More The Wireblr
Happy new years. I finished Season 1 of The Wire and would like to hold a one-woman panel discussion. (Last week or so I was having drinks with my friends and expounding upon the greatness of Jersey Shore when I interrupted myself to say, “Ok, hold up, I want to do a roundtable on Brittany Murphy. You start.” I am so hi-lo pretentious that way.)
I’m not gonna front, part of why I like The Wire is all the new and interesting street slang it teaches me. I have been on Urban Dictionary a lot this past week. I’m always really pleased to discover a new definition for a totally basic word, like “right,” as in, “yo, that shit was right,” as in “perfect, good, flawless.”
I *also* like:
Stringer Bell’s bromance with Avon. Like, why is Stringer so devoted to Avon? He’s such a pro, he could be running a legitimate business, but no, he is all about protecting his B Avon. (Yo, B.)
There are a few times on the show when Stringer or Omar or someone is like, “put that out there, yo,” as in, “get the word out about how we have a truce/our drugs our really good right now/etc.” It’s so like… Michael Scott-ian (or, alternately, like trying to spread use of the word “rufus” in Never Been Kissed) to think that “the ghetto” works this way, that one can just “put the word out on the streets,” and yet, it seems to be how the game is played.
Game recognize game! It’s all in the game, yo! Any and all talk about game!
That time when Bodie said “No doubt.”
Herc and Carver’s bromance. A more equitable bromance.
Onto the serious portion of our program. Another favorite show of mine is The West Wing, despite the fact that I’ve only seen seasons 1 and 2 in their entirety. I don’t know why it is that seeing the rest of the show never became a priority for me, and I’m sure I’ll get around to it eventually, even though one drawback is the show is supposed to have gone downhill post Aaron Sorkin, understandably. So anyway I’m using this as a point of comparison, because I’m rhapsodizing about The Wire after only having seen the first season. I think there are similarities within the shows. First of all, a certain tendancy towards novelistic/deliberately disorienting storytelling. Calling it that makes me sound like an idiot, but what I mean is that watching either show, I always feel like I’m tuning out a lot of jargon/details and trying to distill what will be the relevant plot threads. So there’s that.
And then there’s the aforementioned abundance of bromances. The West Wing and The Wire are both heavily male shows. Aaron Sorkin doesn’t really understand women, and though he makes some moderately successful efforts here and there, his best characters are men. He’s very male *eyeroll* that way. (Like, Donna? Mandy? Girl, pleez.) David Simon makes less pretenses towards even trying to portray women, which I guess is understandable in the world of drugs/police. Kima is good though. Kima might be a more believeable woman than C.J. But what I’m really trying to say is that both shows portray a huge spectrum of men, most of whom I’m surprised to find myself totally in love with. Like Leo and Toby on The West Wing. Why do I love them so? Samesies for Freamon, Sydnor, Prez. I love the rapport that develops among the cops and among the guys in the pit (omg and Herc/Carver/Bodie together, I might write some slash about that trio), just like the guys in The West Wing. They’re both sort of office/work shows in that way, weirdly.
I even love that sometimes The Wire is too on the nose. Like when Wallace goes to his grandma’s house in the country and asks what that noise is. “Crickets.” Or when D was teaching Bodie and Wallace about chess.
I love that McNulty is a legit alcoholic.
BUBBLES!!!
Depending on how long I’m unemployed, maybe I’ll get to watch seasons 2 through 5 soon.
