OFFICIAL THE WIRE THREAD.. ''The game is the game"

[elpablo21]

That's cold

 

[HEATHEN]

Rewatching the series now. Been a while. Crazy to see how far Michael B. Jordan has come.

 

[just nikes]

There's probably tons of spoilers in here so I didn't really read through but I'll be checking back in two days when I run through 4 and 5.

Just finished 3 and that was a great one. So far its 1>3>2 for me. how are 4 and 5?

 

[seymore cake]

You should edit that and go into it with no expectations, then come back and give us your view of them as a whole.

I have a rank for the show based on seasons... But as a whole body of work its pretty ******* incredible when you sit back and view the big picture.

 

[riverdale road]

Ya'll making me want to go back & start watching again. I'll start after I finish Making A Murderer.

 

[getback]

Bruh, everybody got what they deserved except for Marlo

What? Noooo. No. She set him straight for a sec. So that he didn't jump at the offer McNulty had on the table where he'd snitch on everybody the first time around. Then they killed Michael B. Jordan and D went right back to being a ***** made *****.

How yall forget. When D ended up getting killed it wasn't during an ep where he struggled with snitching or not and then finally decided not to and stick with the family. Nothing close to that happened.

He took the 20 and then was contemplating confessing anyway. Son was acting like he bled daily not monthly. Telling Avon to stay away from him, being by himself like a lame costantly. Son's actions were erratic.

Then this gump as ************ started doing drugs b! Tell me how that's not crumbling and spiraling out of control?

The real question is why Avon was in such denial about this. String did the right thing. D was beyond a liability.

He used drugs occasionally but then stopped. Don't you remember the scene where he looked at a photo of his girl and baby and then flushed his stash? That was him using his family as his motivation for sobriety.

He was staying away from Avon in prison because he finally denounced "The Game," even the prison game where the head honchos get certain privileges and benefit from corrupts CO's. You remember the scene where him and Avon pass each other in the corridor and have that "moment?"

You need to rewatch one of D's most important scenes



Simon didn't draw these parallels for no reason. D finally made peace with himself and accepted his past, but was ready to reform and do the 20. That's what makes his death all the more tragic and leads the viewer to be more sympathetic. Fitzegerald's quote "there are no second acts in American lives" taken from Gatsby is purposely used bro, it applies to many characters, including String.

Have you ever been in a penitentiary? I think Simon shaped D as someone who eventually displayed the characteristics of someone who would actually benefit from a lengthy bid.

 

[Master Zik]

I remember. I still think he was ***** made and that his heart pumped estrogen.

I did not sympathize with D AT ALL. I saw the snitch in him.

 

[skurrtskurrt29]

Really curious to know why you don't sympathize with a dude who wasn't about that life but was obviously forced into it. That whole speech he gave in the interrogation room in season 1 should've gave you that idea. I mean, his own f*cking mother convinced him to go to jail for 20 years for his "family" for goodness sake.

That **** he pulled with the letter was flat out inexcusable, and so we're his lies and tough guy act. But D had a good heart and just wanted to be left alone in the end. He wasnt gonna snitch on them because, quite frankly, he stopped giving a ****. Rightfully so.

 

[Master Zik]

He wasn't forced in to ****.

He wanted to be about that life even though he knew it was wrong. Once MacNulty and Bunk scooped D up and had him about to confess, snitch on everybody and make a statement it just made it close to impossible for me to feel bad for this dude. He was willing to rat out fam as the series went on.

Sure he had some noble intentions but instead of cutting ties he stuck around trying to rise up the ranks.

By the end when he just wanted to be left alone it was too late. He was too untrustworthy. For us we may have saw more and what he was thinking but obviously the rest in the show couldn't know that.

We just see it different way when it comes to D. My past posts in this thread cover all my thoughts on dude.

 

[skurrtskurrt29]

So, it's just simple for him to go straight with his whole family encouraging otherwise? Come on man, that life was all he knew. He was clearly an impressionable person.

We both can agree that he was a soft dude and probably did know better, but still, D was doomed from the jump.

 

[Thats My Word]

You all should rewatch the series in HD.

 

[Master Zik]

Back when they killed Michael B. Jordan is when he should've just up and quit. Told his mom he's going straight or disappear.

They would've accepted it eventually.

Especially when you see what did happen and his moms told him to do a 20 year bid basically for Avon. Asking him to do that was basically a mother telling her son you really don't have that much worth to us on the outside anyway but you can take this bullet for all of us at least.

 

[getback]

Back when they killed Michael B. Jordan is when he should've just up and quit. Told his mom he's going straight or disappear.

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't it too late by then? Wasn't he being scooped up on that New York run by the state police pretty much at the same time Wallace was getting clipped?

 

[Master Zik]

He might've I think. I should've said when he got the feeling they was gonna murk Wallace cuz I know before getting arrested he was trying to prevent that from happening.

 

[skurrtskurrt29]

Came across this article on Stringer. A very interesting point of view.

Story Written By: Bomani | Published: July 8, 2009

So Melly Mele told me she was worried about my distaste for Stringer Bell. She says it’s irrational.

When a woman who makes bank while Skip Bayless (who, it should be noted, has always been really, really nice to me) begins Year 7 of his grudge with LeBron James, I feel the need to do what I do best — hyperintellectualize!

Well, not really.

Anyway, I hate Stringer Bell. I admit that I have a visceral reaction when I see his character on the screen. When he was on The Office, I wanted Idris Elba’s character — whose name I never bothered to remember — to be the victim of workplace discrimination. It’s just a tad serious when it comes to Stringer.

Like Jemele, many of you wonder why I go so hard on Stringer Bell. I actually had to think about this, because I readily acknowledge this isn’t normal and, on its surface, it does seem irrational (and this coming from someone that’s so rational that it’s got to be annoying to deal with).

It’s pretty simple. Stringer Bell is a racist.

(For a second, imagine Stringer’s a white man. Now read some more, then we’ll revisit this.)

The single most objectionable thing about Stringer Bell was the nauseating, condescending tone he took with the people that worked with and for him. Stringer Bell was a self-hating bastard. David Simon talks about how Stringer just wanted to be someone else, but that translates nicely to “self-hating.” He talked to those boys, boys who came up the same damn way as him, as if they were stupid. He sounded like the rest of the self-righteous bourgeois clowns that continually look down on the poor as if they’re lesser beings.

Think about this. A lot of you love Stringer because he was going to community college (as if that ****’s special). Here’s my question — why is it that Stringer Bell never, not one single time, encouraged anyone else to take his path. He thought he could change the game? Maybe. But how was he gonna keep that game going if he was the only one that had this advanced knowledge?

He saw the people around him as marginally superior to monkeys. He treated them as such. I hate those people in real life — and notice many of them looooooove Stringer Bell — and I hate them on screen.

Imagine Stringer as a white man again. You might have a different look at him.

Let’s take questions from the audience right fast.

*HE WAS TRYING TO TREAT THE DRUG GAME LIKE A BUSINESS! HE WAS AHEAD OF HIS TIME!*

Now, the only way that’s a truly good thing is if you saw Stringer’s attempts to be a way to eliminate violence. I get that. One payoff from Stringer’s vision was less murder, and I guess he gets credit for that.

Except it’s not as if Stringer did this in the name of principle. He did it in the name of paper. Less bodies, less cops, more money. I don’t blame him for it. Ain’t gonna give him props for it, either.

Let’s go one step further. At every point, when Stringer ran out of answers, what was his solution? Take somebody out. Happened to Wallace. He tried to do it to Omar and/or Brother Mouzone. He wanted to do it to Clay Davis (classic television, btw).

Let’s not pretend this cat didn’t want anyone to die. He didn’t give a damn if they did or not. He just wanted the cops to get off his back. I guess I’ll give him a golf clap for that one.

Now don’t get me wrong. Stringer is a compelling character. I just don’t find him compelling because he was taking business classes. I’ve taken the same business classes. They didn’t make me a good dude. The biggest ******** I’ve ever met are in academia. And I have worked in both music and the sports media.

Just made him another dude in community college. Whoo-hoo.

He also was smart. Another great big whoo-hoo. I’m pretty smart. Know what that matters for in the grand scheme? Naythin. That’s what. Bupkis.

I won’t belabor the obvious points about Stringer getting with D’Angelo’s girl when he was in the joint. And having D’Angelo killed while he was getting with his girl. And the Wallace thing. And sending Avon up the river because Avon, the boss, wouldn’t listen to him. Nah, no need to get deep into that.

But the bad vibe I got off the character, which made him the biggest villain — even bigger than Marlo — in the greatest narrative I’ve ever followed, comes from the stench of a hatred of poor black people. I have no respect for that whatsoever, whether on Earth or on film.

I don't care for Stringer, but I don't know if I would flat out call the man a racist. But the reasoning behind it is intriguing.

 

[seymore cake]

Similar to a lot of his writings... Stretching things way past imagination just to develop an arguement.

 

[edshoecator]

Season 2 was excellent. I'll never understand why so many dismiss how it setup the rest of the series

 

[seymore cake]

Season 2 was excellent. I'll never understand why so many dismiss how it setup the rest of the series

It's honestly my 2nd favorite season.

 

[Master Zik]

Bomani Jones been a clown

That assessment is absurd and clearly stems from delusional hatred. It ignores a lot of facts stated about Stringer like his past but I aint arguing it.

 

[Mark Antony]

Season 2 was excellent. I'll never understand why so many dismiss how it setup the rest of the series

It's honestly my 2nd favorite season.

Those viewers just wanted the hood tales, not exactly Peabody type folks.

 

[skurrtskurrt29]

I always flip flop seasons 2 and 3 in my rankings (after 4).

Season 2 was just as raw as any of them, and had some of the shows best characters. The way my man Frank went out

 

[f3rn7]

The multiple times I watched the series made me change how I thought of String. Dude was shady and was just about himself, Avon treated him like family and at every turn String used them for personal gain.
I swear people who don't like season 2 never understood the show. Seasons 2 and 4 gave the show depth and made it more than the average hood show.

 

[edshoecator]

It's honestly my 2nd favorite season.

Those viewers just wanted the hood tales, not exactly Peabody type folks.

I always flip flop seasons 2 and 3 in my rankings (after 4).

Season 2 was just as raw as any of them, and had some of the shows best characters. The way my man Frank went out

The multiple times I watched the series made me change how I thought of String. Dude was shady and was just about himself, Avon treated him like family and at every turn String used them for personal gain.
I swear people who don't like season 2 never understood the show. Seasons 2 and 4 gave the show depth and made it more than the average hood show.

 to all of you.

 

[All Ready]

I always used to argue with cats on here bout season 2

always felt it had some of the best writing

 

[hymen man]

S2 one of my favs. I'm one of the fews that enjoyed the Sobatkas and their naivety.