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So I Rewatched The Wire... | Pure Kino | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: So I Rewatched The Wire...
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Core Theme
This content reflects on a rewatch of the acclaimed television series The Wire, prompted by a period of downtime, and reveals new appreciation and critical observations about its storytelling, character development, and thematic depth, even after extensive prior analysis.
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You know what, Jimmy? I'm going to go
back to the beginning and work every one
of them again. Back to square one.
>> If you're a fan of this channel, then
you know that I love The Wire. I did a
4-hour long retrospective of the entire
series, covering every aspect of the
show, including plot recaps, character
and theme analysis, and a ton of
behind-the-scenes details. I believe it
is the best analysis video of The Wire
on YouTube, and it's the project that I
am the most proud of on this channel.
The video took over a year of my life to
complete and research included not only
three different watches of the series,
but also reading three different books
and listening to dozens of interviews
and podcasts. As you can imagine, after
all that work, I was ready to be done
with The Wire for a while. As much as
you love something, after putting in
that much time and energy into the
series, I needed a break. I've watched
episodes here and there, but I haven't
sat down and watched the series straight
through since that project. However,
recently I had a baby, which has been
both an incredibly meaningful and
incredibly tiring experience. There's a
lot of work that goes into taking care
of a baby, but there's also a lot of
downtime as well. I decided to use that
time to rewatch the show. Some of you
might remember that I did the same thing
with The Sopranos, revisiting the show
after a long time and seeing what's
changed for me. You could say that I
came at the series with soft eyes.
>> You got soft eyes, you can see the whole
thing. You got hard eyes, you stand at
the same tree missing the forest.
>> Well, I'm happy to report that The Wire
is still as amazing as I remembered it.
It's interesting starting at the first
episode again with the knowledge of the
entire series. The show is known for its
slow start with very little excitement
in the beginning compared to how most
other television shows try and hook you
from the start. However, because I knew
how good the show gets as it goes on,
even these early episodes felt really
engaging because I knew what they were
setting up. In particular, I was looking
forward to episode 11, The Hunt. This is
one of the most exciting episodes of the
series, right up there with middle
ground and final grades for me. The
aftermath of Ka's shooting is tense and
full of great character moments, like
when RS comforts Magnoli despite hating
him. It's moments like these that make
The Wire such a rich series. And this
episode is worth all of the setup that
came before it.
>> Believe it or not, everything isn't
about you.
And the [ __ ] saying this, he
hates your guts, McNote. So, you know,
if it was on you,
>> I'd be the son of a [ __ ] to say so.
>> Season 2 was another interesting
experience. The season is controversial
with some fans hating the season for the
changes it made from the previous one,
and some fans loving it for that exact
same reason. I was somewhere between
these two on my first watch. I
appreciated what the season was going
for with its themes of industrial decay
in a death of the working class, but
still felt that they could have executed
it in a way that felt more satisfying
and cohesive to the last season.
However, I have to say that I enjoyed
this season much more than I thought I
would this time around. I always liked
Frank Sabotka's storyline, but watching
it again just made me appreciate how
great he is as a character. And
surprisingly, I also really enjoyed
Ziggy storyline this season as well.
Ziggy is like AJ from The Sopranos in
that he's annoying and easily hatable on
your first watch. But like AJ, I'm able
to sympathize with him more and more the
more that I watch the show. He's a
tragic character, and the way that the
show makes you feel for this Malaka just
shows you how good the writing really is.
is.
got tired of being a punchline to every joke.
joke.
>> However, I noticed something during this
rewatch. After he's caught, Sergey rats
on the Greeks. He tells them about their
operation and men and even takes him to
the hotel where the Greek is staying.
And the police just miss him before he
manages to get on a plane and escape. I
don't understand then how Sergey is in a
position to make an intro to Vondas from
Marlo given that he's a rat. Even if the
Greeks don't go out of their way to kill
Sergey in prison, there's no way that
they would still be in contact with him
or take his recommendation for a
meeting. I read some head cannon that
Sergey's cooperation with the police was
part of the Greek's plan. Sort of like
how they cooperate with the FBI's
counterterrorism team in exchange for
protection. The idea is that he didn't
give them anything that could be used to
actually hurt the Greeks. However, I
don't think that's the case. Sergey
looked genuinely surprised when the
police knew about the murder, and it
seemed like it was a panicked response
rather than a premeditated one. No, I
think they just needed a way for Marlo
to get with the Greeks, and they just
used Sergey and ignored this
contradiction with the story. It's a
small thing, but it is part of the
overall problems with season 5, which
we'll get into later.
>> The details, Miss Gutieros, Baltimore
son, God still resides in the details.
>> I also noticed something interesting in
season 3. In Mission Accomplished,
Bubbles meets a young kid on the street
who he decides to mentor like Johnny. I
always just assumed that this was
Sherrod, but it's actually a different
person. The actor that plays Sherrod
actually does appear in the episode All
Due Respect. So either Bubbles started
mentoring this kid and then somehow
switched to Sherrod or they recast the
role of Sherrod starting in season 4. No
idea what happened to the original
actor, but it's an interesting detail
that I missed the first time around.
Season 4 of The Wire is still my
favorite of the show and possibly my
favorite season in all of television. I
love the new cast that they introduced,
particularly the kids. It's so rare for
a show to have child actors who are
actually good, but The Wire makes these
kids so likable. It's absolutely
heartbreaking what happens to them. And
the way that they use the kids storyline
to show us how other characters became
who they are is a stroke of genius.
>> [ __ ] I'll take any [ __ ] money
if he giving it away. Now,
>> I'll take any motherfucker's money if he
giving it away. This is also the first
time I noticed something about the intro
sequence. The Wire is one of the only
shows that I don't skip the intro. I
love the theme song, particularly season
1's version by the Blind Boys of
Alabama, but I also like the other
versions as well. And as I was watching
all of the intros of each season, I
noticed how the sequence deemphasizes
faces. We almost never see people's
faces in the intro, instead focusing on
objects or shots of the city. This of
course fits the themes of The Wire
focusing on the city as a whole rather
than individual characters. Again, this
is something that I knew on some level,
but this is the first time that I was
really able to internalize what the
intro was trying to do. However, now we
get into season 5, and this is where I
start to have problems with the series.
I've said before that season 5 is the
weakest season of the show, and in some
ways is a disappointing ending for the
series. There are a lot of reasons for
this decline, particularly the fact that
the season only has 10 episodes compared
to the usual 12 or 13. I just realized
as well that the theme of cutting costs
and doing more with less that the
newsrooms and police departments go
through is what the show was going
through in real life as well. HBO was
essentially the newspaper owner
demanding more views while at the same
time refusing to give them the resources
they needed. It's an interesting meta
commentary about the politics of media
production. And I wonder how much of
that was a reflection of the real life
situations of the show. How come there's
cuts in the newsroom when a company's
still profitable? There's nobody that
feels worse about this than I do.
>> However, even setting aside production
issues, season 5 still has problems,
namely the newsroom characters. I don't
want to rehash everything that I had to
say in the retrospective, but watching
the season again just reinforced how
weak these characters are. Like, I
challenge any of you to tell me without
looking it up the names of any of the
characters on screen right now. They're
just so bland and forgettable, which is
not just a result of them being minor
characters. I bet many of you could name
minor characters from the other
organizations despite having just as
little screen time. It's just that these
journalists are not given any sort of
interesting characterization. The
journalists also don't really connect
with the rest of the series. They're
mostly in their own bubble this season.
Aside from Gus, there aren't many
connections that these characters have
with other characters from other organizations.
organizations.
And it didn't have to be this way. Do
you remember the journalist who
discovered Hamsterdam in season 3?
Despite being a Baltimore Sun
journalist, he doesn't appear in season
5. If they had used him again, it would
have made this season feel more
connected to the previous ones.
>> [ __ ] me. I [ __ ] had this story all to
myself a week ago.
>> Also, did you know that Cheryl, Kima's
ex-girlfriend, is a journalist? Yeah,
that's something I learned during this
rewatch. She works at a news station,
and it's referenced in season 5 as well.
She should have had a much bigger role
given the journalism theme this season.
Again, using an established character
would have gone a long way in making
season 5 feel more connected to the rest
of the series, not to mention give us
some much needed characterization to
what up until this point has been a very
weak character. >> Weak.
>> Weak. >> Yeah,
>> Yeah,
>> very weak.
>> And now I have to talk about another
problem that I noticed with the show.
Some of you are probably going to get
mad at me for saying this, but The Wire
doesn't handle its female characters
particularly well. It's funny. I'm
working on my Madmen retrospective at
the same time as this video, and it's
crazy how much better the women on that
show are written compared to The Wire.
Sure, Ka is a strong character with a
great arc, but other than that, there
aren't really any women with actual
character development. Pearlman is a
prominent character throughout the show,
but she isn't really given a storyline.
Rather, her main thing is being the
unit's bicycle and being continually
disappointed that the men she sleeps
with don't want to settle down with her.
>> I've been pretty honest with you. My
wife wants to put it back together
again. I've got to go for it, right?
>> I just don't want to disappoint her
anymore. And right now I'm more help
showing up at some chicken dinner in my
wedding ring and dress blues than being
the not even divorced yet husband with
the white woman on his own. And this is
a common trope with the wire. The women
are usually either sex objects like
Pearlman or Teresa, bad mothers like
Briana or Danda, or they're the nagging
wife. Seriously, Cheryl, Elena, and
Dette all fit this trope. The show even
introduces a new female cop, Beady
Russell, but then reduces her back down
to being the wife who just stays at home
and gets cheated on so that McNelte can
learn his lesson about what's really
important in life.
>> Family. That's it. Family. And if you're
lucky, one or two friends who are the
same as family.
That's all the best of us get.
Everything else is just
>> This doesn't ruin The Wire or anything,
but it is something that I noticed. No
show is perfect, and even The Wire has
elements that could have been handled
better. But overall, this rewatch just
made me appreciate the show even more.
Even after digging as deep into the show
as I did for my retrospective, there is
still more that the show has to offer
me. I even got some ideas for new wire
videos in the future. Like they say,
it's all in the game.
All in the game, yo.
All in the game.
>> I hope you all enjoyed this video. Let
me know your thoughts in the comments
and stay tuned for more Wire content
We're building something here,
detective. All the watches matter. Matt
Joyce, Uncle Mike, Sam Cedarland, Celery
Man, Cheshire, Brandon Taylor, James
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