Full Version: HBO's The Wire
hey, so where can i go on the net to find season five episodes? do i search around on google video, or is there a good file sharing site i can hit up? just got done w/season 4 and i'm jonesin' bad to see the new episodes.
I believe the first 8 episodes of Season 5 are on the torrent and newsgroup networks.
I doubt you are the type to have newsgroup access, otherwise you wouldn't be asking such questions. BTJunkie or a similar torrent search engine will yield some results.
Haven't checked myself, because I prefer HD quality and torrents are often standard definition. Which I can not stand at all.
edit: Here ya go.
I doubt you are the type to have newsgroup access, otherwise you wouldn't be asking such questions. BTJunkie or a similar torrent search engine will yield some results.
Haven't checked myself, because I prefer HD quality and torrents are often standard definition. Which I can not stand at all.
edit: Here ya go.
I have all of season four sitting on my hard drive and am holding out for the DVD in a few weeks. I doubt I can hold out for that long for s5 though, will torrent the whole thing when it's done, even the temptation of the first 7/8 is only going to leave an eight week wait for the last few.
Currently re-watching all four seasons and writing about parts.
Nice work, GDB, and good call on "The Fall." Such a perfect song with which to end each episode--like an invitation to reflect on & digest what you've just seen.
[spoiler]Can't believe David Simon recycled the Xerox machine lie-detector gag from "Homicide" for the opening of the first episode of S5. Fucking lazy.
Other than that, though, I'm digging it. And nice to see Avon Barksdale returns in episode 2.[/spoiler]
Other than that, though, I'm digging it. And nice to see Avon Barksdale returns in episode 2.[/spoiler]
Oh really?
Damn!
NEver saw that.
It might be more like an in-joke kind of thing though. For fans like you to notice, this being the first show of the final season and all
Damn!
NEver saw that.
It might be more like an in-joke kind of thing though. For fans like you to notice, this being the first show of the final season and all
Could be. Now if they really wanted to do a "Homicide" inside joke, they'd have Clark Johnson's character tell the rest of the joke that ends "So the bear says, 'You didn't really come here to hunt, did you?'"
So I was all excited at the end of season four that Major Crimes was back in effect, and that there would be more 'wire' in The Wire again.
Oh well.
Still enjoyed last night, though.
Oh well.
Still enjoyed last night, though.
"Buy me a drink you whore!"
I do love drunk & pissed off McNulty.
I do love drunk & pissed off McNulty.
Best inside joke so far for me--when McNulty asks Sydnor if he remembers Sergei from the hijinx of S2, and he angrily responds "no, I didn't work that assignment, so I don't remember."
I never understood why they seemed to just forget about Sydnor for that season.
I never understood why they seemed to just forget about Sydnor for that season.
Second episode is up on On Demand now. [spoiler]Another nod to "Homicide" when McNulty can't figure out which car his keys go to in the garage, a la Frank Pembleton...[/spoiler]
finally got to see the first episode...still kinda pissed that they aren't showing them in HD. i wonder why?
anyway...good first show. the one thing that gets me is the first episode of the season. they do a great job setting up the season...especially with the rotating cast of characters. fuck the sopranos!
anyway...good first show. the one thing that gets me is the first episode of the season. they do a great job setting up the season...especially with the rotating cast of characters. fuck the sopranos!
Herc's new boss was a bit of a shocker, eh?
QUOTE(The Sheck @ Jan 8 2008, 11:07 PM) [snapback]548355[/snapback]
Herc's new boss was a bit of a shocker, eh?
Yeah, I wonder how working for the gopher from the Rozerem ads will turn out. Moral dilemma?
QUOTE(The Sheck @ Jan 8 2008, 09:07 PM) [snapback]548355[/snapback]
Herc's new boss was a bit of a shocker, eh?
Working for that sleazoid, it's not hard to imagine how much he'll fuck up a few more lives by the time the season's done.
Here's a link to a pretty great interview with the actors that play Bubbles and Bunk:
http://www.maximumfun.org/blog/2008/01/pod...bunk-andre.html
http://www.maximumfun.org/blog/2008/01/pod...bunk-andre.html
QUOTE
January 10, 2008 -- "THE Wire" star Michael K. Williams missed his own premiere party Friday night because the stubborn door nazi refused to let him in with his entire posse. Williams, who plays Omar Little on the HBO show, was furious when he arrived at Le Royale on Leroy Street with eight male friends and was denied entry to the bash for the season premiere. "The doorman told him he couldn't let a big group in, but could let in two people," our spy said. An agitated Williams said, "all of us need to get in," and one of his friends declared, "This is Michael from 'The Wire' and this is 'The Wire' party." The bouncer ignored their pleas, prompting Williams to stomp away with his crew, huffing, "Fine, we'll just go to The Plumm." Meanwhile, Leelee Sobieski joined series stars Anwan "Slim Charles" Glover, Dominic West, Delaney Williams, Corey Parker Robinson and Wendell Pierce inside, where guests danced along to DJ Aaron Lacrate's beats.
<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/WDIi0dzmvpE&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/WDIi0dzmvpE&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>
I thought last night's episode was boring. I hate the McNulty storyline right now & find the Sun storyline to be totally boring.
Avon was funny - especially his "West Side" hand gesture to Marlow while he was chatting up the Russian.
Avon was funny - especially his "West Side" hand gesture to Marlow while he was chatting up the Russian.
Yeah I'm having a hard time getting into it so far.[spoiler]..so much doom & gloom.[/spoiler] I hope Avon has something up his sleeve wrt Marlow.
QUOTE(Nick @ Jan 14 2008, 11:32 AM) [snapback]552500[/snapback]
I thought last night's episode was boring. I hate the McNulty storyline right now & find the Sun storyline to be totally boring.
It seems you are stuck with it from here on out. Here's part of the Chicago Tribune's interview with creator David Simon, (full version here)
David Simon talks about his career in journalism and the final chapter of 'The Wire'
When David Simon parted ways with journalism in 1995, it was a rough breakup.
“For the first 18 to 24 months I felt as if my arm had been cut off,” Simon said in an October interview, in which we discussed Simon’s career as a reporter and how his devotion to journalism informed the final season of “The Wire,” which began Jan. 6 on HBO. “I loved being a reporter for a long time.”
Simon left the Baltimore Sun in 1995, and television is immeasurably richer for it: “The Wire” is one of the medium’s finest achievements. Simon’s first full-time TV job was on the staff of “Homicide: Life on the Streets,” the acclaimed NBC series derived from his first book. He later made “The Corner” for HBO, a miniseries mini-series based on non-fiction book about Baltimore street life that he and “Wire” executive producer Edward Burns wrote.
But Simon’s indelible achievement is “The Wire,” an unflinchingly realistic portrait of life in Baltimore, from the magisterial chambers in which craven political decisions are made, to the threadbare classrooms in which the poorest kids attempt to learn, to the beat-up row houses that are home to the city’s flinty, resourceful inner-city residents.
The heart of the show, which debuted in 2002, is Baltimore’s Police Department — the street cops and detectives who attempt to keep some kind of order in the city, despite endless budget cutbacks and superiors who often spend their time fiddling with crime stats in order to win themselves promotions.
Over its four previous seasons, “The Wire” has shown how indifferent institutions and selfish individuals often stand in the way of those with intelligence and initiative. But the show’s great accomplishment is that it never preaches — it’s even quite funny at times, in a dry, roundabout way. Instead of rote lessons about urban decay, Simon’s conclusions arrive via meticulous character studies that rarely feel plotted or predictable. To watch the show is to be immersed in an interlocking series of utterly realistic worlds, from the street corner to the cop bar to the mayor’s office.
Simon saw how Baltimore’s various worlds worked — or didn’t — as a police reporter for the Sun, which he joined right out of college.
“I loved the journey of reporting,” he said shortly before traveling to Africa for his next HBO project, an adaptation of the war chronicle “Generation Kill.” “I loved going out and finding out stuff I didn’t know and … meeting people it would be improbable to meet otherwise. The press card gave me an excuse to go and encounter people on their own terms and then … try to tell a story.”
In 1995, despite lucrative job offers from “Homicide,” “NYPD Blue” and the Washington Post, Simon said he wanted to stay at the Sun. But he asked for a raise and didn’t get it, and ended up taking a buyout.
“I just thought I’d be there for the rest of my career,” said Simon. “I looked around one day and I thought, these guys — their reputations preceded them, but they’re moneychangers and they’re in the only temple that matters.”
“These guys” were John Carroll and William Marimow, the Sun’s editor and managing editor during Simon’s final years at the paper. To Simon, what happened during their tenure at the Sun, as well as what transpired after he left the paper, represents everything that is wrong with corporate ownership of newspapers. (The Sun was bought by Times-Mirror in 1986; in 2000, Times-Mirror was bought by the Tribune Co., which owns this paper. Tribune was taken private by Sam Zell in December.)
In Simon’s view, profit-driven media companies continue to degrade the quality of dozens of papers in major cities.
“Out-of-town ownership is a disaster” for newspapers, Simon said. “Out-of-town ownership leads to a contempt for the product and an indifference to the product that Chicago [Tribune Co.] exhibited in Baltimore and in half a dozen other markets. They care not in the slightest whether or not those news organizations are effectively covering those cities. They care about the price per share.”
In an interview, Carroll, who stepped down as the editor of the Los Angeles Times in 2005 after resisting staff cuts there, had different recollections of the years he and Simon both worked at the Sun. But he didn’t disagree with Simon about non-local ownership of newspapers.
“In the last half-dozen years, the Web has put such pressure on these companies, and they have in turn put unreasonable pressure on their newspapers. I think out-of-town ownership in general is not a good thing,” Carroll said.
“It’s interesting to me that Bill Marimow and I, who are David’s favorite targets as agents of destructive corporations, both lost our jobs in disputes with corporations over cuts in the newsroom,” Carroll added.
“In my opinion, his assertion that John and I destroyed the paper is documentably untrue,” said Marimow, who is now the editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer. He and Carroll note that on their watch in the late ’90s, the Sun was the subject of positive articles in the Columbia Journalism Review and the American Journalism Review.
“This is a grudge which now extends more than a decade and is demeaning not to us but to him,” Marimow said. “To hold a grudge that long poisons the grudge-holder.”
Simon said his anger does not stem from any personal animosity toward individuals, but from a difference of opinion about what matters in journalism. While he was working for the Sun, Simon took two leaves of absence, to write “Homicide” and “The Corner.” In those non-fiction books, Simon honed the in-depth, narrative style that would come to influence “The Wire,” which many critics have called a novel for television.
But Simon’s devotion to immersive, long-form reporting ran into the buzz saw of media-business reality around the turn of the millennium. Newspapers large and small have seen declines in print circulation and profits (though Web site traffic has grown for many news organizations). Cutbacks have been common at many publications.
When there were a lot of experienced reporters on their beats, “you could pick up the paper, and it could tell you how your world was actually operating or not,” Simon said. “I’m reading a newspaper that had 450 people covering the region. It now has 300 people, so the news product is incredibly thin.”
“Modern problems are complex,” Simon added. “There are two sides to every argument and they’re not both right but one of them has to be carefully refuted with all the subtlety and honesty that you have available.”
Simon’s disappointment with where journalism is headed — and not just at the Sun — drives one of the main storylines story lines of the final season of “The Wire.” Much of the season takes place at a fictional version of the Baltimore Sun, where a dogged city editor, Gus Haynes (Clark Johnson), is valiantly trying to keep up the paper’s quality, despite the cutbacks and buyouts that upper management has imposed.
“Gus hears them saying, ‘We’ll have to do more with less,’.” Simon said. “What Gus is hearing … is the fundamental lie that underlies the system, which is that you don’t do more with less. You do less with less.”
If this final season of “The Wire” has a flaw, it’s that the characters of the editor and managing editor of the fictional Sun come off as humorless, clueless prigs. Even the lowliest street person or drug dealer on “The Wire” is allowed to be multidimensional, to be funny or sympathetic or interesting just for a moment. Few characters on the show are only good or only evil. Drug kingpin Marlo Stanfield (Jamie Hector) may be as close to pure malevolence as the show has ever come, yet he’s interesting because his actions are sometimes surprising and he’s played by an exceptionally charismatic actor.
I don’t dispute that newspapers employ their fair share of arrogant or irritating people. But the characters of the two editors, as well as the character of an ambitious Sun reporter, are among the few flat and one-dimensional individuals “The Wire” has ever created. They just aren’t compelling on the screen. And the fact that the editors are always depicted as misguided and pompous while Gus is always moral and noble adds an element of predictability to that story line. ....
I didn't know he was the guy behind "Homicide". Wonder what he's got next up his sleeve.
QUOTE(agrimorfee @ Jan 14 2008, 10:13 AM) [snapback]552541[/snapback]
QUOTE(Nick @ Jan 14 2008, 11:32 AM) [snapback]552500[/snapback]
I thought last night's episode was boring. I hate the McNulty storyline right now & find the Sun storyline to be totally boring.
I didn't know he was the guy behind "Homicide". Wonder what he's got next up his sleeve.
http://imdb.com/title/tt0995832/
QUOTE(Nick @ Jan 14 2008, 11:32 AM) [snapback]552500[/snapback]
I thought last night's episode was boring. I hate the McNulty storyline right now & find the Sun storyline to be totally boring.
Avon was funny - especially his "West Side" hand gesture to Marlow while he was chatting up the Russian.
Avon was funny - especially his "West Side" hand gesture to Marlow while he was chatting up the Russian.
The McNulty thing worries me, yeah, but I'm willing to see where it goes I guess. Same with the Sun stuff.
Avon's return felt a little too much like a TV crowd-pleaser to me. I kept expecting the studio audience to start hooting and hollering for him.
Show needs more Omar, Bunny and Cutty.
QUOTE(The Good Dr Bill @ Jan 14 2008, 11:27 AM) [snapback]552604[/snapback]
Avon's return felt a little too much like a TV much of a crowd-pleaser to me.
It needed it. Season is not off to a promising start, but it usually takes a while to get going.
yeah, I was re-watching season three (by far my favorite of the series) recently and I realized that even that season started mad slow. Usually not until at least three or four eps in that arcs start becoming really interesting.
Don't get me wrong, I think the newspaper slant will be interesting...[spoiler]like the hungry reporter who's making stuff up. I'm sure that'll play out in some important way.[/spoiler]
Isn't this season only 10 episodes? If that is true they have 8 hours to bring a lot of shit together.
Yes, it's only 10 episodes this year. I think we're pretty lucky to get them too.
[spoiler]Omar finally shows up at the end of[/spoiler] Episode 3.
Oh, that writer who produces fake stories is clearly going to make life difficult for whomever/whatever he writes about. And for people who have to edit him...*cough*
I can see the events at the end of episode 2 tying into the above sentences quite well.
I can see the events at the end of episode 2 tying into the above sentences quite well.
Season 1, Episode 6, halfway in. I'm hooked. I'm more than hooked.
Easy to see how certain things will play out this season. [spoiler]I'm depressed.[/spoiler]
QUOTE(velocity @ Jan 21 2008, 12:57 AM) [snapback]557661[/snapback]
Easy to see how certain things will play out this season. [spoiler]I'm depressed.[/spoiler]
Please elaborate under cover of spoiler proofing. I'm interested to hear what you think. I, for instance, predict that [spoiler]Michael will be exectuted in ep 4[/spoiler]. Other than that, I can see things going in a few different directions.
Man, Sunday's episode was one of the best in the past couple of seasons.
QUOTE(Ted Falconi @ Jan 21 2008, 11:53 AM) [snapback]558045[/snapback]
QUOTE(velocity @ Jan 21 2008, 12:57 AM) [snapback]557661[/snapback]
Easy to see how certain things will play out this season. [spoiler]I'm depressed.[/spoiler]
Please elaborate under cover of spoiler proofing. I'm interested to hear what you think. I, for instance, predict that [spoiler]Michael will be exectuted in ep 4[/spoiler]. Other than that, I can see things going in a few different directions.
Well, [spoiler]it seems like Daniels' career and everyone's hopes for a better day in Baltimore are ruined because of one lazy reporter. Omar is probably doomed. Unlike you, I see Michael as potentially the key to Marlo's downfall if his disillusionment continues to grow and he doesn't die first. [/spoiler]No way will there be a happy ending.
edit: Ew, I just found out that Steve Earle looks just like he sings.
Marlo makes a big move next week, [spoiler]killing Prop Joe.[/spoiler] Also, looks like [spoiler]Cutty will be back[/spoiler] in the episode after that...
QUOTE(velocity @ Jan 21 2008, 10:24 PM) [snapback]558559[/snapback]
edit: Ew, I just found out that Steve Earle looks just like he sings.
Haha. His association with this show irritates me.
just finished season 2. good and enjoyable, but not as solid as season 1. too many subplots/extended storylines that aren't quite developed enough (d'angelo's deterioration w/ avon happened too quickly in my opinion, even though it was largely in the works from the previous season, it still seemed to happen overnight...just one example), whereas the first season seemed a bit more focused.
d1 of s3 gets here tomorrow
d1 of s3 gets here tomorrow
Many of the plotlines of Season 2 are not touched upon until later seasons. S3 basically ignores it. But by S4 the fallout of the S2/S3 begins to have a bigger and more obvious effect. It's only now in Season 5 that the Greek and all that dock business comes back.
One must alway remember that The Wire is long form storytelling. The pays-offs are spread years apart. People watching on DVD don't always appreciate that.
That being said, S2 was the most complete & emotional arc for me. From Zig's downfall to McNulty getting his shit together. Very satisfying, emotionally. The only victory Major Crimes ever had was in season 2.
One must alway remember that The Wire is long form storytelling. The pays-offs are spread years apart. People watching on DVD don't always appreciate that.
That being said, S2 was the most complete & emotional arc for me. From Zig's downfall to McNulty getting his shit together. Very satisfying, emotionally. The only victory Major Crimes ever had was in season 2.
People really need to differentiate whether they're putting spoiler tags on something thats from an episode that already aired or from an episode that has yet to be on tv. Fuck.
If you're referring to my last post, I figured the "next week" bit would take care of that. Anyway, that episode is already available on On Demand, by the way...
QUOTE(Damo Suzuki @ Jan 23 2008, 10:36 PM) [snapback]560668[/snapback]
Many of the plotlines of Season 2 are not touched upon until later seasons. S3 basically ignores it. But by S4 the fallout of the S2/S3 begins to have a bigger and more obvious effect. It's only now in Season 5 that the Greek and all that dock business comes back.
One must alway remember that The Wire is long form storytelling. The pays-offs are spread years apart. People watching on DVD don't always appreciate that.
That being said, S2 was the most complete & emotional arc for me. From Zig's downfall to McNulty getting his shit together. Very satisfying, emotionally. The only victory Major Crimes ever had was in season 2.
One must alway remember that The Wire is long form storytelling. The pays-offs are spread years apart. People watching on DVD don't always appreciate that.
That being said, S2 was the most complete & emotional arc for me. From Zig's downfall to McNulty getting his shit together. Very satisfying, emotionally. The only victory Major Crimes ever had was in season 2.
interesting. my complaints were strictly w/in the confines of the season itself. i think it's rad that the greeks and the docks are gonna show up again in season 5. my bigger beef is w/ some of the more minor details or additives to the story...such as cheryl being pregnant or some other example i can't think of at the moment. but in regards to that one, i know it's there mainly as a device to show kima's faults or insecurities, but it just seemed so half-baked to me...given no more than 2 very brief scenes in the entire 12 hours of the season.
anyhow, that's my one gripe.
also, how was season 2 a victory for the major crimes unit? b/c it was the season in which they were formally recognized for the first time? not sure what you mean there...
Well, you'll see what happens to Major Crimes in the next few seasons. Not sure if you want a spoiler. But it's better to find out for yourself. A relative victory...
I hear you on the Kima/Cheryl thing. But such is episodic television when you only got 12 episodes a year. 10 this year.
I hear you on the Kima/Cheryl thing. But such is episodic television when you only got 12 episodes a year. 10 this year.
QUOTE(Damo Suzuki @ Jan 24 2008, 10:32 AM) [snapback]560938[/snapback]
I hear you on the Kima/Cheryl thing.
And despite Kima's diminished presence this season, this storyline is part of S5.
i do not want a spoiler, thanks for resisting....
it is cool that "plots" come back up in later seasons, but my point is that when the plots are so minuscule, glossed over, and seemingly incosequential in the here and now, i begin to wonder are they even necessary? cheryl's pregnancy being a prime example.
it is cool that "plots" come back up in later seasons, but my point is that when the plots are so minuscule, glossed over, and seemingly incosequential in the here and now, i begin to wonder are they even necessary? cheryl's pregnancy being a prime example.
QUOTE(Hans Christian Anderson @ Jan 24 2008, 12:20 PM) [snapback]561028[/snapback]
i do not want a spoiler, thanks for resisting....
it is cool that "plots" come back up in later seasons, but my point is that when the plots are so minuscule, glossed over, and seemingly incosequential in the here and now, i begin to wonder are they even necessary? cheryl's pregnancy being a prime example.
it is cool that "plots" come back up in later seasons, but my point is that when the plots are so minuscule, glossed over, and seemingly incosequential in the here and now, i begin to wonder are they even necessary? cheryl's pregnancy being a prime example.
Heh. Thing is you are still early in the series. You will find that as it goes on, minor plot points and throwaway line spin into larger things in later seasons. As has been said already, Kima's arc is not complete by S2 and the fallout of the Greek situation and all the maneuvering within the police department will not fully come to bear until S4/S5.
Heck, even now in S5 the street level moves being made in the drug game are directly the result of things that went down in S1/S2 in the background of the main plot.
Big picture storytelling.
QUOTE(Damo Suzuki @ Jan 24 2008, 12:40 PM) [snapback]561046[/snapback]
Big picture storytelling.
It's why I'm hesitant to say they that I'm dissapointed in this season. Even though it is not doing it for me after just a couple episodes, I know that in a couple weeks I will think just the opposite.
I have a friend who has seen every episode of L&O and CSI et. seq. a billion times but refuses to watch even one episode of NYPD Blue because "it's too much about their personal lives." He would be wrong, but he would probably say the same thing about The Wire should he condescend to watch it. It's details like Cheryl's pregnancy that give us characters that are human beings vs so many deus ex machinas.
OTOH, we get only a few snapshots of Kima's relationship w/ Cheryl so the show avoids becoming a soap opera. It also seems like they used the degredation of that particular relationship to realistically demonstrate how effortlessly good people can fuck up their lives.
OTOH, we get only a few snapshots of Kima's relationship w/ Cheryl so the show avoids becoming a soap opera. It also seems like they used the degredation of that particular relationship to realistically demonstrate how effortlessly good people can fuck up their lives.
QUOTE(biggie mcsmalls @ Jan 24 2008, 12:49 PM) [snapback]561057[/snapback]
QUOTE(Damo Suzuki @ Jan 24 2008, 12:40 PM) [snapback]561046[/snapback]
Big picture storytelling.
It's why I'm hesitant to say they that I'm disappointed in this season. Even though it is not doing it for me after just a couple episodes, I know that in a couple weeks I will think just the opposite.
I think with the third episode this year, The Wire is moving with impressive velocity. The moves Marlo is making are pretty bold; [spoiler]provoking Omar, killing Prop Joe, contacting the Greeks[/spoiler]. Add to that the continued fall of what remains of the Royce administration and the corrupt politicos of Baltimore, McNulty's frustrations coming to a head in [spoiler]him falsifying evidence & deteriorating into his old ways[/spoiler] and of course- the systematic failure of an American city at all levels.
I am satisfied with season 5 so far.
This is a "lo-fi" version of our main content. To view the full version with more information, formatting and images, please click here.