The Wire and orange t-shirts

[baleanoptera]

I have spent the day being besieged by nearly a hundred 7-yers olds in orange t-shirts. They were on a field trip to the museum and ran through the exhibition reminiscent of the Mongolian Horde. A very orange, very loud horde. I caught two trying to climb the Rhino, and a group of boys re-enacting the fight between Aragorn and the Nazguls somewhere between the cabinets of the geology exhibition.

When asked who was their favourite Tolkien character most replied Aragorn, some Boromir and one really liked Gimli. Then one boy said, rather out of the blue, that Legolas was gay. The other four guys in the group got angry and said: “There is nothing wrong with being gay!” The first boy replied that he knew this, and Legolas was still gay.
To this there was much agreement.

----

Aside from that I’ve spent much of my spare time watching “The Wire”. I’ve tricked jorun to watch with me (it wasn’t very hard), so now we can squee in unison. I’m loving the show, and I’m starting to feel about it much as I do with Deadwood. The entire ensemble is wonderful, played out through careful characterisation. I love that, and the fact that the show doesn’t rush it’s storytelling but takes it time and slowly builds momentum. In many ways it reminds me of reading a very good novel, that carefully and expertly weaves its story.
I adore the subtle juxtapositions that abound, like one scene will show the hoppers in the projects eating Chicken McNuggets, and the next scene will show Rhonda Pearlman eating shushi. There will be a shot of Stinkum lighting a cigarette, next shot a policeman under a No Smoking sign.

Then there is the dialog. I feel quoting it cannot do it justice. One of the greatest scenes so far goes on for minutes, and the dialog is basically the word F**k over and over – but the level of emotion in each word? The varieties in pronunciation? It’s amazing. I also got chills during D’Angelo’s explanation of chess.
(Note: I have not seen past the last episodes of season one, so please: let me be unspoiled. )
----

Comments

[reginaspina.livejournal.com]

In many ways it reminds me of reading a very good novel, that carefully and expertly weaves its story.

Yes, I think "The Wire" (and "Deadwood") are EXACTLY like "TV novels" (not to be confused with the Spanish telenovelas. You have to read every chapter! (I'm SO glad you're liking this - although I do thing you are my Scandinavian doppelgänger!!!)

And your story about the kids - awww, SO CUTE!

[baleanoptera.livejournal.com]

I'm SO glad you're liking this - although I do thing you are my Scandinavian doppelgänger!
*g*

As for The Wire I'm starting to edge over from liking to loving. Usually with a series I will have one or two favorite characters, but here I'm pretty much loving all of them - except Avon who just scares me. Yes, he showed some humanity when he visited his sick brother, but then there was the scene where he raised the bounty on Omar AFTER he found out Omar was gay?

Speaking of Omar - the scene at the morgue when he sees Brandon's corps? Wow. They cut to the surveilance camera, everything goes black & white and you see the soccerball rolling and hear Omar screaming. It was so simple and so incredibly moving and chilling - all at the same time.
Aside from that - McNultey bringing his kids to the morgue? Perhaps not the best parenting decision, but since I like McNultey I can forgive him.

I'm trying to formulate some deeper thoughts but my head is still: OMG! They shot Kima! Not Kima - I love Kima.

Oh, and the scene where she runs over to the cops that were beating the boy, and I thought -she will stop it now. And how wrong was I? ;)

And your story about the kids - awww, SO CUTE!

The kids made my day - they really did. Most of the time when you work in a museum kids are trouble - but sometimes they just rock.

[reginaspina.livejournal.com]

I will say no more about Avon other than to mention that I LOVE the relationship between him and Stringer Bell. It's absolutely brilliant and it plays out over several seasons.

They cut to the surveilance camera, everything goes black & white and you see the soccerball rolling and hear Omar screaming

That was, as you say, amazing and powerful (as is the aftermath of Kima's shooting - I don't know if you've seen that yet, so I'll just be very vague about that.)

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

I had to swith my subtitles on in order to appreciate "The Wire" fully. :)

I adore the subtle juxtapositions that abound, like one scene will show the hoppers in the projects eating Chicken McNuggets, and the next scene will show Rhonda Pearlman eating shushi. There will be a shot of Stinkum lighting a cigarette, next shot a policeman under a No Smoking sign.

I have totally missed the juxtapositions. Fantastic!

[baleanoptera.livejournal.com]

I had to swith my subtitles on in order to appreciate "The Wire" fully. :)

Me too. And that is another way in which this show reminds me of Deadwood. *g* The dialog is so good - the use of metaphors, the way they actually manage to make the metaphors sound like normal conversation, and not "Now this character will give a speech that you will understand is symbolically important."

As for the juxtapositions - I'm just in love with them. I cannot imagine the time and planning it must take to set up shots and connections like that.