Monday, October 02, 2006

The Wire episode 5 talk for the On Demand'ers

Discuss episode 5, "Alliances," here to avoid spoiling the non On Demand crowd.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

By miracle, episode 5 appeared on time today via On Demand in central California. I'll watch it tonight. I noticed this weekend that Comcast has changed its commercials about The Wire to say that each episode is available via On Demand "up to" seven days in advance. I guess that's to cover their Wire On Demand programming fiascos since the season started. Grrrr.

Anonymous said...

I usually get the OnDemand episode around 10 am, but today it took until late this afternoon. Anyone else have a similar problem?

Anonymous said...

Anon, the first week my OD episode came 42 hours late (about 6 p.m. Tuesday) and last week it didn't appear until Saturday!

It feels like overkill to say this but each episode of TW becomes more and more engrossing.

A few observations: Donut has the most amazing smile! I love that kid. Prop Joe seems to have made a smart move in order to enlist Marlo in the co-op, but something tells me Omar might get the best of him (I'm hoping, I guess). I'd love to see Brother Mouzone come back on O's side!

Nice to see Prez developing those soft eyes.

It's strange: no matter how awful Marlo and crew are, I actually found myself rooting for Michael to join them when Chris was talking to him. I guess/hope it's due to the skillful writing.

Questions: What did Sherrod put on Bub's table? And, did Rawls stick it to Burrell when he was talking to Royce? At first, that's what I thought. Also, when he went to Carcetti with the info on Watkins, was he doing that for himself or for Burrell too?

Anonymous said...

Black Thought, I see what you mean about Rawls. Smart business moves on his part.

The only thing I can see undoing Rawls' ambition is his "Vito Spatafore moment" in season 3.

Anonymous said...

This show astounds me every week, and has since the beginning. I'm still mystified how they can juggle so many different stories so deftly. I'm amazed at how depressing it is to see the fundamental rot of every institution in Baltimore, and yet still find some glimmers of hope, like with some of the school kids and McNulty's apparently sincere lifestyle change.

The previous kingpins on the show were always fearsome, but there was always some intelligence and even a kind of warped sense of honor underneath.

Marlo scares the hell out of me because he's so ... quiet. The gears are always turning but he appears to have no soul whatsoever. He kind of reminds me of Gerald McRaney's portrayal of George Hearst in "Deadwood".

(OT: I saw "Singles" on HBO last night and noticed Jim True-Frost in the role of an early '90s Seattle hipster. It was a little jarring.)

Anonymous said...

Steve in H, funny about Jim T-F. I can't quite imagine him as a "hipster" (though I do have a crush on him).

Anonymous said...

I just re-watched episode 4:5 and off the top of my head can think of numerous "alliances" that were formed: Marlo - Prop Joe, Tilghman MS - Colvin/academic, Rawls - Carcetti; and possible alliances, Watkins - Carcetti, Marlo camp - Michael, and Prez - Dukie. I'm sure there were more that I missed (should've had a pen and paper).

Regarding Marlo, at this point he hasn't pissed me off in the way Stringer Bell did. I liked Stringer but hated him when he was disloyal to Avon (with Prop Joe) and especially when he went after D'Angelo. As Steve said, he's scary because he's so quiet. He's hard to pinpoint or figure out. And that's part of what keeps me coming back for more.

What does "rips" mean? Marimow mentioned rips when Herc and Dozerman landed in his unit. Does it refer to arrests?

Anonymous said...

teresa asked: "What does 'rips' mean? ... Does it refer to arrests?"

Yes it does. On other cop shows, you may hear a street rip referred to as a "buy-bust." Basically, you're just arresting the street-level salesmen, which may fatten up the crime stats but does nothing to impede a drug-trafficking organization. There's no shortage of boys to work those corners, which is why David Simon argues that we can't arrest our way out of the problem.

A.H. said...

I think it's been clear since episode one of this season what elevates this year above all the others: for the first time on The Wire we are seeing true innocents. And we are losing them fast; that final scene in the vacants was chilling.

Anonymous said...

Alan,

any chance of setting up a talk for those of us that have seen the entire season? I just finished this weekend and am dying to talk about it.

Gish

Alan Sepinwall said...

Gish, I think that's going too far. Maybe a third of all "Wire" fans either can watch or are watching the show via On Demand; only a tiny percentage of people like us have seen the entire season. I don't want spoilers here that could wind up being used on less judicious blogs and boards.

Anonymous said...

Where are people watching the entire season? I understand it was given to critics, but it has it "leaked" from there or something?