Interesting. Ive always heard Bubbles. He certainly had the warm personality and light hearted nature of Bubs.

I'm not sure you could live at a homeless shelter long term.

I do think he had other options though. He probably should have just been straight with Prez and said he had nowhere to live. Prez would have helped him.

The Barksdale organization was much bigger. They had the Greek connection along with more manpower and buildings and operations going on.

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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!

When are you talking about?

When the towers came down (beginning of season 3) the Barksdale power came down with them.

The other competing groups put up far more of a fight against Avon/Stringer than they did against Marlo, even though Marlo was not nearly as big. Marlo was still meeting people in a public park.

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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!

the metaphor of the dust from the towers spreading into the surrounding streets being was the inevitable drug trade and power struggle that now was going end up out there. not too subtle.

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'Your AT&T Universal Card has arrived'? Oh God, Kick-fucking-ass, I got a Master Card! I don't believe it, man. Life is kinda cool sometimes.

None of that season is subtle at all.

The season finale being titled Missioned Accomplished.

"If it's a lie, then we fight on that lie!"

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Spoilers ahead.

I disagree. It was by far the most unrealistic plot in the whole show, destroyed multiple characters, and quite honestly made no sense. McNulty was originally defendable as a guy who blurred the lines sometimes but was always fighting for what was right to doing a series of felonies in order to try and capture a guy. The fact that Lester went in with him also ruins him as a character. The weak tie in of the reporter who also was lying was way too perfect and just as unbelievable. At the end everyone is basically laughing about one of the most egregious actions possible involving nearly the whole department.

The Marlo storyline also failed to deliver and was a big nothing. Most of the newspaper storyline was just a bunch of crying about how newspapers are failing along with some doofus reporter doing something done.

I think the season would have been much better if they had concentrated more on the international storylines along with the political corruption storylines rather than the character destroying police department misconduct.

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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!

McNulty being defendable is not the point. He was finally pushed over the edge into "doing felonies" to combat the status quo stats chasing bullshit.

Lester in the same boat.

Not sure what end you were looking for with Marlo.

The season was fine considering the fact that 2 of the best 5 characters on the show combined for 1 meaningless scene.

Lester was ruined by that. It goes against what his character always was. It was also just a dumb plan with no chance of success.

Literally anything.

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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!

Which scene?

I hope it wasn't McNulty and Bodie on the bench in the park. That scene is great.

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You know me like that.

Lester always played quick and loose with the rules when he felt it helped the greater good. The McNulty thing in Season 5 was just the icing on the cake.

Any "good" cop on the show basically had to break the law to try to help the city. Bunny, Lester, McNulty... they all did bad things in service to the greater good. The city just covered it up and kept the status quo because that is what keeps money coming in to the right people's wallets.

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Lester was aware of the illegal seizure of Bodie's phone in Season 3, in order to get into their disposable phone network. Lester wasn't always 100% by the books.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

I know he wasn't 100% by the books. No cop on the show was. Lester was portrayed as a man of high character who would have been considered one of the good cops and then suddenly he jumps all in on the worst criminal actions by cops in the whole series?

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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!

Nah, this is a you thing. It's definitely not the best season but you take it way too far. Lester is pretty much still in everyone's top 5 favorite characters

And it wasn't even against what his character was. There are several pre-season 5 instances of him disregarding the law and his bosses for the greater good.

At their core, McNulty and Freamon were about one thing over everything else...fuck the stat chasing bullshit.


He's a massive drug dealer who was brought down by police and went to jail and then bailed out. That part made perfect sense.

I worded that poorly.

Was referring to Avon (meaningless jail scene) and Stringer (dead)

Now we're getting somewhere.

What they did was no different than Bunny's Hamsterdam. Just playing the system in the name of doing real police work.

I don't know why people are so defensive about that season. If you only saw the last season of The Wire you wouldn't think it was anything but average.

Even if we say Lester wasn't perfect, this was not for the greater good. That's the problem. Faking murders, kidnapping, fraud, and other crimes involving the whole department all so they could get funding to go after a drug dealer who would just be replaced by other guys like he replaced other guys. That's a big difference from cutting a few corners to get to the ultimate correct place.

You think a lot of drug kingpins get caught, avoid jail time, all the other drug dealers say "Ok cool, have a nice life!" and then the guy starts buying real estate? I mean, Marlo had a bunch of enemies and most people knew exactly what he did and he gets to retire? Are we to expect he was just walking around Baltimore being like "Hey former rivals, I killed a bunch of your people and Prop Joe and others, I'm off to the grocery store and have a good day!"

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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!

Of course it was worse. Looking past criminal activity in a certain area is not the same as faking murders, kidnapping, committing massive fraud, and a bunch of other crimes along the way.

Season 5 was not real police work. It's the only time in the series where the actions taken have no defense that they are done for the greater good.

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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!

Yea, I disagree. They didnt really fake murders. The kidnapping was bad but Lester wasnt on board with that.

Fraud? Seriously?

I feel like your take on what they did is pretty unique. Most people say stuff like "yea, not good, but they had their reasons" not "the worst criminal act on the show!"


Uh what?

Why would you assume a ridiculous post script like that?

Marlo probably ends up getting killed or going to jail for good down the line. They showed you he couldnt go straight and stay away.

It would have been disingenuous to speed up that process to coincide with the end of the show. He probably survives another couple years.

You think Marlo walked away from the life? I thought the scene where he goes and takes a corner back was a sign that he was never really turning his back on the streets.

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They didnt fake murders. They skewed the way they handled them.

The kidnapping was bad but the guy was never in danger and never knew the difference, so hard to get too upset about that.

Committing massive fraud is just a hilarious take.


Bunny didnt just ignore crime either. He created a drug free island. They gave drug dealers rides there!





Season 5 was them going to extremes to loosen the purse strings to do real police work, which they most certainly did with Marlo and associates.

Chris killed at least 23 people and he's in jail for life. Greater good.

They did fake murders. I think a few times.

I didn't say it was the worst criminal act on the show. I said it was the worst one by police.


They already sped up the show at the very end to show what happened to everyone later. They jumped far enough ahead to have Carcetti be Governor. Marlo seemingly is just living life as a normal person who wishes he was back to his original life.

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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 dont think Rick ever watched season 5. It's a long con.

They did fake murders! That's why the police guy was giving them fresh bodies of the homeless. They planted stuff on the body and even put bite marks on them.

What exactly is your point here? Is there no criticism of anything in season 5? Kidnapping, no big deal! Massive fraud, no big deal!
They spent the entire post-Avon series trying to get Marlo. Getting Chris is a pretty weak consolation prize.

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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!

It wasnt the worst one by police.

Fake murders sounds like they killed somebody. They took already dead bodies and committed fraud so they could go after a dangerous murderous drug ring.

Fraud in the name of stopping an actual mass murderer. (Chris Partlow)

They already sped up the show at the very end to show what happened to everyone later. They jumped far enough ahead to have Carcetti be Governor. Marlo seemingly is just living life as a normal person who wishes he was back to his original life.[/quote]
I dont think that was any sort of time jump with Carcetti.

I mean, almost every take I've ever read on the last Marlo scene is that it was pretty much saying he's going back to the life and will either be dead or in jail.

I dont think they needed to show it.

Unless I'm messing up the timeline, Marlo having that altercation on the street, which means nothing besides he still wanted to feel his old life, happened pretty far in the future after getting released since Carcetti had time to become Governor.

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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!

Carcetti became governor before his first term as Mayor was up. I think it happened fairly soon after the end of the series. I don't think there was much fast forwarding of the timeline.

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No, real murders would be if they killed somebody. Faking murder is exactly what they did.

There was a big time jump. They had that sun rising and falling sequence. Also, as I pointed out, Carcetti ends up as the Govenor. That would take many months at least. I'm not sure he was even an official candidate when he found out about the stuff that went on, though it was talked about.

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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 clarified my beef with "fake murders" the last post

I mean, the fraud thing is laughable. It's a victimless crime. I've never heard anyone but you even bring up that unimportant aspect of it.

There are certainly valid criticisms of season 5. The Scott character was over the top. They didnt really go far enough into the newspaper business and the subject would have been better 10 years earlier.

They spent the entire post-Avon series trying to get Marlo. Getting Chris is a pretty weak consolation prize.[/quote]
And that's the life. Kinda like how D'Angelo went down instead of Avon.

Oh and btw, they got Marlo. They put him in jail. As frustrating as it was for them to see guys getting out, they did their job.