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Eve's Marathon Diary: Bad Decisions Never Looked So Good


Primetimer

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It did take a few episodes to get to the can't turn it off stage, but after that I remember a week of being pretty useless at work. You will know you are really hooked when you say things like 'oh you know Omar, that stick-up boy' and your non-Wire friends think you have lost your mind.

 

You are right about Omar. Wonderfully original character.

 

Simon trusts his audience, and you can trust him not to screw it up.

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It did take a few episodes to get to the can't turn it off stage, but after that I remember a week of being pretty useless at work. You will know you are really hooked when you say things like 'oh you know Omar, that stick-up boy' and your non-Wire friends think you have lost your mind.

 

You are right about Omar. Wonderfully original character.

 

Simon trusts his audience, and you can trust him not to screw it up.

 

Omar is a wonderful, original character.  I am binge watching The Wire for the first time.  I am currently in the middle of season 2.  You are right, it took me until about episode 4 to really fall in love with the show.  I think it's the characters that set this show apart.  Stringer, Avon, D'Angelo, Freeman, Bunk, Bubbles, Kima, Wallace, Rawls are all wonderful to watch.  I know McNulty is the main character, but I find him the least interesting.

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 I know McNulty is the main character, but I find him the least interesting.

Allow me to give you the good news: he only feels like the main character because of where you are in the series. Soon enough you won't be feeling like that at all! Very much an ensemble, with different people in the foreground (and receding/gone) each season/arc.

 

I'm also in the middle of S2 in my current rewatch. I think every other time I was just so enamored, but this time I really did feel it took till halfway through S1 to find its legs. Omar is a big part of that. And then episodes 1.10 - 1.13 are a sequence of some of the most gripping television I've ever watched.

Edited by gesundheit
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I'm also in the middle of S2 in my current rewatch. I think every other time I was just so enamored, but this time I really did feel it took till halfway through S1 to find its legs. Omar is a big part of that. And then episodes 1.10 - 1.13 are a sequence of some of the most gripping television I've ever watched.

 

I totally agree!  One of the things I love about this show is how much depth characters have.  Characters like D'Angelo and Wallace would be written in a very superficial way on network tv.  The Wire allows you to see inside their world and understand it.  I feel like some of these characters are people I know instead of fictional .  

I finished the episode where D'Angelo is killed. He is such a sad character. His story is very much like a Greek tragedy.

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Huge fan of McNulty, bad decisions and all - "The Wire" helped me love Dominic West. But yeah, he's not really the 'main' character - that honor belongs to Baltimore itself. I love Omar, too, and Bubbles... and a bunch of other characters across the spectrum.

Given how messed up (or venal) so many of the cops are, and how understandable so many of the 'gangsters' are, it's hard to assign stereotypes here, and I think that's one of the show's great strengths.

Looking forward to more of your Marathoning. I. too, wish I was watching it for the first time.

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Damn I'm definitely bookmarking this. I'm rewatching it for the 3rd time now, and it's cool to see a first-timer's impression. You're right about how it takes a little while to get hooked. It's a slow show, and each season is like a puzzle that at first doesn't make much sense, but eventually everything starts falling into place and you're just like "omg omg omg!!". With season 1 specifically, I think the writers and actors were still trying to feel things out. By season 2 everything about the show is top notch.

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I feel a little odd man out - the Omar character sticks out on the show as too much "bigger than life" for me, especially compared to the rough edges of practically everyone else on the show.  I appreciate him, he's just not in my top 10 list of characters.

 

I know that we also have a lesbian character, so it's not like Omar stands by his LGBT own.

 

Kima, to me, is more of a revelation than Omar.  She is more multi-dimensional than most female, and certainly any lesbian, character I have seen onscreen  She may not be as exciting (there is no denying Omar's charisma), but she is believable and relate-able, which appeals to me a lot  

 

Bubbles is soft, and sweet. Bubbles is like a dog in the first act of a horror movie: all you do is fret that they're going to kill him. You guys, are they going to kill him? DON'T TELL ME I DON'T WANT TO KNOW.

So funny because it's true.  Bubbles is outstanding.  I'm not done with all the seasons yet, but Bubbles is definitely one of my favorites.  As is D'Angelo.  Both for the acting, and for the writing, and for - everything, really.  They're perfect.

 

deciding to put a bunch of IKEA furniture together while he's totally blotto

I love this scene so much.  Probably because that looked exactly how I feel about putting together IKEA furniture - when I'm stone cold sober.  

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