Thread by @ferrifrigida

Starting season 4 of THE WIRE. (I took a few months off so as not to lose myself completely to it.)

First things first: the different versions of “Way Down in the Hole” make such a big difference, and I’m continually amazed at it.

Holy CRAP that Ballmer accent on the white lady principal

I know Bunk is a messy alcoholic but I love him dearly

Nnnnnnggggghhh introducing new characters and making me like them makes me so nervous

These kids are frickin hilarious. “The Ku Klux Klan are in Howard County!” “My aunt lives in Howard County!”

Oh my gosh, Carcetti’s gonna win! Because of this money crap with Stringer! It’s all coming togetherrrrr

Cutty is SWIMMING IN IT (if he merely lifts a finger) and I couldn’t be happier for him. Also I really want a nicer future for Bubbles than is likely.

Omar in spectacular teal silk pajamas is somehow the most Omar

Kay so you’re in charge of a unit that the whole point is to go slow, be patient, work the evidence, and you’re telling them to pull in 10 felony cases a month?

RAWLS. Forking the unit even after McNulty hasn’t been a part of it for actual years. So typical.

https://twitter.com/ferrifrigida/status/1117987560871956481?s=21

I am possibly a very bad person but I think Chiquan deserved to get slashed in the face

The fact that Prez was horrified means he has too little familiarity with middle school girls

Kima in homicide. Hmm. Of course she’ll be good at it, she’s good at policework full stop, but I can’t help thinking she’d be better in narcotics.

Proposition Joe is kind of...great? I didn’t take him seriously at first, but he’s unusually capable of working the middle place, where no one likes him but everyone trusts him.

Damn. This episode is so packed with heartbreak I think I’ll watch a musical next. That security guard, and Michael, and Dukie.

OH MY GOD OMAR JUST KILL HIM, IT WOULD SOLVE 14 PROBLEMS AT ONCE

I’m 31 minutes into this episode and it’s so wrenching that I don’t have any tweetable commentary

Okay, I got something: I really hate how Marlo does business. I know that’s the point, but really. He’s a ruthless capitalist who’ll warm his hands over the burning of the world. Fuck that guy.

So is Carcetti a flawed guy or a bad guy?

(Pls don’t actually answer this if later behavior proves the point)

How is it possible that I have such affection for Landsman, who is vulgar and inappropriate and constantly looking at porn?

Clay is the sleaziest sleaze to ever sleaze. And I think Randy has a burgeoning anxiety disorder. I recognize the terror in his face when he’s waiting for someone to tell him what he’s in trouble for. Worse than trouble is the unknown.

Augh, fictional election day, I’M SO FICTIONALLY EXCITED

This show is absolutely jam-packed with horrible parents. So many awful moms especially.

THAT RING.

I’m not sure how Omar’s gonna get out of this one, but showing how he and McNulty have this short-leash but ironclad trust is such good TV.

Somehow they’ve set up this situation so a serial murderer and a homicide detective are both completely right, and that’s Blackstone-level magic as far as I’m concerned.

I mean Omar did kill all those people and they do have him in jail and who tf cares on what. But he’s more useful on the street and Bunk knows that.

The narrative possibilities of this frame-up and its repercussions boggle the mind.

Don’t use your own product. First rule of drug dealing. Right up there with “one hand for the boat, the other one for yourself,” and “never get involved in a land war in Asia.”

Oh my God that LAWYER, I forgot about that nasty lawyer from the Barksdales, ugh.

DUKIE SMILED

I’m really glad I have forced myself to only watch one ep a day, because spreading it out is better and once I’ve followed the rule for seven episodes I’m better able to follow it for the remaining six, but oh man do I want to run all the way through the rest.

Prop Joe is suddenly Rich Little, wtf?

God, this thread about Michael and his family is so painful I want to leap in and take action before the rest of it unfolds

Prez is in way too deep with these kids but he’s also genuinely making a difference, so

Again, Prop Joe proves he’s kind of amazing. And somehow Andre, this meaningless middleman, becomes the MacGuffin of the season.

I suspect Carcetti is going to regret getting in bed with Rawls, but I could be wrong.

Eternal gratitude, David Simon, for speaking truth about the malarkey of NCLB and teaching to the test.

Holy CRAP, that’s how to do a cold open, I guess

(fingers)

Oh my GOD, Herc is actively undoing so much good policework via pure bumbling. Pleeeeeease give him some comeuppance.

All of the seasons are beautifully written, we know this, but the intricacy of this season is blowing my mind at the moment.

Also, my God, the mercy. That may be the most significant quality of this season: mercies, small and large, traded among human beings.

Colvin should be at a forking think tank. His talent at turning the big picture into the small picture is the kind that moves mountains.

I’m just gonna admit it: I adore Bodie. He’s so smart, he’s so skilled. He gets so pissy about incompetence. He’s like how I’d be if I were a drug dealer.

Snoop is the scariest, and I don’t see why she always gets schlep duty for all their supplies

UGH Omar you can do SO MUCH BETTER than Renaldo, I know you got slim pickings but COME ON, he is your worst boyfriend yet

Am starting to think that mistakes are like putting nitrous in your narrative gas tank. The mistakes people make in this season have unraveled things for the characters, and made for absolute dynamite TV.

SOMEONE. TELL. THE POLICE. WHERE. THE BODIES. ARE.

I can tell at this point they’re saving it for the finale but Prez had every reason to tell Carver just now and he didn’t. COME ON.

Okay I just fell apart laughing:

“A wise man does not burn his bridges until he first knows he can part the waters. Old Ashanti saying.”

“Norman, you grew up in Catonsville.”

Wilson is SO GREAT and I will miss him like crazy when this is over.

Also, Herc really really forked up. I can’t believe how deep his trouble goes. All for a camera.

I shoulda seen this coming, I guess. But Michael is smart enough and strong enough and capable enough to do literally anything he wants to do, and he’s doing this instead, and that is a sin.

AAAH WILSON I LOVE YOU

Namond...is growing up? Wow. And Michael’s doing what needs to be done, but I’m thinking he’s gonna find he has no heart for it anymore, just like Cutty, a few decades on.

Ahh, that Sherrod thing, I saw that coming a mile away, but it still sucks.

And Herc. Sydnor was right, all the way, he needed to tell the damn truth. Almost no sympathy there.

Greggs is turning into a wee McNulty in homicide. Every bit of her worst self surfacing.

Oh, Carver. One of the good ones. And I stand by what I said a million years ago, that his conscience is like a character of its own.

I’m breaking my rule and finishing off the season tonight. And that is one HELL of a way to start off a season finale / shift.

If nothing else, this has shown me that I’d enjoy policework, if I had the stomach for it. Always the same, always different, like all my fav jobs.

Herc just called Snoop a “little broad” which is the wrongest possible description of her I can imagine

Awesome of McNulty and Bodie to form a little friendshi—

Oh noooooooooooooooooo

Fuck.

FUCK.

“Every time I open my mouth in this town, I’m telling people something they don’t want to know.” Exactly right, Colvin, and you gotta keep doing to. The worst and most valuable destiny.

Gonna say it: that may have been the best montage I’ve ever seen.

So ends season 4. I can’t even assemble verbiage for the experience of watching that berth of TV. I’ll be thinking about it for years and years.

I’m most of the way through the first episode of S5, but I’m just, like...enjoying it, without feeling much of a desire to comment

That happens in a blue fucking moon, let me tell you

In brief, though:
-Dukie grew just a bit
-I’m so disappointed in McNulty
-I really wish someone would cap Marlo
-Alas, poor journalism. I knew it, Horatio! Where be your gibes now, your crosswords, your investigative features?

Oh, the slots argument. I remember that from living in MD. Such good arguments either way. The result got me thinking the moral arc of the universe may always bend toward vice.

Also, Snoop is still scary.

Good Christ, the executive editor is a nightmare

Hooooooleeeeee sheeeeeeit, Avon Barksdale

I’m eternally disgusted by Clay Davis, but the actor playing him is DELIGHTFUL. The way he whines and squeaks and laughs and schmoozes is amazing.

..............................................uh

McNulty really should have stayed on patrol

Bunk should really tattle. Really.

Aww! Michael and Dukie are being kids!

PLEASE DON’T RUIN IT SOMEHOW

This Scott guy is such an ass. He and Herc should belong to the same ass support group.

“At this rate there won’t be much of a newspaper left in 10 years.” mmmhmmm

This sucks so bad, the Butchie thing. This whole episode is giving me the crawlies.

Are you serious, Clay. Are you really serious. I mean in reality Carcetti shouldn’t have taken the meeting but for TV it’s satisfying, and Clay. Are you serious.

Oh Christ, no. Not Lester.

Why is this show burning itself down in the last 10 episodes? Just to hurt me?

Hokay, it took me a few days to get back to wanting to watch this hurty show, but now I am.

Burrell, I mean...I’m trying to care about him losing his job and I really don’t

Marlo is effective because he’s unafraid to murder his way to a quorum. Not a long-term strategy. But for Prop Joe to try and convince him to behave differently seems completely pointless. They gotta cap him.

“You might think it’ll be different when you sit here, but it won’t.” I thought that was the lesson Carcetti learned at the end of S4, but thanks for giving it to us straight, Simon

❤️CARVER❤️

Beadie needs to toss McNulty’s stuff on the lawn. Not quite set it on fire but put him out, for sure. Clean and definite.

Goddamn. Prop Joe. What a bad decision. He’s the hub of the wheel.

Clearing the decks.

The continual references to these men on the paper having strong lexical educations is making me so happy. And, I mean: that stuff has to be in place, second nature, if you want to be a journalist (ie turn out clean copy on an immediate basis every damn day).

WOW, Herc, that is VERY ILLEGAL

Nerese is something else. I think I appreciate her as a character and a device more than I like her or endorse how she acts.

Scott, you are one clueless MFer. Can’t cheat and hope your way into being a journalist. Find a different line of work. Srsly.

I hugely appreciate Dukie as a character. Not an idiot, just born into the wrong life. I think he’s the only one of the corner boys who hasn’t either adapted or died.

OH CLAY. HOW DARE YOU. YOU SLEAZY SHIRT-FOR-BRAINS. I HATE YOU SO MUCH.

God, everything about this season is pissing me off.

So Scott and his con are tangling with McNulty and his con and the city + the PD + the homeless population are all operating on bad information. This is why you should always tell the truth, jerks!

I kid but I’m actually very angry

Bubbles’ sponsor is a fantastic sponsor/human being and I love him. One of the rare rays of light in this infuriating season.

I know the algorithm pushes down tweets with curse words in them, but I have CHOICE TERMS IN MIND for the way McNulty and Scott are behaving, baldfaced lying to each other in front of journalists with good intentions about informing the citizenry

¿¿¿what???

Imma stop you right there, Carcetti, you can’t develop Locust Point. I’ve been there. You just can’t.

Omar. Buddy. Go to a doctor. I appreciate you enormously, I do. But you cannot walk that off.

There’s something beautiful and graceful about them tapping phones now, in these final days.

This show. It’s beyond.

What a terrific speech! Goodness me. Not exactly “A sore day, a red day,” but great stuff for the mayor of Baltimore.

Also I love the intense looks Carcetti always gives to Cedric. Something to write fanfic about.

OOOO I hate Scott so much it BURNS

So Marlo is a fascist as well as ruthless and greedy. Truly, fuck that guy. Maybe the co-op should consider gathering Omar to its bosom.

M C N U L T Y

T H E R E I S N O M O N E Y

S T O P

I’d like to know how other ppl read this: I feel like it’s changed gradually from Omar and the dealers opposing each other but both being on the bad guys’ side, to now Omar being a good guy, Marlo being a bad guy, and the city being chaotic neutral.

I know part of the point is that there’s good and bad guys everywhere, duh, but the clarity of Omar = good / Marlo = bad is stronger than that shades of gray stuff.

Screwed-up former Marines always seem to be named Terry (??).

Oh my GOD, McNulty, what????????

NO! DO NOT! DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT

On to episode 7, or year no. 7 of my life I’m losing to this nightmare season

Holy cow, Billy Murphy. My father-in-law used to work with him.

It would be needlessly repetitive for me to keep saying how angry this deepening serial killer horse-hockey is making me. So I’ll stop. Just assume I’m BOILING MAD every time a new person gets involved in sustaining it.

Clearly Landsman is a brilliant policeman, and even if Bunk doesn’t specifically tattle, he’s gonna figure it out. Sooner or later he’s gonna put the pieces together.

Wow, beautiful writing with this cross-cutting between the Sun and the PD.

Gus is the kind of mentor writers dream about.

...which is why the editors above are so determined to undermine him.

Wait! How did that interview with Michael turn out? I must know!

HELLO CROSSOVER
WOWZA

Clay is certainly entertaining in a courtroom but I haaaaaaaate him

Also he’s a giant hypocrite

nnnnnnggghhhh

Phenomenal ending to that one: “Goodnight hustlers, goodnight hoppers, goodnight to one and all.”

Omar! Go to the doctor! For serious!

Oh, no. No no no no no. All the no, every no in the universe.

Goddamn this damn season. I really wanted to see Omar kill Marlo.

I no longer care about this show. I don’t give a good goddamn what happens to anyone else at all. Once this most vibrant and interesting character has ended in such a meaningless way, midstream on his journey, I just. I’m watching the rest while playing phone games.

Okay, the scene with the FBI profilers identifying McNulty was pretty great.

Also I lived in PG County for about six years, so hearing the congressman explain its problems after all this focus on Baltimore is...gratifying? Yeah, I think so.

I DO NOT FEEL SORRY FOR YOU, MCNULTY

So wait. The one just murder ever committed by a drug dealer in Baltimore, that’s attaching a warrant to him?

Really?

What I object to here isn’t just how attached I’ve gotten to these characters (although it is that). It’s turning away from complexity and toward cynicism - almost to misanthropy.

“You start to tell the story, you think you’re the hero, and then when you get done talking — “

Today’s the day. Big raid. All coming together. But I’m pretty sure it’s all fruit of the poisonous tree...

Whoa. Marlo lost his temper. And Chris has been managing his boss really well all along. Nice narrative concealment there.

Scott playing into bullshit journalism...ooooooo I hate that guy. And God bless the actual thinker at the end of the table who was like “but what does synergy even MEAN?”

HOLY CRAP NAMOND MADE GOOD

WOW

“You ain’t nothing but a shakedown artist.” OH THAT IS RICH, CLAY DAVIS

“You lie about combat ‘cause you *weren’t* there.” Goddamn exactly right, in my experience

“Ain’t no shame in holding on to grief...as long as you make room for other things, too.” Oh, Bubbles. 💔

And now on to Michael. I’m worried that my gut is right about what’s going to happen here.

Yeesh, there’s a lot going on in these ten minutes:
1) Herc, you infinite fucker
2) Better Snoop than Michael
3) Kima, you have my devotion

The enduring way Dukie and Michael parent Bug is one of the loveliest things in this show. Human feeling will save us from the void.

Here we are. Season 5, episode 10.

Oh, Dukie.

What a perfect, rending illustration of how this happens. How a kid becomes Bubbles.

The absolute rage spitting from Rhonda is great stuff. And the range of McNulty’s emotions in this season is a relief and a gift, after so much forkery.

I’m honestly surprised Scott didn’t kill that homeless guy himself.

Yeah, I thought we’d get a copycat sooner or later

This interview room convo is the first time I’ve felt this show relax into cliche. But that’s okay, it was a line or two at most.

Herc is the linchpin of so much injustice it makes me ill.

That was a good choice, about Cheese. He could’ve been the next Marlo and the co-op needs to nip that in the bud.

That’s horrible about Alma. Everything related to the state of journalism in this season is cynical and self-evident, based on everything in the decade since, but she’s a perfect example of it all.

I ENDORSE THIS DIRECTION FOR MICHAEL

Well. There we are.

There wasn’t enough. But there was so much, and I’m grateful.

/end

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