Eoin Butler: writer, journalist and Mayoman of the Year
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TOP 10 REASONS WHY ‘THE WIRE’ SUCKS BALLS
Okay, I’m still only halfway through the final series, but I reckon the “greatest television series ever made” has been getting an easy ride long enough. Tonight the gloves are coming off. Hold onto your monocles ladies, because I’m about to tear David Simon a new one… 10. Those stupid fucking quotes at the beginning of each episode. (”The street is the street, you feel me?” – Jim Bob etc. etc.) Sorry, but putting quotation marks around a random scrap of dialogue doesn’t make it quotable, let alone profound. The Wire is billed as the greatest thing to happen to Western civilization since Michaelangelo redecorated the Sistine Chapel… Why is it borrowing lame gimmicks last employed by Melody Maker feature writers circa. 1993?
9. As a lead character, McNulty is pretty weak. Hard-drinking, skirt-chasing maverick Irish cop? Yawn… Admittedly, I’m still comparing him to Tony Soprano: a comparison which, I’m sure even his greatest admirers will concede, will never do Dominic West any favours. But the strongest of The Wire’s five series is the fourth, which is also the one in which McNulty figures least. Coincidence? I don’t think so.
8. Rawls popping up in the background in a gay bar: What was the point of that? Is the lesson here that all assholes are actually repressed homosexuals? Or is this little details just a titillating, but ultimately throwaway bonus prize to reward those anoraks diligent enough to spot it? (Thanks Mark!) Now, admittedly, I’m still midway through series five at the time of writing. If Rawls’ sexuality does have some baring on the plot between here and the final curtain, I’ll take it back. But assuming it doesn’t, I gotta call bullshit on this.
7. Why do parked cars somehow serve as a cloak of invisibility in this programme? Seriously, we’ve got gangsters so paranoid that they post armed guards outside every door and change cellphones every second day. Gangsters who wouldn’t hesitate to put a cap in their own grandmothers’ ass if they think there’s a chance she’ll roll on them. But they somehow fail to notice the most dangerous man in the city – an assassin so storied young children sing his name in the streets – plonked outside their front door in a bright yellow fucking taxi in broad fucking daylight!?
How does Omar Little avoids detection in a city that swarming with so many dangerous men who would do him harm? Oh, that’s right, he scootches down in the car seat when anyone swings past. Brilliant.
6. Speaking of Omar. Here’s a guy who’ll stake out a target for days, even weeks on end without complaint. But when a window of opportunity finally presents itself, he’s willing to give everyone within hearing distance a heads up by whistling a few bars of The Farmer Wants a Wife across an echoey courtyard en route. Why Omar? Why?
5. Ziggy. The guy might as well have the words FUCK UP tattooed to his skinny, spotty fuck up forehead. Are we really supposed to believe that anyone, least of all the Greeks, would do business with someone like this?
4. Heading: Cedric’s ass. Subheading: Must we really see it? Seriously, the guy’s face is freaky enough as far as I’m concerned. Talk about a stiff. Must we really see his ass too? There wasn’t enough soap in the world to cleanse my eyes after seeing him on the job with that State’s Attorney lady.
3. The DVD commentaries: I used these only once, during an episode in series four in which there some slang was used that I didn’t quite understand. I hoped that the commentary might be able to shed some light. It did. But the woman speaking (I think she might have directed the episode) also blew the entire plot lines for the characters in question for the remainder of that season before I had time to hit pause on the remote. Nice work, lady.
2. Everyone in Baltimore drinks all the time. Why, oh why can’t I…?
1. Okay, some of the items on this list have been little more than quibbles really. Gripes at worst. I watched over sixty hours of The Wire in the space of a few weeks – I didn’t do that just so I could write a crappy top ten list about it. Hell, I love the show. Some of those school episodes were truly masterful. But this last bit I’m serious about.
What in the name of God is a character as lame and hackneyed as Brother Mouzone doing in a show as good as The Wire? I mean, didn’t the Simpsons satarise characters like Brother Mouzone into oblivion in that episode where the Japanese mafia show up and Homer doesn’t want to leave until the little guy does something? He’s so small and innocuous looking, Homer reasons, that you just know he’s going to do something good. Lame, hackneyed and unworthy…
And I’m not entirely comfortable with where this whole McNulty and Freamon going rogue in the last series thing seems to be headed either. If, after five series, the moral of the story is that McNulty and Freamon end up succumbing to the very lawlessness and criminality they dedicated their lives to fighting, and they get their comeuppance… Well, I’m going to be pretty damn disappointed. Still, at least they won’t be stuck for a quote for that last episode:
“Those who fight monsters should take care that they never become one. For when you stand and look long into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you.”
~ Fat Freddy Nietsche
(no spoilers in the comments please…!)
November 11th, 2009 at 3:51 am
Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit….
November 11th, 2009 at 4:47 am
Right. Well some very good points there, some of which could be rebutted with the cop-out “suspension of disbelief”. (After all, The Wire gets compared to Charles Dickens in its scope and desire to portray a cross-section of society, and in the middle of Bleak House one of the characters spontaneously combusts.)
And yes, some incongruous moments like the Cedric Daniels torso shots, which echo things like the volleyball scene in Top Gun.
As regards the Jimmy McNulty vs Tony Soprano comparison, I can’t pass comment because I’ve never seen The Sopranos.
From the few interviews I’ve read/heard with him, David Simon can get carried away with his own bombasticism, and he above anyone else is making the claims about The Wire being comparable to Greek tragedy etc etc.
And, admittedly, I’m one of those people who raved about The Wire to all and sundry (to the point that my mother is now half way through season two and rang me last week to tell me what a “fine looking fella” Stringer Bell is. What have I created?). However, what needs to be borne in mind is how utterly terrible a great deal of popular culture is these days and hence why The Wire shines in comparison. Personally, my flatmates and I watched in it Canada, we were living in a bit of a media blackout and had no telly, no radio and no internet: just a laptop and the box set of The Wire. (Given that there is no end to the inanity of broadcasting in North America, we were not missing out on much)
But enough of that! This is absolutely and positively my last word on the subject.
November 11th, 2009 at 5:38 am
I’m not even going to argue with you on this topic. Not only is this a cliche, done-a-million-times, not-funny or witty, top 10 list… but it’s also very much wrong. I can respect differences of opinion and I know a few people who didn’t care for the show, but even my 10 year old cousin was able to formulate real arguments. I’m sorry dude. You’re a bad writer. Like…really bad.
November 11th, 2009 at 5:43 am
…I would also like to mention that this reads like a 17 year old wanna-be’s myspace rant. “Sucks balls” stopped being funny or effective 10 years ago.
p.s. – Respond/delete this however you like. I guarantee i will never see this page again so I will just assume you saw it, cried, and immediately realized how awesome I am by comparison to you
p.s.s – YOU suck balls. Hmm ok you were right that is still fun to say.
November 11th, 2009 at 9:39 am
Nothing wrong with Cedrics ass- its that fatarse Landsman who offends me. Is it possible to actually smell someone through the television screen?
November 11th, 2009 at 9:51 am
Sorry, “smell someones breath” I meant…
November 11th, 2009 at 10:02 am
Not rising to the bait but i do agree with you on prked cars. Across the street from warehouse in the middle of the night is 1 thing, but Omar sitting outside your door in daytime I tink u’d see him!!
November 11th, 2009 at 10:08 am
because tony soprano, or any of the family, are the most original characters for italian-americans on television.
I want to hear more from chris on the once-time effectiveness of ball sucking.
November 11th, 2009 at 10:34 am
@ Lisa – you’ve never seen the Sopranos? It’s the best thing ever! The best thing ever! Ever ever ever!
@ Chris – I’m not going to argue you about this. Not only was yours a cliche-ridden, done-a-million-times, not-funny-or-witty comment but… Sorry, what were we talking about again?
@ Jenny – assuming Landsman is the Norm from Cheers looking guy then, yeah, I feel you. (Am I saying that right?)
I bet if they had those incredibly foul smell cheese flavoured popcorn crisps in Baltimore, he’d eat those at his desk too.
@ Conal – Well, seeing as hyperbolic comparisons are the order of the day, Tony Soprano is the most complex character this side of Hamlet. There, I said it.
November 11th, 2009 at 11:06 am
Jeezus. Brother Mouzone. I’d almost forgotten him. Right. I had the opportunity to spend an evening drinking with Mr Simon last year and I had only two notes on my to-do list: (1) confess that I originally discovered his show via illegal downloading and ask for absolution (he couldn’t give two fucks how you see it as long as you see it) and (2) Brother Mouzone???!!!???
The reply that came back, if I recall correctly, was that Mouzone was based on a real character with just those exact traits. So according to him, an invulnerable Nation of Islam hitman with an eclectic reading list actually walked B’more’s streets at one time. Say what you like about David Simon,he’s a hard man to argue against.
November 11th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Ten Reasons Shakespeare Sucks Balls
10. Two Gentlemen of Verona. Seriously? What the fuck were you thinking, Will?
9. What’s with all the fools? Not even remotely funny. You wouldn’t catch Milton faffing about with prancing, alliterating jester characters. Milton rules.
8. The Apothecary bit in Romeo and Juliet. The definition of a pointless scene.
7. A lascivious Moor who murders his white wife out of sheer irrational rage. Way to challenge the racial stereotypes, there pal.
6. Ditto Shylock. A greedy, ruthless and vengeful Jewish moneylender? I mean, let’s get serious here.
5. Way too much coming and going on the stage.
… I could go on, but you get the point.
November 11th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Rawls in the gay bar is a weird one alright – but I think Omar Little’s sexuality counter-balances the notion that the writers are playing lazy with gay stereotypes.
As for the rest of it – season 2 and season 4 had a grand heft to them that blew me away and I think, on repeat viewings, the writers manage work a lot of subtle symbolism in these seasons as opposed to the heavy-handed ‘we all be pawns on the chessboard’ crap in season 1.
I like to think that Omar not getting noticed is a deliberate stylistic trick, like there’s an almost supernatural quality to him – a bit like Anton Chigurh in No Country For Old Men. There are points when the series seems to slip slightly out of realism and this might be one of them.
Brother Mouzone is indeed shit. McNulty is a cliché and Stringer Bell isn’t the masterful Shakespearean figure some people seem to think he is either. But what about some of the other characters? I think Prez, Bunk, Cedric, Frank Sebadka and the schoolboys in season 4 are all brilliantly drawn.
Also some of the set-piece scenes are just plain awesome. Like when McNutly and Bunk check out the crime scene using only the word fuck or its derivatives. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQbsnSVM1zM
November 11th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Re. Rawls in the gay bar, it depends on how you look at it. If you need details like this to be instrumental, well then obviously there’s a problem with it. But the great thing about The Wire is how it doesn’t treat its characters as mere engines of plot, like almost every other television show. So Rawls’ being gay doesn’t have to have any bearing on the plot, because it’s just an aspect of his character (and a very, very minor one at that). By not making an issue of it, the writers are allowing you to make of it what you want to make of it. There’s no ‘lesson’ here at all – about all assholes being repressed homosexuals or otherwise. That’s no more the case than Omar’s being gay is a ‘lesson’ that all morally ambiguous outlaw bandits are openly homosexual. To me, the mark of really good characterisation is just this kind of apparent gratuitousness of detail. It’s only in bad art that character traits have to drive the plot. In good art – and in life – there’s lots of shit that just happens to be true about people, plot or no plot, lesson or no lesson.
Give it up, Butler – you know the goddamn show is a masterpiece.
November 11th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
Your friend Chris up there in the comments sounds a lot like the same fool who’s been leaving pissy comments on my blog. Good to know that ’sucks balls’ was effective ten years ago, I hadn’t known that.
Your criticisms are pretty valid, for the most part. Brother Mouzone is pretty clichéd, but I guess you have to believe David Simon when he says that he’s based on a real guy. And that’s the thing about The Wire, I think a huge amount of it is based on things and people that Simon and Burns really did encounter. That’s probably the reason for the Rawls in the gay bar thing, it’s probably just an in-jokey nod to a cop that one of them knew.
November 11th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
Oh yeah, re Rawls in the gay bar – what Mark said. Sexuality in The Wire has less to do with character than in any other tv show I know. The characters are the characters, gay straight or whatever Landesman is. Their orientation is massively beside the point.
November 11th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
@ Paul – You had a night on the sauce with David Simon? Shiiiiiit, I’d settle for a night on the sauce with (former Going Live presenter) Peter Simon at this point.
@ Mark – You’re accusing me of nitpicking a masterpiece. I get that. But funnily enough I agree with you on the jokes in Shakespeare – all those lame puns etc.
I’m not blaming Shakespeare – tastes are bound to change in 500 years. But I fucking hate those Kenneth Branagh types who chuckle their way through that “It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf” stuff like it was comedy gold.
November 11th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
@ Mark – re: it being a masterpiece. I thinnk I conceded as much (albeit grudgingly) in my original post…
@ Paul – I’m not accusing makers of the Wire of homophobia or perpetuating negative gay stereotypes or anything like that. Rawls bit just seemed kinda pointless and gratuitous to me.
@ Darragh – I agree with you on almost every word. Although, re: Frank Sebadka (in the second series) and McNulty (in the fifth). I find the notion of someone committing crimes, risking themselves to exposure, with no selfish motivation a bit of a stretch, no?
Sebadka lived modestly, just wanted to do right by the dockworkers. McNulty only motivated by wanting to get resources diverted to important police work (and some egotism admittedly). Maybe I’m just a cynical fucker, but neither of these examples really chimes with what I know about human beings…
November 11th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
@ Chris – hear! hear! You got his number buddy, you got his number…
November 11th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
No, haven’t seen The Sopranos. I don’t watch television, you see. (Now didn’t I hear someone else make this claim recently as well?)
(This isn’t about The Wire so this doesn’t contradict my last-word-on-the-topic declaration above)
November 11th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
If, however, we’re going to diver the conversation towards overrated writers how about we have a bash at WB Yeats? Sentimental soppiness.
November 11th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
@ Lisa – re: Yeats… You do know he’s my grandfather, right?
November 11th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
That explains a thing or two.
November 11th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
@ Mark – good spot tho. For some reason I thought it was going to be Brodie. He never had a girlfriend and he was alway castigating the funny looking guy for chasing women…
@ Andrew/Paddy – Chris may have my number, but he actually lives in a place called Hicksville, USA. I shit you not. (Thought he might be a different guy I know so I looked it up…)
@ Lisa – Yeats isn’t really my grandfather. Had ya going tho… huh? huh? huh?
November 11th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Hey, I know you’re not accusing the writers of homophobia or stereotyping, it’s quite the opposite. Rawls being gay has no point to it – that’s the point. In a more traditional, tediously over-signposted show, say one about an American family that just happens to be mobbed up, but, y’know, they still have normal American concerns, so it’s symbolic or something – that kind of show would have to make a serious point about somebody being gay or bi or whatever. In The Wire, Rawls is secretly gay, isn’t in any way conflicted or unhappy about it, and nobody knows, and nobody gives a shit. Because that’s the way it is. I love that aspect of it, and the ‘Rawls in a gay bar’ scene made me laugh almost as loudly as I gasped when poor old Prez (REDACTED) in the face, really hard.
November 11th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
OMG!??!! Total morto!!!!! Can’t believe I fell for that one!
November 11th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Your grandfather would have loved the show, you know. ‘Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;/ mere anarchy is loosed upon Hamsterdam’ and all that kind of sentimental guff.
November 11th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
@ Eoin – I feel you on the Landsman thing. If he turned up next to me in my work eating a packet of cheesy popcorn. Fuck the recession, I’m going back on the job market!!
November 11th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
@ Sarah – shit, its only a matter of time before I start accidentally using this Wire lingo in everyday conversation. “Shit Granny, I feel you about the bridge game, but you got played by them bitches etc. etc.”
@ Lisa – haha! I am so smart, I am so smart. S-m-r-t…
@ Mark – a Westside corner boy foresees his death.
Btw Mark, your Steve Appleton post still getting comments:
http://www.eoinbutler.com/home/steve-appleton-emblematically-transcendentally-shit/
One girl says that you “physically suck cock”…
November 11th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
I have met them at the close of day
Coming with wary faces
From corner or re-up among dilapidated
Boarded-up project houses…
November 11th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
Compeltely disagree on the Rawls thing. I hate TV where every single detail has to be for plot development. Soaps are the worst. If a fucking fork falls on the ground you know it’s going to have dire consequences.
November 11th, 2009 at 8:20 pm
Haha. “You physically suck cock”. That’s amazing – I’m taking that to the bank. I like the next comment down as well: “Oh my actual God.” You need to keep these angry young teens frequenting your blog – there’s long money in it, Butler. Post some free ringtones up in this bitch or something.
November 11th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
Re: Rawls. How about I take back the gay bar point, and swap it for the Flight of the Valkyries on a boom box as they raid Hamsterdam…?
That was a detail where a good executive producer – someone detached from the situation, but with enough authority to make the call – should have stepped in and said “We’re on to something good here, but lets not overdo it…”
November 11th, 2009 at 8:55 pm
I have no recollection of that scene. But then again, I wasn’t watching the show while holding a clipboard and wearing a badge reading ‘How’s My Nitpicking?’.
November 11th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
Since quitting drinking my nitpicking skills have been especially heightened.
November 11th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
All’s changed, changed utterly / A DVD box set is born…
November 11th, 2009 at 10:43 pm
@ Denise – scans perfectly and everything..!
@ Conal – Just to clarify re: the other thread. The Wire sucks balls. Mark sucks cock. Physically.
November 11th, 2009 at 10:54 pm
i got a nice shock when i found out rawls was gay,nothing more about it all.
the fact you were so offened probably proves that you watched the show looking for ways for it to annoy you,and fuckler you probably ruined it for yourself in doing that.
it is grating how people go on about it like its the best thing to happen to television since eyes-but thats them,let them off.there a petty auld crowd who compare my lovely town to falujah on boards(THEYIR(.ie))*
*by the way slime ive a tape of the wire from back in the day taped over breaking in the waves with nostalgic ads,for sale,ebay,have it itinafilingcabinet $400
go on the ice tv show boy!
a frusstrating…..
easily led auld crowd is what im saying
stuffwhitepeopelike((we’ll add chips to that list-am i right am i right,the chips and they bursting comically over the girlfriend,bring back the wibblywobbly fair play to you)john player the new pabst)greedy auld shower always aswell.knife a fag-i did ask you already yeah.marlboro light-orobl jew-ha?
mcnulty is a bit of a gawm a stage irishman,a buck mulligan who cant see the big picture,he enjoys his few pints,no harm there.
i made a list of twenty other fantastic tv shows,great blog cheers,there are loads,
November 12th, 2009 at 1:53 am
What are the twenty other fantastic shows es? We’re all ears (or I am anyway!!)
November 12th, 2009 at 3:43 am
On the Rawls thing: It’s funny the steps someone would take to hide their private life from their working life. There is another scene , can’t remember which season, where he is leafing through a titty mag looking impressed in Landsman’s office. Although a running theme is the inability of the Police to maintain a harmonious work/life balance.
And I can never figure out why so many people love Stringer’s character so much, when, if you ask me, Avon is a much better character.
Anyway, as much as I loved The Wire, I still think Mad Men is a better series, though a lot of season three, which just finished the other night, was pretty weak compared to the first couple of seasons.
I really should go to sleep.
November 12th, 2009 at 4:10 am
Chris etc can’t believe you all took the bait. So obvious Eion is winding you all up here.
November 12th, 2009 at 4:11 am
Eoin, sorry!
November 12th, 2009 at 9:21 am
I’m sorry DD I was looking at your chest.
November 12th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
@ cash – Well I finished the Wire last night so I’m ready to move onto another box set. Is Mad Men any good?
November 12th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
@Eoin – Just finished watching Mad Men season 3. Entertaining and recommended, evokes the era well with plenty of style. Though it does lull here and there over the seasons and has it’s own share of problems.
But they can’t all be MacGyver.
November 12th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
simpsons
peep show
sopranos
thick of it
curb your enthusiasm
oz
all the adam curtis documentaries are fantastic
south park
cracker
mighty boosh
twin peaks
the larry sanders show
killinaskully
seinfeld
day today
fkin jam
the office
harry hill
vic reeve’s big night out
doctors
ted
eextrass
faulty towers
reeling in the years
snuff box
stew
look around you
im alan partridge
screenwipein bed with medinner
bertie wooster a funny show
league of gentlemen
shameless
carnivale
nighty night
chapelle show
darkplace
http://ie.rottentomatoes.com/m/girlfriend_experience/news/1822420/five_favorite_films_with_adult_film_star_sasha_grey
its all a fix
anyone of these is worth a look,it’ll either be funny or warm or intelligent.
irish paint magic
November 12th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
@ DD – Correct-ah! Forty five comments and counting. The rival to me slagging the Wire for getting comments on this blog is Name Redacted Girl. If I could get Name Redacted to come on and do a guest post about the Wire… the internet would explode!
@ Conal – I think we’ve established that DD is a man, I’m afraid.
@ Colin – I’m very wary of series that don’t come with gold plated recommendations. I got stung badly on 30 Rock. It’s okay in parts, but much much to Scrubs-like for me to ever enjoy
@ Dan (a.k.a. Es a.k.a. a million other aliases) – Are we talking about the same Kilinaskully??
November 12th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
.christmas special is sublime-not the emergency tho-only saw half that,in the cousins too,some of the scenes you can pause them,pretty as a picture,the halloween special too,inland empire bang off it
November 12th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
@ Eoin –
“he actually lives in a place called Hicksville, USA. I shit you not”
…says the guy from Ballyhaunis.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
David Simon was asked about Brother Mouzone when he appeared at and Q&A in the IFI a while back.
He stated the character had been based on Vernon Collins a real life Baltimore badass (who is mentioned, I recall, in Homicide, a work of non-fiction). Mr. Collins apparently aquired some Nation of Islam stylings when banged up and carried on the affectation somewhat when he was released and went badass again.
This kernal of a real character was, I imagine, then camped up absurdly to give us Brother Mouzone.
The Wire isn’t perfect but it is still pretty fucking amazing.
I recommend The Corner. It is a six episode HBO series that predates the Wire and focuses on a Fayette Street family in whose lives the corner plays an unfortunately large part.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
sure homocide is on tonight 1.40 rte1,similar sort of thing,busy yourself with this glorious yoke because the panel is on
http://nytimesweddings.blogspot.com/
November 12th, 2009 at 10:52 pm
sure homocide is on at 1.40 on rte1,similar sort of thing
November 25th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
ur own fault that the DVD commentaries ruined the plot, Im glad ur hip enough to write your own blog but u cant understand the dialogue?
January 12th, 2010 at 1:21 am
[...] Watch Television Now, I May Be Gone for Some Time (October 14th) Menace II Sobriety (October 29th) 10 Reasons Why ‘The Wire’ Sucks Balls (November 11th) January 12th, [...]
February 12th, 2010 at 11:27 pm
lol, hilarious,i like the wire too upt oend ser 3, but yes its ridiculusly shit innit!
spec the lesbian, baby plot, pleeeeese.
October 5th, 2010 at 4:18 am
[...] See also here. [...]
December 20th, 2010 at 3:34 pm
10. It’s called an epigraph. Get a fucking dictionary, or maybe take an English class.
9. McNulty’s a self-righteous prick who likes to tell himself he does it for the right reasons. He’s not a sociopath like Tony Soprano, and The Wire’s about much more than cops and robbers.
8. It’s called depth of character. It was a funny moment that they didn’t spend half a season dwelling on as was the case for Vito in The Sopranos.
7.Omar’s good at what he does.
6. Omar is a strong well-developed character, and a large part of his awesomeness comes from the confidence he displays. Moreover, it helps to show him as more human given his reactions when things go wrong.
5. Ziggy was an annoying shitforbrains who was there mainly to fuck things up for his cousin and father who were actual sympathetic characters. Speaking of his cousin and father, those were the guys the Greeks did business with. They tolerated Ziggy and did a little business because they knew he was a fucking punk whom they could easily screw over.
4. Yeah we saw Cedric’s ass, but we also saw this: Okay I can’t find a pic, but Nick’s girlfriend gives us a nice look at the eighth and ninth wonders of the world.
3. Sucks to be you. Commentaries are generally aimed at people who are familiar with the work as a whole.
2. You can.
1. Ever occur to you that not all hitmen are uneducated thugs?
January 13th, 2011 at 9:16 pm
Thing is Butler, I rented the Sopranos from the library recently and gave it my best shot. I really really did. But I couldn’t even get through the first series. I just couldn’t work it out: why they hell was I meant to care about anyone in it? Just didn’t find it emotionally engaging in the slightest, as well as crawling along at a snail’s pace.
January 14th, 2011 at 12:45 am
We had a good run Lisa. But with these comments you’ve put yourself beyond the pale. Sorry you couldn’t have been more receptive to the genius of the greatest television programme ever made.
January 14th, 2011 at 7:46 pm
True. Like Little Big Roy said, “ain’t never gonna be what it was”.
January 14th, 2011 at 8:15 pm
Neither should we ever forget the words of Slim Jim who said “Let’s go for a swim.” Ya feel me?
January 15th, 2011 at 9:55 am
Deep man, deep.
January 15th, 2011 at 10:38 am
Can you you do one of two things for me as a favor? (a) Give the Sopranos another go. (b) Pretend to give the Sopranos another go . Then we can be friends again.
“That’s how I roll” – Cedric.
January 15th, 2011 at 8:49 pm
Okay, okay. I’m otherwise engaged for the next month but once I’m back in NZ in mid-Feb I’ll get the DVDs out again.
I’m not sure though, I think the leftie in me just liked the social sweep and critique of The Wire. With The Sopranos, from the eight or nine episodes I endured I felt it was more Shakespearean or something in that it was much more focused on Tony Soprano himself. How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty etc etc. Tragic hero with a tragic flaw. And while I appreciated how rounded and complete a character he was, it just wasn’t enough to sustain my interest.
I also thought the whole subplot about the wife and the priest was ludicrous.
In its favour, I liked how the kids had issues of their own going on as well and not just like teenagers in other programmes who merely exist as two-dimensional background filler. Again though, let me point to Series Four of The Wire as evidence of the same.
“Right you fucker, I’m going to do the washing up” – Withnail.
August 26th, 2011 at 12:03 pm
most of those points are unimportant rants characteristic of an angsty teen’s blog post.
and there was no ‘lead character’
rawls popping up in a gay bar, rats running across the road during gunfights, cats escaping animal abuse in the background to let you know a Kenard is following Omar..This TV show is not going to hold your hand and give you direct explanations for every single thing that happens in the show.
You are expected to have reasonable enough intelligence to take in the whole picture – and that whole picture is life itself. Things happen with which we are never given a reason for, that’s why rawls was seen in the gay bar. For you to make the connection that the wire is trying to imply that everyone of his character is a closet homo is proof that you are an idiot. an unfunny one at that.
August 26th, 2011 at 12:25 pm
No, the fact you leave such a longwinded comment on a two-year-old blog article proves that you, my friend, are the idiot.
December 18th, 2011 at 5:35 am
The gripes this writer has with The Wire are so trivial when compared to the depth of character, life and writing that is the show’s force. I’ve never seen any other show depict daily life and normal human beings in such a realistic way. The dialogue is perfect. The characters are full well-rounded individuals and each episode so perfectly put together that I always feel like I’m a voyeur hovering over a day in Baltimore’s life. Stop whining and give credit to the finest drama ever written for television. In my book it takes The Sopranos and all those other mob shows to school.
February 14th, 2012 at 4:52 pm
Ziggy did suck. It’s the Farmer in the Dell in America, not the Farmer wants a wife, which maybe if it has different lyrics that might explain it. Also it’s a testament to his respect and fear on the streets, his reputation literally preceeds him. maybe American inner city life is just culturally harder to understand by an English person. I know when I watch things about council estate culture, it seems dumb and boring and unnecessarily overly hyped to me, as well.
February 14th, 2012 at 6:57 pm
Also Stinger Bell is the appropriate analogy to Tony Soprano.
February 21st, 2012 at 10:24 pm
those reason sucked harry sweaty salty balls
February 21st, 2012 at 10:28 pm
I hate that they made Omar a flamming homosexual faggot ass muncher
March 1st, 2012 at 8:42 pm
Also if you remember Rawls was always making homoerotic references when he would insult people.