The old hippe community of Christiania in the center of Copenhagen used to be a place where drug sales took place out in the open for decades and were generally peaceful, if not always pleasant. Then a few years ago the conservative Danish government shut down the open drug sales, which ended up starting a massive war between criminal factions in Copenhagen as they fought over control of the drug trade now that there was a void to be filled in the market.
Actually, in my opinion, Christiania was a pretty nice place before the cops cleared Pusher Street. The pushers are still there, and the dealing is still done pretty openly, but the general atmosphere has definitely become much more hostile, in my opinion. It’s too bad, really, they still have some nice bars and music venues, but I always feel somewhat uneasy when going there.
When I saw the Hamsterdam episodes I immediately thought they were alluding to Vancouver’s Downtown East Side, where open dealing has been going on in front of the police for years but there are also safe injection sites, street clinics and drug counsellors.
Kurt Schmoke was that mayor:
He also appeared in two 2004 episodes of the acclaimed HBO series The Wire. The episodes, entitled “Middle Ground” and “Mission Accomplished”, featured Schmoke in a bit part as a health commissioner.[10][11][12][13] He acts as an advisor to the fictional mayor after a rogue police major has legalized drugs in a portion of the city.[14] This is a reference to his own feelings on the drug war.
Season 3 and 4 spoilers follow.
I finished Season 4 last night. What a great season. This is the first season where I felt like they had the characters and material to do a full 24 episode season without it getting boring. The five young boys they followed all season long were really compelling characters and were all brilliantly acted by the young cast. They could have easily filled out a 24 episode season showing more of the lives of these young boys throughout the season without it getting boring at all. I didn’t feel that way about any of the earlier seasons, which showed exactly what they needed to show, and there wasn’t too much room for more and they’d have had to resort to a lot of filler to pad out a 24 episode season. (In fact, I already felt like they did some of that in Season 2).
Back to Season 4 though, it was really fascinating watching the show kind of reboot itself after Stringer Bell’s death and watch the new empire being built from the ground up, and this time a much more ruthless, evil one with fewer rules and less honor among the new players.
I am pretty sad that the boxing gym coach wasn’t able to reach any of the kids under his tutelage though (that we saw).
I can’t wait to watch the final season and see how it all ends. I have a stinking feeling that a lot of the gains from this seasons won’t last. That the show is determined to show how good intentions won’t last under the oppressive weight of how the system works. So I’m dreading it, but also looking forward to it.
The fifth season dips a little, just fyi. As in there are some story lines and characterisations that ring a little less blindingly true than everything else before.
Not a recommendation to skip it, just calibrate your expectations.
Last night as the family gathered and celebrated my daughter’s 15th birthday my father turned to me and said “I really want to thank you again for The Wire”. The remark was apropos of nothing in the moment and caught me off guard. He went on. “You mother and I have enjoyed watching it so much and now have watched it a second time and we are telling everyone we know about it. It has to be the best television show ever, don’t you think?”
Just wanted to share a great father son moment with the thread.
Rock8Man, this isn’t really a “spoiler” thread so much, I don’t think. Usually we refer to that big show-changing event that you mentioned as “that thing that happened.”
I think the point of Cutty was that he WAS reaching some of these kids, except he was truly disappointed when he couldn’t make a difference with one or two of the boys (Chris, Spider). He makes some appearances in Season 5, but for the most part they wrapped up his part of the story with Season 4’s ending.
We saw Les Mis last night at the Ahmanson in L.A. and the Wire gang’s lawyer was awesome as Thénardier! I read who he was during intermission in the program but he would have been impossible for me to recognize otherwise.
I did hear from an interview with a cast member on Opie and Anthony (I think it was Clay Davis) about how he was doing theater somewhere. He also mentioned that he’s a totally nice guy which can be jarring considering how we know him from the show.
Attorney General Eric Holder orders David Simon to do another season of the Wire.
“I want to speak directly to Mr. Burns and Mr. Simon: Do another season of ‘The Wire’. That’s actually at a minimum. … If you don’t do a season, do a movie. We’ve done HBO movies, this is a series that deserves a movie. I want another season or I want a movie. I have a lot of power Mr. Burns and Mr. Simon.”
David Simon responded, “The Attorney-General’s kind remarks are noted and appreciated. I’ve spoken to Ed Burns and we are prepared to go to work on season six of The Wire if the Department of Justice is equally ready to reconsider and address its continuing prosecution of our misguided, destructive and dehumanising drug prohibition.”
Seems like a fair trade to me.
I love that so much. Talk about missing the main point of the series.
Win-win, call your congressperson.
H.
I posted about this three weeks ago. Please do try to keep up.
I’m only on episode 3.11 or so, just about the end of season 3 at any rate. Two more seasons to go! What great characters.
Does The Wire have a real ending (or some sort of finale) or is like Deadwood in that it just… ends? No spoilers please, just want to be ready for the worst, if it comes to it.
It does a great job of wrapping up the stories that have been fleshed out, and sort of pointing toward how their lives will continue. There are too many important characters for their to be a “ok, this major event happens and that’s what happens to this person” for that to happen for everyone.
I was satisfed with the ending. They obviously made it as the finale to a series, and not some drop-off of not knowing if they’ll have another season or not.
It doesn’t end like Farscape did, if that’s what you’re asking.
Agree with Pogo about the finale and it did not feel like the whole final season was a winding down either, which may have happened. It was really just the last one or two episodes where they start to wrap some character arcs up, IIRC.