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So, I've got some free torrent space: Battlestar Galactica or Babylon5? Be as subjective as you want to be!

[luckystrike]

God, The Wire.

Probably better than Deadwood and at least as good as Entourage (both shows which I enjoy immensely) The Wire manages to keep me entertained with every episode. I still have strange dreams/nightmares about Season 2 (easily the best season so far), and the fates of most of the characters therein. Man, I loved Sobotka and his surly bunch of Polish union-men. I enjoyed how that season almost made you hate the police that were constantly (and mostly uselessly) interfering in their lives, ending in tragedy for some good people. Also those goddamn Greeks. Seasons 1 and 3 were also fantastic, but Season 2, I mean, god damn. Season 4 has me a little nervous, as there is a ton of fodder area for feel-good cliche stuff (particularly Prezbylewski's current stint as an inner-city school teacher and Cutty's inner-city boxing gym, though halfway through the season they've done a good job of stepping around any wierd and out-of-place sentimentality) but I suppose I could use some positive stuff in a show that is almost crushingly depressing by the end of each season. I do particularly like the Mayoral Race subplot and even though his plot is a sentimental feel-good trap Cutty always manages to make me chuckle with his predicaments in the gym, particularly the fact fat black women are always giving him food. I don't really like Marlo Stanfield so much, as he is probably the first proto-badguy the show has had and isn't as deep at this point and time as any of the Barksdale people. I mean, hell, Bodie has more depth to him.

Someone mentioned in another thread that McNulty, while typically being our window into the events happening in the show, is hardly the protagonist, which I agree with. By Season 4, he's almost not even around any more, it would seem. Doesn't matter anyways, because the characters surrounding him are ultimately more interesting: Omar, for one, is more well-written than any of the characters on the police force, with maybe the exception of maybe some of the higher ups (in particular Rawls, who is probably my favorite character in the series.) Tommy Carcetti is also a great character, as well as most of the Barksdale syndicate (and the Co-op in general) and the above-mentioned union. There are a million more characters that have come and gone in the series that are just as interesting and intelligently written as the one's I've mentioned above.

And goddamn Tommy's race-fixer Terri makes me want to find a woman that will punch me in the ribs and demand I pleasure her like whoa. On that note, I am really impressed how the show makes me attracted to characters who aren't particularly physically attractive: Pearlman and D'Agostino are like, 40 years old apiece, but they way the show lets them wield their power is incredibley sexy. Also, the first time I got to see Daniels without a shirt on it felt like fanservice of the greatest kind. I've never been so gay for black men as I have in this show.

I think if there was a 2D Fighting Game based on The Wire I would play it.

uh, the end.

[luckystrike]

I just finished watching the entire 12 oz. Mouse run (2 seasons long) from beginning to end, and I think it was the best Lynchian horror I've seen since, well, Lynch himself. Not nearly as good as Lynch's best stuff, but still impressive for a 10-minute-a-week late night cartoon show. Of course, some of the episodes were totally out there and terrible (Auraphull, Star Wars VII) but some were spot on (Almost all of Season 1, Star Wars VII), in turns both hilarious and nightmarishly frightening. With most of this sort of stuff though I can only critique it in uncertain terms, but I think it was really good.

People decry the animation style and humor of the show but it's kind of missing the point, I think. Also, it must have been almost impossible to watch during it's Adult Swim run; missing one randomly placed 10-minute episode could completely put you out of the entire show without you even realizing it, and trying to piece the show together over a 2 month time period while only getting bits and pieces of it 10 minutes a week, and taking into account the somewhat important secret messages that get flashed at the end of some of the episodes... When the DVD box is released later on, they will edit out the intro song/credits and play the show as a continous "movie."

Anyways, probably my favorite thing Adult Swim has shown, but I don't expect it to get a lot of praise from anyone. I don't know, anyone else seen it and want to comment? I don't know anyone who has seen the entire thing.

[luckystrike]

[luckystrike]

The Wire is in fact filmed in Baltimore City.

On Sobotka: I agree with most of what has been said by both sides of the spectrum: on the one hand, Sobotka is (unknowingly, I think) perpetuating an inevitable destruction of an establishment that doesn't have a place any more through illegal and harmful propagation. On the other hand, unlike Avon who gets most of his family (and community) involved in the cycle of violence, Sobotka keeps most of his own (Besides Ziggy, Nicky, and Horseface) out of the ring, and takes most of it on himself. I agree that neither Avon nor Sobotka were very far-sighted, though Avon stuck to the here and now at great personal fault (look at the difference between him and how he reacts to Stringer [Avon: "Just a gangster, I suppose"], who was trying to prepare for the long run in Season 3) while Sobotka was desperately trying to get the longshoreman community in Baltimore new life by dredging the docks. Also, I think Sobotka's crew was in a serious predicament, facing total extermination. You get the feeling that if the union falls, most of these guys really have nowhere else to go, both professionally and socially. And fuck Prezbelewski's dad, man that guy is a real piece of shit.

Also, I think most of this discussion about The Wire could warrant moving to a new thread! A lot of good discussion going on here, but I think its sort of derailing another good thread.