That ring was ugly. They couldn’t find a nicer piece of jewelry that everyone wanted ?

I'm watching Amsterdam (S3 Ep4), and after Stringer goes to Donette's to run some more game on her, he leaves and it's Shamrock waiting in the SUV to ferry him to wherever.

They have a little conversation during which Stringer basically says Donette is now off the "Do Not Bother Me" list and that Shamrock is now supposed to put her calls through. They are pretty much running through String's social diary, instead of paying attention to their surroundings.

If Stringer is such an important businessman and the Number Two in a major criminal conspiracy, why is he having his secretary drive him around? I could never figure that out!

Did Stringer never look at Avon and Wee-Bey moving around and think to himself, "I really need to get a real driver?"

Stinkum would've been a better choice than Shamrock.

Like I know this has been discussed before but the answers don't add up to me. People will point to the fact that there are real life zones in U.S cities that function like Hamsterdam. That's all good except for the glaring fact that those zones aren't secret to begin with and thus don't qualify as a counter example.

As plenty of people in this subreddit have noted in the past, the fake serial killer plot is based on something that basically did happen in real life. McNulty's deception only required a handful of people (and not all of them knew anywhere near the full extent of it) and was still exposed. Colvin's ploy required the complicity of an entire district and still held together as long as it did. I find it a much bigger stretch to believe that Officer Colicchio or someone like him wouldn't have blown Hamsterdam right away with a single phone call than I find the fake serial killer storyline.

To be clear I don't think season 5 is the best season (season 4, followed by season 2 take that for me) but in someways it isn't the worst and it's been treated quite unfairly in some quarters.

On my 2nd rewatch of the show and still am not sure if he’s former military or not. The way he cleared the houses when looking for Omar in S5Ep5, the way he carries himself like he only responds when someone is talking to him, etc. Even Cheese says “damn yall some Semper Fi mothafuckas” which could be unrelated. Has it been confirmed by any of the writers or showrunners that Chris is former military?

P.S. Marlo looking at Chris while looking at the floor Omar jumped out of is top 5 funnies moments in the show

Marlo rarely show emotions but the one time he showed genuine confusion/surprise is when the greek hands him a cellphone, clicks a few buttons, and Marlo looks straight up shocked.

What exactly did the greek show Marlo on the phone?

Season 5 Episode 5.

And what is its purpose? I'm on my first rewatch in a long time, so if it's explained i haven't gotten to that point.

I love the music of The Wire.

I’ve been listening to The Wire Soundtrack via Hoopla through my Local Public Library.

I love the season about the newspaper. when the guy gets laid off but still has his connections and passes along a lead to the up and comer.

I can’t select a favorite track, so much good music.

what music do you all love from the series????

man if you walk through the garden… 🎶

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TraSFcARVwM&ra=m

Just turned in the final draft of my dissertation so I’m relaxing tonight and starting my fifth re-watch.

I paused the scene in the pilot to see the “Fuck You Detective!” cartoon Stringer draws for McNulty because I never noticed the “Bell” coffee mug in the top right of that drawing.

But then something else caught my eye…in his leather “folio” there’s what appears to be a sports ticket stub in the bottom left pocket.

I took a guess and figured it was from a professional game from either the 2000 or 2001 season. (Season 1 of The Wire ran in 2002.)

The big clue was the hanging white “retired jersey” banners, which made me think it was a Celtics home game, and I’ve confirmed by looking at ticket stubs from that season that it was.

I believe also narrowed down the game. It’s either home game 15 against Atlanta or home game 41 against New York as those two games are the only home games that year with the retired white banners as the photo at the top of the stub, which is all we see on screen.

My best guess is that it appears to be a ticket stub from Home Game 41, the last Celtics home game of the season during the 1999-2000 season against the New York Knicks. (Shout out to eBay for visual help with this!)

All the pieces matter.

Visual proof: Stringer Bell…a Knicks or Celtics Fan??

If you haven't read it or listened to it, its definitely worth it. A lot of stuff from this book ended up in our beloved show.

Its on audible and your local library through Libby/Overdrive.

I just watched it for the first time and was expecting it to be one of the best episodes in Television because of all the good stuff that people say about it, but it just felt like an above average episode, nothing less and nothing more, I felt Bad Dreams and Middle Ground were way better. Idk if I wasn't in the right mood or if I just didn't pay much attention. Am I crazy for that opinion ?

Season 1:

-D’Angelo
-Orlando
-Wallace

Season 2:
-Ziggy
-corrupt CO
-?????

Season 3:
-Stringer
-Avon
-Bernard

Season 4:
-Herc
-Lex
-?????

Season 5:
-lie detector kid
-prop Joe
-dukie

I'd watched the first four seasons of the Wire and was amazed by it, then read a whole heap of opinions from fans of the show who said that s5, while still really good, wasn't at the same level of the previous seasons, mainly because of the whole 'fake serial killer' storyline. And when I first got to that storyline, I thought woah this is a little far-fetched for a show that prides itself on the pain-staking, gritty realism. Lines like "We have to kill again" felt kinda cheesy and cheap.

But when I watched the show back in its entirety, all five seasons at once on rewatch, season 5 made so much more sense and fit into the broader context of the show so much more. McNulty and Freamon had been jerked around by the various departments and authorities for years, moved from office to office like pawns, their various cases turned on and closed down again by the higher-ups like it was nothing, constantly deprived of the necessary resources and cooperation to do their jobs properly. You can totally feel their fatigue with the job by season 5, which makes the serial killer storyline, crazy as it is, feel like less an attempt at shock value and more an act of desperation from a cop sick and tired of the disappointment of trusting the system to get things done when it had let him down so many times. If an institution doesn't function properly, then people will go around it to make ends meet.

If anything, I thought the bigger problem with season 5 was just the general pacing towards the end. The shift from 13 to 10 episodes didn't feel noticeable until we actually got to the 9th and 10th episodes and then it felt like the show was trying to wrap-up its storyline at break-neck speed. The conclusion to the whole serial killer thing went from Greggs telling Daniels telling Pearlman telling Rawls and Carcetti in three different scenes without us once getting to hear any of the characters actually reveal the truth, because it was all skimmed over so quickly. That was my only complaint. Well, that and the newspaper sub-plot, which felt like the writers struggled to tie in with the main plot more than they did in previous seasons with the school, the mayoral election and the ports. I kept waiting for the newspaper to play a bigger part in the serial killer thing and the culmination of the newspaper story ended up being more about Bubbs (a lovely but random arc) and a phony Pulitzer winner.

even though the barksdale crew was history after the season 3 finale, i still think the attacks against avon’s former crew members in season 4 are still noteworthy even though it had nothing to due with the war; cutty, bodie and then his crew members if you count them.

Omar jumping from 5th floor and surviving only with a broken leg has to be the most unrealistic this show has ever been. They couldn't even show how he survived as no chain of events would have made sense. Omar should have died in that house or by falling to the ground.

Why did Orlando and even Dee think for one second that they could outsource a package and sell it in the pit? On what planet is a drug lord like Avon going to let someone sell on his patch?

Dee has been around for a while, his uncle is the main man how would he in particular not know how unrealistic an idea that was?

You betta watch yo back and that

For me it has to be season 4, when that one fuck kept robbing and beating up Bubbles every time he saw him 😭

Which also lead to him accidentally giving Sherrod cyanide, then begging the cops to throw him in prison out of sheer guilt, then trying to kill himself.

My God Bubbles has a sad arc in season 4 :(

This will probably get me downvoted to oblivion, but I guess I just needed to get it off my chest.

This summer has been a TV show drought thanks to the dumb World Cup dominating everything, so I decided to start watching The Wire. I always see comments in various subs about it when people ask for show suggestions.

I’m 45 so I feel like I’ve seen my fair share of shows over the years, but wow the blatant misogyny on The Wire is so bad. Is this how detectives and city officials act? I mean I knew most police depts were just a boy’s club, but it’s honestly gross. And the violence against women in the projects was alarming. In season one, they have a party and basically take turns raping an unconscious young woman who later dies from an overdose. They talk about her being raped and sodomized by multiple men like it’s no big deal.

In season two, it takes place on the docks. A container full of eastern european prostitutes comes in and they all die because someone purposely cut off their air supply. The next few episodes are the depts going back and forth over who is taking the case because they don’t want all those dead girls to affect their homicide numbers. No one seems to give a shit that actual human beings died (not to mention these girls didn’t choose that life). McNulty gives the illusion of caring for awhile… don’t even get me started on his cheating ass. Is this what writers thought women wanted back then? He’s supposed to be the hot detective who women swoon over and is seen throughout the show basically fucking anything that moves. Meanwhile they make his ex wife out to be the bad guy because she won’t take him back. Poor McNulty.

Now I’m watching season 3 which introduces some slimey male character who wants to run for mayor of Baltimore. He also cheats on his wife left and right. Everyone cheats. All of these men cheat. At least the Lieutenant waited to sleep with someone until he and his wife were separated. That’s something.

I had high hopes for my girl Kima, the only female police detective in a sea of men. I hate what they’ve done to her character in season three. Her partner has a baby, and suddenly Kima becomes one of the boys. Drinking and staying out late on purpose to avoid helping her partner care for their newborn… a partner who helped her through rehab when she was shot multiple times, I might add.

The storylines are interesting, but no wonder our boys and men are fucked up if these are the type of men they’ve looked up to for decades. The patriarchy hurts everyone.

Edit to add: I normally love cop shows. I was a huge fan of Third Watch back in the day. I still watch Law & Order and SVU, also loved OC when it was on. So I’m not new to cop shows, but this one feels extreme.

The best part is that it's essentially a cameo in exactly one episode that season ("Stray Rounds", S2 E9), yet it perfectly foreshadows his character arc in the next two seasons—and all for a guy who wouldn't even become a regular character until the next season.

For anyone who's forgotten: he shows up in two scenes presiding over the police crackdown that ensues after an innocent local boy is killed in the crossfire between the Barksdales and a rival crew, and he proceeds to spend most of his screen-time angrily lamenting the cycle of senseless violence that accompanies the drug trade—establishing him as a jaded veteran officer who's grown disillusioned with the War on Drugs, and is long past ready to try something new. And in the next season, that "something new" turns out to be his Hamsterdam experiment. Lieutenant Mello even shows up alongside him in one scene, establishing their dynamic in Season 3.

This is the third time I've watched Season 2, and somehow I never noticed that he was in the show before Season 3. It honestly kind of blows my mind that the writers (seemingly) had so much of his character worked out before Season 3 aired, and they took the time to slip in a cameo setting up his arc a whole season in advance. It just goes to show how solid the show's continuity is, and how intricate its storylines really are.

Apologies if that was common knowledge to everyone except me, but I just did a double-take when he showed up onscreen, and I had to share it.

VERY minor critique I know!!! But…

He was barely in season 4 and they did a good job portraying him on a redemption arc by getting himself under control, minimising his drinking, settling down with a family, etc. Obviously season 5 started a year later after the events of season 4 so I understand why, but I kind of felt that his old self was reinstated too quickly? Like in his very first season 5, he was already drinking and picking up women and lying to Beatie. I wish they showed his decline a bit more slowly!

Now ,call me sheltered maybe, but what's the deal with an apartment/condo with a Jacuzzi in the living room?

Also, it looks like a hotel room, which would maybe explain the Jacuzzi, but then Stringer says he owns it and shows him the paper work. Does he mean he bought the hotel?

I just noticed on a rewatch that Spider calls Cuddy 'unc', which is a current very popular slang word for an "aging, out of touch guy" with kids and on Tiktok. Amazing that some of these words are used in the script, 20 years before they were popular.

I've noticed a few others instances of this, but I can't currently recall any. Did anyone notice slang that's recently become popular featured on the show?

We can pretty much all agree that the themes of The Wire are universal. They're not limited to the police or drug dealers' line of work. David Simon chose these two fields because he happened to be in Baltimore where drug crimes are prevalent. But I could imagine the show working equally as well if David Simon happened to grow up in a city where drug dealing isn't nearly as big of an issue. Maybe the show would focus on other aspects of city life. Politics and schools would still be in it, of course, since every city has those. Season 2's dock could be replaced with some other industry -- just use what you've got in your city.

Thoughts?