Monday, September 25, 2006
Wire week 4 talk for the On Demand'ers
Here's where you can talk about "The Wire" episode 4, "Refugees," until the review thread opens on Sunday night.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
This blog has moved!
Alan Sepinwall can now be found at Rolling Stone.com
Search This Blog
Twitter Updates
Recommended Reading
- 6 Simple rules for commenting
- 30 Rock
- Band of Brothers
- Battlestar Galactica
- Best of the '00s in TV
- Best of the Year lists
- Breaking Bad
- Burn Notice
- Chuck
- Community
- Cupid ('98)
- Deadwood
- Dexter
- Firewall & Iceberg podcast
- Freaks and Geeks
- Friday Night Lights
- How I Met Your Mother
- In Treatment
- Lost
- Mad Men
- Parks and Recreation
- Party Down
- Scrubs
- Sons of Anarchy
- Sports Night
- The Office
- The Shield
- The Sopranos
- The Wire (season 1/newbies)
- The Wire (season 1/veterans)
- The Wire (season 2/newbies)
- The Wire (season 2/veterans)
- The Wire (season 3)
- The Wire (season 4)
- The Wire (season 5)
- United States of Tara
- What do the logos mean?
Interviews
- Bill Simmons (30 for 30)
- Chris Fedak (Chuck season 2 finale)
- Damon Lindelof (Lost season 5 premiere)
- David Simon (The Wire finale)
- Diablo Cody (United States of Tara premiere)
- Jon Hamm (Mad Men season 3 premiere)
- Josh Schwartz (Chuck season 2 premiere)
- Josh Schwartz (The OC finale)
- Joss Whedon (Dollhouse premiere)
- Kurt Sutter (Sons of Anarchy season 1 finale)
- Kurt Sutter (Sons of Anarchy season 2 finale)
- Matthew Weiner (Mad Men season 2 finale)
- Matthew Weiner (Mad Men season 3 premiere)
- Mike Schur (Parks and Recreation season 2 premiere)
- Ricky Gervais (Extras season 2)
- Rob Thomas & John Enbom (Party Down season 1 finale)
- Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica finale)
- Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica season 4 midway point)
- Shawn Ryan (The Shield finale)
- Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad season 2 finale)
Friends of the blog
- Dan Fienberg's The Fien Print
- Ellen Gray
- Joe Adalian's TV MoJoe
- Undercover Black Man
- James Poniewozik's Tuned In
- Aaron Barnhart's TV Barn
- Tim Goodman's The Bastard Machine
- A List of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago
- Rich Heldenfels' The HeldenFiles
- By Ken Levine
- Ed Bark's Above the Fold
- Phil Rosenthal's Tower Ticker
- Mo Ryan's The Watcher
- Melanie McFarland's IMDb TV Blog
- The House Next Door
Alan"s other writing
Blog Archive
-
▼
2006
(522)
-
▼
September
(54)
- He's a very neat monster
- Survivor: Racial harmony
- Grey's Anatomy: You're kidding, right?
- The Office: Stop. Hammermill time!
- Beautiful Betty
- Biker boy
- Gilmore Girls: Not quite right
- Studio 60: Is that all there is?
- Thoughts on Heroes?
- HIMYM & The Class: Apartments and houses
- David Fisher goes Hannibal Lecter
- Everyday people? Not anymore.
- Sunday night miscellany
- Wire week 4 talk for the On Demand'ers
- The Wire, "Home Rooms": Omar back!
- Grey's Anatomy: Shiva call
- Semi-Desperate
- My Name Is Earl: The Joy of kidnapping
- Survivor: Love at first sight?
- Six Degrees thoughts?
- The Office: Go the gay way
- Triple feature
- See, my name is spelled K-N-A-P-P, and I specializ...
- That's great, it starts with an earth -- er, nucle...
- The morning before the day after
- Smith: What's in a name?
- Everybody's a critic
- Rather than give you my "Prison Break" thoughts...
- So this thief walks into a bar...
- Studio 60: Crusty but benign
- HIMYM & The Class: In need of a switcheroo
- Wire week 3 talk for the On Demand'ers
- Aaron Stu? Kristin Sue? Mary Sue Tarses?
- Add it up
- The Wire, "Soft Eyes": Parallel lines
- If you are a fan of "The Office"...
- Survivor: Race Wars, initial impressions
- Corner boys, UFO Boy, fly boys, Emo Boy and Anne H...
- Rock Star: All over but the squealing
- The Wire: Mission ACCOMPLISHED
- Late morning links
- Wire talk for the On-Demand'ers
- The Wire, "Boys of Summer": Nailed shut
- The new season: best of the best
- Here come the weekend
- Make 'em laugh?
- 18 good years
- Rock Star: Clear skies?
- Rock Star: The originals
- The running man
- Quick "Wire" question
- A (be)labored point
- The man, they myth, the shotgun
- Will they or won't... oh, wait a minute
-
▼
September
(54)
15 comments:
I'm confused by the dialog in the opening. "you want it to be one way," then "but it's the other way." What is Marlo talking about? I couldn't help but think that maybe the guard knew Marlo from before. Maybe he's a former soldier? Interested to hear what others think.
Marlo meant that the guard wants the world to work in a way where decency and hard work are rewarded, when in fact it works in such a way that the Marlos of the world have much more money and power than good blue-collar folk like himself.
I'm going to deal with this at greater length in the review, but Marlo having the guard killed is one of the most despicable things anyone on this show has done. Consistent to who Marlo is, but despicable -- mainly because there was nothing to be gained by it. (Wallace, for instance was a threat to testify against the Barksdales).
No worries, Black Thought. I had to check my notes to be sure the death occurred in that episode.
The deeper we get into the season, the tougher it's going to be for me to avoid letting my comments be colored by the future. There are a couple of subplots in this episode in particular that I don't know what to say about now without giving something away.
So, did Marlo accept Prop Joe's offer or not? If he did, they why did Joe sic Omar on him? If he didn't, then what was that handshake all about?
He didn't accept it. The handshake was a sign of respect for Joe coming to Marlo's turf and making a decent pitch, even if Marlo didn't want to swing.
I see. Thanks, Alan.
I don't disagree that Marlo killing the guard was despicable, but I would argue with your contention that there was nothing to be gained. The guard "talked back," and from Marlo's point of view, that constitutes a threat ... anyone who doesn't treat Marlo with respect is a candidate for death. Marlo doesn't fear the same things other people fear ... he doesn't think he needs the co-op, because everyone's afraid of him already. And the reason they are afraid is because Marlo will kill anyone who doesn't genuflect. Marlo isn't really in "the game" ... in that respect, he's more of an outsider even than Omar.
Steve raises an interesting point about Marlo being 'outside the game'. The episode is all about Marlo's lack of respect:
1. Pocketing the lollipops just becasue he can.
2. Riling the security guard knowing that Chris will be around momentarily.
3. Contempt for the elder poker players.
4. The whole 'Town Car' dialog.
6. The half-interest in what Prop Joe was saying.
7. Total blow-off of what the East Side boys are facing.
8. Taking Bodie's corner when he clearly doesn't need it.
Over and over, he makes clear that he certainly doesn't believe the rules apply to him. Hence he knocks off a taxpayer.
Remember that this was the same action that got McNulty started on the Barksdale case, when they killed the witness to D'Angelo's crime. Couple that with the casual toss of the badge, and we can all see where this is headed.
What I don't really get is why Prop Joe sets up Omar. Sure Omar becomes a minor problem to Marlo, but if Avon and String could track down Omar, why couldn't Marlo? Why would Marlo be less lethal to Omar than Stringer, and how does Prop Joe benefit? In that case, why not bring Mouzone back from NYC?
Beyond the traditional Wire themes, anyone else notice Michael's clear discomfort around Cutty? Two guesses about what happened in Michael's past.
Alan, what's Prop Joe up to? I see three options:
1) He knows about the game and is just trying to make some easy cash (yeah right). Perhaps he is inspired to do this suddenly because Marlo is annoying him a little now after rejecting his offer, so he figures why not rob the kid.
2) He thinks robbing Marlo will show the kid that he would be wise to join the co-op (but I could never see Marlo coming to this conclusion).
3) He figures starting an Omar-Marlo beef will ultimately yield a dead Marlo (but this seems like a rather unsure way of killing Marlo).
Each potential motive has its flaws, so I'm having a hard time deciding what Prop Joe's up to. Can you give me some help? Thanks.
I sort of hope that security guard's badge being left in the lawn isn't how the cops end up finding all Marlo's bodies that are hidden in the rowhouses.
The other potential way I see the bodies being found (that seems like it might be foreshadowed), is rookie homicide detective Greggs proving to be a natural in her new role, and sniffing out Lex's body very quickly. The fact that all the cops were hazing her so much seems to suggest that she might surprise some people, and maybe this is how she'll do it.
I think the bodies will be found by the kids (mainly Namond, Dukie, Micheal and Randy). I get the feeling that Randy dropping dime on the school graph artist is foreshadowing...and somehow he get's caught up as a material witness, which I believe will get him separated from his foster mom for fear of his safety (a tragic ending).
I think that Kima, Freamon, and Bunk will chase the phantom bodies on Marlo, while Herc actually learns how to be PO-Lice and starts a real tap of his own on Marlo with Dozerman...unbeknownst to their lead dog.
I think that if Omar gets set up for time in Jail like the previews indicate...Bunk will make another run at him about the Stringer murder, or like Marlo says, he'll never make it out of jail.
I think Bodie is dead meat...which will make Namond the next best apprentice to hold the Barksdale package.
I think Micheal will eventually join Marlo and Chris...after a falling out with Cutty over not coming clean about his abuse issues. Dukie will probably join the prezbylewski family, after Prez realizes how gifted the young man is.
The old trail on the Prop-joe/New-Day Co-op drug package may wake up the sleeping "Money-trail" scandal again right about the time Marlo takes his fall....oh yes...he will fall. And I believe that the thought that he could actually bag the REALLY big one will bring McNulty back out of his semi-retirement...I just hope he leaves the Jameson on the shelf.
I wish Alan could tell me how "hot/cold" I am about the story arcs...it would do a salty dog like me some good.
Mike, I have no doubt it's number two-- Joe wants Marlo to understand that he can't always see trouble coming and that strength in numbers is the way to go. Omar taking the diamond ring just by asking for it, just as Marlo took it from Andre, was the writer's way of hammering home the idea that Marlo was learning a lesson about his own vulnerability.
I agree there's a good chance Marlo will still dismiss the offer. But even if he does, I think taking a chance on it was wise on Prop Joe's part.
I know Dozerman's name, but I can't remember when or if we have seen him before.
Any help?
Also, I've noticed a trend in the last few episodes in which one or two scenes before the finale scene, there is a giant climax (Cacetti dropping Royce, the classroom slashing, Omar knocking over the card game.)
Has the show always been built in this structure or something new I've noticed?
Dozerman was the cop who was shot in season three...the one whose stolen gun became such a huge priority for the Baltimore police dept.
What the hell happened at the end?
I can't understand what Omar's boys said!
Post a Comment