Yep! And the scene in season five (I think) where Landsman is in the bathroom cleaning his shirt and sees "Rawls Sucks Cock" on the wall. Always made me think Jay knew Rawls' secret.

I'll secant RPB on Slim Charles. Straight up OG.

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Back off, Warchild. Seriously.

Just finished my second time watching the entire series as my wife didn't watch it the first time. The first four seasons are awesome but I disliked season 5 even more than I did the first time. Unrealistic over the top storyline that made a lot of characters look really bad. The newspaper stuff was ok but having it tie into the big storyline like it did was pretty dumb too. Marlo was a weak character and it never really felt genuine he got as big as he did and got away with as much as he did in the last season.

I guess it was better than the show being cancelled and not getting the fifth season but I really think it does taint the show.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I'm going to begin watching The Wire for the second time very soon. Excited.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

Cant defend the season 5 storylines but I don't think Marlo was weak. He was cold blooded and emotionless as a way of showing how fierce the game has gotten.


It's a shame because Im sure the team could have done a great season on Newspapers had it been 10 years earlier when they weren't dying.

I always wondered if that was envisioned to be a different theme because it was mentioned 3 times but that was it

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

I dont think Landsman knew, he seemed to be genuinely looking for understanding in describing his heterosexual jerk off story to Rawls.


I think it was perfect the way they referenced it, but never got into it.


He played it perfectly in the gay bar though. In a 5 second sequence he showed how comfortable and happy he was there (as opposed to the on the job Rawls hard ass)

I still think season 5 is great, and I love how much it pissed off hack journalists at places like The Atlantic who had previously been praising the show for its "realism" about subjects they had no familiarity with. The only thing I disliked was Marlo living, which had no logical or dramatic justification. Simon seemed to undermine the entire idea of individuals being unable to transcend the systems they're embedded in to get a cheap ironic payoff of Marlo getting what Stringer always wanted but never could attain yet being totally unsatisfied.

My biggest issue with the show is that they bitched out on killing Kima off in season 1.

She ended up being a good character but the season one arc would have been perfect with her death.

I just don't think it was believable that he got away with all of it with almost no resistance.


The part about it dying was fine. It was that it became a story about one guy making up stuff so it fit in with the other bad storyline.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Marlo ended up being known as a bitch on the streets. Kids weren't afraid of him. Streets revered Omar and thought Marlo was a punk. All his effort for nothing.

In the final Marlo scene, the third guy from the crew comes up from the shadows and puts one in the back of his head. Other two guys come back and empty his pockets and take off. He lies on the street dead.

Well they did take the time to come up with the Cheese/Joe storyline that gave Marlo the in he needed to take over.

Oh I dont mind that. That was kinda interesting (over the top...the empty notebook)


I just think a Simon show on Newspapers when they meant something would be more interesting

Season 5 wasn't great but there is some great stuff in there.

And seeing Bodie age out of the game and talking to McNulty (getting him killed for no damn reason) was excellent stuff.

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You know me like that.

The Greeks should have killed him if anyone. They lose a shipment, lose muscle, and allow a Marlo who most coincidentally walked away with no charges from the same bust to not only live but present them their next contact?

Wait. Maybe that was season 4.

There's still good stuff in 5.

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You know me like that.

Michael's goodbye scenes to Bug and Duq were as gut wrenching as it gets for television.

Lester and Clay Davis at the bar

The Greeks should have stopped him when he wanted to kill Prop Joe. Why would they let a long time ally go like that because some new guy brought them three suitcases of money?

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Yeah, that was the best part of 5 - not fun - but seeing what happened to the kids. That's where you see how hard Randy got, which was sad. But Namond's story was great also.

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You know me like that.

I think they liked to let the street handle itself and just deal with whoever came out on top.

I see what you're saying though, too.

Also, some theories online...


The Greek is a pragmatist. He preferred dealing with Joe instead of Marlo, because Joe was also a pragmatist and Marlo was a born gangster.

But he also knew that if Marlo was coming to him, it meant that Marlo was prepared to kill Joe and that he would likely be successful.

There were two possible scenarios: either a very bloody and vicious war between Marlo's organization and Joe's, in which sales would suffer and the Greek and his own organization might be pulled into the violence; or assuring Marlo that he'd have the monopoly and minimizing the violence and disruption to business. The Greek chose wisely.




I think the Greek is first and foremost a businessman. Given the opportunity to replace Prop Joe, who is probably much more skilled at negotiation, with the relatively green and inexperienced Marlo at little to no cost to himself he was more than willing.

Yeah I never had as many problems with letting him take out Joe for those reasons, but I still don't get how he lives and even gets to facilitate the next connect when from the outside looking in one could conclude Marlo himself was the informant for the bust.

Duq's ending was the absolute worst. You just know he was never going to get clean as Bubbles did. The Wire was made before the opium epidemic really hit so you just know he would be dead as soon as he took fentanyl or something similar.

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

Just happened to see this on Twitter


ReWired Podcast‏ @RewiredPodcast 39m39 minutes ago
More ReWired Podcast Retweeted emily nussbaum
Chars from The Wire who would vote for Trump: Frank + Nick Sobotka, Jay Landsman, probably McNulty, and Carcetti (in exchange for suction)



Valchek would be #1. He would work on the campaign and be putting his men at polling places to intimidate anyone NOT voting Trump.

Rawls, too.

Everyone saw him as the new Bubbles but an even more depressing way to look at it is he was the new Sherrod.

That gets back to me wondering why everyone let Marlo walk all over them. The Barksdale organization was bigger and stronger until they got shut down by the cops and they had to work with and against many of the same people that didn't do anything even AFTER Marlo took out Joe and blamed it on Omar which most could pretty clearly tell was a lie.

Avon was an empire. Marlo was basically just a guy who had a few people around him who were willing to kill for him without question.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I always saw him as Sherrod. I never once thought of him as Bubbles.

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You know me like that.

Why did he start doing heroin? Was it after he joined up with the trash man? It seems like there would have been easier ways to find a place to stay like finding a homeless shelter until you were old enough to get real work.

Am I not remembering something but was the thought process really "Hey, you can make some money recycling metal, but you also will end up spending all that money on heroin by hanging with this guy" and he was like "Sign me up!".

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Really don't get the Carcetti mention and it honestly makes me wonder whether this person has any understanding of the show or American politics at all. Carcetti would be an out and proud Hillary Man both because he's a Democrat and because he'd figure she'd be most likely to win, so any suction would go in that direction. And everyone knows McNulty wouldn't vote because he'd be too hungover in the morning and too drunk by the afternoon.

I kinda lost you halfway through that.

I dont think Barksdale was bigger and stronger by season 3. I think Marlo's crew catching them napping on the street and sniffing out the Devonne plan showed Marlo's crew was operating on a higher level at that point.

With Stringer dead and Avon in jail, the empire died. All the lower level guys will work for whoever they have to (see Bodie, Stinkum)


As far as the co-op (small complaint, Prop Joe mentioned the co-op by name so often it became annoying) they may have been planning revenge anyway. They took out Cheese and then Marlo got pinched.

Right, and McNulty explicitly states his lack of interest in politics when he's banging that campaign lady.