Top products from r/TheWire

We found 39 product mentions on r/TheWire. We ranked the 45 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.

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Top comments that mention products on r/TheWire:

u/lurking_quietly · 2 pointsr/TheWire

I'm glad you found the above useful, even though most of it is really peripheral to the international influence of The Wire. You may need to look into European TV critics' evaluation of the show, if only to get a sense of whether it was even on their radar at the time. The show had a devoted fanbase here in The US, but it was never a particularly large one. Overseas, I can imagine other American shows—even serialized, prestige dramas—would have gotten a lot more attention. You may have to hunt for references there to the show.

There are some other TV shows and movies worth reviewing; though they predated The Wire, they echo many of the same arguments. The 1989 miniseries Traffik immediately comes to mind, as well as its adaptation into Stephen Soderbergh's 2000 Oscar-winning movie Traffic. Oh, and there's also The Corner, HBO's miniseries adaptation of the book The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood by David Simon and Ed Burns. Of these, Traffik almost certainly had the highest profile in Europe. And again, all of these projects predated The Wire.

Oh, and this is a bit indirect, but I think that the way a show like The Wire demands long-term attention to something people either thought they understood or never cared about in the first place informs some of the "deep-dive" segments of something like Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. Most of those 10–20+ minute segments are available (with minor edits for language) on the show's YouTube page. Some of the topics also seem right at home in the context of ethos of The Wire: consider in particular segments on the wealth gap, prison, police militarization, civil asset forfeiture, municipal violations, standardized testing, bail, mandatory minimums, public defenders, prisoner re-entry, journalism, police accountability, and school segregation, among others.

On a related note, I think The Wire was effective at making you identify with criminals who aren't simply antiheroes like Tony Soprano or Walter White. I see echoes of this empathy for people who've done terrible things in shows like, say, Rectify. Maybe I'm just more attuned to notice that after having seen The Wire, but it still strikes me as one of the best examples of humanizing criminals without glamorizing crime itself. You see a bit more of this in some journalism, like that by VICE. Their TV channel VICELAND recently showed the news/real-life series Black Market with Michael K. Williams, the host of which you'll recognize from playing Omar. I'm sure it would be easy to overstate how much The Wire in particular is relevant to this, but I do think it showed that there's an audience for stories about the lives of people often ignored in or underserved by news or entertainment. And for The Wire itself, it's worth noting that the show cast Baltimore natives who'd never acted before. Among many examples are Felicia "Snoop" Pearson and Melvin Williams, a real-life drug dealer targeted by Ed Burns when he was a cop, who played the deacon.

If you're looking for international reaction elsewhere, I don't know what might be the most natural examples of influence might be. Netflix's Narcos, shot and set mostly in Colombia, is certainly "international", but that show's goals are very different from those of The Wire.

Oh, one other thing comes to mind, though it's not really influenced by The Wire so much as something whose rationale can be better appreciated after having seen the show. Namely, in 2001, Portugal widely decriminalized drug use, and there've been a lot of very positive effects attributed to this policy change. Imagine something like Hamsterdam done on a nationwide scale, but without the need for implementing the policy surreptitiously.

This sounds like quite an ambitious project. Best of luck!

u/moomooCow123 · 4 pointsr/TheWire

Neat! Here's a link to the book she mentions. Seems like it'll be an interesting read. Reviews look pretty good!

u/phovendor54 · 5 pointsr/TheWire

There was an interview with one of the sound mixers who worked on the show in this book.

They worked extensively not just on making sure dialogue was crisp and clear but the background sounds told a story as well. The example she used was McNulty going on his drunken late night excursions to Rhonda Perlman's house for booty calls and would set the neighborhood dogs barking. When he's acting like a dog, the dogs respond. They had a bit of fun with it.

u/alan2001 · 1 pointr/TheWire

OK... I'm reading "The Wire - Truth Be Told" which is the official HBO guide to the entire series. I've skipped to the end (page 490) and it says:

>"Though he loses the job he both loves and hates, McNulty ends the series with his relationships and friendships intact, alive at his own wake, saluted by his fellow cops, even his longstanding nemesis Jay Landsman."

relevant ;-)

u/Sammy__Jankis · 8 pointsr/TheWire

I've been having a lot of fun playing the card game "Exploding Kittens". I can't stand how "internet-y" the design and humor is, so I decided to re-skin it for my personal use. There's 40 unique characters in the deck! Since I don't have any kind of copyright to the game or the art, I'm not going to distribute the files I designed, but still thought you all would find it cool.

u/gingerbreaddan · 4 pointsr/TheWire

Have you read Snoop's Grace After Midnight?. Pretty cool memoir too, although I don't know how it stacks up with Simon's books. I'll have to check out those two and report back.

u/offby1 · 5 pointsr/TheWire

http://www.amazon.com/The-Wire-Complete-Series/dp/B005NFJAWG/ says "Bonus features from all five seasons, including audio commentaries by cast and crew".

u/smallteam · 6 pointsr/TheWire

I'm not quite old enough to know much about it, but the term "pool circuit" has to do with gambling on billiards games, more specifically, the route of travel from pool hall to pool hall one goes on while being a "pool hustler," akin to musicians "going on tour" to play a series of venues.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0sKSg752-g

https://i.imgur.com/rEKORzS.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/qMUfIZJ.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swCgzh3xp3g

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/running-the-table-l-jon-wertheim/1008545197

https://www.amazon.com/Running-Table-Delicious-American-Hustler/dp/0547086121

u/random_pattern · 1 pointr/TheWire

I'd also like to know if this release of it on Amazon is widescreen…can't really tell from the product notes, which say: "Multiple Formats, AC-3, Box set, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled; Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1"

u/jimmyjazz95 · 6 pointsr/TheWire

Yep exact same. Did you read Brett Martin's 'Difficult Men' by any chance? Its a book on the golden era of tv and covers the Wire very well.
http://www.amazon.com/Difficult-Men-Creative-Revolution-Sopranos/dp/1594204195

u/RegMackworthy · 2 pointsr/TheWire

The Last Shot by Darcy Frey reminded me a lot of Season 4. It's a true story that follows 4 NYC high school basketball players in the mid 1990s, trying to make it out of the neighborhood. Very well-written and thought-provoking, especially with the epilogue that came 10 years later.

u/jfkk · 1 pointr/TheWire

This one: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Wire-Truth-be-Told/dp/1847675999/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1370460110&sr=8-1&keywords=the+wire+truth+be+told
That's all Simon wrote about Marlo, but I'd def recommend the book for all fans of The Wire.

Edit: And if you're not convinced, there's a 13 page interview (or rather a discussion) between David Simon, Ed Burns and Melvin Williams where they talk about Melvin's years as a drug kingpin, how we got caught by Ed Burns using a wiretap and how the game has changed. Essential stuff, really.

u/thisismynsfwuser · 1 pointr/TheWire

And then The Corner. Prepare to have your heart broken though.

u/museveni · 1 pointr/TheWire

Ghettoheat. Customers who viewed this also viewed The Wire, and The Avon Barksdale Story.

u/CrisisCake · 1 pointr/TheWire

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.

u/PoisonvilleKids · 14 pointsr/TheWire

As I say most times I hear a question about the background to The Wire and it's various characters: Homicide: A Year on The Killing Streets by David Simon holds all the answers, and is an absolutely fantastic read.

u/pschernek · 1 pointr/TheWire

Ray Winstone was a top choice for McNulty along with Reilly. They also had John Hurt, Tate Donovan, Donnie Wahlberg, Guy Pierce, Josh Brolin, Tom Sizemore, Viggo Mortensen, Liev Schreiber, and David Morse lined up to play McNulty.

All of this is from Difficult Men. http://www.amazon.com/Difficult-Men-Creative-Revolution-Sopranos/dp/1594204195