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It's not exactly an isolated scene but one of my favorite scenes that adds another layer to the character is after Stringer's death, Bunk and McNulty get a warrant for his apartment. They're looking around and can't really make sense about how sophisticated and elegant it is. Then McNulty grabs a book from the bookshelf just above the set of samurai swords, and asks himself "Who the fuck was I chasing?" The camera pans down to the book and it's The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith.

Portugal decriminalised drug possession and made it a public health concern instead and the results have been really positive.

Independent article: https://tinyurl.com/yaclw94j

There’s no doubt in my mind as an experiment Hamsterdam largely worked but another poster pointed out the social implications of confining it to one area.

The war on drugs is a joke and a massive waste of public funds.

Well the book he's holding when he says that is Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations, and Stringer is actually studying economics. So I don't know if the Gatsby book thing is a direct correlation.

Although his samurai swords were pretty damn pretentious.

Another fuckin 40 degree day!

the pit beef is pretty good stuff, especially with the horseradish. . .faidley's crabcakes are pretty awesome too. . .ruth's chris is not the best steakhouse ever, and they are a chain so you don't need to go to baltimore for that. . .crab boil is not only found in b-more either. . .but lake trout. . .if you're looking for the location, i think you can find a wikitravel tour that maps out all of the food locations. . .

http://wikitravel.org/en/The_Wire_Tour

Stringer was just... "fuckin' weak man..."

The more and more I think about Stringer, the more I think about the Great Gatsby analogy. "The Wealth of Nations." Do you honestly think he's read that? All those books on his shelf? Have we ever once even seen him in that apartment? He was pretending to be someone he wasn't. And he was caught between two sides of it. He was bigger than a drug dealer but he was never going to be a business man the way he ran it.

I agree with you that he was never my favorite character. I was deeply ambivalent regarding him. I think that the kids in season 4 made more interesting drug dealers than he did.

Yup - Hong Kong is a bastion of light and joy.

Welcome to the list of poorly functioning countries that worship unbridled capitalism. The only reason Singapore and Hong Kong don't have some of the problems we do here, is that they're fucking city-states. Hardly apples to apples.

Thanks for checking it out. I know a lot of the places referenced were filmed in alternate locations so I tried to notate that when I could. I still have a lot of information I want to add but I thought it was at a point where I could get some input from others on how to improve it.
Since you're from Baltimore if you see any mistakes I made let me know, I'd really appreciate it. I did this from Google Maps streetview, this WikiTravel Blog and a few other online articles showing the more famous locations.

I really like your theory, as someone who just finished reading Great Gatsby for the first time let me try to delve deeper into this.

Gatsby was born into a piss poor family, he knew that he was destined for bigger and better things. He encounters a man, Dan Cody, with abusrd wealth who seems careless with his empire. Gatsby expects to inherit the estate but doesn't because he isn't in the family. Gatsby's fast, flashy lifestyle is only a cover of his desire for Daisy. While Daisy is from a rich family, she is more of an idea. The personification of wealth, as Gatsby says, "Her voice is full of money." Through his entire life, Gatsby was chasing wealth, and when he steps on the wrong people he meets his end. Striger fits into this role very easily with character tweaks and some further analysis which I might write up later.

But you are definitely onto something here! I think The Great Gatsby has more influence on the Wire than we think. I found this little article which sheds some light on the connection.

http://www.openculture.com/2012/08/ithe_wirei_breaks_down_ithe_great_gatsbyi_f_scott_fitzgeralds_classic_criticism_of_america_nsfw.html

I'd just like to say that Faidley's crab cakes are amazing and every bit as good as they're hyped to be in the Lexington Market although it is in a bit of a rougher area in Baltimore.

Here is a more comprehensive wikitravel on The Wire location. Most of the places aren't really worth stopping for but Brewer's Art (where Marlo meets Devonne in Season 3) in the Charles Center area is a really nice brewpub.

Here's what I could find so far.

http://www.metacritic.com/tv/the-wire/season-4/critic-reviews

http://www.metacritic.com/tv/the-wire/season-5/critic-reviews

These contain some real critics, although the rest of the seasons are not reviewed by professionals.

I think he was looking at the Grainery which was scheduled to be destroyed for condos. Based on this site under the South section, /u/BmoreInterested is right at that it was at Silo Point which is now condos.

I've been using www.episode-alert.com/ and been quite happy with it, it's always quite up to date and you can subscribe to the shows you watch and get email notifications about new releases. I'm not affiliated with them
^(but please use this referral code: jk)

Check out: Gang Leader for a Day: https://www.amazon.com/Gang-Leader-Day-Sociologist-Streets/dp/014311493X -- the dealers don't make much money at all. They are kickin' the money to people up the food chain.

Here's one selling for $450

I've been meaning to look into this. I have a signed hardcover edition (like it literally says "signed copy" printed right on the cover so it might be like a fake/mass-produced signature) that I found at a Goodwill. I live about half an hour from Baltimore so it didn't seem terribly unusual.

When McNulty was going through Stringer's apartment and pulled down The Wealth of Nations, it made me think of D'Angelo's monologue. I thought "did he actually read that? Or did he just want people to think he read it?"

I've read The Art of War a few times and in the beginning of my copy they do a brief history of the political culture of the time. The history points out that contrary to what you would think the top political/military members of warring factions would constantly bounce from one to the other. If they fall out of favor with one, they would use their skills and knowledge with another.

I kind of feel like Slim Charles is the same way. He's got a specific set of skills that can be applied to whatever faction he is with. He's loyal but when the Barksdales are decimated he is picked up as a free agent. He doesn't want to start his own shop so he moves on.

• (Double) Shopping cart (Bubs)
  
• Pawn aka little bald headed bitch (Bodie)
  
• Shotgun (Omar)
  
• Briefcase (Levy/Rhonda)
  
• Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations" (Stringer)
  
• Surveillance van (BPD)
  
• Bottle of Jameson (McNulty)
  
• Andre's ring (Marlo/Michael)

I like this webpage too (obviously spoilers): http://genius.com/The-wire-the-wire-episode-title-and-epigraph-meanings-annotated

Though it's probably better to check it out AFTER you finished The Wire.

Enjoy The Wire!

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Point taken, and I LOLd at your pullquote. People often do think people from any other races look the same, but as far as this show goes, Herc surprised everyone and actually got one right this time -- Avon was released to P&P ("probation & parole") and was seen. I guess that's David Simon doing ironic humor... because I just laughed like shit yet again.

Yo straight-up, I used to draw like this!

You might not be seeking advice, but I found that this book, Drawing with the Right Side of the Brain, along with taking a few figure drawing classes, helped me develop a "system" so that I could actually draw things so not everything feels like it's all floating around.

Like, good thing is, a lotta people can pick-up on who you're trying to capture. And it's cool to be able to laugh at yourself and share it with us lol.

But that book (and the figure drawing classes) basically teaches you how to see through an imaginary grid, so things are in relation to each other, and in proportion to one another.

Drawing's dope as a subject, though. It's so crazy how when you're drawing someone from life, a line placed a millimeter or two off can really change how someone is depicted.

Either way, thanks for sharing, whether or not you keep pursuing art. I personally think you should, but I'm just a fellow Wire fan.

I read about the guy a lot in high school. Interesting, very much larger-than-life character.

This is a good place to start: https://www.amazon.com/Mencken-Iconoclast-Marion-Elizabeth-Rodgers/dp/0195072383

He's also a major character in the play (also has a film adaptation) called Inherit the Wind about the Scopes Monkey Trial.

To be honest, I think the other post linked by u/ChitlinNoodleSoup very much is on point.

But for me just watching it, it makes me think of Rhonda & Jimmy's doin-it scene in S1. Apparently, in the book All the Pieces Matter, Deirdre Lovejoy (Rhonda) says that the scene was hilariously directed (by whomever the director was), where he would have them like, moan in sync, and then he'd suddenly scream, "CLIMAX NOW!!!!!" And then everyone on set found it absolutely hilarious, so someone put that phrase on a T-shirt and gave it out as a crew wrap gift lol.

From thereon out, any sex scene in the show, I can't help but think of that director screaming that out.

But to answer OP's Q, def felt like release of tension for more than one character, and it was an economic way to show two types at once. For one, frustration, and fighting against something that isn't gonna change. For another, kinda new and hopeful. And the juxtaposition/ contrast between the two types of tension-release.

They talk about it a little in the book All The Pieces Matter.. it was a conscious decision by the show to put him in the bar, but they never got around to developing the storyline further. Well, save for the toilet graffiti I guess.

Agreed, I think IMDB or rotten tomatoes or one of those sites has it being the second best season of television of all time. Wait, it's Metacritic

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The Wire: Truth Be Told https://www.amazon.com/dp/0743497325/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_KXNH00HCFZX68470T3FF?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

This is a good companion piece, but it only covers the first few seasons.

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For sure check out The Corner - it was an HBO miniseries David Simon did before he did The Wire - almost a prototype for The Wire and also about drugs in Baltimore. Most of the cast also appeared on The Wire later.

The book is "Homicide: A Year On The Killing Streets" by David Simon. The Wire isn't directly based on it, and I haven't read all of it but its certainly full of material that no doubt inspired Simon when he made The Wire.

Yeah, they’re everywhere now. If you happen to pass through Maryland on I-95, the Harris Teeter in Locust Point (in Baltimore) is like 30 seconds off the highway and usually has a bunch of the smaller bottles. But you should be able to find it elsewhere too.

I’ve just been ordering these, and refilling an Oxo squeeze bottle with it:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B083PXFLFF/

According to Williams in "All the Pieces Matter," he didn't know Landsman was a real person until after filming a few episodes. When the real Landsman saw Williams, he immediately went on a diet.

Agree with a lot of these. I'd like to throw in LA Rex. The author was a cop in the LA Rampart Division (of Rodney King fame) and is going to be the head writer for the upcoming Training Day TV series. Very interwoven in the mode of The Wire. It follows the perspectives of a veteran cop, a rookie and rap mogul with gang ties as the police uncover a drug cartel conspiracy...in the midst of a gang war...while a cop killer is on the loose...jumping back and forth between the mid-90s and early-2000s. It's very pulpy and entertaining.

-Burner cell phone

-Nail gun

-The Wealth of Nations book

-Plain white T-shirt

-One of Bubbles' hats

-Stained glass church window

-Boarded up rowhouse

-That ring that people kept stealing from each other

-?? something newspaper-related but an actual newspaper seems too obvious

This isn't a podcast, but maybe you could find it on audiobook. I recently finished it and couldn't help but see a lot of parallels between it and the Wire: https://www.amazon.com/Detroit-American-Autopsy-Charlie-LeDuff/dp/0143124463

It covers a lot of the same topics from the drug epidemic to struggling union workers to corruption in the local government. The author is a reporter who also happens to be a shit-stirrer in the vein of McNulty or Freemon. Totally worth your time if it sounds interesting to you.

https://www.amazon.com/Wire-Complete-Dominic-West/dp/B00TFANQYS/ref=tmm_blu_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1510659189&sr=8-2

Well shit, looks like it’s up to $76.90 now. I had a price alert configured on camelcamelcamel.com so I might’ve been able to get it when it had a price error? (I put in the order as soon as I got the alert and saw how cheap it was)

Sorry man! I look like a liar now. I recommend putting in an alert on camelcamelcamel, especially with Black Friday and Cyber Monday coming up