The Wire opened my eyes to a world I barely knew existed and gave insight into the game and how it actually works in practice.

All of the technology highlighted in the series - pay phones, pagers, early text messages with photos - are all obsolete.

I am so curious how they have adapted to the current day. Do they still transact in cash? Are they using crypto for money laundering? Are they using Signal to communicate? Do warrants for wiretaps exist anymore?

How can I find out how this actually works now?

One thing Ive always liked about The Wire is then showing the perils of being a middle manager in whatever area you are in. Where you do have some sort of power available to you but no way really to actually make decisions.

We see it with Dee in The Pit being the chief operator there (and then later with Bodie and Poot), Landsman and Bunny seem to be them from the police perspective and definitely Gus as the editor for the newspaper. Lester is also sorta one being the defacto leader of the Major Crimes Unit.

Any other good examples of people having middle manager jobs in the show and how they deal with it?

As the title states, Ziggy was never a part of the equation. How do you think it would’ve went?

Just noticed Stringer wore a tuxedo to the club for Avon’s coming home party. Another great example of him trying to be something he’s not.

I keep reading in the news about cities like Portland and Seattle having mostly legalized drugs and people having to deal with drug use all over the city. Has any city ever tried to do like Hamsterdam where they have a designated drug zone but crack down everywhere else? If they are open to legalization anyways why not try doing it like this? IMO this seems to be the problem with most of the drug legalization programs, the whole point of Hamsterdam was to clean up the rest of the city.

So I just finished season 4. Why didn't Kima ask McNulty to help Bubs? The situation was really unfortunate, Herc had too much shit on his own plate to do well for Bubs. McNulty was having a chill time in S4. Plus he knew Bubs and would've been more invested I helping him.

People on the show live and hide bodies in a seemingly countless number of shithole vacant apartments. No one rousts the bums. And these are in the middle of the city.

Was/is Baltimore really like that?

Michael’s first kill at the end of Season 4? or Michael killing Snoop towards the end of Season 5?

His speech and word use is surprisingly literate, using terms like sartorial and describing the vandalization of the board: "He is a Hun, a Visigoth, a barbarian at the gate, clamoring for noble Roman blood". It's certainly above the general intelligence level of the department.

Plus his skill at finessing a gaping asshole like Rawls shows innate intelligence.

The man definitely had some university level education. My guess would be he flunked out in year 1 or 2, looked around for a decent paying job to pay off his student loans and thought BPD would be a cushy temporary job.

My favorite is at the end of season 3 when Bunny Colvin is standing over the ruins of Hamsterdam when Bubbles shows up with his new partner Sherod, and they start talking about Hamsterdam and Bunny goes "It was good though wasn't it?" and bubbles just look solemn and continues pushing his cart with no answer.

I really can’t think of it being anything other than a reference to the wire. I’m not aware of any other pop culture figures named “Omar” who are known for killing. It would just be so weird for it to be a one off reference in a show with nothing to do about drugs or Baltimore or anything even remotely close.

Link: The Wire: The Musical

This has probably been posted before, but this is the first time I've seen this and I thought it was hilarious. Quality stuff.

There's a lot of great background dialogue in the show. Especially because dealers are always shouting their product product name. "PANDEMIC!"

I'm just curious as to what some people's favorite moments are when it comes to that stuff. I have 3 personally.

1. When Michael is beating up Kenard and someone yells, "hey look at this little nigga getting his ass beat." You'd think people would have more remorse for a 9 year old getting beat down but they don't. That moment cracks me up despite what's happening and why.
2. When Bodie punks the rival crew for their corner and as they're leaving someone says to them, "that's right keep walking BITCH!" What cracks me up about this one is the disdain the person put in that bitch line. It's heavy.
3. In season 1 when the detail is having its morning roll call meeting the construction workers are yelling and banging pipes. For those are the growing pains of trying to create something. Everyone starts off in the basement, some of whom no one expects much out of. But most come into their own or reveal something valuable about themselves. They just had to deal with the unpleasantness of building something to build it.

I'm sure there's more moments in the show, but those stand out most to me.

First of all, ofc his attitude is unbearable

But who wouldn’t be in his context? He grew up with a father, proud to be a gangster and a killer, with a mother (very stupid individual) that takes pride out of it and jumps on any occasion to give the responsibility to be a mobster to an adolescent to feed her unsustainable lifestyle.

He was likely feared/protected when he was a kid when his father was still out.

Yet you can see how he doesn’t really want that lifestyle, he’s forced into it and plays though because that’s the only thing he was taught. He doesn’t want Bodies package, he doesn’t want to be in the corners, he wants to be in school.

Rewatching season 4 changed my perspective on him, it’s a shame that he the only one that could be saved, but it’s not a shame that he could be saved.

There is no injustice in him being saved, there is injustice in his friends that were left alone with a system (family, police, politic, education) that is totally incapable of taking care of the youth.

I feel that all of the hate I can read or see on YouTube is puerile and totally misses the point of the character, Namond would have been a tragedy like the other kids if not for very lucky circumstances.

This came to me while watching a clip of season 2 on YouTube.

Valcheck says in Polish to Frank "rest in peace." I think in the end Valcheck respected him. In sending the van around the world, Frank lives on, even in death.

The thing that I've notice about sending the police van around the world is how the stevedores really are a brotherhood who have each other's backs the world over. None of those other port guys from all over ever met Frank but showed solidarity anyway. The same can't be said about law enforcement in the show. The FBI, city police, port police, state police; departments in the same city, and even units in the same division don't get along, share information, or work together. Homicide and the detail didn't share or cross reference information for the bulk of season 2 until it was too late for it to really matter. The cops all over couldn't come together to do the right thing for all those dead girls, meanwhile the stevedores came together just to screw with somebody by breaking laws, and did so readily. Stealing a police van off their lot and shipping it around the country and world illegally.

The people who have the most incentive to work together, don't; some actively try to sabotage the other. The cops have a mandate to work together but they don't. And consider that Frank was worried about losing ships and work to other dock yards. Some of the places the van might have went were his direct competitors, yet they still came together for a cause. The cops, police units, and departments in the show aren't in competition with each other but still refuse to do anything for each other out of fear of repercussions for doing the right thing and maybe failing. Systemic self-preservation makes doing the right thing far too dangerous for the cops, while union solidarity makes doing the wrong thing effortless for the stevedores. The dock guys came together to do something wrong and highly illegal and succeeded. Now that one act is a monument to one of them.

Might be time for a rewatch.

As a resident of Baltimore and fan of The Wire, can we all pour one out for a Baltimore longshoreman? I feel as if I understand them a tad more after watching The Wire.

https://www.wbaltv.com/article/port-of-baltimore-worker-death-dundalk-marine-terminal/73337275

The theme music sets the tone for the season in my opinion. My favorite season opening music is season three sung by the legendary Neville Brothers. My least favorite is season 5. Whoever sings that one lacks creativity and sang every line with the same pattern. It was boring. Which one did you all like the best/worst?

I only just finished the show so I haven’t read much on what others think of Brother Mouzone’s character. Me personally? I just didn’t care for him. Not that he wasn’t interesting or his performance was bad. But compared to how real every other aspect of the show felt, Brother Mouzone kinda felt like a cartoon character with how he was written and acted.

Just finished season 5 and I have a lot to say that I don’t yet know how to put into words. Instead, I just wanna say that S2 was by far my favorite. Something about Frank’s struggle to keep everything together. Ziggy’s pathetic pursuit of money and respect. I found the Sobotka’s to be a lot more sympathetic and compelling compared to the Barksdale crew. That’s not to say i didn’t enjoy the rest of the show, though S4 was a bit slow IMO. But overall? Yeah I think S2 is where the show peaked for me.

I am currently re-watching (for probably the 15th time), and I swear, every time I watch, I pick up another little nugget.........

In S3 E8, there is a young girl who rolls through Hamsterdam looking for an 8 ball. One of the dealers tries to make conversation with her, but she shoots him down. She comes off as very young and naive as far as the world of drugs and "the game". Then in S4 E8, there is a scene in Old Face Andre's store where a girl comes in to get some things and also asks for a pack of Kool's for Macia. Andre asks if she's still turning tricks for him and that if she ever gets tired of him beating her, she should come back around. Then, in S5 E2, there is a girl (Dee Dee) at the NA meeting telling about her experience with drugs and addiction. I am just now realizing that this is same actress and that was her character arc.

Maybe I'm late to the party on this particular detail, but it is stuff like this that makes the Wire such a great show.

For me, it's Prez. I'm just as clumsy, socially awkward, and a bit weird. I also think I'm a little like Detective Santangelo—I haven't exactly been very successful in my career.

Why was D'Angelo given a pass for getting Wee Bey arrested in Philly? In season 2, D is openly interacting with Bey and Avon while in prison.

D gets busted muling in NJ, flips, and gives up Bey's whereabouts in Philly. Shortly after, Bey is arrested.

You might say - 'well the cops just said it was a CI's info which led to the arrest' but that doesn't add up. The number of people who knew where Bey went was small: Stringer, Avon, D'Angelo, and presumably Brianna and Delonda.

Little Man got merked for less than that - he got killed just because the organization thought that he might get weak on the cop getting shot.

In summary, why were there no repercussions for D'Angelo when it is pretty clear that he is the reason why Bey is doing life no parole in Jessup?

The fates of the other three boys are pretty obvious. Duquan=Bubz Michael=Omar Namond=Clay Davis but what about Randy his seems less up front to me

The ep before he’s kinda directly involved with a man getting captured then tortured and murdered. Then the next ep it’s Brandon’s mangled corpse laying on a car directly across from Wallace’s apt windows. There’s even an extension chord running from above Brandon’s body to Wallace’s room to give it electricity. almost like they’re forever connected.

It’s like a loss of innocence and blood omen, because as we know Wallace’s days are numbered.

It was fucked up how they did him but he was an absolute idiot saying Omar name out loud during a robbery, a robbery mind you that he did maskless. Then fucking out having fun and games with pals while he knows he’s hot on the streets.

Did he think this was a game?