Wednesday, June 27, 2012

WE GONNA HANDLE THIS SHIT LIKE BUSINESSMEN. SELL THE SHIT, MAKE THE PROFIT, AND LATER FOR THAT GANGSTER BULLSHIT:  Welcome back to Wire Wednesdays as we begin season 3 with "Time After Time," in which we return to a more familiar Baltimore centered around the drug trade and the police's efforts to take down the Stringer Bell-Proposition Joe operation, with an added gloss this time on the corrido....

.... Holy crap, Littlefinger is a City Councilman!, and he's already scheming ...


... corridors of power, both within City Hall and in the Police Department, where crime isn't seen as a problem of particular criminals and gangs but rather as a statistical aggregate which needs to be, if not reduced, then at least not increased quite so much. We meet some new drug dealers (and a returning old one, in Cutty) who may prove to be important, a few new police up and down the chain, and it looks like Herc and Carver may be challenged for the title of Dumbest Person in Baltimore by Justin, the new gang member who tried to sell drugs to a uniformed police officer.

Who's going to matter? Will McNulty ever get over his divorce? Will anyone ever listen to Stringer? Is this police investigation going anywhere? Chair recognizes the first comment -- but, please, stand up when you're speaking.

9 comments:

  1. Don't you mean holy crap, Carcetti is a pimp! And "master of coin" whatever that means?

    I still say "hey it's Bunny Colvin!" whenever Robert Wisdom pops up in a random show.

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  2. I have had a really hard time accepting Carcetti as Littlefinger.  He has a very modern feel to me, and I can't tell if that's objectively true, or just me remembering him from the Wire.

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  3. ChinMusic12:22 PM

    The meeting between Stinger and his men, while funny, felt a little cartoonish and out of place for this show.  The show has gotten some humor out of Stringer's business knowledge in the past (his explanation for dropping cell phone carrier stock was fantastic) and has previously raised the interesting question of what would happen if the violence were to disappear from the drug trade and it were run like any other business.  But, this scene was a bit over the top in search ofa joke and as a result of placing it in the first episode of the season when lots of other pieces are out of place, it made me feel like I was watching a different show. 

    That said, I am very eager to see how Season 3 follows up on the very strong season 2. 

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  4. Aiden Gillen was the star of the original "Queer as Folk" -- talk about not being able to see him the same way again!

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  5. Watts6:44 PM

    I had that exact reaction when I looked up who was playing Councilman Carcetti because I thought he looked familiar: HOLY SHIT THAT'S LITTLEFINGER.

    Here are the thoughts I jotted down while watching:

    - I unabashedly love watching demolitions.

    - Oh, Herc. Really? With the CD? If for some reason you'd started watching The Wire with this season/episode, you'd know exactly who Herc was when he put that CD on for the arrest.

    The game isn't about territory, it's about product.
    - Is Stringer really using Robert's Rules of Order with these guys? HAHAHA. I want that second in command guy co-running all my meetings from now on "Chair ain't recognized yo ass." "Pook did have the floor." 
    - Bubbles pushing a shopping cart wearing his tighty-whiteys is one of the funniest things I've seen on tv this year.

    - Every season - we just get dropped back in - not exactly in medias res, but without any prologue or obvious setup for the season. You spend the first episode sorting that out for yourself.

    - I like the emphasis on Prop Joe's dumbaass nephew being "on his mama's side"
    -"I'm thinking of becoming a woman." - I love you, Bunk.
    - Aw, they had to remind me of poor Wallace.
    And then this line from McNulty late in the show:"You don't look at what you did before you do the same shit all over." Which echoes the "repeating mistakes" theme heard in both the opening speech from the groundbreaking and the conversation of the kids walking to it. I've got to think this is a theme for the season, if not the whole series.

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  6. Watts6:48 PM

    <span>I had that exact reaction when I looked up who was playing Councilman Carcetti because I thought he looked familiar: HOLY SHIT THAT'S LITTLEFINGER.  
     
    Here are the thoughts I jotted down while watching:  
     
    - I unabashedly love watching demolitions.  
     
    - Oh, Herc. Really? With the CD? If for some reason you'd started watching The Wire with this season/episode, you'd know exactly who Herc was when he put that CD on for the arrest.  
     
    -"The game isn't about territory, it's about product." - Stringer's trying to change the game, but the players can't/won't grasp it. 
    </span>
    <span>
    - Is Stringer really using Robert's Rules of Order with these guys? HAHAHA. I want that second in command guy co-running all my meetings from now on "Chair ain't recognized yo ass." "Pook did have the floor."   </span>
    <span>
    - Bubbles pushing a shopping cart wearing his tighty-whiteys is one of the funniest things I've seen on tv this year.  
     
    - Every season - we just get dropped back in - not exactly in medias res, but without any prologue or obvious setup for the season. You spend the first episode sorting that out for yourself.  
     
    - I like the emphasis on Prop Joe's dumbaass nephew being "on his mama's side"  </span>
    <span>
    -"I'm thinking of becoming a woman." - I love you, Bunk.  </span>
    <span>
    - Aw, they had to remind me of poor Wallace.  </span>
    <span>
    And then this line from McNulty late in the show:"You don't look at what you did before you do the same shit all over." Which echoes the "repeating mistakes" theme heard in both the opening speech from the groundbreaking and the conversation of the kids walking to it. I've got to think this is a theme for the season, if not the whole series.</span>

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  7. Maret7:39 PM

    The Robert's Rules of Order scene is possibly one of the funniest scenes ever. I think I rewound it and watched it three times.

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  8. Marsha3:52 PM

    <span><span>"Chair ain't recognized yo ass" will be used in all of my meetings from now on. My staff will love it. </span></span>

    I enjoyed this episode, but don't really feel like I have anything to say about it. If there's one thing that's clear to me from the first two seasons, it's that I don't know doodleysquat about what this season is about yet, nor do I know what anything I'm watching means yet. So as enjoyable as that was, I'm still sitting on the floor with a box of pretty jigsaw puzzle pieces that have not come anywhere near to coalescing into a picture yet.

    I do feel like I'm, as Alan says, learning to watch The Wire, however. I was much, much less mentally displaced by this premiere than I was with the season 2 premiere. I "get' better how to drop into a new season of The Wire now. For which I'm grateful.

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  9. This freaked me out really bad.  I had not watched any of the UK QAF until after seeing The Wire.   I could not believe that Carcetti played the Gale Harold role.  I still can't believe it!

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