This week’s open Wire thread. I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to this show the way I used to look forward to my birthday. It’s a big pink cake with gooey icing, and my sole regret is I can’t watch more of the reruns. What will I do when the time changes and HBO’s eastern feed goes back on standard time? Get TiVo, I guess.
Anyway, much to enjoy last night: Major Bunny’s legalization push isn’t going well; Cutty’s tragic fall (with spicy sex! nudity! send the kids to bed early!); Stringer’s string-pulling.
Also, maybe our inside source can explain: Why is Jay Landsman’s badge Photoshopped out in this picture, but the other guy’s isn’t? Just wondering.
Have at it.
Laura said on October 11, 2004 at 2:11 pm
I’m a little lost here, but I’m going to assume that the “other guy” is the real-life Jay Landsman, who’s a sergeant with Baltimore County Police.
Landsman was a memorable figure in the “Homicide” book. When “The Wire” began, his name was given to Bill Delaney, in part because some found it amusing to give Landsman’s name to a, um, much larger fellow. Who later makes disparaging remarks about the size of his manhood.
So now we have Dennis Mello. And if his badge is the one that’s not photoshopped, it might be because he has a real one.
548 chars
Nance said on October 11, 2004 at 2:50 pm
Dennis Mello/Jay Landsman’s badge is P’shopped, and Bunny Colvin/Robert Wisdom’s isn’t. And my guess would be because it is real, and maybe the police department has some weird rule about that.
The Columbus P.D. has a rule that all officers must wear their uniform hats when in uniform, no exceptions, no foolin’. A few years ago, an officer did some heroic act — saved a kid’s life, something like that — and was caught hatless by a newspaper photographer. He was reprimanded. I’m reminded of Prez’ comment: “If this idiot worked for us, he’d be a deputy commissioner by now.”
600 chars
ashley said on October 12, 2004 at 4:29 am
That was my guess too, because Landsman was with the city/is with the county, maybe his wasn’t a prop and had a real badge number.
Link of the week
Whatever happened to the detectives from the book. Keep in mind, this info is about 5 years old. There really isn’t anything like this for the characters from “The Corner”, but in an interview with Simon, he basically said that there wasn’t much good to report, other than Blue is still clean, Fran and DeAndre are trying, and DeRodd (aka Puddin’ on The Wire) is about the nicest, straightest kid you can find.
Strange plot foreshadowing: WTF is Stringer doing back with Donette? My guess is to keep her from talking, especially to Avon, about the fact that D’Angelo may have been murdered. Stringer does nothing without a reason.
Wasn’t it neat how McNulty’s pointed attack on Freamon got him pissed off enough to make him check out the addresses? Real PO-Lice, indeed. Also, because Daniels is boinking Pearlman, McNulty should get a little more length added to his leash, if nothing else. Man, as long as he doesn’t go back to his wife. The less airtime she gets, the better. Callie Thorne’s entire range of emotions is a) cutesie, b) rolling her eyes. And no, I haven’t forgiven Tom Fontana for adding her to Homicide because he thought she was better eye candy than Melissa Leo.
Bubbles, to a degree, reminds me of Gary from “The Corner”. The idea that he isn’t really stealing from people, just “capers”. However, when Bubs was talking about swiping a clock radio from his old job, well, that wasn’t like Gary at all. Gary was a white collar until he fell. Bubs is still floating back and forth, and still wants to quit. He needs more impetus, like Steve Earle kicking his ass again.
Speaking of fell, Cutty tried to walk that straight and narrow for all he was worth, but the lure is just too much. Another big indictment of the system: Cutty can go back to his old days of soldiering, and live comfortably; or he can keep riding in the back of a pick-up making minimum wage. Welcome to the corner. Reminiscent of when DeAndre tried to work at the burger joint. What is minimum wage when your old crew is rollin down the boulevard in an Escalade wif’ 26″ dubs?
My guess is that Cutty’s muscle is about to make its presence known, what with Avon getting out, and word of Marlo’s whammy on Cutty’s stash has to make its way back to Avon.
Bunny is encountering some problems now because its the real world. Nothing goes smoothly, especially when you’re dealing with street corner slingers. Maybe if he had a tete-a-tete with Stringer, they’d see the light. You can rest assured, though, that word will get back to Stringer, Prop Joe, Marlo, and the others, and TPTB will be happy to move shop to the DMZ.
As for The Wire being a birthday cake, hey, I watch it at least 2x on Sunday, usually the 11:00 on HBOWest, and the 12:00 on HBOZone. Boo yah. Unfortunately, the nudity didn’t involve Pearlman this time. I was sorely disappointed.
3134 chars
Nance said on October 12, 2004 at 5:38 pm
Stringer is obviously pulling Donette close because of the threat she poses. All it takes is one whisper of the D’Angelo-didn’t-commit-suicide stuff and Stringer will be deep in it.
181 chars
ashley said on October 12, 2004 at 7:50 pm
It’s going to be really, really interesting to see what happens to the Barksdale organization when Avon sees what Stringer has done. Stringer will probably say that you can’t argue bottom line, but Avon is a little more old school than that.
243 chars