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    #26
    The Wire Series 1

    Thanks for the clarification, jv.

    **********************
    S
    P
    O
    I
    L
    E
    R
    **********************

    Oh, Wallace, you silly boy.

    **********************
    THAT'S ENOUGH OF THAT
    **********************

    You know the reason I never got to grips with The Sopranos? Three episodes in, which is where I gave up on it, nobody was likeable, and nobody was engagingly awful. No Wallace, no D'Angelo, no Bunk, no Stringer, no Omar. It was just a bunch of nasty stuff about a bunch of people I dislike. The Eastenders trap. It doesn't matter how well they did it, they fell into the Eastenders trap. Heavy-handed sensitivity shit about a bunch of ducks can't cut it against Omar whistling "a-hunting we will go" while ripping off the Pit with a pump-action. That nigger got style.

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      #27
      The Wire Series 1

      By the way, The Rhino made an excellent point earlier:

      You're right about Stringer Bell, Purv

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        #28
        The Wire Series 1

        I love Omar too, but uh, we may want to invoke the Eminem rule on that post. Or change the "er" to an "a".

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          #29
          The Wire Series 1

          Again, with the Sopranos, it really heats up from ep 4-6.

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            #30
            The Wire Series 1

            Changing the spelling doesn't change the word. I'll stand by it. Me and Lenny Bruce, shoulder to shoulder.

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              #31
              The Wire Series 1

              And ok, JV, I'll give the Sopranos one last go. Just for you.

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                #32
                The Wire Series 1

                Just season 1.

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                  #33
                  The Wire Series 1

                  One of my problems with The Wire, at first, was that there was almost no humour to it. In The Sopranos at least you've got people like Silvio and Paulie to give you a laugh. Humour creeps in as Series 2 and 3 roll on, but it's unremittingly bleak for a long long stretch.

                  ***SOME VERY MILD SPOILERS IF YOU'VE NEVER SEEN SERIES 1 AT ALL***

                  The first time I can remember laughing, in The Wire, is the episode where McNulty and Bunk revisit a crime scene and communicate purely with the word 'fuck', given a different intonation and meaning every time. A brilliant little set piece.

                  I also took a real dislike to the character of Lester Freamon at first, mainly because it was being telegraphed too blatantly that we were meant to like him: the softly-spoken, dignified, wise elder cop among all the young hotheads, blah blah. That eases off after a while, though, and becomes less irritating. Round about the time he gets a crush on the stripper.

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                    #34
                    The Wire Series 1

                    Purves man, change the wording of that Omar paragraph. I don't think we've got to the stage where we can use that word, frankly.

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                      #35
                      The Wire Series 1

                      I disagree.

                      I used it in direct homage/parody of Bodie & Poot's way of talking. No hostile or belittling intent. It's just a word, nothing to be afraid of. Sometimes it's used in ignorance, sometimes with the aim of causing offence, sometimes as reported speech, sometimes for other reasons.

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                        #36
                        The Wire Series 1

                        Totally agree with the Rhino's 2nd and 3rd paragraphs there. In every detail.

                        I don't find the bleakness so troubling overall though. Which is unusual for me - I generally need a bit of light relief.

                        I'll confess I did laugh when Bodie told Daniels what he wanted as part of a deal to turn informer early on, though. Superb comic timing.

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                          #37
                          The Wire Series 1

                          Fair enough Purves. I'm not sure I agree to be honest, but hey ho.

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                            #38
                            The Wire Series 1

                            Seriously, it's no different to your own "fo' damn sho'" upthread. Indeed there are those who'd argue that your phonetic representation of that is patronising and borderline offensive itself. I wouldn't agree with that assessment either.

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                              #39
                              The Wire Series 1

                              I'm authorised by the trousers-wearer in our house to offer PG a loan of all our DVD box sets, subject to the following:

                              1. One at a time.
                              2. You must give them back. No thoughts of revenge for unreturned books.
                              3. You indemnify us against your being unable to enjoy any telly ever again.

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                                #40
                                The Wire Series 1

                                You are a good man. And so is Mrs Earth.

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                                  #41
                                  The Wire Series 1

                                  You know what? I think I'd like to start with Season 1. I want to do whatever it takes to get the GLW to watch it.

                                  And this time I'd like to try it with subtitles. I thought about doing that from the start, having been warned about the impenetrability of much of the dialogue. But I decided against it, considering that that impenetrability was part of David Simon's (edit - oops) vision and as such needed to be included, at least on first run through, as a courtesy measure.

                                  I mean, obviously I want to watch Season 2 NOW, DAMMIT, but I reckon that getting right on top of everything in S1 will pay dividends down the line.

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                                    #42
                                    The Wire Series 1

                                    Here's a thing that bothers me a bit: Entourage/Wire actor crossover. Both made by HBO, of course.

                                    The guy who plays Herc in The Wire turns up in Entourage as Vince's old jailbird buddy from New York, and the guy who plays in The Wire (series 2) turns up in Entourage as a movie exec. Kind of disconcerting.

                                    Especially because the characters they play in both shows are too similar. The Herc guy is a clumsy, bull-in-a-china-shop dickhead in both, and the ethnically Mediterraneanly named guy is a ruthless high-powered player who'll smile in your face while fucking you in the arse.

                                    You'd think HBO could draw on a big enough pool of actors to avoid this sort of thing. Unless it's a deliberate bit of cross-show inter-referentiality, in which case it's a little lame...

                                    I realise I'm probably gonna be mocked for watching Entourage, but it's fun, light teatime viewing (as opposed to The Wire, which I only watch when I'm ready to settle down for the night and give it my full attention), and the character of Johnny Drama is hilarious.

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                                      #43
                                      The Wire Series 1

                                      The Wire has been a boon to my marriage. We've now watched Series 1 and 2 on DVD with Hungarian subtitles, and I have just returned from my travels bearing 3 and 4. Once the kids have finally gone to sleep we sit and watch an episode (or invariably two or three since it's so addictive). It gives us something to look forward to. Though I think Mrs Hoc's colleagues are a bit confused now she uses phrases like Mos' Def with such abandon.

                                      I mean we could have used sex for the same purpose, but that would be all too simple.

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                                        #44
                                        The Wire Series 1

                                        I'm a bit bemused by the talk of impenetrability. It didn't present much of a problem to me - there was only one character who I found it very difficult to understand (turns up later and I thought was male for quite a while).

                                        Humour wise, I found a lot of what Rawls, Landsman and Bunk and the interplay in the detail funny. The sofa boys in low rises too. None of it was full of bellylaughs but I could live with that.

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                                          #45
                                          The Wire Series 1

                                          I can understand the talk all right, but is it worth understanding? I saw a bit of it last night and if I posted the dialogue from it, you'd think I was doing a racist caricature. It was repetitive and witless. From what I've seen of AAVE, it's the total opposite to that.

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                                            #46
                                            The Wire Series 1

                                            Tubby, throughout the series a lot of the actors who portray the corner kids were from West Baltimore. I've read numerous newspaper articles were reporters watched the show with people involved in the West Baltimore drug trade and they vouched for the accuracy.

                                            If you think that the conversations about learning chess and the inventor of the McNugget are witless then you have extremely high standards.

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                                              #47
                                              The Wire Series 1

                                              The impenatrability is a problem particularly at the start because you've got people who have an unfamiliar accent and who don't have a great clarity of elocution, you've got them using unfamiliar street slang, often on crackly telephone lines with lots of background noise and there are lots of nicknames used about people who never receive formal introductions for the audience's benefit.

                                              Took me a long time to figure out who Wee Bey was, for example.

                                              And Tubby - yes it is worth getting to grips with. Repetetive? Often. Witless? Much of the time. Effective? Unquestionably.

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                                                #48
                                                The Wire Series 1

                                                If you think that the conversations about learning chess and the inventor of the McNugget are witless then you have extremely high standards.
                                                Spot on.

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                                                  #49
                                                  The Wire Series 1

                                                  Well, there was one where someone was being shot. Honestly, if I quoted it you'd think I was being racist.

                                                  I can see a point to it that shooting people is so mundane, and doesn't need to be accompanied by grandiloquence, but even so.

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                                                    #50
                                                    The Wire Series 1

                                                    Purves Grundy wrote:
                                                    You know what? I think I'd like to start with Season 1.
                                                    PM me, either reminding me of your address or suggesting an evening and pub.

                                                    You feel me?

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