I remember how much season 4 broke me because I realized that Randy, Michael and Duke did not stand a chance to get out of poverty even though each kid showed so much potential.
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????
The all out best scene in The Wire is when D'Angelo and Donette go dining in the upscale restaurant. You can literally feel the sense of not belonging. Pierre Bourdieu would be proud.
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.
It is utterly tragic how Carver undergoes so much growth to develop a moral/ethical perspective that, at it's dramatic crescendo, enables him a crushing awareness of his having failed Randy. So human.
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.
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.
The Wire arguably takes a couple of swipes at copaganda. The scene where McNulty and Kima are at the FBI profilers, a guy walks in bragging about his involvment with high profile serial killer cases. McNulty's response is pretty much a dismissal of the American facination with serial killer profiling, such as shown in Mindhunter. (though it is really funny that the FBI has precicly pinned down McNulty's psych profile) Same with Duke watching Dexter, a fictionalized serial killer show. Meanwhile Michael is in a life and death struggle with "a real serial killer, Marlo Stanfield". Perhaps shows relying on profiling or forensics deserve an episode of its own. Looking at the actual effeciacy of profiling and forensics, versus the perceived effeciacy, there is a huge disconnect between what the fiction shows and what the reality is. Both times that Avon is arrested can also be seen as critizisms of cop shows. Or by extension the militarization of the police. The first time there is a huge SWAT team surrounding Avon and Stinger. They're chomping at the bit to go in. Instead, McNulty and Daniels simply knock, walk in, and arrest Avon in near silence. No Tony Montana up in there. The second time Avon's crew is holed up and armed to the teeth. And even in that case the better course of action is to knock loudly, and get Avon to surrender. Avon isn't dumb enough to get into a shoot-out with the police. In fact, in all of the Wire the only cop that shoots his gun is Prez, both times accidentily.
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!"
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.
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?
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.
This is the best analysis of “the wire” I’ve ever seen and the deconstruction of the “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” mentality so present in the protestant work ethic was amazingly done.
@@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.
After 10 years on my watchlist, I decided to finally watch this 4 months ago. I did NOT expect an almost scholarly level of sociological analysis from this show. It is brilliant how The Wire turns the conventions of the genre, to show where, and why, systematic inequalities exist in so many planes of modern, post-industrial societies. That alone would interest me, but the show also dramatizes these issues with such a level of dramatic expertise that it even outclasses Breaking Bad for me.
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.
hey, i know you probably wont see this but thank you for this video, i am a huge fan of your channel and my grandfather, Al Brown played Valchek on this show. He passed away last week and its so surreal and strange seeing him in a video like this.
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. 🕯️
For all its bleakness, I think The Wire ends on a fairly hopeful note. Many of the people we've grown to respect have, through their actions, molded a successor to carry on. The Wire ends with an acceptance that things are complicated and messy and often bad, but at the same time there hasn't been a massive tectonic shift towards the apocalypse. In fact, there might even have been a net improvement between things like Colvin's study, the new boxing gym, the record of an attempt to legalize drugs, and Carver doing community policing instead of busting heads. The ending presents this notion that even if no individual can dismantle these systems, it's still worth pushing back against them, or even accepting and engaging with them if your goals temporarily align. It suggests that the same cycles which have propagated the drug trade, bad policing, bad politics, and so on can also shape and inspire people to move past them. There's a massive optimism for what compassion and human connections can do, even if no individual one will move the needle.
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!
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.
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". ruclips.net/video/ujDIU7HPdHc/видео.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" ruclips.net/video/JGBn-alTPWA/видео.html That is what made The Wire great is that nothing in the show is black and white.
The Wire isn't a cop show. The title refers to the literal wire, yes, but also the metaphorical one that connects the systems and people of an underserved city.
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.
@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.
23:09 Don't act apologetic for using an anti-capitalist critique, please. _That_ is an act of upholding the status quo. This series is amazing though, and I'm still trying my best to share it around. Keep up the amazing work!
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.
One aspect I'd thought you'd zero in a little bit more is the police brutality and abuse of power as depicted in the show. Repeatedly, "good police" are shown to do Fucked up stuff. from Kima joining in to pile on and beat down Bodie, to McNulty recording conversations they aren't supposed to (none was watching the call to confirm the caller's identity) in season 1, Prez after growing as a police and human during three seasons ends up killing a kid, because despite being a good detective, he should NEVER have been given a gun... In season 5, this escalates with McNulty faking a sensational serial killer story to enable budget for legitimate investigations. Other cops are shown as being brutes, idiots, like Hauk and Carver at the start. Carver evolves, Hauk doesn't and remains a corrupt knucklehead to the end. Ed walker, from season 4 is the epitome of casual police brutality, picking on teens. He's also black, showing it's not just a white cop problem. While the show doesn't endorse any of that, the show's approach to empathy results in us overlooking the bad or blocking it from our minds, at least when it's one of the "good police" fucking up. It's similar to how we love Omar or Bodie despite them being murderers, but I think it has different implications with police.
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).
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?
The bit about McNulty heading back into the fray got me a little emotional not gonna lie. Just finished the show last night. Masterpiece. Also this video is fantastic.
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.
The highest compliment I can pay to "The Wire" is that it's the one cop show that's getting significantly better with age. The rest of the genre can and probably should be dumped, but "The Wire" remains absolutely essential.
@@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
I find it super fascinating, and terribly tragic, that 'the wire' aged so well. Specifically the last season, looked down upon in its day but proven to be incredibly prescient, even as a meta commentary on truth and reality... the last 5 years in america really proved to be stranger than fiction
Season 2 of The Wire would be my favorite for at least skimming the iceberg that was Black and White polarization in unions and other aforementioned posts... but Season 4 is just so brilliant. Thanks for creating this original content and letting us revisit a great show and in the context of our currently sociopolitical atmosphere.
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.
I've only recently discovered this playlist (love it by the way) and I was excited to get to this episode because I adore the wire, which is strange because I don't do cop shows normally. As you elaborated in the video however, the wire's really more about the city and the story of the characters and the systems they interact with. I grew up rural appalachia, deep in eastern Kentucky during the height of oxys and the opioid crisis, and as far disconnected you'd think the slums of baltimore are from the hollers of appalachia, the reason I love the show is that I could relate to it. I had friends and family who over dosed and died, some before they even graduated high school. Many more in prison. We were poor, in a system with no support, and desperate. If it wasn't for the military I probably would've followed suit. That's what I love about the wire, it's so grounded, and doesn't try to preach how great cops are and how bad criminals are. The show illustrates how complex and connected the problems with policing and crime are and that poverty, opportunity, and mental health are massive factors in anyones potential.
If you've ever worked with a committee, then you know that a system is only as competent as the least competent actor to which it is held accountable. And in The Wire, that least competent person is repeatedly shown to be THE VOTER. The biggest example is the crime stats. Ultimately, it's the mayor's desire to be re-elected that keeps the stats in everyone's mind; it all flows down from him. Statistics can be easily consumed by the voter, but real improvement is too slow and subtle to win the argument against somebody railing on the incumbent for the apparent explosion in murders. THE VOTER cares about the stats, and the system is held accountable to its preference. For another example, Carcetti chooses not to try to fix schools. Why? Because to attempt to fix the problem, it would first need to be acknowledged, and THE VOTER is in denial of the problem. If THE VOTER was willing to acknowledge this, maybe they would've done something. They might not have fixed it all the way, but to make a small improvement with minimal funding might have been feasible. But it was not even _attempted_. For another, look at the council meeting with Eunetta Perkins where a guy complains about homeless people near his house. Marla Daniels rightly points out that they have to live somewhere, and he gets upset. Then Perkins swoops in and saves the day by informing him that the city council will move them into somebody else's backyard. Eunetta Perkins's policy would clearly be to continue the NIMBY shitshow that currently exists, but THE VOTER has a backyard, and he wants them in somebody else's. Why was Hamsterdam shut down? Because Royce didn't think THE VOTER would allow it. Why did Mcnulty have to run a scam to get the funding to take down Marlo? Because THE VOTER cares more about some sensational weirdo killing six or seven people than about a boring, familiar crime organization killing hundreds. Why does the war on drugs exist in the first place? Thank you for reading, if you did.
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.
@@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
A decade after watching _The Wire,_ I still occasionally bust up laughing when, once in a while, something reminds me of the scene in tte very first episode, where they're all shoving and pushing, trying to get that big cabinet through a doorway, before eventually figuring out it's only stuck because both sides were assuming the folks opposite them were pulling... Maybe not the funniest joke in the show, like the scenes with the Xerox polygraph, the lack of knowledge about local radio stations, the name of Hamsterdam, or the bit before it turns out a very scary character just needed someone to feed his exotic fish while he was out of town... but it's the only really self-contained, simply funny bit of _Wire_ I can think of that wasn't at all "dark humor," making light part of a very messed-up situation.
There's a boatload of funny scenes in the wire that aren't dark humor, the pranks on Ziggy in season 2 are some of the best bits I've seen in any TV show
@@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.
This is such a good analysis! I was born, raised, and still live in Baltimore. I absolutely love this show and love my city. It’s a love letter in a way even though it seems so overwhelmingly negative. Thank you for this I loved watching the series being a Baltimorean and your analysis gave me chills and choked me up a few times remembering scenes and thinking thru my own experiences living in this city I also call “home.”
12:00 FINALLY someone who understands the 'pull yourself up by the bootstraps' line It was actually penned by a British Labour Politician to show the absurdity of the argument used by conservatives towards poverty, which the Tories completely misunderstood and used at face value, because neither Oxford, Cambridge, Eton nor Harrow can actually polish a fucking moronic turd
Namond being one the kid who gets picked out for something better is really frustrating but it also feels very real in its utter both randomness and unfairness. He's more 'notable,' in that he has a father involved in high-level drug-dealing Colvin would be aware of, and he's a 'loud' trouble-maker who seems to 'need' that program. Michael and Randy seem OK on a surface level, at least in comparison to their peers, and Dukie is shy/quiet in ways that don't really make him a person teachers want removed from their classrooms. It's maddening in how it highlights how fickle and unfair life is, which is exactly what the show was going for.
i remember watching this show with my mum (whos a big fan of police dramas, esp Scandinavian ones) and we both got really into it and at about 5 episodes in i said to my mum "i thought you hated show about politics" and she was like "oh my god youre right"
This series is locked into my "saved list" and I watch it repeatedly. It is one of the few I not only suggest to others but the one in which I turn to make a point. I don't have to say what I want to say when you've already done it. Yes, I quote you and I make sure I identify this channel. Keep on keepin' on.
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.
One disagreement. Marlo is not representing capitalism. He represents totalitarianism. His name/reputation matters far more to him then money. That's just a bonus. The Greek represents pure capitalism. Which can thrive under almost any system.
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.
Dude... This is so well structured, concise and easy to digest. As well as being topical and relevant. Keep it up man, im certain this series will blow up sooner than you expect.
I've watched the series 16 times so far, twice with the commentary on. If you haven't read the book All The Pieces Matter, I highly recommend it. I've also watched every David Simon video I can find. This is definitely one of the best breakdowns of the importance and goals of the show I've seen. Very well done.
I think one thing that disproves that the wire is copaganda is if you remove the police from the show, nothing really changes except less people die. Even the good cops leave thinking they had zero impact or wasted their time in the wrong career
If for no other of a near inexhaustible list of reasons why The Wire is one of the best TV shows ever, it's worth watching merely for the famous 1st season crime scene investigation. The dialog is sublime. It is exquisite. It slays. It lays waste.
Truly love this analysis💯 As an East Baltimore native and Wire fanatic I appreciate the systemic analysis and understanding of circumstances in regards to decision making to sustain oneself while living in poverty. Truly empathetic and masterful!
I love how this video takes a big picture comprehensive approach to police abolition because most of our conversations about it can get hyper focused on small aspects of the big problem
Very well done. I have watched the WIre 5-6 times all the way through and seen dozens of videos, essays etc This is one of the best. I will re-watch it to pull the sources so I can go see the complete articles from a couple of the commentators that you quote. The Wire is Copaganda the same way Moby Dick is a fishing story.
The sad thing is that The Wire has always been misunderstood. It wasn’t a cop vs drug dealer show ever. Baltimore and its institutions are the main characters. None of its institutions could change. It just was rehashed with new players at every level
I loved The Wire but the biggest part that disappointed me was it's condescending depiction of sex workers as compared to its humanizing treatment of people who sell drugs. Most of the sex worker characters are treated like helpless victims or pawns, and the only one who is given any significant screentime or depicted as having agency is a stripper who (unlike most of the other women at her club) refuses to do full-service sex work and who ends up leaving the industry by the end of the series.
@@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.
18:00 Saying he's a cop that "gets it" is an understatement. Carver grew up in a group home, so he was truly doing everything he could for the kid to not go through that. Just another layer to a heartbreaking arc
I'm currently watching a seminar about tsunami prediction via mathematical modelling, which started right as part 5 of your video started. Says a good bit that I'm tempted to ignore the seminar to finish your video. Good work again, very hyped to watch The Wire at some point.
21:33 This is one reason I've recently found out I love Laverne & Shirley. It's not about how sad working class people are, or about how they are struggling to rise up to a higher class. It's just about two women who work at a factory, living life and the hijinks that ensue. And I think that's refreshing and great!
The more I go down the rabbit hole the more that I learnt that 'reforming' capitalism, just like 'reforming' the police force - only gets you so far, and just as prone to reversal by reactionaries who benefit from or have their beliefs tied to, a system. The whole thing is dirty. As long as you have a system that serves a small concentration of rich people who run their slice of the world's pie like dictators first, before everyone else and the world's needs - we, as a civilisation are doomed to pointless self-destruction and exploitation. You can't have a democratic country without a democratic economy run democratically by workers and consumers.
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?
@@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
Would it be beyond the scope of this series to do an extended episode on David Simon’s life’s work? I know this is about copaganda, and David’s scope is so much broader than that, but his voice is such a fucking important one when it comes to diagnosis of the problems of our society. The man has incredible insight coupled with immense empathy.
I’m from Dayton home to one of the worst heroin problems in America. I really loved the wire. It felt like Dayton but way bigger. America is still the wild Wild West.
Love this video. I honestly cannot think of any other video that takes any time to examine Carver. He's such an important part of the show and woefully overlooked in its examination.
The school test score map surprised me. I went to high school in Minnesota and I didn’t know we typically scored high. The town I lived in has a high immigrant population and the schools don’t know how to deal with it. It’s also a lower income area so the school doesn’t receive enough funding. I remember going to the other schools in the state and being surprised how new and well built they were. My mom used to work at a school and a lot of kids couldn’t eat lunch because their parents couldn’t/ wouldn’t fill out the form for free lunch. Even among the better states we still have the same issues.
On my 3rd watch of The Wire and you’re totally on point. There’s no heroes on any side. There’s people who are trying to get by, some exploiting power, and many victims. Love your closing about not giving up. 👍🏼
The Wire and Breaking Bad have been compared a lot, and while I absolutely love Breaking Bad, I think it gets wrong what the Wire gets right. The Wire shows us how the system leads decent people down dark roads. In Breaking Bad, every single criminal had better opportunities and every single cop is undoubtedly a good guy. The show certainly wasn't meant to be the same kind of widescale social critique that the Wire was but my recent rewatch of Breaking Bad was tougher to get through because of how cartoonish the circumstances of each character was. Breaking Bad made a point to show that Walter was offered a great job from his former partner that would have solved his problems, Jesse came from a caring and affluent family and it's made very clear that his decisions were more or less his own fault, there is even a scene where the smaller character of Combo has a mother who explains in no uncertain terms that he is simply a bad egg. Breaking Bad is fairly understanding of addiction and how much of a struggle that can be but it makes no effort to sympathize with people who break the law. It is very black and white about cops being good and criminals being bad and that it is all a matter of choice.
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.
_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.
First, Id like to say that this a great take on the show. Very thorough and insightful, but.... You missed the point on Season 5. They weren't trying to say that journalism can't help, but that as newsrooms shrink for a myriad of reasons, the media and specifically, the newspaper, are unable to cover Baltimore (for example). Kudos to you for pointing out the factor that capitalism plays in weakening newspapers. I would reiterate what Simon has said about the destructive nature of Wall Street on media. Although the media don't necessarily offer solutions (as you stated), editorials not withstanding, their coverage provides the city's citizens the information necessary to make informed decisions at the polls and in other similar situations. David Simon has stated several times that as newspapers lose readers and layoff veteran reporters, local & state politicians will be living in halcyon days because they will not face as much scrutiny as they did 30 years ago. This is a problem. A scene that illustrates how important journalists covering the minutia of city government occurs in an early episode of the 5th season. A reporter returns from a city council meeting with his notes which he shows to city desk editor Gus Haynes. Gus realizes (HE KNOWS where the bodies are buried) the city council is giving one of their donors a sweetheart deal for a piece of his property (strip club) that the city wants for redevelopment. Instead of paying him a fair market value for the property, the council has agreed to pay him way more than its worth. That is until the Baltimore Sun runs a story on the proposed deal. By exposing such behavior, the council has changed its tune and have been exposed as corrupt. Without a strong forth estate democracies can not flourish and disinformation floods the market. Speaking of Season 5, Simon and Co. returned this idea with the passing of Prop Joe. In The Wire's fictional Baltimore Sun, reporters in the newsroom report to Gus on what is happening on their beat in East Bmore and mentions that the owner of an appliance repair shop has been murdered. Because the paper at this point lacks seasoned reporters covering the drug war, they miss the story of one of the cities' biggest players in the drug game being murdered. Between the lines Simon & company are saying that the paper lacks the context to even cover the war on drugs.
It's meant to make it look like they have to jump through hoops to get wire taps too. We, as the audience, know things they don't when they decide to tap a wire and it makes it seem justified. Anything that shows you the inside of a department is approved by a department. That should tell you what you need to know.
(Lemme just say I never cared about Stringer but he’s an amazing actor, with a British accent??) The wire is so ahead of its time and is made by someone with lots of police experience. To me, it is actually painting the cops and the drug runners as equally human. As disturbing as it is, Avon’s gang is explored realistically and the cops as well. Think “Hampsterdam”. Both sides stuck in a struggle that sucks for everyone in Bodymore Murderland. What does rock about the Wire is it doesn’t use any hooks and people still can’t stop binging it. Altho I had to get halfway thru season 1 before I binging it. DeAngelo for example is shown to be more intelligent than many of the cops
@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)
I loved that final scene of The Wire. It left me feeling like there was a chance for redemption for McNulty, but it depended entirely on him and the decisions he made going forward. I think this was the same message the show had, there's a chance for redemption for the United States (and therefore all the characters in the show with all their human flaws and strengths) but it depends a lot on the decisions made going forward.
I remember loving this show but haven't watched it in awhile. But I do remember that the fourth season was so realistic about being a teacher and all the bullshit that we have to deal with. And how hard it is fighting the system. And how hard those changes are in the system I love the way that you talk about circumstances and the bullshit argument of "pull yourself up by the bootstraps". I've gotten so that I try to make a difference in my classroom and also to change within our school. And also try to get cops out of schools
Micheal became the next Omar, Dukie became the next Bubbles, Daniels was fired as commissioner and Valchek took his place. Marlo became the next Avon. The co-op took over the Greek connection. The cycle continues. Players change, but the game doesn't.
I've got insomnia and really want to watch and engage with this, but it's 3:51 am. Here's a comment. I'll watch this whole thing later when I'm awake. I just found your channel recently and love these copaganda videos.
Thank you for another great video. I know you must be getting alot of flake for making such videos but they are well worth it for many of us. Keep at it!
What's beautiful about the show is that it shows a world where these cops who are the best hardest working cops imaginable still only ever make things worse.
Pretty thorough analysis of a series unique in how wide it cast its net. I've heard Daivd Simon described as "left", but I didn't really buy that - so it's interesting to come across that quote of him talking about a union between capital and labour - so he strikes me as a social democrat of some sort. Sorry for announcing this pet peeve: I got the impression that you see socialism synonymous with Marxism and I thought that was weird - it is not necessarily: Marxism is a *type of* socialism - and are many socialist positions that aren't necessarily Marxist. Another side note: Bodie's story is fairly emblematic of how rigged 'the game' really was - how 'winners and losers' are set up even and especially in that microcosm and the blow is dealt that much harder because there's no safety net for him to land on or rely upon. Final note: Wish you explored the life of "Cutty" - the former enforcer turned gym owner! Anyways, great video.
@@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?
I think it'd be pretty neat to see a video on Cold Case. It's episodes are rooted in case of the week cold cases which tends to bring in historical events or crimes based in hate crimes (i.e. literally an Emmet Till based episode). One cop has a particular connection with mental illness that influences his interactions. Then the same cops harass people, threaten and gaslight thr mentally ill, and drop homophobic language. It's interesting cognitive dissonance. Also the Japanese adaption's second season first episode is based on the Japanese Communist Student Revolutions of the late 60s and DOESN'T outright blame communism, which is neat.
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.
This was super well done. I love The Wire, but have a love-hate relationship with talking about it, because in trying to explain the overarching connections to people I'm trying to convince to watch it, I feel like I turn into Charlie Day pointing at the wall and screaming about Pepe Silvia.
This was just an excellent and informative watch, thank you for taking the time to make these. I'd definitely consider myself a new fan - although I only wish I could've stumbled on you earlier! Now, to finally get around the watching The Wire...
Finally, someone jumps on one of the most important lines in the history of any show. To Wit: Money ain't got no owners, only spenders. That Line gets to the heart of the problem of reducing taxation upon the upper upper middle class, the rich, the super rich and the super duper rich (and sometimes over-taxing the middle class, lower middle class, working class & poor). This becomes a problem because it does two things especially with the money held by the top 1% and to a certain extent, the top 10%. 1) Some of the excess money is not spent and does not reenter the economy which means less $ for the rest of society & drives inequality into the stratosphere while adversely effecting the quality of life services provided by the government. 2) Because of this, our country is way less democratic/egalitarian than it should be to achieve a robust standard of living for all its citizens. What Omar is getting at is the basic economic philosophy of a democratic society where money is circulated and not held (excluding basic savings, retirement, college fund and the like), resulting in a better outcome for not only its citizens, but for the vitality of system itself.
Not to mention the richer you are, the easier it is to avoid tax all together in this system. Off shore accounts and throwing your companies into other countries means never paying a dime back to the very economies that they constantly take from. We give them everything, and they offer little in return.
Great video, part of what makes the Wire so great. It just rips everything down to it's depressing core. The best cops in the show are all the ones who are willing to defy the system, even Kima.
Great video about a great show! So many memorable moments and characters. Almost every character had their lovable and hate-able moments no matter what side of the law they were on.
10:56 It's almost as if he saw what the world could become for these children and realized that he had to be closer to the source in order to prevent that dark future from becoming their realities. I'm a pretty calloused fuck, and this moment made me pause and shed some tears for a hard minute. He really cared and there's just not enough of that.
Interesting but I think you missed the mark on season 2, it wasn’t JUST Black and white people dealing with poverty and the drug trade (imagine that!). It was about how “follow the money” goes so much higher than Avon, Stringer, and some real estate deals. The “Greek” has the FBI on pay roll. They are able to appease the police and the mayor by getting a mid level soldier to take the heat on the murder of the trafficked women, halting the investigation into the multi billion dollar drug enterprise. Season 2 is often considered the weakest season (after 5) but it’s the key to the whole show. That’s my take, at least.
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
Really looking forward to what inevitably seems like you covering The Shield, the only show I can think of to feature objectively corrupt cops and the systems that protect them as the core of the show. Edit: should have waited 'till the end to comment, turns out you had the same idea. Can't wait!
Hey, interesting vid, gonna go back and watch the rest of the series at some point. Brit here, and wanted to ask if you have ever heard of a UK show from the BBC called Line of Duty? It's about a police anti-corruption squad and runs at just 5 or 6 eps per season over 5 seasons so far and it would be an interesting addition to this conversation, especially given the UK perspective. It has a different main plot each season focussing on different areas of the force with some familiar guest stars playing the cops under investigation for each one but with the actors in the ACU remaining the same throughout and a metaplot that runs in conjunction with the individual one. Highly recommended compulsive viewing, and def a different take on the cop show.
I'm re-watching this years later, but I feel like another great example of the point made around 7:54, regarding how the world and your fortunes shape so much of who you become, if I remember right (it's been a year since my last re-watch of The Wire, on top of the 3 or 4 previous ones) Bunk and Omar actually went to school together with Bunk mentioning that he was a few years ahead of him in school, but they both remembered how horrible their neighborhood was. Bunk even mentions how his Dad was working to keep him on the right path, and how he would try to go to house parties and they would see him for who he really was and tell him to go back home.
"All the pieces matter" is the dream. "Only my piece matters" is the reality. We've never been able to think beyond "if someone else is getting something good, it is only because that something good is being taken from me". That's why the system never changes.
I think this works for a couple key reasons. The author of the book Homicide was a serious journalist who really investigated the drug culture and police culture in Baltimore and took his subjects seriously, and his success with Homicide let him get another series called the Corner which was basically the same material from a new angle, and HBO let him have another series the way he wanted to do it and everybody was on board with something realistic and honest.
A lot of reviewers I read back when _The Wire_ was new, said they didn't really get into the show until around Episode 3 or 4 when the story started to take shape. Me, I was hooked by the cold open. Even though the scene had nothing to do with anything else that happened in the whole rest of the show, save for introducing us to McNulty, it summed up the whole thing in a nutshell. "This is America, man." I could tell right away I was looking at something special.
It sounds like David Simon can no longer ignore the problems but also is unwilling to explore the solutions. Then again, I hadn't heard about him before this video, so I'm sure there's more to him that I'm missing.
Great video! Love you're reading, especially on Simon as a diagnostician, and your take on the end of the show.
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*
I remember how much season 4 broke me because I realized that Randy, Michael and Duke did not stand a chance to get out of poverty even though each kid showed so much potential.
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
The all out best scene in The Wire is when D'Angelo and Donette go dining in the upscale restaurant. You can literally feel the sense of not belonging. Pierre Bourdieu would be proud.
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
It is utterly tragic how Carver undergoes so much growth to develop a moral/ethical perspective that, at it's dramatic crescendo, enables him a crushing awareness of his having failed Randy. So human.
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 Wire arguably takes a couple of swipes at copaganda. The scene where McNulty and Kima are at the FBI profilers, a guy walks in bragging about his involvment with high profile serial killer cases. McNulty's response is pretty much a dismissal of the American facination with serial killer profiling, such as shown in Mindhunter. (though it is really funny that the FBI has precicly pinned down McNulty's psych profile)
Same with Duke watching Dexter, a fictionalized serial killer show. Meanwhile Michael is in a life and death struggle with "a real serial killer, Marlo Stanfield".
Perhaps shows relying on profiling or forensics deserve an episode of its own. Looking at the actual effeciacy of profiling and forensics, versus the perceived effeciacy, there is a huge disconnect between what the fiction shows and what the reality is.
Both times that Avon is arrested can also be seen as critizisms of cop shows. Or by extension the militarization of the police. The first time there is a huge SWAT team surrounding Avon and Stinger. They're chomping at the bit to go in. Instead, McNulty and Daniels simply knock, walk in, and arrest Avon in near silence. No Tony Montana up in there. The second time Avon's crew is holed up and armed to the teeth. And even in that case the better course of action is to knock loudly, and get Avon to surrender. Avon isn't dumb enough to get into a shoot-out with the police. In fact, in all of the Wire the only cop that shoots his gun is Prez, both times accidentily.
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.
when bunny colvin was like "im going to legalise drugs" i felt that
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
IMO biggest villain of The Wire - real estate developers.
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.
This is the best analysis of “the wire” I’ve ever seen and the deconstruction of the “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” mentality so present in the protestant work ethic was amazingly done.
@@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.
After 10 years on my watchlist, I decided to finally watch this 4 months ago. I did NOT expect an almost scholarly level of sociological analysis from this show. It is brilliant how The Wire turns the conventions of the genre, to show where, and why, systematic inequalities exist in so many planes of modern, post-industrial societies. That alone would interest me, but the show also dramatizes these issues with such a level of dramatic expertise that it even outclasses Breaking Bad for me.
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.
hey, i know you probably wont see this but thank you for this video, i am a huge fan of your channel and my grandfather, Al Brown played Valchek on this show. He passed away last week and its so surreal and strange seeing him in a video like this.
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
For all its bleakness, I think The Wire ends on a fairly hopeful note. Many of the people we've grown to respect have, through their actions, molded a successor to carry on. The Wire ends with an acceptance that things are complicated and messy and often bad, but at the same time there hasn't been a massive tectonic shift towards the apocalypse. In fact, there might even have been a net improvement between things like Colvin's study, the new boxing gym, the record of an attempt to legalize drugs, and Carver doing community policing instead of busting heads.
The ending presents this notion that even if no individual can dismantle these systems, it's still worth pushing back against them, or even accepting and engaging with them if your goals temporarily align. It suggests that the same cycles which have propagated the drug trade, bad policing, bad politics, and so on can also shape and inspire people to move past them. There's a massive optimism for what compassion and human connections can do, even if no individual one will move the needle.
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.
Nothing occurs in a vacuum.
Everything has context.
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".
ruclips.net/video/ujDIU7HPdHc/видео.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"
ruclips.net/video/JGBn-alTPWA/видео.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?
The Wire isn't a cop show. The title refers to the literal wire, yes, but also the metaphorical one that connects the systems and people of an underserved city.
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
@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.
All seasons center around cops and their involvement in the system. It’s def a cop show but it has more nuance compared to typical cop shows
@@Miyananana
All seasons focus on multiple organizations, not just cops.
23:09 Don't act apologetic for using an anti-capitalist critique, please. _That_ is an act of upholding the status quo.
This series is amazing though, and I'm still trying my best to share it around. Keep up the amazing work!
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.
One aspect I'd thought you'd zero in a little bit more is the police brutality and abuse of power as depicted in the show.
Repeatedly, "good police" are shown to do Fucked up stuff.
from Kima joining in to pile on and beat down Bodie, to McNulty recording conversations they aren't supposed to (none was watching the call to confirm the caller's identity) in season 1, Prez after growing as a police and human during three seasons ends up killing a kid, because despite being a good detective, he should NEVER have been given a gun... In season 5, this escalates with McNulty faking a sensational serial killer story to enable budget for legitimate investigations.
Other cops are shown as being brutes, idiots, like Hauk and Carver at the start. Carver evolves, Hauk doesn't and remains a corrupt knucklehead to the end. Ed walker, from season 4 is the epitome of casual police brutality, picking on teens. He's also black, showing it's not just a white cop problem.
While the show doesn't endorse any of that, the show's approach to empathy results in us overlooking the bad or blocking it from our minds, at least when it's one of the "good police" fucking up.
It's similar to how we love Omar or Bodie despite them being murderers, but I think it has different implications with police.
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?
The bit about McNulty heading back into the fray got me a little emotional not gonna lie. Just finished the show last night. Masterpiece. Also this video is fantastic.
..yes the Dickensian aspect.
I legit felt sad when hamsterdam failed though
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
The highest compliment I can pay to "The Wire" is that it's the one cop show that's getting significantly better with age. The rest of the genre can and probably should be dumped, but "The Wire" remains absolutely essential.
@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.
I find it super fascinating, and terribly tragic, that 'the wire' aged so well. Specifically the last season, looked down upon in its day but proven to be incredibly prescient, even as a meta commentary on truth and reality... the last 5 years in america really proved to be stranger than fiction
Season 2 of The Wire would be my favorite for at least skimming the iceberg that was Black and White polarization in unions and other aforementioned posts... but Season 4 is just so brilliant. Thanks for creating this original content and letting us revisit a great show and in the context of our currently sociopolitical atmosphere.
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.
That Randy and Carver scene still gets me weepy eyed
I've only recently discovered this playlist (love it by the way) and I was excited to get to this episode because I adore the wire, which is strange because I don't do cop shows normally. As you elaborated in the video however, the wire's really more about the city and the story of the characters and the systems they interact with. I grew up rural appalachia, deep in eastern Kentucky during the height of oxys and the opioid crisis, and as far disconnected you'd think the slums of baltimore are from the hollers of appalachia, the reason I love the show is that I could relate to it. I had friends and family who over dosed and died, some before they even graduated high school. Many more in prison. We were poor, in a system with no support, and desperate. If it wasn't for the military I probably would've followed suit. That's what I love about the wire, it's so grounded, and doesn't try to preach how great cops are and how bad criminals are. The show illustrates how complex and connected the problems with policing and crime are and that poverty, opportunity, and mental health are massive factors in anyones potential.
If you've ever worked with a committee, then you know that a system is only as competent as the least competent actor to which it is held accountable. And in The Wire, that least competent person is repeatedly shown to be THE VOTER.
The biggest example is the crime stats. Ultimately, it's the mayor's desire to be re-elected that keeps the stats in everyone's mind; it all flows down from him. Statistics can be easily consumed by the voter, but real improvement is too slow and subtle to win the argument against somebody railing on the incumbent for the apparent explosion in murders. THE VOTER cares about the stats, and the system is held accountable to its preference.
For another example, Carcetti chooses not to try to fix schools. Why? Because to attempt to fix the problem, it would first need to be acknowledged, and THE VOTER is in denial of the problem. If THE VOTER was willing to acknowledge this, maybe they would've done something. They might not have fixed it all the way, but to make a small improvement with minimal funding might have been feasible. But it was not even _attempted_.
For another, look at the council meeting with Eunetta Perkins where a guy complains about homeless people near his house. Marla Daniels rightly points out that they have to live somewhere, and he gets upset. Then Perkins swoops in and saves the day by informing him that the city council will move them into somebody else's backyard. Eunetta Perkins's policy would clearly be to continue the NIMBY shitshow that currently exists, but THE VOTER has a backyard, and he wants them in somebody else's.
Why was Hamsterdam shut down? Because Royce didn't think THE VOTER would allow it.
Why did Mcnulty have to run a scam to get the funding to take down Marlo? Because THE VOTER cares more about some sensational weirdo killing six or seven people than about a boring, familiar crime organization killing hundreds.
Why does the war on drugs exist in the first place?
Thank you for reading, if you did.
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
A decade after watching _The Wire,_ I still occasionally bust up laughing when, once in a while, something reminds me of the scene in tte very first episode, where they're all shoving and pushing, trying to get that big cabinet through a doorway, before eventually figuring out it's only stuck because both sides were assuming the folks opposite them were pulling... Maybe not the funniest joke in the show, like the scenes with the Xerox polygraph, the lack of knowledge about local radio stations, the name of Hamsterdam, or the bit before it turns out a very scary character just needed someone to feed his exotic fish while he was out of town... but it's the only really self-contained, simply funny bit of _Wire_ I can think of that wasn't at all "dark humor," making light part of a very messed-up situation.
It wasn't in the first episode tho. I think It was an opening scene to episode 3 or 4
There's a boatload of funny scenes in the wire that aren't dark humor, the pranks on Ziggy in season 2 are some of the best bits I've seen in any TV show
The wire does a good job on showing the mundane and dysfunctional aspects of the police system.
The Wire is the only honest cop show ever produced.
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.
This is such a good analysis! I was born, raised, and still live in Baltimore. I absolutely love this show and love my city. It’s a love letter in a way even though it seems so overwhelmingly negative. Thank you for this I loved watching the series being a Baltimorean and your analysis gave me chills and choked me up a few times remembering scenes and thinking thru my own experiences living in this city I also call “home.”
It's a kind of criticism that can only come from a place of love
12:00
FINALLY someone who understands the 'pull yourself up by the bootstraps' line
It was actually penned by a British Labour Politician to show the absurdity of the argument used by conservatives towards poverty, which the Tories completely misunderstood and used at face value, because neither Oxford, Cambridge, Eton nor Harrow can actually polish a fucking moronic turd
Namond being one the kid who gets picked out for something better is really frustrating but it also feels very real in its utter both randomness and unfairness. He's more 'notable,' in that he has a father involved in high-level drug-dealing Colvin would be aware of, and he's a 'loud' trouble-maker who seems to 'need' that program. Michael and Randy seem OK on a surface level, at least in comparison to their peers, and Dukie is shy/quiet in ways that don't really make him a person teachers want removed from their classrooms. It's maddening in how it highlights how fickle and unfair life is, which is exactly what the show was going for.
Two lines I never forget... "hell no, do we want to work regular jobs" and "everybody is getting what they need off of make believe" 😂😂😂
i remember watching this show with my mum (whos a big fan of police dramas, esp Scandinavian ones) and we both got really into it and at about 5 episodes in i said to my mum "i thought you hated show about politics" and she was like "oh my god youre right"
This series is locked into my "saved list" and I watch it repeatedly. It is one of the few I not only suggest to others but the one in which I turn to make a point. I don't have to say what I want to say when you've already done it. Yes, I quote you and I make sure I identify this channel. Keep on keepin' on.
This was a great video. My favorite tv line of all time is “it’s all in the game though, right”? I think it applies to so many things.
"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 RUclips 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
One disagreement. Marlo is not representing capitalism. He represents totalitarianism. His name/reputation matters far more to him then money. That's just a bonus. The Greek represents pure capitalism. Which can thrive under almost any system.
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.
Dude... This is so well structured, concise and easy to digest. As well as being topical and relevant. Keep it up man, im certain this series will blow up sooner than you expect.
I've watched the series 16 times so far, twice with the commentary on. If you haven't read the book All The Pieces Matter, I highly recommend it. I've also watched every David Simon video I can find. This is definitely one of the best breakdowns of the importance and goals of the show I've seen. Very well done.
In season one, D'Angelo and McNulty are basically running parallel, identical stories. It's done almost perfectly.
I think one thing that disproves that the wire is copaganda is if you remove the police from the show, nothing really changes except less people die. Even the good cops leave thinking they had zero impact or wasted their time in the wrong career
If for no other of a near inexhaustible list of reasons why The Wire is one of the best TV shows ever, it's worth watching merely for the famous 1st season crime scene investigation. The dialog is sublime. It is exquisite. It slays. It lays waste.
This is maybe my favorite channel I've discovered this year. Keep it up my dude!
Truly love this analysis💯 As an East Baltimore native and Wire fanatic I appreciate the systemic analysis and understanding of circumstances in regards to decision making to sustain oneself while living in poverty. Truly empathetic and masterful!
I love how this video takes a big picture comprehensive approach to police abolition because most of our conversations about it can get hyper focused on small aspects of the big problem
My argument continues to be that all crime issues follow these patterns and reasonings, regardless of their name
Very well done. I have watched the WIre 5-6 times all the way through and seen dozens of videos, essays etc This is one of the best. I will re-watch it to pull the sources so I can go see the complete articles from a couple of the commentators that you quote. The Wire is Copaganda the same way Moby Dick is a fishing story.
The sad thing is that The Wire has always been misunderstood. It wasn’t a cop vs drug dealer show ever. Baltimore and its institutions are the main characters. None of its institutions could change. It just was rehashed with new players at every level
I loved The Wire but the biggest part that disappointed me was it's condescending depiction of sex workers as compared to its humanizing treatment of people who sell drugs. Most of the sex worker characters are treated like helpless victims or pawns, and the only one who is given any significant screentime or depicted as having agency is a stripper who (unlike most of the other women at her club) refuses to do full-service sex work and who ends up leaving the industry by the end of the series.
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.
18:00
Saying he's a cop that "gets it" is an understatement. Carver grew up in a group home, so he was truly doing everything he could for the kid to not go through that. Just another layer to a heartbreaking arc
I'm currently watching a seminar about tsunami prediction via mathematical modelling, which started right as part 5 of your video started. Says a good bit that I'm tempted to ignore the seminar to finish your video. Good work again, very hyped to watch The Wire at some point.
21:33 This is one reason I've recently found out I love Laverne & Shirley. It's not about how sad working class people are, or about how they are struggling to rise up to a higher class. It's just about two women who work at a factory, living life and the hijinks that ensue. And I think that's refreshing and great!
hearing the intro gave me nostalgia for a show i watched for the first time 6 months ago
The more I go down the rabbit hole the more that I learnt that 'reforming' capitalism, just like 'reforming' the police force - only gets you so far, and just as prone to reversal by reactionaries who benefit from or have their beliefs tied to, a system.
The whole thing is dirty. As long as you have a system that serves a small concentration of rich people who run their slice of the world's pie like dictators first, before everyone else and the world's needs - we, as a civilisation are doomed to pointless self-destruction and exploitation.
You can't have a democratic country without a democratic economy run democratically by workers and consumers.
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
This is it. This is what will get me to finally watch The Wire.
Would it be beyond the scope of this series to do an extended episode on David Simon’s life’s work? I know this is about copaganda, and David’s scope is so much broader than that, but his voice is such a fucking important one when it comes to diagnosis of the problems of our society. The man has incredible insight coupled with immense empathy.
I’m from Dayton home to one of the worst heroin problems in America. I really loved the wire. It felt like Dayton but way bigger. America is still the wild Wild West.
Love this video. I honestly cannot think of any other video that takes any time to examine Carver. He's such an important part of the show and woefully overlooked in its examination.
The school test score map surprised me. I went to high school in Minnesota and I didn’t know we typically scored high. The town I lived in has a high immigrant population and the schools don’t know how to deal with it. It’s also a lower income area so the school doesn’t receive enough funding. I remember going to the other schools in the state and being surprised how new and well built they were. My mom used to work at a school and a lot of kids couldn’t eat lunch because their parents couldn’t/ wouldn’t fill out the form for free lunch. Even among the better states we still have the same issues.
On my 3rd watch of The Wire and you’re totally on point. There’s no heroes on any side. There’s people who are trying to get by, some exploiting power, and many victims.
Love your closing about not giving up. 👍🏼
The Wire and Breaking Bad have been compared a lot, and while I absolutely love Breaking Bad, I think it gets wrong what the Wire gets right. The Wire shows us how the system leads decent people down dark roads. In Breaking Bad, every single criminal had better opportunities and every single cop is undoubtedly a good guy.
The show certainly wasn't meant to be the same kind of widescale social critique that the Wire was but my recent rewatch of Breaking Bad was tougher to get through because of how cartoonish the circumstances of each character was. Breaking Bad made a point to show that Walter was offered a great job from his former partner that would have solved his problems, Jesse came from a caring and affluent family and it's made very clear that his decisions were more or less his own fault, there is even a scene where the smaller character of Combo has a mother who explains in no uncertain terms that he is simply a bad egg.
Breaking Bad is fairly understanding of addiction and how much of a struggle that can be but it makes no effort to sympathize with people who break the law. It is very black and white about cops being good and criminals being bad and that it is all a matter of choice.
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.
I have enjoyed your series, and this episode in particular. The editing really shone in this video
First, Id like to say that this a great take on the show. Very thorough and insightful, but....
You missed the point on Season 5. They weren't trying to say that journalism can't help, but that as newsrooms shrink for a myriad of reasons, the media and specifically, the newspaper, are unable to cover Baltimore (for example). Kudos to you for pointing out the factor that capitalism plays in weakening newspapers. I would reiterate what Simon has said about the destructive nature of Wall Street on media.
Although the media don't necessarily offer solutions (as you stated), editorials not withstanding, their coverage provides the city's citizens the information necessary to make informed decisions at the polls and in other similar situations. David Simon has stated several times that as newspapers lose readers and layoff veteran reporters, local & state politicians will be living in halcyon days because they will not face as much scrutiny as they did 30 years ago. This is a problem. A scene that illustrates how important journalists covering the minutia of city government occurs in an early episode of the 5th season. A reporter returns from a city council meeting with his notes which he shows to city desk editor Gus Haynes. Gus realizes (HE KNOWS where the bodies are buried) the city council is giving one of their donors a sweetheart deal for a piece of his property (strip club) that the city wants for redevelopment. Instead of paying him a fair market value for the property, the council has agreed to pay him way more than its worth. That is until the Baltimore Sun runs a story on the proposed deal. By exposing such behavior, the council has changed its tune and have been exposed as corrupt. Without a strong forth estate democracies can not flourish and disinformation floods the market.
Speaking of Season 5, Simon and Co. returned this idea with the passing of Prop Joe. In The Wire's fictional Baltimore Sun, reporters in the newsroom report to Gus on what is happening on their beat in East Bmore and mentions that the owner of an appliance repair shop has been murdered. Because the paper at this point lacks seasoned reporters covering the drug war, they miss the story of one of the cities' biggest players in the drug game being murdered. Between the lines Simon & company are saying that the paper lacks the context to even cover the war on drugs.
It's meant to make it look like they have to jump through hoops to get wire taps too. We, as the audience, know things they don't when they decide to tap a wire and it makes it seem justified. Anything that shows you the inside of a department is approved by a department. That should tell you what you need to know.
Thank you!! This is the best commentary available on the representation of policing on American TV. Brilliant work!!
(Lemme just say I never cared about Stringer but he’s an amazing actor, with a British accent??) The wire is so ahead of its time and is made by someone with lots of police experience. To me, it is actually painting the cops and the drug runners as equally human. As disturbing as it is, Avon’s gang is explored realistically and the cops as well. Think “Hampsterdam”. Both sides stuck in a struggle that sucks for everyone in Bodymore Murderland. What does rock about the Wire is it doesn’t use any hooks and people still can’t stop binging it. Altho I had to get halfway thru season 1 before I binging it. DeAngelo for example is shown to be more intelligent than many of the cops
@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)
Great job kid. Love when intelligent ppl discuss The Wire in depth.
I loved that final scene of The Wire. It left me feeling like there was a chance for redemption for McNulty, but it depended entirely on him and the decisions he made going forward. I think this was the same message the show had, there's a chance for redemption for the United States (and therefore all the characters in the show with all their human flaws and strengths) but it depends a lot on the decisions made going forward.
the wire has had it all. once you´ve finished all seasons you feel like having read something like war and peace or oliver twist.
I remember loving this show but haven't watched it in awhile. But I do remember that the fourth season was so realistic about being a teacher and all the bullshit that we have to deal with. And how hard it is fighting the system. And how hard those changes are in the system
I love the way that you talk about circumstances and the bullshit argument of "pull yourself up by the bootstraps". I've gotten so that I try to make a difference in my classroom and also to change within our school. And also try to get cops out of schools
Micheal became the next Omar, Dukie became the next Bubbles, Daniels was fired as commissioner and Valchek took his place. Marlo became the next Avon. The co-op took over the Greek connection. The cycle continues. Players change, but the game doesn't.
I just finished the wire and was truly blown away by it. This was a superb take and gave me a lot to think about. Thanks for this.
I've got insomnia and really want to watch and engage with this, but it's 3:51 am. Here's a comment. I'll watch this whole thing later when I'm awake. I just found your channel recently and love these copaganda videos.
Well done, this is one of the few in depth TW videos I think really gets it and explains it well.
Thank you for another great video. I know you must be getting alot of flake for making such videos but they are well worth it for many of us. Keep at it!
What's beautiful about the show is that it shows a world where these cops who are the best hardest working cops imaginable still only ever make things worse.
I think it still is copaganda though because there are too many extremely likable police characters
Brilliant comment. This aspect of the show is a deservedly scathing take on the whole broken system of law enforcement.
Fun fact, the only cop that fires his gun in any scene in The Wire is Prez, once by mistake and once when he really shouldn't have done it.
Excellent piece! The Wire remains my personal all-time best TV series Hollywood has ever produced.
Doing this for the engagement, so more people see this amazing content. I'm just disappointed I didn't see this sooner. Truly, better late than never
Loved it bruh...worth every second! Glad that I am not the only one who just couldn't get over "The Wire".
Pretty thorough analysis of a series unique in how wide it cast its net. I've heard Daivd Simon described as "left", but I didn't really buy that - so it's interesting to come across that quote of him talking about a union between capital and labour - so he strikes me as a social democrat of some sort.
Sorry for announcing this pet peeve: I got the impression that you see socialism synonymous with Marxism and I thought that was weird - it is not necessarily: Marxism is a *type of* socialism - and are many socialist positions that aren't necessarily Marxist.
Another side note: Bodie's story is fairly emblematic of how rigged 'the game' really was - how 'winners and losers' are set up even and especially in that microcosm and the blow is dealt that much harder because there's no safety net for him to land on or rely upon.
Final note: Wish you explored the life of "Cutty" - the former enforcer turned gym owner! Anyways, great video.
@@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?
I think it'd be pretty neat to see a video on Cold Case. It's episodes are rooted in case of the week cold cases which tends to bring in historical events or crimes based in hate crimes (i.e. literally an Emmet Till based episode). One cop has a particular connection with mental illness that influences his interactions.
Then the same cops harass people, threaten and gaslight thr mentally ill, and drop homophobic language. It's interesting cognitive dissonance.
Also the Japanese adaption's second season first episode is based on the Japanese Communist Student Revolutions of the late 60s and DOESN'T outright blame communism, which is neat.
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.
This was super well done. I love The Wire, but have a love-hate relationship with talking about it, because in trying to explain the overarching connections to people I'm trying to convince to watch it, I feel like I turn into Charlie Day pointing at the wall and screaming about Pepe Silvia.
@noname-vd9bq If you think The Wire is "copaganda", you are utterly, hopelessly lost.
This was just an excellent and informative watch, thank you for taking the time to make these. I'd definitely consider myself a new fan - although I only wish I could've stumbled on you earlier!
Now, to finally get around the watching The Wire...
Excellent video! No better show than the wire. It’s videos like these that make me believe the YT algorithm isn’t 100% bad. Keep up the good work.
Finally, someone jumps on one of the most important lines in the history of any show. To Wit: Money ain't got no owners, only spenders. That Line gets to the heart of the problem of reducing taxation upon the upper upper middle class, the rich, the super rich and the super duper rich (and sometimes over-taxing the middle class, lower middle class, working class & poor). This becomes a problem because it does two things especially with the money held by the top 1% and to a certain extent, the top 10%. 1) Some of the excess money is not spent and does not reenter the economy which means less $ for the rest of society & drives inequality into the stratosphere while adversely effecting the quality of life services provided by the government. 2) Because of this, our country is way less democratic/egalitarian than it should be to achieve a robust standard of living for all its citizens. What Omar is getting at is the basic economic philosophy of a democratic society where money is circulated and not held (excluding basic savings, retirement, college fund and the like), resulting in a better outcome for not only its citizens, but for the vitality of system itself.
Not to mention the richer you are, the easier it is to avoid tax all together in this system. Off shore accounts and throwing your companies into other countries means never paying a dime back to the very economies that they constantly take from. We give them everything, and they offer little in return.
@@Spamhard exactly!
Great video, part of what makes the Wire so great. It just rips everything down to it's depressing core. The best cops in the show are all the ones who are willing to defy the system, even Kima.
Great video about a great show! So many memorable moments and characters. Almost every character had their lovable and hate-able moments no matter what side of the law they were on.
10:56
It's almost as if he saw what the world could become for these children and realized that he had to be closer to the source in order to prevent that dark future from becoming their realities.
I'm a pretty calloused fuck, and this moment made me pause and shed some tears for a hard minute. He really cared and there's just not enough of that.
24:02 "Everything bends the knee to capital." I see what you did there!
Interesting but I think you missed the mark on season 2, it wasn’t JUST Black and white people dealing with poverty and the drug trade (imagine that!). It was about how “follow the money” goes so much higher than Avon, Stringer, and some real estate deals. The “Greek” has the FBI on pay roll. They are able to appease the police and the mayor by getting a mid level soldier to take the heat on the murder of the trafficked women, halting the investigation into the multi billion dollar drug enterprise. Season 2 is often considered the weakest season (after 5) but it’s the key to the whole show. That’s my take, at least.
"of course we all love omar the most" subscribed, we obviously vibin'
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 >>>>
Really looking forward to what inevitably seems like you covering The Shield, the only show I can think of to feature objectively corrupt cops and the systems that protect them as the core of the show.
Edit: should have waited 'till the end to comment, turns out you had the same idea. Can't wait!
@D2 E2 I think there's a difference between having corrupt cops and showing that the system is corrupt and protects the worst cops.
That was brilliant. I don't think anyone can look at the wire without spending time reflecting on capitalism. Thanks for not sidelining that aspect.
I think Frank Sobotka should have turned in Nick & Ziggy for robbing that container at the beginning of S2.
Absolutely excellent! Great breakdown, I can really see how much thought and effort you put into this.
As soon as I saw this was out I dropped everything I was doing to watch it
Hey, interesting vid, gonna go back and watch the rest of the series at some point.
Brit here, and wanted to ask if you have ever heard of a UK show from the BBC called Line of Duty? It's about a police anti-corruption squad and runs at just 5 or 6 eps per season over 5 seasons so far and it would be an interesting addition to this conversation, especially given the UK perspective. It has a different main plot each season focussing on different areas of the force with some familiar guest stars playing the cops under investigation for each one but with the actors in the ACU remaining the same throughout and a metaplot that runs in conjunction with the individual one. Highly recommended compulsive viewing, and def a different take on the cop show.
I'm re-watching this years later, but I feel like another great example of the point made around 7:54, regarding how the world and your fortunes shape so much of who you become, if I remember right (it's been a year since my last re-watch of The Wire, on top of the 3 or 4 previous ones) Bunk and Omar actually went to school together with Bunk mentioning that he was a few years ahead of him in school, but they both remembered how horrible their neighborhood was.
Bunk even mentions how his Dad was working to keep him on the right path, and how he would try to go to house parties and they would see him for who he really was and tell him to go back home.
"All the pieces matter" is the dream. "Only my piece matters" is the reality. We've never been able to think beyond "if someone else is getting something good, it is only because that something good is being taken from me".
That's why the system never changes.
I think this works for a couple key reasons. The author of the book Homicide was a serious journalist who really investigated the drug culture and police culture in Baltimore and took his subjects seriously, and his success with Homicide let him get another series called the Corner which was basically the same material from a new angle, and HBO let him have another series the way he wanted to do it and everybody was on board with something realistic and honest.
A lot of reviewers I read back when _The Wire_ was new, said they didn't really get into the show until around Episode 3 or 4 when the story started to take shape.
Me, I was hooked by the cold open. Even though the scene had nothing to do with anything else that happened in the whole rest of the show, save for introducing us to McNulty, it summed up the whole thing in a nutshell. "This is America, man." I could tell right away I was looking at something special.
Snot Boogie 😊
It sounds like David Simon can no longer ignore the problems but also is unwilling to explore the solutions. Then again, I hadn't heard about him before this video, so I'm sure there's more to him that I'm missing.
Bubbles perhaps had the most charisma of the entire cast and that’s saying something cause I love Omar as a character
I too recall finish this show and feeling that call to action but then 2 years later the pandemic hit. Great video!