The Wire, season 1, episode 8: juris ex machina

The Wire is about what it’s about largely because of one character. Without this character, McNulty would be just another homicide detective, Avon Barksdale would be peddling drugs unsurveilled, Omar would rampage unchecked, Bub’s hat collection would be minus one bright red hat, and residents of the projects would have easier access to a payphone. Furthermore, without this character, there are now two points when the investigation would have come to a halt.


This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2017/06/13/wire-season-1-episode-8-juris-ex-machina/

A judge isn’t elected; he’s appointed for life so that he isn’t beholden to anyone. It’s a cornerstone of this country’s legal tradition.

I really wish this were true, but actually there are plenty of parts of the US where judges are elected.

Aren’t they still appointed for life though? They are just appointed through a vote instead

Oh c’mon, Tom. Club is for the gentleman who wants the lurid sleaze of Hustler without all the overt racism of its cartoons.

…but probably not at work, so I’ll give you that.

Nope. There’s a few different systems, but we’re talking periodic elections.
Edit: https://ballotpedia.org/Judicial_selection_in_the_states

Eww, judges having to appeal to the support of common voters? Do not want.

Huh. Looks like a red state/blue state thing to me. What do you know?

-Tom

Not sure it’s as neat as all that. MN is a pretty blue state but elects judges, for example. So does Washington and Oregon.

I agree that it’s a bad idea.

Most importantly, how does Maryland do it? (Since that’s where The Wire is set).

https://ballotpedia.org/Judicial_selection_in_Maryland

Looks like judges are appointed and then subject to nonpartisan retention elections.

Phelan’s power is that he holds the pen. Also he’s not appointed for life.

I started a rewatch when Tom started this viewing and intended to follow the same queue but I have no discipline and finished it. It’s pretty poignant how this is my third or fourth rewatch and I am still finding new detail. I also like that a lot of Tom’s observant commentary is checked later.

Lance Reddick said that Simon told him his entire character arc during the pilot. The Wire is prob one of few American tv series that could pull that off.

What time period is the setting for the series? I always felt that it was around 1997, though I also watched it late, in around 2013, so it’s hard to pick a specific period when looking back. To me the idea of reading Club dates it to around that time (when the sleaziest of co-workers in a male environment just might get away with it or get a slap on the wrist if caught) but I could be wrong about that too.

I don’t remember off the top of my head but they specifically reference the 9/11 attacks on a few occasions, so it’s probably 2002ish?

Edit: Google says it was set in the present day, which would’ve been 2002 in season one.

Hmm, that makes sense. My guess is some writers still had their heads in the late 90’s then when they wrote in the reading of Club, or maybe it was intent to tell us that the characters were still stuck in the 90’s which goes along with the general depiction of the police in the show.

Anecdote, but a colleague of mine had a job interview in a strip club (in the early 80’s), for a professional position, but that would be too weird to accept now, even for a show set in the 80’s.

One of the results when I hastily googled it included some people saying they saw in interviews that there were some anachronisms intentionally left in the show as well, since many of the writer’s stories came from the 80s and 90s. So, citation needed and all that, but it makes sense.

The 9/11 attacks are a very clear anchor in time, so yeah, it must be starting in 2002, but beyond that it sounds like there’s a blend of anachronisms sprinkled into the show—some of them are embellishments to serve stories they wanted to tell, and some of them are probably pretty accurate representations of the ways the law enforcement, government, and institutions in general can have their own anachronisms in the real world.

One clang in the otherwise mellifluous script is the pronunciation of Phelan as Faylan, rather than the actual Irish Feelan. This must be intentional, I doubt West and Peters would have stood for it otherwise. Even more embarrassing than House Of Pain doing a tune called “Top o’ the Morning to Ya”.

The chairs game also taints this part, where judges look forward to a political life instead what is in front of them.