Prison Blues

D'Angelo becomes the next victim of the Wire holding no reverence for your favourite characters and just killing them off!

We should have known when we saw him in the library that he was just too good to be true. Everyone's favourite prison film, The Shawshank Redemption, of course has the loveable Brooks manning the library, to be joined by our main man Andy Dufraine. Brooks and Dufraine are both quiet contemplative types, much in the same vain as D'Angelo. D would often be seen not responding when people talked to him, either becuase he was deep in thought or (more likely) that he was just utterly bemused all the time. Brooks died by hanging himself, whereas D'Angelo was framed to look like he hung himself. And he didn't carry a bird in his pocket.

I'm sad to see D'Angelo go, he was your concience, much like his fellow deceased dealer Wallace, the ones you could count on to be rational. His death was a understated affair, clinical and cold. It's funny that Stringer is going behind Avons back with business in the projects, whilst Avon is doing the same to Stringer inside.

I think the death of Wallace affected me more, it happened in dramatic style and he was finished off by his best friend. D'Angelo should have known better than to push away Avon, his stubboness was always going to be his undoing.

Series Two: First 2 episodes.

Soo we've moved down to the docks,
Bunk and McNulty feast on crab and the dockers are putting eggs in their beer. Why would you do that? I've heard of putting eggs in your bloody mary, but in your beer? way to spooil a lager. Clearly we are being shown that the dockers like to drink a lot, but in addition there are many questions we have about them. They have their own customs, their own ways of which we have much to learn!

On the other hand, why is Bunk so keen on eating crab guts and McNulty can't handle it. The crab symbolises McNulty's move to the water. His life is with boats: seafood. Him and bunk are unsophisticated, hands-on guys; they eat crab straight from the shell.

In prison they're eating KFC - continuity with their old life. we are being shown that although their in The Can they can still carry on much as before. Avon and D'angelo are up to no good. Wicked.

So far series two is bleaker, more industrial. Our friends from series one have been scattered to the wind, but you can see the forces pulling them back together. It's sick how 14 murders are seen as a game by the cops, they are offloading them like cargo between departments. Each ife is worth a shot of Jamesons for McNulty. At no point are they described as people: bodies, whores, illegals, J. Does... but never people, these poor, exploited women are dehumanised. Once again The Wire is showing us how similar the worlds of crime and law are.

Wallace....nooooooooooo!

Brutal. Wallace is dead. Shot by his best friends.

I'm pretty upset right now.

Wallace was the kid in all of us. One of those characters who makes you think those on the street aren't that bad. we fancy that we could be Wallace, we could handle the money. I could be on that sofa with D'angelo. He brought out the soft side of those around him too.

He played with the big boys - but deep down you knew he was innocent...too innocent. He certainly did bleed soda. Thing was he was clever, too clever to be in the game and we all knew it. Watching him you just wanted to scream 'get out!!', 'go to college', 'stay at your grans house', 'don't take smack'. But the lure of the game was too much for him.

In the end it was the fault of the Baltimore PD that killed him. They took their eyes off him and he had been tainted. There was only ever gunna be one outcome.

They go out for burgers and he's acting like a kid. The other two can see it, they know they have to step up. But you think Poon's gunna save him. He's his best mate for gods sake, but in the end it's alwways the closest to you who fuck you over. The moment you see the Tupac poster you know it's all over.
Still, i did almost shed a tear.

RIP Wallace

The Cost

Bubbles sits on a park bench, anxiously looking around. His face is scarred from years of heroin abuse, his complexion is flaky as is his state of mind. His fiddling fingers tell a story; he doesn't know what to do with himself. His playful, youthful self relates to the children playing in the sunshine, on the lush grass they laugh and blow bubbles (Bubbles' innocent-sounding name contrasts starkly with his well-worn appearence). Instead of the bullet firing guns used by the street crews they are playing with bubble-guns, harmlessly releasing streams of floating spheres of joy.
In another part of the park Bubbles' contemporaries hover around in dark clothing, moving shiftily, communicating with obtuse body language and hand gestures. A guy who could be Snoop Dogg walks past bubbles and greets him, pulling him out of his reflective daze. These people know Bubbles from years of hanging around the same streets but are they really his friends? The lure of the addiction is too much for him and there is no-one to turn to, the one person who promises to help him says she'll call tomorrow...if only she knew what would happen to her that night, she wouldn't have made a promise she couldn't keep.

Game Day

I thought Wallis would deal with shit in a sensible way but oooooh no, he's only gone and started takin drugs. Simultaneously my favourite character Bubbles is tryin to come off. He should watch Trainspotting!

Basketball match episode -Game Day- is wicked. Literally so much stuff happens. The way they turn D'Angelo's stripper girlfriend is so much like Adriana in Sopranos - though she's no where near as hot. The Wire is seriously lacking in any hot girls, a big dissapointment.

Pistol Whipping and Tucker Whacking

The opening camera shot of episode 6 'The Wire' is great - a crane shot panning up from Omars boyfriends dead body on a car bonnett. reminded me of that great shot in Jackie Brown where the crane pulls back from the car and then accross to the car park when some guy's in the boot - here's the one I mean.



Love how the music fades out and comes back in here, and it's always great to see Chris Tucker get made to shut the fuck up.

It's followed by Tarantino style long shot, following our young dealer around the house wakin his family up. My god I hat that one cop who looks like Quentin Tarantino - the one who pistol whipped the guy a few episodes ago. He's a cock.

This episode is definately the best so far - the battle between McNulty and the lard ass Homicide cops is fraught. Filled with conflicting priorities. People really want to piss McNulty off and hit their targets for arrests. It's a great power battle and of course McNulty wins out in the end.

Simultaneously our young kid drug dealer (Wallis) has internal wrangling over his responsibility for the death of Omars boy. The advice from D'angelo - "just let that shit go" "don't think about it". When they boast about their killings they mythologise them - turning them into stories so they don't have to deal with the reality of what they've done...

One inconsistency I spotted: When McNulty vistis the scene of the murder it's wet - for the rest of the episode it's stupidly hot!

Something funny: http://whatsontv.co.uk/blogs/tvspy/the-wire/premier-league-players-who-look-like-characters-from-the-wire/

The King is always the King

In my opinion one of the best Chess metaphors ever is in episode 2/3. When i saw the chess set I groaned, too often chess is used in a film as some kind of half arsed way of showing a character being intelligent, or to introduce a theme of tactics/strategy that will run in the film. Possibly the worst example of this is in Independence Day where Jeff Goldblum plays chess with his dad, as a not to subtle hint that the aliens are 'strategically' positioning their air craft.

Jeff Goldblum: It's like in chess: First, you strategically position your pieces and when the timing is right you strike.

wow. genius. (my favourite line: "What has unanimously been agreed as the front of these spaceships" is of course over Washington - the capitol of the USA.. american egos eh!) Not forgetting the classic heaven chess scene in Bill and Ted and in the finale of X-men.... anyway, there are so many examples of terrible chess moments in films (Bill Wall helpfully lists 1715 examples here). that I thought The Wire was loosing it. It turned out to be great, D'angelo proved his superior intelligence (on TV/films chess ALWAYS indicates intelligence) by knowing the rules (the others are using a chess set to play draughts), whilst also demonstrating the way the drug runners operate. I thought it was great.

Those asshole cops got what they deserved when they went into the projects at 2am, hehe, that was definately a highlight. While the drug dealers are playing chess, the police are behaving like thugs...