A Slice Of Life

[theweaselking]

Watching the first episode of The Wire:

Lieutenant Daniels (on TV): "How do we get these guys?"
Herc (on TV): "I say we go down to the towers and start busting heads, Western District style."
My brother-in-law the cop from Chicago: "Oh god, I work with that guy."

Comments

[marlowe1.livejournal.com]

Not to spoil anything, but Herc never gets any brighter.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

I've seen the whole Wire, repeatedly. He was intrigued by the idea of "a cop show written by cops, liked by cops" so we watched S1E1. I think he's intrigued, I hope he's hooked?

[strawberryfrog.livejournal.com]

I've recently finshed watching Season 3.
The only one who comes across at all as a TV cop stereotype is McNutty

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

And even then, McNulty ("McNutty" is Bubbles' name for him) rages against the perceived incompetence of his superiors.... but he's not a TV "rogue cop" beating people up and breaking the law FOR JUSTICE or anything like that.

torrain and I were trying to think, the other day, of cases in the Wire where police officers fire their guns.

And we came up with "Presbylewski shoots the wall by accident" and..... nothing.

[strawberryfrog.livejournal.com]

Of course he's actually McNulty. I just find "McNutty" funny, given that he's ... probably closer to the edge than the other characters, and though it's a strong ensemble piece, he's central to season 1 and I can just see him featuring in the show pitch as the "hard-drinking cop on the edge, fighting the system to get justice done". And Bubbles just speaks like that.

An officer fires his gun in season 3. that's all I'm saying.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

I've seen the whole thing repeatedly, so I'm not worried about spoilers - but I still don't recall what specifically you're talking about.

[strawberryfrog.livejournal.com]

Season, 3, Episode 9 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slapstick_(The_Wire))

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Right! I remember that, now.

So, Prez fires his gun twice, in five seasons. Does anyone else?

[torrain.livejournal.com]

The Wire wikia says he's the only one, although it does say "several times", including their brilliant sortie at 2 a.m. to conduct field interviews.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Also: Herc gets better. Not smarter, not brighter, but better. Herc learns, without unrealistically CHANGING. I kinda like that.

(It would be better if he got smarter, but unrealistic)

[fridgepunk.livejournal.com]

I think the clever trick they pull off is that Herc becomes more canny, without neccesarily becoming smarter or less of a dickhead with it.

I would love to see your mate's reaction to the Desk Scene.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

He's in town for the rest of the week. I should that on him.

[marlowe1.livejournal.com]

And by the end of it, his position as mispacha is especially ironic.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

"Identifying himself with the Jewish people"?

I'm afraid I've missed the meaning of the word "mispacha", here.

[torrain.livejournal.com]

I have a vague impression of it meaning "I identify/am identified with X group"; maybe it's that of all the cops Maurice Levy could have hired and then used the fact that they were (formerly) identified as cops, he got Herc.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Reiterating, 4 days later:

Yo! What does "mispacha" mean in this context?

All the meanings I can find from Google and asking my Yiddish-semiiterate friends lead to incohorency. We can't figure out what you mean.

[paradoxicmotion.livejournal.com]

If he continues to watch the show, that will probably not be the last time he has that reaction.