WHEN DOES THE NEW SEASON OF WIRE START?

[dollar_bin]

I also think Ziggy is a surprisingly bad character for the show insofar as 1) the actor's acting is truly bad and 2) his character is mad predictable in a way that I don't generally associate with the show, especially not a main character (for the season at least).

My friend pointed out though that even if Ziggy's weak in some ways, you still feel bad for his character and the fact that he can still generate that kind of sympathy says something. (He, in contrast, thinks Snoop from S4 is a waste of space).

The character Ziggy Sobotka is losely based upon a real dock worker named Pinky Bannon. Some of the things Ziggy does are based upon actual stories about Pinky, such as bringing a duck to the bar or the part where the other workers get him to punch Maui which results in his stranding on top of the stack.

To quote David Simon:

marlinmania asks: I am from Maryland, and spend a lot of time in Baltimore. I am very impressed this season with the Baltimore accents from the cast. Especially Ziggy and the Police Chief. Do you select local actors, or are they training in Dundalk?

David Simon: Accents are touch and go. It isn't possible to use an actor pool of Baltimore performers only, so the actors often have only a passing sense of the Bawlmer accent. When we can do it, we do. James Ransone who plays Ziggy is a Bawlmer boy and we encouraged him to use the accent. He has, delightfully. I've known twenty characters like him, and indeed his character is based very loosely on a legendary longshoreman named Pinkie Bannion, who used to take his duck to the bar and repeatedly expose "pretty boy" and all else. As they said in Bawlmer about Pinkie: "That boy ain't right."

http://www.hbo.com/thewire/interviews/david_simon.shtml

Perhaps the failing is that they tried to fit too much into the character, crushing his inevitable downfall and the resulting roll in Frank Sobotka's doom together with the stories about Pinky resulting in a somewhat cartoonish amalgam. Personally, I liked Ziggy, even though it was painful to see him so actively seek failure.

 

[Jonny_Paycheck]

I didn't mind Ziggy so much.

While he does have some great lines, to me the worst accent in the show is Cheese. Dude sounds like he's from Shaolin, not East Baltimore.

 

[G_Balliando]

I didn't mind Ziggy so much.

While he does have some great lines, to me the worst accent in the show is Cheese. Dude sounds like he's from Shaolin, not East Baltimore.

Definitely! Something about Wu-Tang members as actors, it just never really works when they are trying to play a character other than themselves.

 

[Pony]

I watched the first episode (season 1) and was BORED, couldn't finish it. I've heard you have to make it through the first season to get into it. When does it get good exactly?

I've heard nothing but rave reviews so I'll have to get with the program and watch the full first season.

 

[G_Balliando]

I can't really remember if I was necessarilly hooked by the first show, but by the end of the season, I didn't hesitate to throw in the next one. Best I can tell you is keep watching. If you aren't feelin' it by episode 6 or so, then maybe it's just not for you. Everybody I know or have talked to who has made it through the first half of season one has been hooked from then on...

 

[rootlesscosmo]

Cheese's accent is def not on point.

Dom West slips into American-Cockney hybrid at times.

But I think we can all agree the Idris Elba is amazing with his accent. Not sure he exactly sounds like he's from B-More per se, but in 3 seasons of heavy dialogue he never once let his UK accent slip. dude sounds downright American.

 

[bassie]

I would say that if by epsiode four you're still not feeling it, The Wire may not be for you. Man was all like "what? another cops and crooks show? no thanks." and by epsiode three he was watching them back to back to back. wait til you meet both sides. at the very least, wait til Omar comes on screen!

 

[rootlesscosmo]

at the very least, wait til Omar comes on screen!

saying. there's some characters that are just amazing to watch. Bunk, Omar, Daniels. there's some performances on there that are unfuckwittable. some of those characters will have you watching episodes just to see them on screen.

 

[djkingotto]

at the very least, wait til Omar comes on screen!

saying. there's some characters that are just amazing to watch. Bunk, Omar, Daniels. there's some performances on there that are unfuckwittable. some of those characters will have you watching episodes just to see them on screen.
so far omar is my favorite dude on that show, well him and avon....

finally got through season 2. ziggy became less of a dweeb, but... well... fucked is what he is. i can't wait to see that finger fiddlin, lip smackin, traitor, stringer get what he's got to get! should have season 3 disc 1 by the end of the week, providing netflix doesn't eff it up again...

thanks soulstrut, you served me well with this one.... but i agree that if, by the end of season one, you're not hooked, you likely won't be. it took me a few episodes before i was REALLY sucked in...

 

[phongone]

I didn't mind Ziggy so much.

While he does have some great lines, to me the worst accent in the show is Cheese. Dude sounds like he's from Shaolin, not East Baltimore.

Who on the show would have the definitive Bodymore accent/way of speaking?

 

[Jonny_Paycheck]

I mean I am no expert but there are much truer accents on the show than Cheese's. Baltimore cats got a funny way of talking. Meth sounds too much like a rapperdude, he could've been a target for Chris & Snoop in season 4!

 

[edulus]

Ransone (ziggy) has a highlandtown accent. bunny's 2nd in command, mello (the real jay landsman) has a pretty good baltimore accent.

 

[mandrew]

I didn't mind Ziggy so much.

While he does have some great lines, to me the worst accent in the show is Cheese. Dude sounds like he's from Shaolin, not East Baltimore.

Who on the show would have the definitive Bodymore accent/way of speaking?
fatman

 

[G_Balliando]

yeah prop joe always seemed to have the most pronounced accent. I never knew if that was accurate or not though cuz i've never been to baltimore or met anybody who was really from baltimore who still had an accent. i think i'm gonna start into s4 again this week. I think I can blaze through the whole season in a couple weeks no problem. actually, I could probably get through it by the end of the weekend really...

 

[Jonny_Paycheck]

Prop Joe is, as James Cromwell of Knightsbridge would say, "spot on".

 

[mandrew]

I agree with the general criticism that, of the four seasons, it's the most uneven, which is to say that it's still great...just not as great. I don't think it's the white-ness factor except to say that S2, to me, feels overly ambitious and introduces too many new players, with an entirely different subculture, and thus, feels overloaded as a result. I admire the ambition, I just don't think it executes as cleanly as S1 does.

to counter, this is exactly what got me hooked on the show. i enjoyed s1 immensely and appreciated it for all the points it differed from typical cop shows (like law & order). i loved how the story developed and unraveled at a snail's pace and i thought the detail and subtlety were very innovative in a tv show. but it was mostly about drug dealers and the cops who chase 'em. it was simple and elegant.

but the second season is the one that proved to me this show was legendary. i agree that the storyline was incredibly ambitious but i think it somehow managed to accomplish its goals. by the third or fourth episode in, they were expanding the plot to involve:

bunk & freamon, and russell's investigation into the young girls' deaths
omar's new crew & his testimony against bird
nicky's financial crisis with wife and new baby
nick & ziggy business deal with glekas, and willingness to import chemicals for the greek
valchek's missing van and his grudge with sobotka and the dock boys
avon & d'angelo's distancing relationship in jail
stringer's budding relationship with d'angelo's girl
avon & stringer's setup of the prison guard and simultaneous warning to d'angelo

one of the best aspects of the show is how many story lines they get into without compromising the intensity of each one individually, or the quality of the show overall.

 

[Jonny_Paycheck]

Having just finished my second full end-to-end viewing of Season 2, I have to agree with Mandrew. I think its (over?)ambition is part of its great success and the fluidity with which all aspects of the city are tied together is nothing short of genius.

I mean, think about it - now knowing what Season 5 will focus on, and having watched the previous four seasons, we all understand that this is not a show about drug dealers and cops; it's about the decay of the great American city. The show, in chronicling that decay, has managed to illustrate it from a diversity of angles unimagineable for normal TV. That not just one show but one season of it could touch on: the war on terrorism, "doing business with the bad guys", union busting, the Baltimore drug trade, police morale, human smuggling, prostitution, politics in the post-industrial economy, and the revolving doors of the justice system - all with a classic cops-n-robbers feel - is just amazing.

 

[rootlesscosmo]

David Simon in Salon

What's behind the basic plot of "The Wire"?

It's very loosely based on the experiences of my co-writer, Ed Burns, who was a 20-year veteran of the police department here in Baltimore. He did a lot of these protracted investigations, often of more than a year's time, into violent drug traffickers. It was largely based on his experiences and his frustrations in the department. And then it was also based on my experiences at my newspaper, which became a sort of hellish, futile bureaucracy. And then while we were writing the scripts, Enron was happening. And the Catholic Church. It became more of a treatise about institutions and individuals than a straight cop show .

(my emphasis; I think the treatise about institutions part is so on point.)

 

[dollar_bin]

Aha, great old article. It's interesting to see how Simon has maintained his vision for the show since the beginning.

my favorite quote:

What is the cardinal sin most writers commit with cop characters?

They make them care. I mean, do you believe McNulty cares?

Here's an interview with Andre Royo, no earth shattering revelations but there's a little info about what's up with Bubs in season 5.

http://www.showbuzz.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/28/tv/main3550223.shtml

Season 4 DVD drops tomorrow, I'll be clicking my Amazon package tracker every 15 minutes or so until then.

 

[mandrew]

my favorite quote:

What is the cardinal sin most writers commit with cop characters?

They make them care. I mean, do you believe McNulty cares?

that's kind of cool but it doesn't really ring true to me.

on one hand, i thought one of the most interesting parts of the end of season 3 [s3 spoiler alert] was when mcnulty was clearly disappointed and upset about stringer's death... for completely selfish reasons. he sits on that windowsill in the last episode and cries that he finally "had him."

but when bodie bites the bullet, that's a different case. you get the sense that not only was jimmy upset that he was going to give over a witness "with a bow" to lester, but he was genuinely hurt and frustrated by his death.