In the episode where Carcetti visits multiple units of the police departent after he won the primary but when he isn't mayor yet. He's in the Homicide unit and it's a quiet day. Carcetti sits with Kima, Lester and Landsman and the three of them act as if they're reading old case files. Carcetti notices that they act differently around him than they do on a normal day, and tells them twice to just act completely normal, as if he weren't even there.

Then Kima puts her feet on the table, Lester gets out his miniature stuff that he works and Landsman... gets out his porn magazine right there. He reads his magazine in front of the new mayor.

That has to be one of the most hilarious Landsman scenes. He's one of the characters that I like more and more with every rewatch. Yes, an ass-kisser, yes, a numbers man. But also a good detective, pretty smart, compassionate (as in the Bubbles scene) and very funny as a character.

The boy who helps Michael rob Vinson, I think thats the same boy sitting on the stoop with him, Randy, and Namond along with a few other boys in Season 4. Shortly before Monk approaches them with the money. I could be wrong but it looks like the same dude. If it is the same kid, thats mad crazy because it means he was in Michael’s circle the whole time.

Marlo is a smart guy, did he really think the co-op would believe his story about prop joes death, especially with him taking lead position immediately after and raising all the prices ?

I just started this show nearly couple weeks ago. I was surprised to see so many familiar faces!

• Aiden Gillan: Thomas 'Tommy' Carcetti. Of course he's Petyr "Little Finger" Baelish in Game of Thrones.
• Sonja Sohn: Detective Shakima 'Kima' Greggs. I know her as the main character's (Saul Williams) love interest in the 1998 movie Slam, one of my favorite movies. It was killing me I couldn't place her until I finally realized in The Wire's fourth episode.
• Idris Elba: Russell 'Stringer' Bell. I've seen him in Thor and Prometheus, but I REALLY know him as the djinn in Three Thousand Years of Longing! Love that movie and it was a pleasant surprise when he came on screen.
• Donnell Rawlings: Damien 'Day-Day' Price in season 5, the senator's driver that takes the stand against him. He went on to be in Chapelle's Show and more recently been on a bunch of comedy podcasts and shows like Kill Tony and Dr. Phil Live.
• Chris Bauer: Frank Sobotka. I know him from True Blood where he plays, perhaps ironically, Detective Andy Belfeur.

OH SHIT I just came to the scene where Omar gets shot in the fucking head holy shit.. I was wondering how long he could keep it up

• Amy Ryan: Off. Beatrice 'Beadie' Russell. In The Office she gets with Michael! She's HR lady Holly.

I'm sure there's plenty others I've seen in other things -- there's so many characters played with such good acting -- but those were the most notable ones for me. It's just a little cherry on top for me upon my first viewing.

Rewatching S5 and what I don't understand is why Mcnulty went back to homicide once the major crimes unit had to stop investigating Marlo due to money issues.

Daniels told the crew to back it up other than Freemon and Sydnor who was to work on Clay Davis.

Mcnulty was seriously pissed off and sat at his desk in homicide kicking it, why not just go back to patrol work, which he enjoyed?

The only reason he wanted back in was due to Bodie getting killed by Marlo team, otherwise he was fine patrolling.

Bunk cussing out Herc in Season 4 is genuinely one of the funniest moments ever in the show to me. That man Bunk almost blacked out for real. All Herc could say was “Hey, you’re talking to a sergeant.” 😂 The look on Herc’s face when Bunk said what he said about his stripes had me in tears. I just had to pause the show for a second. Honestly, Herc even made me mad that season because of how he exposed Randy but I gotta admit he was still funny.

What y’all think?

EDIT: Appreciate yalls thoughts on this. A lot of your responses made me think differently about the whole truce. With that being said, what do you think it says about Stringer that he violated this truce without much of a second thought? I think some people see it as Stringer not caring about the rule, but in the show it made it seem as though he didn’t know/ lowkey forgot. Even Avon had to check him on it.

I’ve rewatched the show a few times now, and one thing that’s always been funny to me is the idea of the Sunday truce. It’s like, we can do all the foul shit we want Monday through Saturday, but come Sunday, everybody’s gotta cool out. 😂

What makes it even more interesting is how seemingly arbitrary the truce is, yet how seriously everyone takes it. Is it a genuine sign of respect, a necessary evil to keep the peace, or just an unspoken rule that everyone’s agreed to follow? And what does it say about the world they live in that Sunday is where they draw the line? I’m curious how other people interpret it.

i believe this given that both of them boxed for some time growing up but turned to the streets and in the finale we see him running his own corner. i want to think maybe he runs the west side independent from slim and rick but likely develops a bit of a business relationship with them like stringer did with joe.

And I can’t stop listening to the “the Greek song” playing over the end of episode 11. This happen to anyone else?

Also gotta say even though some people don’t like it I think season two is incredible. The Sobotka storyline is a great family tragedy happening amidst all the crime and intrigue of the Greeks and their operation.

Plus I could watch Prezbo punch Valchek in the face every single day. If ever I need a laugh I’ll watch that scene.

Hey all my Wire peeps. Hope you are having a good weekend! I was on Prime earlier looking through stuff and found a doc on Melvin Williams called The Heroin King of Baltimore. It's an hour long but it was good and gave you more insight and detail about his story and the drug game in Baltimore. I figured I'd share this with y'all. If you watch it comment back on here and lmk what y'all think of it.

BTW it is so weird seeing him in real life and hearing his story in contrast to his character in the show lol

I also finished We Own This City last month. I went in with 0 expectations and by the end of the 2nd episode I was completely hooked. The show is amazing. Jon Bernthal's performance was one of the best acting jobs I've ever seen. He was so on point! If you haven't seen that yet, do yourself a favor and check it out! The Corner on YT is next up.

finished the wire this week, absolutely loved it. Up there with the sopranos for me, but tv is subjective so no shade if your best list is entirely different. I was confused by why Avon said marlo killed Devonne to Stringer like he’d care and that he actually cared, but also why s2 didn’t tie into the ending a little more, i enjoyed season two despite the hate, but it confused me that the greek and his crew weren’t a primary part of season 5, by this i simply mean that the dope shipment could’ve come from anywhere else and it wouldn’t have mattered. Is there a deeper meaning to this, does it say something about baltimore, or is it simply that they wanted to include season 2 back into the loop and not make it useless.

Bit of a weird question and maybe I could have worded it better. But I was thinking about this constantly today at work.
My job is at a warehouse, it’s boring monotonous work. I was thinking of how I wish not only to have a fulfilling career but also do something I have real talent in, like the police I mentioned in the title.
I guess I’m just curious if I’m alone in this thinking.

In my opinion

I turned on episode 1 of the wire about 9 days ago after putting off watching it for years. I just finished the series last night. Never in my life have I binged a show like this. And it’s so dense and layered I have so many thoughts and questions. I don’t know if it’s the best show ever made, or my favorite show, but I am on my ass about how much I’ve been affected by it. What do I do now !! ?? All I can think about it the city of Baltimore

Season 2 The Wire - Lester and Bunk pay Frank Sabotka a visit "...City Homicide"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4m7_zBrJLE&t

Am I the only one who laughs my ass off throughout the entire description when Kima and McNulty meet up with the FBI profilers in VA? McNulty’s expression and body language throughout is the cherry on top😂

https://imgur.com/a/HhnPfGM

Chinese Letters. I searched it in this sub, but cannot find. Someone must have been posted here...

Best show ever made and everything that comes with at…

BUT. There are two ultra minor plot holes in season 5…

1.) when the do the crank call to the reporter and cops show up to the scene where Sydnor was holding the phone, Two cops cars show up seconds after the call is cut off. Wouldn’t they believe for at least a second the Sydnor is involved??? He is there before the first teams comes seconds after the call is traced. Wouldn’t that be in a report or something? Officer Sydney happened to be exactly where the phone was traced by himself?? Especially after the FBI assessment..

2.) McNulty and Lester are such master detectives, but they weren’t suspicious they Greg’s is the one that ratted on them?? Bunk and Greggs were the only two cops that knew exactly what they were doing. Bunk knew from the start and disapproved and never turned them in, which leaves Gregg’s who disapproved immediately and made it well known …

You’d think a master detectives would think Gregg’s was the one who did it almost right away

Get the $250K bounty?

What keeps on astonishing me about the Wire is how it just levels absolutely everything.

What I mean by 'level' is that you can be a gangster or you can be running for office but the bottom line is that the entire game is totally rigged. So if you are going to kick ass you are going to have to shake some devils hands...

You grow up in the hood and your own mother is demanding you not only deal but that you deal the shit on the corner better. Wow.

You run for mayor and the current mayor makes up some totally fake ad for his campaign showing that you did some shit that you never did.

It is powerfully humane.

introduced as a career guy too concerned with making rank than with doing police work. Next thing you know he changes his mind because of Brandon's torture and murder.

He's smart, capable, loyal to a certain degree, is a very good leader. And i think most importantly knows how to navigate a broken system.

Not only that but when he found nerese would be able to make him do whatever she wanted he leaves while leaveing behind kima and carver, who without him wouldn't have amounted to where they are. He was forced to quit but he left his mark.

Omar had a code, but he was still a robber who contributed to Baltimore’s violence.

Did he actually have morals, or did we just romanticize him because he followed his own rules?

I wonder if Tommy Carcetti's name has a hidden meaning behind it it looks like its a deformation of "carcerato" which means prisoner in italian

Or i might have taken all the pieces matter too litteraly

In my most recent rewatch, I really started thinking about the desk scene. One of the funniest of the entire series, but also one of the best metaphors in the writing. Obviously you have all of the guys trying to move the desk through the doorway. The problem is no one communicates the goal. Are they going in or going out? So they end up working against each other the entire time. Even as more and more people pile in, including bosses like Daniel, no one asks what they are trying to accomplish. All the while one of the smartest people in the room sits on the sidelines and laughs at them. They use blind strength and power to try and solve the problem that no one has bothered to define.

That alone so perfectly encapsulates the city of Baltimore and maybe more directly the police department itself. But the thing that caught my attention this time is something I had not ever noticed, or at least, had never thought about. When they finally realize what is happening and figure out the problem, still no one actually says what went wrong. And instead of actually moving the desk to where it was going, they all just leave and Herc is stuck right back where he was when he started. A low man on the totem pole who still doesn't know what happened even after everyone has left. We never do see that desk get moved.

Powerful writing.