Ha I was thinking about how I've watched a number of analysis of the wire and yours was also excellent!

Both your vids are getting the streets talkin about this masterpiece. You love to see it!

Thomas Flight has some really great analysis when it comes to the wire. Top rate son

Oh wow! I’ve watched all your Wire videos!

Your*

The moment that horrified me the most from season 4 is the scene when Daniel's is talking about how he used to go to school in the building they are using as a makeshift morgue for the bodies of Chris and snoop's victims. I realized the writers were showing me the future. All the kids we had seen in season 4 were going to wind up dead and the school would probably go under. It scared the shit out of me.

The story of the four kids starting in Season 4 is the absolute perfect response to those people who think "anyone who sells drugs, is in a gang, or an addict is by choice. They, just as easily, could've stayed in school, buckled down, studied hard, graduated, went to college, and have a secure, high-paying career." That's it? It's that easy? Even for a kid who needs to support a little brother cuz his addict mother literally SELLS the only food in the house, who was sexually abused as a child by the same guy who just moved back into the house after a stint in prison, who goes to a school that is DEFINITELY not accredited, and he absolutely needs a full scholarship anyway to go to college. So... Kids like this need to work enough hours to earn enough money to support his mom and brother, dedicate enough time to study to do well in school, and have time for extra-curricular activities in order to get a scholarship... Easy as pie, why wouldn't all these gang members just do this instead selling drugs????

That's a fan.

I just finished season 4, every time Dukie was on screen it killed me. So sad.

@@djangofett4879 he became police and got a new last name

That scene in season 4 where he goes to the hospital to see Randy is so raw. "You got my back???" Heartbreaking. So many kids never stand a chance in this world.

@@geordiejones5618 bro walking down that hall I would not be able to keep it together.

Man that scene when Carvee goes and sees Randy and his foster mom at the hospital and as he’s walking away Randy yelling from behind was deep

So… I’ve coached youth boxing for years now. I had a junior Olympian I coached who had just won his first national championship and was really digging in as an Olympic team hopeful. He was shot dead in the crossfire of some pointless turf war at the age of 15 while walking his little brother home from school. He dove on top of his little brother when the shots started popping off. His brother (8 at the time) survived with no physical wounds. But he remained under his brother’s body for almost an hour before being found. I still think about that young man and his family almost every single day. He first walked into my gym when he was the same age his brother was at the time of his death. He was the first breakout success i coached and it was entirely through his own effort and dedication, not through any talent I had as a coach at the time (I was still a kid myself when we met, I was 16 and preparing for my own first national tournament, I agreed to coach the junior’s program in exchange for unlimited use of the training facility because I had no money at all at the time) this happened in the DC-Baltimore beltway area. So not more than 30 minutes from where The Wire was set and filmed. When I first watched the show Carver’s boxing gym storyline made my eyes grow wide as plates, it hit SO close to home for me… Sorry if this was rambling and didn’t have a satisfying conclusion, but I don’t really get to talk about this very often so my thoughts aren’t as collected and coherent as I would like them to be. Thank you if you took the time to read this whole thing. Please take care of yourselves and each other.

@@Thor-Orion Thanks for sharing this.

the scene is also repeated in s4 with the kids.

@sleeping bear No, there's been a poll and this scene has been voted the best scene of the show with 51,5% of votes

Reminds me of Shaft (2000 version). When Christian Bale kills that black guy that seemed out of place in a fancy upscale restaurant, it kind ahas the same energy.

@@freakman0815 There's no such thing as a 'best scene', I don't care about your little poll.

@@jihigh482 Polls show that you care about 14.4% so to say that you "don't care" is not entirely accurate

I know, right? Except for when they put in all those coffee shops and boutiques you get your estrogen shakes and skinny jeans at while you're gentrifying the neighborhood. Do your best not to be the cliche, OK?

Too deep

Im from Baltimore bro. We call them jump out boiz. Wire doesnt have shit on them. Ive personally watched cops do things that would make most people have nightmares. My wifes ex was killed by them in a drive-by drug raid(jump out boiz) and he didnt have anything and wasnt doing anything. They saw a virginia plate and thought he was grabbing dope and he didnt know about these guys and thought he could "flex his rights". The wire is kiddy shit and LAPD is soft compared to these guys. Everybody in Bmore knows what im talking about.

@@NoahBodze this is the best self own I've read in a long time.

​@@NoahBodze Real estate developers are always so delicate.

Origon felt that

It really is prohibition that causes the murderers. BUT LEGALIZING without nationalizing is just going to put a HUGE revenue stream in the hands of capitalists.

@@fuckfannyfiddlefart valid

Everyone in that lift just laughs it off as a joke.....little did they know Colvin wasn't fuckin around!

His speech linking the war on drugs to the militarization of the police is one of the my favorite moments of the show

Re: the forensics thing - the most CSI scene in Season 1 of _The Wire_ has McNulty and Bunk figuring out where a bullet came from & where the shooter was and recovering the shell casing. In a CSI-type show, they'd be expositioning all over about the whole process. In this scene, the entire dialogue consists of variations on the word "fuck". Re: Avon's first arrest - "Look at those Delta Force motherfuckers!"

Yeah well said, completely agree. Also shows cops as alcoholic, womanising, sexist, violent, corrupt, etc etc

Mindhunter was still a great show and it sucks it got cancelled

Holy shit. Yeah, I think those are the only times a cop does discharge a weapon. Never thought about it. There's police brutality but not with guns.

@@ScotisticDad Yeah, amazing fact isn't it! We also learn Prez has done this before.

To add the stupidest reply possible, the most hilarious yet relevant practice/example that reinforced this to me was playing the video game Conker's Bad Fur Day. As a satire of popular platformers like Mario 64 or whatever, literally the first gameplay mechanic introduced are these giant pads with a giant B on them (indicating you press the B button on them) that when pressed spontaneously manifest whatever tool is required to advance. And of course these pads are referred to as "context sensitive". kzfaq.info/get/bejne/q9B0fLhorbbIeJc.html

Indeed. There is a great scene in season five where the reporters are talking about the school system, Scott (before he starts faking sources) says "you don't need a lot of context to exam what goes on in one classroom. Gus responds that "you need a lot of context to understand anything" kzfaq.info/get/bejne/gK1yoZCS0bq0h3U.html That is what made The Wire great is that nothing in the show is black and white.

Are you trying to justify the actions of Larry Nassar? You believe that there is context that justifies the sexual abuse of dozens of girls?

@@adamhearts9195 The phrase literally comes from "just do the impossible and you'll succeed", and was originated in a story mocking your poor grasp of reality

@@adamhearts9195 No man is an island. Nobody "received no help". And doubly not the rich and owner class who exploit and steal every zero in their bank account. Stop being ignorantly selfish and start accepting the world around you.

You physically cannot lift yourself. It's called floating, and it isn't possible. We know what the saying means. It's idiotic, that's the problem.

@@adamhearts9195 can’t tell if you are delusional or trolling.

@@adamhearts9195 you should watch The Wire, maybe you'll understand.

So sorry for your loss. He was an incredible talent.

Sad to hear, he was one of my favorite characters in TW!

RIP, his character was hilarious. Sorry for your loss

First, condolences for your loss. Haven’t seen him in anything aside from The Wire but he was brilliant at portraying Valchek! And with that, he was so brilliant that he’s on the short list of characters I loathe so much that it would be hard for me to separate them from the reality of who they really were. The humanity of him as a person you gave even in this brief comment is such great reminder to me that people care about their craft even at the consequence of some not wanting to give them space from the fictional world. On my next watch I’ll still allow myself to let my blood boil at his villain but feel safe at the end of the day knowing he was the grandfather of someone who it sounds was very mouth loved by him. 🕯️

Sorry about your loss

Also The Wire brings to mind a highwire. Not only is the whole system connected somehow, the system itself teeters on the edge, barely keeping itself upright.

I always thought of the Wire as in a warzone

The Wire is definitely a cop show lmao

⁠@@thatguyyouhatealotIt’s not. It’s a show about society with the veneer of a cop show. The Baltimore police department is merely a literary device to show you how the city is failing but is somehow staying afloat.

We been telling you cause it’s that great

I respect your thoughtful opinion but Simon isn't the hero we deserve or need. I can go at length but I will try to make this a short list. 1. He has a serious problem writing women. As demonstrated in his books The Corner, homicide life on the streets as well as the Wire. He places black women into specific stereotypes of Jezebel, dragon lady or mammy.(Or dragonlady/sociopath in the case of Snoop) He literally told a reporter on record in baltimore that "he doesn't know how to write women so he writes them as men with t***." 2. He was excoriated by actor and play wright charles dutton for his lack of including black creatives behind the scenes or on set. 3. His claim in his series the wire that Baltimore city police were underfunded and therefore couldn't do the type of community policing they wanted to is an Outright lie. Baltimore city police department budget and spending has increased consistently from that decade (90s) forward. 4. The police officers are not solving crimes their clearance rate is one of the lowest in the country. And even that clearance rate can't be trusted because the case is cleared by arrest. Meaning that it doesn't mean the person who was arrested was Successfully found guilty and convicted and sentenced-- it simply means they were arrested. If a case can be cleared by arrest that doesn't necessarily mean that a Person who has committed the crime is off the streets. ( It can also mean the end of any further investigation.) 5. Also starting in the mid nineteen nineties into the mid two thousands the number of r*pes determined by police as unfounded increased by eighty percent. Interestingly the number of r*pes investigated dropped proportionately by nearly eighty percent. Does this mean during that decade long time period that the number of women r*ped/SAd and Baltimore suddenly dropped by 80 Percent? That baltimore city police officers were dismissing the concerns of SA victims? And research done by local organizations talking to victims showed that women were discouraged from filing r*pe reports by police. 6. BPD Are not underpaid they often steal overtime to supplement their salaries. Sgt. Ethan Newberg made $234,000 a year in the 2010s. And he was just found guilty for unconstitutional policing and misconduct in office- Nothing to do with his salary. And mayor Carcetti(O'Malley) did NOT pour money in to our public schools system. On a personal not Simon has been incredibly toxic to female journalists and community activists on Twitter. Look around our city for signs of his philanthropy for the city that has given him so much of our community's culture to harvest and monetize - let me know when you find it. I think this series is incredible work but I would suggest to dig deeper on the true story of our city Baltimore before thinking that his fiction is at all representative, yes we all love Bubbles and Omar-- but he didn't create them those are real people's stories that he poached without giving anything back. You should listen to an interview with a young man who he based a large portion of the story of the book The Corner where he detailed a black family degenerating and being lost to drugs losing their proud lower middle class lifestyle and falling into crime and poverty. That man got nothing from sharing his story with Simon except taken to an NA meeting. I could share more with you if you are at all interested. Again I love skipintros work, and this critique isn't just about Simon personally but his misreprestation of these good guys being limited by the system-- the system is working just as planned.

That's beautiful, and I think a worthwhile mindset to have. If nothing else, it drives us forward, to keep throwing ourselves against the problems until we or others after us break through.

The Wire basically says change is bloody hard and involves a lot of determination and hardwork to escape your circumstances. Bubbles exemplifies this best!

Bubbles getting his happy ending was so good and necessary. I still get misty thinking about it.

I don't think that's true at all. The fact that all characters' roles are replaced by other characters is very cynical. The institutional machine is self-preserving and perpetual, as in there is no hope for this system fixing itself. Major change will be required.

​@@FreshTillDeath56Yea it's definitely not hopeful. I don't see how the system perpetuating itself as it is is currently is going to end in anything but further decay and corruption and crime. The wire I think most overtly demonstrates this in Bodey's storyline. The world of the wire DOES change, but not for the better. People like Marlo rise up and just show the ruthlessness and coldness of the street where even an "og" like Bodey is rebelling by the end. The cycle is repeating, but it's building on the failures of the previous generation and changing for the worse every time.

@Caitlyn Carvalho Charlie Cox is great at Daredevil

@@gamingandstuff1522also Daredevils character isn’t actually blind. Like in function he is the same as a sighted person so casting someone who can’t see wouldn’t make much sense tbh

It's a classic.

True Detective is literally the only “cop show” I’ve seen that comes close to The Wire

I think the failure of Hamsterdam was Simon’s point: you can’t solve a problem by isolating it and ignoring it. Hamsterdam made the rest of Colvin’s district more peaceful but he just wrote off the drug dealers/users as expendables. The reverend pointed this out, and Colvin brought in needle exchange programs and social workers, but it was too little too late. Like Carver’s “tax” to help out the laid off lookout kids and to bring in athletic equipment to let the kids work off steam, the whole program, while well-intentioned, was completely ad hoc. The Dutch and Danish programs had more success, because they weren’t done in secret and they were thought through. The school program in S4, on the other hand, was a boutique solution that required lots of resources the system didn’t have. That said, it was better thought out than Hamsterdam: it pulled the disruptive kids from classes so the regular classes went more smoothly, and it dealt with those kids in a constructive manner. By the end of the program everyone was better off, then the district officials cut them off at the knees and threw the kids back into the same situations they’d been in before. And Colvin rescued Namond, reinforcing the idea that, with individual attention and effort, at least some of these kids can be rescued from the downward spiral The System has them locked in to. That’s Simon’s message, I think: He believes that all of these problems are surmountable, with great effort and cooperation. But he also knows that cultural or systemic inertia is unlikely to allow for the kinds of changes that are needed. All of the institutions portrayed through the 5 seasons are populated with people who recognize the rot at the roots, but they are also populated by people who don’t want to rock the boat lest it tip over on them, or they are too self-interested to actually attempt to solve problems that they recognize (everyone who discovered Hamsterdam recognized the logic, and held off on criticizing it until they recognized the personal political advantage of attacking it).

@@jrepka01 I don't think I've seen anyone else explain Hamsterdam like that (besides myself). The way I've put it is, Simon showed with Hamsterdam how calling off the War on Drugs _even in the worst possible way_ would have immediate and obvious benefits to the general community - but that this _ad hoc_ under-the-radar "solution" based on desperation and relying on the same kind of neglect that caused so many of the problems in the first place, was _not_ something to emulate. (David Simon has expressed amusement at libertarians who seem to have missed that part.) I wish I could like your post more.

@D2 E2 Nah, more like Portugal

Absolutely different implications for people who hold the monopoly on legitimized violence, it's a level of power that's difficult to comprehend sometimes. Also, it's not like there are any systemic incentives for Carver to become "good police", and there are no consequences for Hauk continuing to behave like a rabid animal. Nor do any of the "good police" put much effort into rooting out the "bad police", instead they always cover from them, adhering to the "blue wall of silence".

Just wanted to clarify, Prez doesn't kill a kid. He shoots an undercover cop thinking he was the suspect since the radio dispatch said that was the suspect's race, and the undercover guy had his gun out. It's still awful, but it's more nuanced. This is after he acts like a complete shithead in season 1 and blinds that kid in one eye for sitting on his car when he, Herc, and Carver all go to the towers at like 2am for nothing, and gets suspended on desk duty for the rest of the season (and learns how to actually be a better detective).

@@lhfirex Oh I didn't remember the victim being an undercover cop. I thought he was a civilian, my bad.

Yeah I don't think the show shows antis to be good or bad. Apart from maybe Marlow, possibly the corrupt senator and later stringer, everyone in the show is shown to be very nuanced, and just like in real life, there are no goodies and baddies. Personally I think the wire is the greatest political critique on US institutions ever made

@Irish Jester so you mean they actually implemented hampsterdam? That's crazy to think the show has such an influence but it just goes to show if you get people who actually know wtf they're taking about how much difference you can make even with a tv show. How's the school system?

Because it was made by cops and people who report on cops

The police politics in this show confuse me.. anyone tries to do work, boss is mad

Homicide: life on the streets, no?

@@kostajovanovic3711 based of a novel written by David Simon who created The Wire and who also wrote some episodes for Homicide

@@W333dm4n Not much to be confused about if you look at the type of work they’re doing. The detectives are doing work that a)is actual work the department is not used to, thus shaking up some of the routines the higher-ups have grown used to doing; b)doing work that threatens some colleagues close to those higher-ups I was talking about; and most importantly, c)doing work that challenges the very system and status quo they exist in. Yes, doing honest work in a system that does not like it can get some people mad.

What season 2 was catagolically the worst season of the wire, it also totally out of place in the rest of the show

Season 4 is the most emotional and brings so many salient points about the real world institutions. But Season 2 I always tell new viewers is the single most important because it shows Americans in particular that most of the problems of the inner city, low income neighborhoods (poverty, crime, drug trafficking) aren’t Black problems. They’re failings of American institutions. Season 2 shows brilliantly how working class whites turn to the same vices, temptations and criminal activities to survive when the jobs and opportunities for better dry up.

@@resoleccaI don’t see how that is true. It definitely isn’t.

Exactly. Being apologetic about using marxist critique of capitalism is like being apologetic for thinking maybe Zeus is wrong for raping people, and maybe his wife is also wrong for punishing his victims out of some warped sense of jealous.

It's a kind of criticism that can only come from a place of love

That'd be worse than what we've got no. At least now, when a company alienates customers or stiffs contractors, they can conceivable take a hit. Voters just trick themselves into thinking losses are profits and will through good money after bad. Do you shop at co-ops or work at one?

Hey. Ever seen two co-ops compete?

Welcome to socialism my friend

@@andreamarino6010 How about you? Do you shop or work at a co-op?

@@MRCKify i am studying engineering right now and i was interested in searching for a job. Sadly here in Italy they have the mentality "you're young so we should not pay you because you gain experience from working with us, or have a shitty pay because you're young, like 5/6€ per hour which is literally exploitation. I'm not going to sell my self to this shit

I agree, but I'd take it one step further and just say "people" instead of voters specifically. I've come to accept lately that our brains just aren't built for holistic problem-solving. Each of us only has the mental capacity to solve immediate problems that are right in front of us.

Are you a Bryan Caplan reader? Used to be?

@@MRCKify Haven't heard of him. Should I be?

@@tommylakindasorta3068 I think it's more that holistic thinking is found in many disciplines, but you have to be *disciplined* to learn it. There's plenty of foolishness we all have learned to avoid from our past mistakes or mistakes of our mentors, but we'll shrug or even applaud when analogous mistake made in another kind of job. "The highest function of ecology is the understanding of consequence."

I: Blaming voters instead of the higher-ups is just shifting the blame. Not sure how to explain what I mean concisely enough, but in representative "democracy", voters have very little actual choice. They don't choose policies to enact, the (often, few to choose from) candidates sucking up to them to get elected do. And once they are elected, there is little that people can do to hold them truly accountable and make them fulfill their campaign promises

"You want it to be one way. But it's the other way."

Actually use "if you take credit for the sunshine you'll get the blame when its raining" at work

@@jrepka01 ah shit. Don’t get me started or I’ll be tempted to go on KZfaq and watch all my favorite scenes for the 13th time.

The show went out of its way to have characters from different groups say “it’s all in the game” or some variation of that, BECAUSE it applies to so many different things.

"all the pieces matter" - lester

No. Marlo thrives on contest, he's in the game for the competition, to win, not to "have-won" which is the concern of the totalitarian. A totalitarian seeks to lock down & prevent all competition, any threat to the ruling class. Marlo's final scene tries to make this clear to the audience: at the top of his tower, having succeeded & surrounded by the (empty, white) symbols of his ultimate victory, & he turns his back on it & returns to the street corner to get into a fight; which he wins. NOW he looks happy.

@@TheSoulHarvester A totalitarian seeks to lock down & prevent all competition, any threat to the ruling class. Like killing Junebug for alleged rumors? Killing Omar for stealing from him? Killing Joe and then usurping the coop from him and dissolving it? You've said a whole lot of nothing. At the end of the day, he was far more angry at Omar badmouthing him than he was with Omar stealing from him. Capitalism is more than just competition, it's fundamentally about private ownership, and at the end of the day Marlo wants power and respect not to privately own lots of things. He's won at the end, he has the power to do that. But he leaves, cause he's just another man in a suit in a world that he doesn't belong in.

Ah that's a shame. It would be nice to see shows doing them justice.

Watch Simon's The Deuce.

@D2 E2 it's a very male centric show indeed.

So, you're upset about realism?

@@mojrimibnharb4584 The drug dealers are pawns as well in real life, but the show gives them full personalities, internal conflicts, doubts, and human qualities. The sex workers on the show are barely more than furniture in comparison.

@DSP HistoricalSociety yeah that was sad. But I think there are sadder scenes. And Altho I like the opening cast, I also like the cast they introduce in S4, one of the best seasons (imo)

Breaking bad isn’t trying to speak on all criminals or speak on crime in general, breaking bad isn’t a societal show like the wire, it’s a personal show. It wants to laser focus on Walt, a greek tragic hero like Oedipus. The reason Walt doesn’t take the well paid job isn’t that the writers don’t understand crime, it’s because they need to demonstrate how Walt’s downfall is ultimately only because of his own flaws, mainly his massive sense of pride. Breaking bad is a character study on how crime brings out parts of Walt he has pushed down, his magnanimity, his cruelty, his hubris.

@D2 E2 This. Apples and oranges!

_Breaking Bad_ has more in common with _The Shield_ than _The Wire_ in that the former two both feature Villain Protagonists, POV characters who are objectively the Bad Guy - not anti-heroes but outright villains who should be thwarted for the good of all - but who the fandom (or some of them at least) insisted on rooting for until the end because they are incapable of distinguishing between POV character and Good Guy. Whereas in _The Wire_ there are no heroes, and the villain is The System itself - the whole damn game.

I admit it’s been a couple years since I watched Breaking Bad, but the characterization of Jesse’s family as caring doesn’t line up with what I remember at all. To me, they seemed hypercritical and unsupportive, creating such a vacuum of praise and affirmation that what little Walt offered was enough to thoroughly manipulate him. While his situation isn’t set up as a systemic critique, it doesn’t sit right with me to say Jesse’s bad decisions were his own fault. Not all unmet needs are financial.

Breaking Bad is a cardboard cutout compared to The Wire.

@@guywholovesmath Okay. Great for both of you, I guess.

eh social democracy is certainly better than what we have but its unsustainable. you can't fix an inherently broken system.

@@guywholovesmath lmao the nordic countries have been choked by austerity and neoliberalism. Thats the problem with "nice capitalism" not only is it still exploitative it ends up getting rolled back then we have to start all over. Not to mention that the only real way to have a functioning social democracy is to exploit other nations for resources. You can still make money under socialism. Capitalism isn't when markets exist or when you buy things. And its a common strawman that people get paid the same under socialism. We don't have to be marxist or whatever (although thats definitely what i id as) but we need to move beyond capitalism of any kind whatever system that may be.

@@guywholovesmath Right-wing parties arent healthy. They want to kill the planet, genocide native populations, and enslave entire peoples for temporary profit. There is no place for them in the future Leftists want.

How many of you guys would, as members of a legislature, favor abolishing minimum wage and erecting targeted, means-tested wage subsidies? What's the top reason you wouldn't?

That would be amazing, I loved Cold Case growing up. I'll probably always enjoy it, but I'm not surprised that it has those sorts of issues though, I had an uncritical media eye last time I watched it.

My argument continues to be that all crime issues follow these patterns and reasonings, regardless of their name

Wait, WHAT?…I…don’t recall any other scenes where a cop fired their gun…but I feel like I have to be forgetting something. That seems impossible

@D2 E2 I think there's a difference between having corrupt cops and showing that the system is corrupt and protects the worst cops.

I hate it bc of the copaganda but yeah that too

@@thatguyyouhatealot If you think The Wire is "copaganda", you are utterly, hopelessly lost.

Did you watch the show?

Speak for yourself, I love Brother Mouzone more lol

@Ray Baker IKR I feel like he was a heavy inspiration for Gus Fring in Breaking Bad.

Personally I identified with mcnulty the most but maybe that's because I'm a white Irish descended alcoholic fuckup with no respect for authority who's almost always right but no one listens

Omar is my mom's favorite character 😁

Omar >>>>

36:49

The Shield is often overlooked in favor of The Sopranos and Breaking Bad, but the thing I loved about the shoes is what you said. He’s like an antagonist in the role of a protagonist. A crook larping as a cop.