Two Plus Two Newer Archives - favorite scenes from the wire (SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS)

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Jules22

08-14-2007 07:46 AM

favorite scenes from the wire (SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS)

Firstly, i want to make a confession. I am the world's biggest wire junkie, ive seen every season multiple times, i sing the theme song at work, i recite the lines while i watch the show, (probably to everyone who sees me do it's chagrin), i will babble on endlessly to my roommate about it (luckily they really like the show too), its just a big mess honestly. But I am going to lay it on you folks i want to talk about my two favorite episodes of the wire.

Now bear in mind i love them all, there is not one single episode of any season that i will not sit down and watch, but there are a couple that are just unreasonably good.

Also, these episodes aren't getting much love on youtube and i cant believe it.

The first, which i am shocked not to see getting much love on youtube, is wire season 3 episode 11 "Middle Ground"

This episode is the series finest moment, it's dramatic peak if you will, and the final episode of the series is more about closing story lines to start a new chapter in season 4. I will post a couple of my favorite scenes from the hbo.com site guides and then i will write about my other favorite episode, as i am sure this one is probably everyone's favorite

Having worked himself into a full-fledged rage, Bell arrives drunk at Avon's safehouse, demanding to see his partner. While he's waiting, Bell tells Slim Charles that he has a job for him: killing Clay Davis. Slim Charles is taken aback by the request: "[censored], murder ain't no thing, but this here is some assassination [censored]," he tells Bell. Barksdale arrives at the same moment, amused by Bell's state, and tells him that "Slim gonna have to sit this one out." When Bell protests, Avon reminds him that to take out a state senator will bring a world of cops down on them. Besides, Avon chides, "You a [censored]' businessman. You don't wanna get all gangsta wild and [censored]."

(wow, the air must have been crackling when they filmed that one. Also did anyone else notice their use of the Akon track "Locked Up" which is playing in the background when Avon walks out, the songs chorus fires up "i got locked up locked up etc" brilliant foreshadowing as Avon is "locked up" one episode later)

Once the cellphone tracking device is up and running, Freamon plucks Bell's private cell number out of the ozone in no time, and is puzzled when he observes Bell calling Major Bunny Colvin. Later, unknown to the Detail, Bell meets Colvin in a graveyard at night, and betrays his partner Avon, who is thwarting Bell's ambitions to expand their empire. Not only does Avon insist on prolonging the feud with Marlo but he won't let Bell order a hit on Davis. So Bell tells Colvin the location of the safehouse where Avon hides out, and that the police will find an arsenal of weapons there. Bell expresses hope that Colvin will limit Avon's fall to five years or less in jail. "If you hit the joint, his people are gonna try to take any weight, say all that firepower is theirs. So all you gotta do is hit him with the parole back-up." Colvin responds that Avon will do at least a nickel, and says to Bell, "He musta done something to you." Bell's response: "It's only business

(did you ever notice how stringer meets in a graveyard, one day before he dies? kinda creepy?)

Avon has the same response — it's all about business — when Brother Mouzone interrupts Avon's haircut in a West Baltimore barber shop. Mouzone recounts his near-death experience the previous year at the hands of Omar, making it clear he knows Omar was set up to kill him, and that it was Stringer Bell who set the plot in motion. Barksdale asks if money will fix the problem, but Mouzone says only one course of action will resolve the matter: "What you got here is your word and your reputation. With that alone, you've still got an open line to New York. Without it, you're done." In other words, Stringer Bell must pay for his sins. Cornered, Barksdale sees no option but to cooperate.

(another brilliant scene, the actors portray their roles perfectly, as you sense the weight both of their organizations carry)

Omar meets Mouzone outside Bell's development site, and when Bell arrives, they follow him inside. After shooting his bodyguard, they pursue Stringer up the stairs until he's trapped. Omar tells Bell that Avon has given him up. Then he and Mouzone unload their weapons into Bell, who falls dead to the floor of the condominium he hoped to create

(dramatic peak of three seasons worth of story lines, it to me is the best scene in the history of television, i know it sounds smarmy but it is how i feel)

now that i have that off my brain, im going to post this and then do one more episode, im worried this wont all fit

Jules22

08-14-2007 08:02 AM

Re: favorite scenes from the wire

okay, my other favorite episode, although i love them all like i previously said, is Season 1 Episode 12 "cleaning up"

Now before i dissect this episode a little bit, i want to say that i really like season 1. I have heard a lot of people say 4 is the best season (my favorite is actually three but i am a barksdale story line junkie). I like season 4 a lot, its really good (i especially like how they took mcnulty out of it for the most part but kept him involved, how many shows write their main character down to a side character? brilliant!)

Season 1 to me, tho, is really amazing and I like it better than season 4. To me it really draws you into a very complex world very well, and i was instantly hooked when i watched season one episode one. But to me the best episode of the whole season is episode 12. You probably rememeber it as the one where Wallace dies and Avon goes to jail, but to me it is the peak of the series intertwining storylines, i was floored it really had me glued to the couch.

Avon's attorney Levy helps Stringer and Avon focus on their vulnerabilities. Together they enumerate their weak points and come up with what is essentially a hit list, which includes the security guard who lied to save D'Angelo as well as Little Man, who killed Orlando, and Wallace, who can connect them to the death of Brandon.

(to me Idris Elba (Stringer) and Wood Harris (Avon Barksdale) really convey their menace and reach in this scene, as they decide on the fates of people in a brief moment of consideration before each one, and then move on. Their cold business like manner in deciding the fates of these human beings really had me moved, and i was loving it. What great writing and acting!)

When Avon and Stringer express interest in Wallace's whereabouts, D'Angelo reassures them that Wallace is out of the game and in fact has moved away. When they persist, he tells them, "Let the boy be." Wallace, however, is bored in the country and returns to the projects to ask for his job back. Bodie and Poot are dispatched to kill him and they do.

(When D is called up to Avon's office, you can sense the menace in the way avon and stinger ask about Wallace, you know they have already decided he needs to be killed because he was weak behind Brandon's death. It's heartbreaking really, and D senses it and tries to protect Stringer as best he can, but fails to really back his Uncle and Stringer down. Is he partly responsible? love the club music in this scene too, it fits)

Burrell summons Daniels to his office to meet Sen. Clay Davis, whose driver had been picked up with $20,000 in cash from the projects. "That was a mis-understanding of no concern of the police," Davis assures Daniels. Daniels leaves after persisting in his interest in the twenty grand, and Davis is furious: "You need to put his ass on a foot post so far out in the sticks he's gonna see the Philadelphia cops working towards you," he tells Burrell.

(Ah Daniels, my favorite police character. I dont know the name of the guy who plays him but he does a great job! This is one of my dark horse favorite scenes, the political forces at work within the police department are really displayed. I like how Clay Davis switches from really happy to really menacing in a split second, great stuff! "You're not just talking to me, erv, you're talking to the MAYOR, the CITY CAUCUS, the STATE CENTRAL CONTROLLER i dont know it word for word but it rocks")

With a wire installed in Avon's office, the squad can see Stringer and Avon packing things up to move. They also see Avon asking D'Angelo to make a New York City run that evening to pick up drugs. Reluctantly, D'Angelo agrees, and before he leaves, the squad attaches a tailing device to his car. He's stopped and arrested after he makes the pickup, and is defiant when Daniels and McNulty try to flip him by showing him pictures of Wallace and the security guard Avon had murdered. "That's how you take care of your own?" McNulty asks him. But when Stringer and Levy come to visit him in jail, he is defiant with them, too. "Where's Wallace, String?" he asks over and over. As they leave, D'Angelo yells that he'll get his own lawyer.

(this whole sequence is the season's dramtic peak, which is over surprisingly fast once they get the camera into barksdales office, they find out about the heroin buy in new york and D'Angelo faces some tough choices. Gripping stuff imo)

Outside Orlando's, a S.W.A.T. team readies itself for action, but when Daniels and McNulty arrive, they simply knock on the club door and enter when it's opened. There is no drama, Daniels cuffs Avon and, leaving Stringer to ponder the future, marches Avon out.

In the Detail Room, Sydnor says to Freamon, "Best work I ever did. Just feel like this ain't finished." At the Pit, the courtyard is empty. For the first time in a long time, no drugs are for sale.

(First time the series protaganists and antagonists meet face to face for an extended period. Little is said, little needs be said. The empty couch after Sydnor's revelation is as powerful an image as i have seen on tv))

sawseech

08-22-2007 04:31 AM