to be a bigger issue, but it was no more important to his character than his love for Honey Nut Cheerios.
they put something on the other dogs coat that fucked cheese dog up. i dont know what it was.
cmon man. i dont want his being gay to be anything more than what it was. im just giving my take on the shit but omars being gay was a part of what made his charcter odd/ complex to alot of people. i even remember when obama was interviewed about the show he said something like "he's the baddest dude on the show but he's gay". that shit went against the grain. nobody says he's the baddest dude on the show and he likes cheerios.
as for rawls, yea simon said they were always laying shit down that could be picked up at a later time but with that case they wanted to leave it at that.
the fact that he was a fag and a stone cold killer at the same time added something to that character. if the character was just a normal cat walking through the hood robing dealers with a shot gun by his side the character would have been less memorable.
I agree with this. Him being gay didn't make him more interesting. It made him a strong contradiction to the norm. Come on, a gay, tough thug in the mold of Robin Hood that demanded respect? That shit ain't normal, and you haven't seen shit like that on TV, at least not often. It made him stand out, that's for damned sure.
Like LSN said, his code, to me, made him more interesting. I can respect that. I hate drug dealers and thugs. Personally, I would like nothing more than to pull a Batman-type vigilante run and just go around the hood merking drug dealers. Fuck em, they won't be missed. Mothers crying, oh well. He shouldn't have sold dope in the hood. Gangbangers who have their hood in fear to even call the police when they get beaten up, shot at, their shit stolen, etc.? Merk them, too.
Omar never pulled on anybody who wasn't in the game, which is different from the drug dealers and thugs I talked about merking. If you get robbed and you tell the police, they beat you up or kill you. You tell the police because you don't want your kids growing up around that shit, they kill you. You only wanted a clean neighborhood, but you had to die because you snitched. I would say every hood needs an Omar kinda cat, but him doing what he did didn't lessen their numbers. It just made them pissed.
The dog he faced's owner was in on a scheme with the people who ran the dog fighting ring. When you take your dog to fight, they usually wipe them down and check them. Well, they put something (probably some kind of ether) on which made Cheese's dog less aggressive and sedated and thus he lost.
Man, I'm telling you, you're thinking too deep about the how important the homosexuality was to the character. It wasn't meant to show a dichotomy or some deep inner conflict or the duality of man or nothing like that. The nigga was just gay. Omar had been robbing niggas for years before he met up with Avon's crew that day and no one even knew he was gay until Weebay told them during that basketball game.
Nah, Omar would've been the same cat, fag or not. You barely remembered he was gay unless it was some fag shit on the screen. It's not like when he was robbing mofuckas, you was like "Oh shit, Marlo just got his ring took by that faggot."
This nigga is totally offbase. Omar wasn't no fucking Robin Hood. Omar was a fucking thief and a killer. He wasn't much better than the dealers he robbed.
may be a stupid question to some, but fuck it...
what's up with "testers"?
it looks like they sometimes give dope to the fiends at no cost.
why do they do that?
what's up with "testers"?
it looks like they sometimes give dope to the fiends at no cost.
why do they do that?
may be a stupid question to some, but fuck it...
what's up with "testers"?
it looks like they sometimes give dope to the fiends at no cost.
why do they do that?
Keep the fiends hooked and give them a sample of new product. Theres a corner on Chicago West side that does Tester Thursdays fiends are lined up waiting for dude to drop there next free blast.
Great marketing