261: The The Wire Episode

[00:00:00] Behold, A Cold Open Sketch Joe, um, fuck. I have a confession to make. This is gonna be really hard to say, and it might change our relationship. And I'm scared, but I can't hold it in anymore. This is something I've actually been wanting to tell you for a long time, but I've been too scared.

[00:00:30] But at this point, I think it's gonna do more damage to keep it bottled up. What? Joe, I'll just say it. I'm a Kate Sith. What? This whole time, the guy that you thought was me, that's been a robot all along. I'm actually another guy far, far away.

[00:01:00] What? And I bet you thought this cat on my shoulder with a big megaphone that shouts out descriptions of what I'm about to do has just been some cat I'm friends with. Uh, no. Turns out the cat is also a robot. What?

[00:01:16] The cat is actually the part that I remote control. I, meaning the real me, I, I, me, work in an office far away. And I control the cat from my job. The cat then yells instructions into the microphone. And then the robot, which looks like a guy that you thought was me, it then does what the cat said, which is, which is what I told it to say with my remote control. Which again, I use from far, far away. What?

[00:01:47] What? What? What?

[00:02:42] What? It's really an honor to be here. So for your first episode as co-host, uh, do you have any ideas for what topic you want to do? Actually, yes. I want to talk about how no one should ever play independent tabletop RPGs. They're really bad and a waste of time. No one even buys them anyway. And it's better to play D&D because it's better designed and more fun. What?

[00:03:10] Yeah. And if you want to do other things when you play an RPG, other than fight fantasy monsters, you should just homebrew new rules to D&D because it's so modular and open and it'll work really well. What? Joe? You there? Chuck, I'm not comfortable with how this episode's going. This idea is too good. Also, I'm sorry. There's just something I have to say that I can't hide any longer. I'm a Kate Sith.

[00:03:39] Woke up this morning.

[00:04:09] Listen to the wire. Got my coffee in the morning. Put on an episode of the wire. Got my HBO. It is 2005. It's fine. Folks, welcome to Anime Sickos podcast. It's the podcast for geniuses and the only podcast where we take a look at the four pillars of modern misery, anime, gaming, posting, and job. I am Tom in Anime Sickos. I'm Joe in Anime Sickos. What year is it, Tom?

[00:04:39] It's 2006. Season four of The Wire is airing right now. Oh, the future is optimistic. Is there a future? Sure. People think yes. And that's wonderful. Even though we are, what, halfway through Bush's second term in a big illegal war. Of course, we all know that like when we're living through this, we're like, this is going to matter later, right? Well, I mean, I'm thinking things are looking good. Do you want to know why?

[00:05:06] Because the Republican Party is at all time lows popularity wise. People are thinking people in the newspaper who are really smart and know what they're talking about because you're not allowed to write a column in the newspaper if you're not a genius. Certainly, you can't if you're a fucking moron idiot who's dumber than a baby. They all say that this means that this might be the end of the GOP forever, that it might be done as a party because of how toxic Bush is.

[00:05:31] And I actually just got an incredible compilation CD where all of my favorite musical artists are rocking against Bush. And it's going to make a difference. Um, I, I, I have hope that there will be change. Uh, I'm in high school at this point. Uh, I'm doing extemporaneous speaking and speech, which is the one where you do topical events. And it's easy because you're like, I would not do the Iraq war. Uh, I personally wouldn't do that. Uh, thank you. And they're like, that kid's got the juice.

[00:06:00] I mean, everyone in the newspaper is saying I would do the Iraq war and they have a, that's their job to think of smart things to say. So you're fucking laughing them as a child. I think at 2006 was even, maybe it's too early for that, but it's certainly in my heart of hearts is when you reach the point where the opinion was like, it's the war is wrong in execution. But like the idea is still good.

[00:06:27] It would have been so fucking dope if we could get the jackal to just like explode bin Laden and Saddam. Um, that would have been great. And like the Lord would have smiled on it. Um, I remember hearing in fucking church.

[00:06:45] Um, that yeah, basically the thing, like it was, it's a just war, but, but we're going about it in an unjust way and being like how as a fucking like 12 year old being like how nuanced from the Catholic church. And then as like a 15 year old, I'm like, how evil, how, how sweeping under the rug. Truly fucking emblematic of this fucking institution. Uh, what? There's also, I don't support the war, but I support the troops.

[00:07:15] I support the kill doers. Yeah. I, I mean, Joe, this has been discussed at great length, but like so much have curbed your enthusiasm. So many of the episodes, like as funny as they might be kind of ring hollow because they're based on a grievance that only Larry David could have. What, what's wrong with that? That's, that's what makes him such a good comedy writer. It's like, yes, yes, yes. But he, all of his classic Seinfeld episodes are based on grievances he had when he had normal amount of money. Correct. Yes. Yes.

[00:07:44] When he lived, yes. In New York. Uh, yes, yes, yes, yes. And then, uh, it doesn't help that curb your enthusiasm is about himself. So it's like, there is already a little bit of like, you're feeding into yourself. So there's, there's already the danger that this could be like, maybe not. And I don't fucking care because it makes it's like, this is not like about like a normal guy. This is about like a guy who was earned too much money and he's still fucked up from before. Yeah.

[00:08:11] But I will say that the episode and, and the grievance that even coming from an out of touch guy whose life has nothing to do and overlaps in no ways with any normal person, the episode where everyone says, thank you for your service to the troop. And he's just like, Hey, and everyone's like, why didn't you thank him? And he's like, he's been thanked. That is the realist shit that ever fucking was.

[00:08:40] Also, I don't know what they did. I don't want to be on the hook for something. I'm not just giving out. Thank you as willing. I'll thank the bus driver. Cause I got off at the right time, but that happened. Yeah. But anyway, the TV situation, it's better than now. You know why? Because 30 Rock is going to happen in the future. Yeah. Actually, what did 30 rack might be on now. I don't have the timeline in my head right now. Imagine if it fuck.

[00:09:06] Yo, I specifically talked about 2006 when season four of the wire was coming out because spoiler, it's the best season of the wire. If I was a great watcher of television, I would have just watched two days ago, the brand new episode alliances, episode five of season four of the wire. And I would have said to myself, wow, we that's so good.

[00:09:36] And then three days later on October 11th of that same year, I would tune in to NBC and watch the premier episode of 30 rock. Dude, the riches that were just falling out of the television. Like 30 million people would watch a 30 rock episode. Yeah. That is insane. I just because like, you know, network TV was still kind of like a thing. Yeah.

[00:10:04] I remember like did you as a very millennial thing, but I remember like, oh, it's Sundays or whatever. You go to somebody's house and you watch 30 rock or whatever the office. It was like a thing is it was good TV on a certain time and you would watch it. Yeah. Also earlier that same year, a couple of months ago, I just watched the last episode of the first part of season six of the Sopranos. I've not seen that because of my anti-Italian sentiment that you dude, you got. Oh, I know. I know.

[00:10:33] I know it's I know it's very Joe coded and I know they are like I know it's hilarious and it's just a wonderful characterization of just like bums like idiots, bums and rot, Joe. Also. I'm just looking on Wikipedia and looking at these dates and bugging my eyes out. If if you are such a person who has just watched Alliances brand new and has just watched the

[00:11:00] pilot of 30 rock brand new, you also feel warm in your soul that you had just two months prior watched brand new premiering. Tell him something pretty. The series finale of Deadwood. What? Huh? What? Huh? Golden age of television. People like to say that there's good TV shows now. Me among them. I like watching TV shows.

[00:11:30] There is like. Bullshit compared to this. I was aware of the shows I didn't watch either because there was like a smaller amount. And part of the issue now is everyone is well aware is it's like when you tell someone to watch something like what is it? It's like Don Crumbo. You have to get it on bingo and like all this stupid shit. Yeah. Which. Then just effectively like stops common culture a little bit because there's this additional

[00:12:00] friction to get everybody. And also they're like stupid small platforms because it was before the way TV needs to be is that you got good network TV and then if you make enough money you get to see Deadwood. Yeah. I think that's I think that is a social contract. Yeah. It is really reasonable. Now it's fucking like I don't know just that the chance that you even hear of a show is so slim.

[00:12:28] Now they make data centers that delete Deadwood. It sucks. It's the opposite. It also pollutes your air. When you were talking about how many people watch 30 Rock, I got it. 30 Rock was in its time known as a big flop that was always on the cusp of cancellation that only got it seven seasons because Tina Fey had some pull from being big on SNL.

[00:12:53] She was Lorne Michaels is protege and Lorne had Lorne Michaels is actual skill is being a guy that can tell NBC what to do. And that's why he's still the boss of SNL, even though he's not funny, because as soon as they have someone else, NBC is going to be it's going to cost a lot less of this show with 30 minutes and not live. And that's what we're doing. Bye bye. And if there's not Lorne Michaels to be like, no, then sorry.

[00:13:20] Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is 30 Rock is a flop show that rated badly its first season, a season that did so poorly that it was on the verge of cancellation. The rank, the rank it got for the year was a number 102. There were 101 shows that more people watched than 30 Rock. And the amount of viewers that it had on average was 5.8 million.

[00:13:50] Joe, what the fuck? That was low. What are we doing? That's absolutely insane. That's a flop. That's a flop. Speaking of... Okay, let's look. We got to get to the wire. Yeah, I was about to say, but first we do need to shout out our new patrons. And I was going to segue into that with my hilarious speaking of flops, us, our Patreon. Ha ha. But I'm not.

[00:14:19] I actually take that back. Our Patreon is lovely and we love our patrons, especially our two newest patrons. This one, I am really excited because I think you might learn some spells from them. Sorcerer's Homie. That's a good one. That's a good one. Thank you, Sorcerer's Homie, for your $7. What the shit? That's God's number. That's, yo, that's true. If the devil is six, then God is seven. I learned that from Pixies.

[00:14:50] I learned that from the Bloodhound game. This just shows the duality of sickodom, doesn't it? Doesn't it? Is this us and our other new patron? I don't know if I'm allowed to say this. Honey love. That's not okay. Say it again, but beep it out. Eh. Eh. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. You can patronize us at patreon.com slash anime sickos. Folks, we're talking about The Wire. Why?

[00:15:20] I watched The Wire like a year ago. Not even recently. We just decided, when that happened, I was talking to Joe about The Wire the whole time. And I was like, eventually we got to do a Wire episode. It's today. Yeah. And also I immediately was like, okay, here's some thoughts. And there was a lot of Wire content in my head. Yeah. So here's the thing about The Wire.

[00:15:44] Among the prestige shows, it is spoken of like it's vegetables. You know what I mean? Where it's just like, oh, The Wire. It's actually not so much like a TV show. It's more like a book. I mean, it's so dense. It's so dense. It's about the system, man. It's like, it's like, it's so like, yeah, you can have your Sopranos and your Deadwood. But like, if you really want to become an intellectual, you got to watch The Wire. It was a flop, man.

[00:16:13] It had zero ratings because no one could understand what was going on because of how confusing it was. You got, you got, the Wire is, you have to have a very high IQ to watch The Wire. So I was like intimidated by it for like a long ass time. And I imagine not an insignificant number of you listening feel the same. So we're doing the PSA to say, get over this shit. Watch this so fucking good. You've watched harder shit. You have.

[00:16:42] It's not, it's not that. It's complex. It's good. And it's, it's, it's unbelievably well-structured, but like, it's not vegetables or that hard. You know what makes it complex? And this is also, this is the complexity that also makes it be low rated forever, which is the first season and the seasons are very like, each season is sort of like a self-contained thing. We're talking about X. Yes. Like this, there's a topic for this season.

[00:17:09] And then that topic's gone away for the next one. Except somehow all of the characters who were relevant and present in doing the stuff in that season are still there. Yes. Which means. It feels like actual hand magic. It's amazing. Means that every season, this show's cast is like increasing by an insane amount.

[00:17:35] And you think these characters are only going to be around for one season, I bet. And for a few of them, that's true. But for most of them, no. And that's what we mean by like, it's too confusing. Like if you're starting in season four, there's the main story, which you can follow because it just started. But there's also 50 guys who are showing up in other scenes where you're just like, what are, huh?

[00:18:00] And it's like, well, you need to have watched all of it to know what their deal is. Which I think is also an issue because people hit the second season and they're like, I don't like this one as much. And they're like, well, it actually like. Yes, I could say why maybe that one is not as gripping, although I thought it was very interesting because a guy gets his leg exploded by a shipping container. That's pretty cool.

[00:18:24] It's I think, OK, I think the the key thing and the key moment in a wire watch and like the most the most sort of like fraught with power moment in the entire thing is that season one to two transition. And so I'm going to give you in brief what that feels like.

[00:18:46] Season one of the wire is a cop show that has got the prestige HBO flair. It is at its core a formula cop show. We have our detectives, including our lead McNulty. He's a great detective. He gets results. They're all fucked up, though. They're all fucked.

[00:19:10] Like everyone's what I think is wonderful about this show is like from the jump, it's just like. Yeah, the cop is just like a shitty guy, like it's like it's not like, oh, they're like he's got the badge and a duty. It's like this. We are seeing algae in the pond doing what they do. He is like McNulty is the best detective on the Baltimore police force.

[00:19:32] However, how this manifests is he is so fucking smug about everything he does and he thinks that he is smarter than everyone else, including and especially all of his bosses who are more concerned with politics and politicking than actually solving crimes and getting things done. So he is just a smug, annoying asshole. He is also a alcoholic who is committing slow suicide at all times.

[00:20:01] Anyway, he is put on a detail that is meant to bring down the Barksdale drug trafficking ring, which is being run by the drug Kingpin Avon Barksdale. And the main way that they are able to make headway in their case against the Barksdales is by setting up a wire on the phones they use, hence the title of the show.

[00:20:30] So that is basically season one. It is just that. It's them getting the judge to sign off on it, right? A lot of it is like we just judged. We just need 30 more days of the wire. And he's like, OK, but you better have results. And then classic at the end, they think they're going to bust the Barksdales.

[00:20:53] But the Barksdales, they know it's coming and have taken pain so that the damage they do is minimal. Yes, Avon is in prison for like a year, but he's fine with it. He's smug. And it's like, damn, I guess great detective work can't overcome the inertia of the system. Now, you would think that season two would continue to be about the detail trying to take

[00:21:23] down the drug trade in Baltimore and using a wire. It does not. I want to just say, I just want to say, I really, as a creative myself, although not someone who's made something anything like this, I really respect investing your audience in a bunch of characters and then being like, all right, now it's time for ethnic whites. Season two is the white people season.

[00:21:49] Now, because this show is set in Baltimore and the way Baltimore is in real life, a big majority of the cast is black actors. Season two is the white people season. And we open and someone looks directly into the camera. Not really. This is a metaphor. And says, they might as well. They might as well. Greetings, agent. You are a dock worker. Your mission, go to the docks and work literally at all.

[00:22:18] Also, don't beat your wife. This mission has been rated impossible. And then when you go to work as a union doc member, what happens is you go into like a room that has outdoor picnic tables inside. You jack off to pornos. And you go up to the caged reception and you're like, can I work? I have this ticket. And then this woman's like, no. And then you sit down.

[00:22:41] There are so many establishing shots of the docks at the harbor of Baltimore. And it is the most like visually unpleasant series of images that you could ever make. Just the ugliest shit. And it is, I was talking to Joe about this. It is the metaphor factory. And it's like, look at these, look at these incredible machines. These are the most important things that your fathers and grandfathers used to build this city.

[00:23:11] You're not using them now. In fact, they're still here, though, of course. They look pretty beat up, though. Doesn't look like they'll last much longer. Yeah. So you can imagine if you thought that this was going to be for the entire show, a crime show about detectives getting the villains. You would be a little disappointed. To the second season's credit, there is drug tie in at the end. Right.

[00:23:38] Or there is there is a top dog ethnic white who is revealed. Yeah. Yeah. So that is involved in sort of the supply. Like our heroes from the first season are secondary characters because a awful and annoying and stupid ethnic white police captain who is a Polish asshole has a vendetta against the union head of the stevedores who works at the dock.

[00:24:07] And he says, hey, I'm going to force you people because you are police officers who work for me to find some way in which this guy I hate is a criminal. And meanwhile, there's drug and human trafficking going on at the docks that the union must allow, because if they didn't, they'd work even less than they do now, which is not at all.

[00:24:36] Uh, and would you believe it? A, a shipping container full of sex workers who are being trafficked. Uh oh, they all suffocated and died in there. And so that's sort of like the case, but it's a side plot. Yeah. So that's the kind of rot we're talking. Uh, nothing is on the up and up.

[00:24:59] Uh, and as the episode goes on, it, it slots easily into the first season in the way, like in a video game where you get more of your map. Mm hmm. It's like, oh, okay. Okay. Okay. Yes, it is slow enough for sure. And, but you have to watch it because it's like, there's a, there is. How do I put this? I hate when people are like, you have to watch this. You do it. Because it's usually like, you have to watch Marvel homework. But this, I'm saying this in the context of like, first of all, I think it's engrossing.

[00:25:28] I know it's like, oh, it's the white people one, but it's like, it's great. They're fucked up. Yes. Okay. You know what it is? Because I've talked about this before that you need a show to be a jobs program for ugly actors because ugly actors. The second, dude, the second season is like a works progress administration for fucking ugly people. Whatever that thing is called. Literally horse face. Horse face. The horse, horse face. Uh, yes. There's a guy named horse face. Uh, yeah.

[00:25:57] Everyone in the doc looks like shit. It's wonderful. Someone, as Joe mentioned, has a shipping container crushed their leg and the guy's screaming and howling as the ambulance, uh, is getting there. And horse face is just like, don't worry, man. We'll get you. Like the union will take care of you. Uh, we'll get you. You have workman's comp. And they do give a fat stack of money, but that was like his whole leg. Yeah. Uh, it's okay.

[00:26:23] So the reason you have to watch it is because you have, if you're going to continue watching, the wire, you have to understand what the second season is telling you, which is this is not a cop show. It is a show about how Baltimore and on a greater scale, America is fucked. You have countless individuals who are vibrant and interesting and deep and complex and have feelings and desires and passions.

[00:26:53] And they can do so much and do great things. However, none of it fucking matters because we're all in this fucked up system. We're in the muck. We're in this awful institution, which it makes it all the more funny that series creator and showrunner and head writer, David Simon, is the most lib brained mother. If you follow him. He really is like, I love the rules and the rules will save us.

[00:27:21] Uh, it is really, I just, how did he make this show? And Tom had the good point earlier when we were talking. It's because he's, he's an amazing big picture, uh, like planner of like arcs and how to slot and everything. Uh, which is a distinct skill from what is being said at the dialogue level. Yeah. And cause like, well, I don't actually know that. That's just what I have to assume must be the truth. Well, no, I agree with it though. Yeah.

[00:27:48] Cause like, I know that the, the writer's room, if you look at the written by credits on specific episodes, there are like famous and like well known successful, like crime novelists. Who are just like, those are the ones doing the dialogue. Yes.

[00:28:04] And like, I will say that the ability to like juggle as many plots as the show does and have them work and have them like be followable and all be relevant is like unreal. So like his skill as a show runner and just like project manager, that's amazing. However, it is hilarious to see the guy who made the show that said individual effort is meaningless when in, when stuck inside a rigged system.

[00:28:34] It's like, I hate Bernie Sanders cause he doesn't respect the DNC. Yeah. Okay. Fine. I don't know how you made this show. That's like literally, literally one of the characters is a democratic politician who get, who, who rides populist. Like I'm here to actually make change and bring like new life to city hall wins the mayor, the mayor's office. It immediately rat fucks everyone so that he can get ahead in the system.

[00:29:04] And it's just like, but, but vote for Hillary. Yeah. It's a, it's a good show for rat fucking. It's just nonstop rat fucking in every aspect of society. Here's another thing, Joe. I thought, cause you know, we haven't even mentioned this character once. I thought Omar was the main character. He's in it a little bit. Oh, just, you mean before you started watching, you thought based. Yeah. Okay.

[00:29:29] So Omar is like, uh, look, every show needs a Sephiroth. It does. It just does. Uh, and he is, he is. So Omar is like, uh, a bag man. Do they call him a bag man? What's the term? He's a stick up man. He's a stick up man. He's the guy. He's the bag man. They're holding the bag. He sticks them up. Right. So he's robbing drug dealers, not people. He's robbing drug dealers. He never, that his, his man has to have a code. He never raises his gun to a citizen. Yeah.

[00:29:56] And he's just like, I don't know, like the Batman around people with a shotgun. He's like really good at it. And everyone's afraid of him because he has a shotgun. And when the kids see him walking, they say Omar coming. I thought that that would be happening. So I, so, okay. I knew he had his shotgun. I knew he had his duster. I knew he whistled the farmer in the Dell when he was about to do some cold shit. I know he said, when you come at the King, you best not miss. Uh, when someone came at him and missed.

[00:30:24] Um, I thought that that shit was going to happen all the time. All of those like iconic images like happen once. Like one, like one. He is a minor character who shows up now and then. However, he is a force of nature though. Yes. I mean, the reason people think that is because Michael K. Williams who played him rest in peace, uh, is like unreal charismatic.

[00:30:53] And also because he, he is the one character. Cause everyone, like we've been saying, all this is about being in the system. The game. They say it's all in the game. He is like the only character who's not in the game, uh, who has intentionally put himself above it, uh, and in enacts his own will in a way that matters and makes a difference. And so in that way, he is very bold and stands out.

[00:31:21] But like, man, I, I thought it was going to be about Omar because everyone talks about Omar. No, man. His, his, uh, uh, appearance on a community was very funny. I think it has one of my favorite jokes, which is, uh, we had a name for people like you in prison. The mean click. That's just like, it's just, it's perfect joke. It's just like, it's flawless. It's, I want to smooch it. It's so good.

[00:31:47] The word mean being said coming out of him, coming out of him who was just like, he, you believe this man was in prison. It's a good casting. Yeah. Oh my God. He's so good. Um, season three is all about, uh, whether or not drugs should be enforced or not, which is to say drug prohibition.

[00:32:13] There is a, we are introduced to a disillusioned police major who's been trying to do the right thing his entire career. And what is this show been telling you this whole time? If you are one person trying to do the right thing in America, too fucking bad. It doesn't matter. There's big numbers. You got to bring down. Like there's crime stats, right? You got to bring down these numbers. Yes. And he has the brilliant idea. He, his, his metaphor is the paper bag.

[00:32:43] You're not allowed to drink alcohol in public, but if you put it in a paper bag, everyone knows you're doing it. But the, but you get a pass. The police won't hassle you because you got your paper bag. Yes. Yes. And you're communicating like, I am aware of the rule and I am like, I'm doing a bare minimum here. Like it's fine. There is a contract, an unspoken contract that both sides are upholding. What if there was a paper bag for drugs? And he basically, in order to, he's like, there's, there's two ways that I can make the numbers go down.

[00:33:10] One is I can be an asshole and, and have my cops ruin this neighborhood as though I were a tyrant invading it and invading army. Or I could just say, Hey, everyone who wants to fucking shoot up in on heroin, you have to go to these three blocks of Baltimore where nobody lives and do it there. And we won't fucking tell. Uh, and he sets this up completely on his own.

[00:33:40] Uh, and it's so, it's so good. It's such like, this is the most, uh, college try version of libertarianism that's ever existed. It's just, it's, it's, uh, first of all, he refers to this whole like process of like, you know, there's a part of an Amsterdam where everybody can do drugs and it's fine. He uses that and he explains that. And then it starts, someone mishears him and they call it Amsterdam. Yes. And then that's it.

[00:34:10] There's Amsterdam forever. Amsterdam is the place where you do drugs. It's a bunch of, it's like literally a bunch of row houses that are boarded up. Yeah. Uh, and like to his credit, like the numbers go down and like the corners that they constantly have to bust and pick the, uh, you know, the, the dealers off of are empty. And there's like very low crime in his district. And everyone's like, how do you, how are you doing this Colvin?

[00:34:38] And he's like, I guess good police work. And eventually gets found out. And the system, when he gets found out and it's just like, I was just doing drugs here. No fucking way. It's, it's, oh, mom found the piss drawer. Like that's what it is. It's a hundred percent. Mom found the piss drawer.

[00:34:57] And like all, like all fucking things, everyone's like, now, if I'm looking at this me myself, it makes perfect sense. And obviously it's the right thing to do. However. But I can't rat fuck you that way, right? Yeah. Yeah. It's like, however, come on, we're in the system. We can't do that. That's, you can't do that. You can't. I wouldn't get reelected mayor if I said that was okay. So it's not. But thank you for doing it.

[00:35:27] But you can't do that and you're fired. Then, of course, we have season four, the best season. This is the school season. Now you think, why would I fucking care about school, about elementary school in my crime show about detectives busting the drug ring? So in my opinion, this season specifically is the thing that breaks my mind with him not understanding him being a huge lip.

[00:35:56] Because he, like, this is very well done. This is a wonderful presentation of just like, okay, the prison, excuse me, it's a wonderful presentation of like the school, the prison pipeline. How like, oh man, this is in many ways just preparing people for a carceral life, et cetera, et cetera. It does that all very well. And to do that very well, you have to have a very like deep fund of knowledge about like social issues and how it fucking works. Yeah. Which is why it's so funny.

[00:36:25] He's just like, yeah, we just need to vote a little more. The image I associate most with this season is the clear backpacks. Because at that point, I had not. They were happening already, probably even in Chicago or whatever, but I had not seen them. And then it's like, oh, that's why they need. That's fucked up. Yeah. So the main thrust of this season is there's five sort of central characters here. One is Presbo, Mr. Presbolewski.

[00:36:53] He was one of the cops on the detail that did the wire in season one. He was kind of a fuck up asshole who did a lot of police brutality, but found through pure happenstance that actually he was really good at like code breaking and admin and like really took to it. However, later he fucked up and he had to quit the police because he was too much to get into. But he feels as though he needs to redeem himself.

[00:37:19] So he becomes a school teacher in the Baltimore public school system and says, I'm going to make a difference with these kids. I'm going to reach these kids. And he does. It's hard and they don't like him at first. But eventually he has the empathy and the skills to get through them and actually start to teach them something.

[00:37:37] And there are four main boys who are great friends and they each in their own way are bright and kind and friendly and sweet and have so much potential in front of them. It has really helped that the child actors are all fucking incredible. You really believe that like I love these boys. And if these boys had half a chance, they would have wonderful, rich lives.

[00:38:05] Well, guess what they don't fucking have? And then they have a cop teacher. So it's not great. Well, no, the cop, he is great. He is doing everything that is possible to help these boys. And yet. It is impossible to help these boys. You see in slow motion from miles away exactly how each one of these boys lives is going to be fucking ruined in a completely different way. Four unique ways.

[00:38:35] And bing, bong, bong, bong. They're all fucking condemned to a miserable short life. And it is one of the most emotionally harrowing things you will ever see. Yeah, it's really good. It's just like a wonderful scene. Like it's just this is good fucking TV. Season five. Isn't so good because it's the newspaper season.

[00:39:03] And this is where David Simon puts his self insert. So can I say my theory at this point? I this is my my my my my source for this. This statement is not robust. It's the wire and daredevil. But it's just when you have a character or a plot that's about the paper. It's fun. You can't do it. You can't. It sucks. Yeah, it just does. I I know things were different before.

[00:39:31] And that was a papers were a thing. It's just I. I don't know. It feels like this is the season where they're at the Renaissance fair. Yeah, it's well, there's that because like everything else is relevant. There's still ports and they're still in decay. There still is, you know, drug organizations. There still is bad law enforcement read drugs that hurts people more than it helps.

[00:40:00] And there still is underfunded public schools that set children up for failure. There's not still the newspaper. So there's that. But also like the rot completed on the newspaper front. It just is done. The sort of goal, I think, with this newspaper bit is supposed to be like this is the way that the media plays into the game.

[00:40:24] You know, the game, the system that depresses any positive change and keeps people down and and papers over any individual excellence and or individual like ability to affect change. This is how the newspaper plays its role. That makes sense.

[00:40:42] But the way it is actually manifested is there is a character named David Simon, who is the greatest reporter ever, who loves ethics and makes sure everyone facts checks everything because he's the best and he's so good at it. But there's this other guy, Scott, who hates reporting. He thinks it's boring. So he makes it up. He makes his whole story up every single time.

[00:41:09] And because he's making it up, he can put in details that are just too good to be true. And David Simon says, I don't think you fact check that. But his editors say this is dynamite. Page one. Shut up, David Simon. Don't be a killjoy. And he says, but I think he made it up. And they said, we hate good journalism. You're fired, David Simon. We love lying. And that's the season. It is. It is.

[00:41:39] Unfortunately, that ham fisted. Well, what makes it ham fisted is it's so clearly a self insert of this guy. So that that makes it. It is funny, though, to do the self insert at the end, though. That's what Stephen King did with the Dark Tower. Right. Because the last book, it's like, oh, you got to save me. Stephen King. Come out of the book. You know, all this is to say, you know, any podcast can just talk about the wire and say it's good.

[00:42:08] We've said this much. What makes us different is that we understand, you know, we're back in 2006. We're during that time. We put ourselves in that era. And one thing that I mean, the wire, you know, it never had its fair shake in terms of ratings or awards because, you know, the awards committees. You know, they're not all watching every season. So, like, say they were to submit an acting performance for awards consideration in season four.

[00:42:35] OK, the judges are going to watch the episodes and go, I don't know what what's who are these fucking people? I'm very confused. And they're going to not choose to nominate any of these actors. So it's it's got to have something to, like, boost it. And one thing that it could have had is a Game Boy Advance official tie in game made by THQ. So. Tom and I were talking, what does a 2006 Game Boy Advance game by THQ look like? I'm thinking for the wire.

[00:43:05] It's sort of a Game & Watch Gallery, maybe WarioWare type deal. Yeah, WarioWare clone for sure, because there's too many characters and there's too many sort of scenarios to fit in a sort of standard linear game. Much better to take advantage of the wide and rich cast by having themed mini games. And I think the first one that brought this all up was based on the character Proposition Joe.

[00:43:32] Prop Joe, who is the rival drug dealer to the Barksdale organization, who is a big fat dude who loves to make propositions and be a businessman. He's the best. He's the best character. I love him. He's. Oh, my God. Joe, what is his what is his side business? Or his front? Or maybe his main business? Well, isn't it? Is it a front if you also actually fix the clock? Okay, so he he works at a junk store, which I guess is like a pawn store.

[00:44:01] So he's basically surrounded by a bunch of stuff that is about to be reselled. That's his front. And he's always fixing clocks. Yep. So I'm thinking the first mini game is going to be Prop Joe's clock repair. Doki Doki crisis. You have 10 seconds to fix to put the gear in place and you got to make sure you put them. Yeah. Yeah. Another thing that Prop Joe does that is incredible is Prop Joe's accent swap. This is where you're on the phone. You have to pick the right accent.

[00:44:32] Oh, so in the show, there's a scene where Prop Joe just wants information about a crime that should not like be publicly available. So he just calls the police and pretends to be like what sounds like a very white blonde lady. And it is incredible. And the cops are just like, oh, yeah, let me just give you all this. Just information. And he's like, thank you. I'm going to actually play it right now. It's so good. Put it in later, Tom. Oklahoma City Police Department. Yes, ma'am.

[00:45:02] This is Sidney Handjerker with Handjerker Cohen and Bromberg. I'm trying to locate a Sergeant Thomas Houck in regards to a client I'm representing. Call please. Senator Hoskins. Yes, hello. This is Irvin Pepper of Pepper Pepper and Bayleaf. I'm calling in regards to a Sergeant Thomas Houck in regards to a... He's no longer on this detail. Hold on.

[00:45:34] Uh, this is Dr. J calling with test results for Thomas Houck. He's on the street. I'll leave a message on it. Uh, it's so funny because, like, he says, like, to another drug dealer, like, I'm going to get... I'm going to do you a favor and get you this information. And I'm going to get it through my extensive network. And it's just him calling them and being like, so where are you deploying the police this week? And it's like, we're deploying number 56th. And it's like, oh, okay.

[00:46:05] Um, and this was something he was just doing on set. Like, not... And then they're like, all right, well, you're going to fucking do that on camera. That's funny. That guy is so good. Oh, also, ah, I almost forgot to say. Remember when I said the four child actors were so incredible and, like, really brought their characters to life? Like, he was acting... Like, that guy who plays Prop Joe is an acting coach most of the time. Uh, because he is a big fat guy. They are not casting him for leading roles all the time. Uh, so he...

[00:46:34] His day job was acting coach. And so he acting coached those four kids. And holy shit, what a job. Um, the next minigame is going to be Ladder Shake. Is this my favorite scene in the whole show? I think so. Because it's important to watch something to be like, oh, that's a good idea. I could do that in my real life. I could apply this logic, these skills elsewhere. So, uh, there are... There's a recurring character named Bubbles who is a... He's a drug addict.

[00:47:01] So he's obviously interacting with all these drug dealer characters. Uh, and his thing is he just wants to... Like, get high and hang out with his bud. He's a sweet dude. He's so nice. Everyone who talks to him loves him. You want him to succeed. But he's not gonna. Because everything he's doing is so he can get more heroin. And he always has one heroin buddy who stands next to him. Which is another reason we really love this guy. Uh, yeah. He's a duo.

[00:47:31] He's a built-in duo. Uh, so they need money for drugs. Because that's what you use to buy them. And they run this scam. I don't even call this a scam. This is magic. Yeah, there's no lie involved. Well, yeah. It's just like... I cast a spell and I get money. Uh, there's, like, just a guy working on his house. On a ladder. And he's on the ladder. And then what happens is Bubbles... No, his white friend. Oh, yeah.

[00:48:01] Sorry. His white friend comes to the bottom of the ladder. He's like, I'm crazy. I need drugs. I'm gonna tip this ladder. And he starts shaking it. And then immediately Bubbles is like, hey, cut it out, man. Stop that. And then the guy's like, oh, my God. You saved my life. Please have my wallet. He's like, what? Your wallet? Money for that? No, I couldn't accept that. He's like, no, please. He's like, I give you insist. And then he goes around the corner. And the thing is, if you have a friend...

[00:48:28] If you have a friend and you see someone on a ladder, you can do this. Do you understand? Yes, yes, yes. Just one guy goes, blah, I'm crazy. I love you. The only thing you have to do is you have to really sell that you don't know the ladder shaker and that, like, you hate them. Like, go away. Get out. Get out of here. Get out of here. The ladder shaker has to act really scared. Like, they didn't think anyone would have cost them for this. They thought people would cheer.

[00:48:56] So I'm imagining a Game & Watch game that is a single screen. I guess that's redundant with Game & Watch. But I'm imagining Donkey Kong Jr. But instead of the vines, there are ladders. And basically what you are doing is you are running at the bottom of the ladders and shaking them to make the guy's wallets come out and you catch the wallets as they fall. And the challenge is different guys need different amounts of shaking. So it's like a little bit of, what's that game? Chef?

[00:49:26] The Game & Watch Chef. It's a little bit of just constantly juggling, you know, what's in your pan, so to speak. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking for that. It's the ladder shake. Bubbles ladder shake. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The other Bubbles minigame would be, I think, I mean, with WarioWare games, the games are so fast that the gameplay itself isn't really as important as the flavor. So I'm thinking this one is just going to be like a button mash game where like the

[00:49:53] object of the game is to like, you know, keep your average button mash rate above a certain limit. And this is going to be continue to have the will to live after yet another one of your heroin buddies overdoses and dies next to you. Yeah, the reason there's always a different buddy. It's well, it's a sad reason. It's a sad reason. Yeah. So that would be it. That'd be a good button mash. Uh-huh.

[00:50:19] Also, another thing about these WarioWare micro games is that a lot of the time, it's not so much that what they're asking you to do is hard. It's that you are suddenly thrust into it. Exactly. So it's the fast just juxtaposition of these two things. And that's what I think is going to be the Lester Freeman minigame. He is one of the detectives. He, like McNulty, is a good detective who wants to do a good job, which means that he

[00:50:47] is rat fucked mercilessly by the system. Yeah. So he just like doesn't even work now. He just like makes doll furniture. Yes. Yes. Yes. Because like he got demoted to like some bullshit job where he doesn't have it's like a fake job. He doesn't have to do work. And so he just makes dolly furniture that he sells on the side. And then he gets put on the detail to do the wire in season one as sort of like a fuck you to the guy who's in charge of it. Because like this guy is a fucking house cat who just makes doll furniture all day. And then he's like, actually.

[00:51:18] Actually, I am really smart. I would love to stop making doll furniture and be a crime guy right now. So the the two games that he's doing that you're going to have to do for Lester Freeman is one carve doll furniture and two pull bad bitches. Oh, yeah, that is true. Because there's a few parts where there's like formal police events and he's showing up with just an absolute baddie on his arm.

[00:51:42] Also, one of the things they do is they get one of the sex workers who works for the Barksdales to flip. And she's like having to go undercover and she's like really scared because like if they find out, they'll kill her. And Lester is like, oh, baby, don't worry. We'll get through this. And then like in like season four, it's like he talks about how like I have to be home early for her. And it's like, oh, bro.

[00:52:12] Yes. So, yeah. Carved. You got to switch. You got to have both. You got to be able to carve dolly furniture and pull bad bitches. Pull bad bitches. This next one is the sort of mini game for the for the white ethnics who bring the drugs into the port. And this one is simply going to be be Greek. Can you do it? Can you be Greek?

[00:52:41] What's fun about the Greek is he's not even Greek. He's just like, that's what's so fun about being an ethnic white. You're a chameleon. You're just a permanent other. That doesn't matter. Because like they get close. The police get close to finding out their operation. And his like second command says to the Greek, it's like, are you scared? And it's like, all they know is that I'm the Greek and I'm not even Greek. Oh, it's good. And of course, they don't catch him.

[00:53:10] There's going to be no drugs in America. Are you fucking stupid? Come on. And then there's a game where you sell nail guns. You have to sell nail guns because they need to be able to be used for murders in closed row houses. Yes. So in this game, you play as a Home Depot employee and the scariest lesbian who ever lived comes up to you and ask you questions about the technical specs.

[00:53:38] Very specific about like the. The impact we're talking. And she's very nice to you and is really complimentary about your salesmanship and pays you in cash personally far more than the price of the nail gun. And when you say no, you have to take it up to the register. She says, no, man, you earned it in a Baltimore accent.

[00:54:05] So thick that you think it has to be fake. But it's not. It's such a good. Yeah. I'm going to go with this right here, man. How much I owe you? Six sixty nine plus tax. No, no. You just pay at the register. No, man. You go ahead and handle that for me, man. And keep the rest for your time. This is eight hundred dollars. So what, man?

[00:54:34] You earned that bump like a motherfucker, man. Keep that shit. Yeah. And this is related to what we talked about a little bit before, which is it's about numbers. You as a person, you can't bring down numbers because to bring down numbers, you need to change society. You need to make systemic change. And one way you can change numbers. Isn't making murders not count. Yeah.

[00:55:01] And you can do that by killing people with nail guns instead of a firearm and then leaving them in abandoned row houses. It's not that they kill. They kill them normal. But like it is insane that. So like, OK, the Barksdale crew. It was the first crew. But then like later it is supplanted by the much more violent Marlowe Stanfield crew. And Marlowe's sort of like main soldier is second in command and doer of the killing.

[00:55:31] His incredible innovation is that normally when you kill your enemies, you shoot them and then go home. His innovation is that he goes to one of the many abandoned buildings in Baltimore that are boarded up, pries the boards down, kills them there and puts the board back up with the nail gun. And then everyone says, wow, this Marlowe Stanfield crew is making a lot of headway, but at least they're not killing anyone. So the murder rate is down.

[00:56:02] And then when they find when a detective uses their incredible deductive mind to find out, actually, they're all in these houses. Here's where the corpses are. Instead of going great job, detective, doing the cause of justice. Everyone says, I'll fucking kill you. You made the number huge. Yes, yes. It's like you, you, you were digging in a big hole and you dug up a big number, you fucker. Yeah, it's, it's, it doesn't matter.

[00:56:32] I mean, this is also a theme in the, the, the, the public school episode because it is not surprising to see how it's all metric related. It's all about numbers. It's all about things that people have to conform to the numbers. Yeah. Another mini game is going to be, I just talked about this Marlo's second in command, his main soldier, Chris.

[00:56:54] His mini game is going to be the campaign of Call of Duty ghosts because it is never explicitly mentioned, but it is unbelievably obvious that he is ex-military because he is very professional. He's always on time. He's always very neat and tidy and exact. And when he handles a gun, it is perfect.

[00:57:21] It's, it's, it's going to be hard to get a whole Call of Duty game on a Game Boy Advance, but I think we can do it. They had that X versus sever colon ballistic FPS. So they got that running. Oh my God. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. That was, that was all about the playing that with multiplayer, right? And it's like, get your four friends, connect your cables. They were so fucking nuts about like multiplayer Game Boy Advance.

[00:57:50] Remember the four swords game? Has that ever been played? They're wonderful. Oh my God. It was so good. It was so worth it. Really? I played it with, I played it with four people. We had, we got it, it kicked ass. And the other thing is there's a mode in there that is wonderful. It is basically like obviously Zelda, but you're fighting each other. And what's so sick is every level has a building, right? So when you go in the building, you actually then move to the, the, the Game Boy you're holding.

[00:58:19] So like, oh, like, oh, you see how that's, that's the reason I'm talking about. Like you can see what's happening outside, but the building is down below you. It's just a very, uh, put together experience that unfortunately has an insane overhead. Yeah. I was about to say like, this requires an incredible social achievement of the player, which is to say you're enough of a loser to want to play four swords adventures, but you're popular enough that, you know, three people who want to do it with you.

[00:58:48] What you need, like bare minimum actually is you need two people that upgraded to the Game Boy SP because then they have the old Game Boy laying around. So that's four Game Boys. So then you just need two willing people. That's incredible. I didn't have that. I didn't have that. Um, oh, actually speaking of four player, this is actually really smart because this is a game.

[00:59:14] This is, this could be a special mode that you need to have four cords in order to do, which is a four player co-op mission, which is, uh, greetings agent. You are a student in Bunny Colvin's special class for, uh, for, for violent students. Can you go to the special rewards dinner? Sergeant Colvin is taking you two at the fancy restaurant and not get scared. That, that, that fucking, okay. So that's a really, wow.

[00:59:43] That's such a good scene. So he, uh, there's a bunch of kids who, as Tom said, are like delinquent or just like trouble, you know, they make, they make class not work when they're in the room with the other kids. Uh, and he, the teacher takes them all out to like a very, very fancy dinner, uh, on the Harbor because they've improved. Like the, the special, uh, pilot program for the troubled students is actually showing improvement.

[01:00:10] And like, they are able to pay attention and learn from like the first time. And the kids are, they don't like it though. Cause they're like, I just feel like I just feel out of place here. Fuck this. Like, I don't know how to, I don't know how to act here. This is, this is fucked up. It's a really, it's a really good scene. And it's like, cause the big like revelation that major Colvin has seen them act this way is like, he's only ever seen them as like hyper confident. There's so disdainful of everyone else.

[01:00:38] They're able to act out because they are performing confidence. I'm bad-ass. I'm the best. I don't respect anyone else. And this is the first time he has ever seen them afraid. They're all shook. They are afraid of their reward dinner for free. And like they are, when they're going to it, they're all acting like, yo, we're the, like, we're bad-ass. We're high rollers. We're going to have a free dinner. Oh, I'm going to get all the desserts. Oh yeah.

[01:01:08] And then when they're leaving, they were like, that place was incredible. We were like the coolest people being there. And like, but like you as a viewer have just seen them. They were so fucking scared. They turned into kids. Yeah. Also a little class consciousness. Let's be honest. Yeah. Because fucking major Colvin, he too is a black man, but he's rich. He doesn't know. It's a different class. Yeah.

[01:01:34] They, they do a nice job of having like establishing shots of like, this is the middle class neighborhood. Like, like, yes, there are row houses, but here are the row houses that aren't fucked up. And they do a nice job of showing major Colvin lives in these. I, oh my God. Speaking of the suburbia bit, that's the most like, oh my God, incredible detail.

[01:01:57] There's a moment where it seems as though the Stanfield organization is going to get fucked by the law. And so they're like, before that happens, we're like burning all the evidence and laying low for a bit and then we'll bounce back. And so they are like preparing for like the year of laying low. And Chris, the soldier, the second in command who does all the violence is like, I gotta go tell my family about it. And we're like, you have a fucking family?

[01:02:26] Because we only ever see these characters in like the most fucked asshole of Baltimore that looks terrible where they're selling the drugs. And they go to his house and he's an enormous fucking suburban mansion. And he has like a beautiful family with like little kids who are like, daddy, we love you. And he's like, I'm gonna have to go away on business for a year. And they're like, really? Ah, and it's like, oh my God.

[01:02:53] You see this for like 20 seconds, but it is such an enlargement of this character. Oh, so another one, another mini game that you could have this would be the Marlow mini game is be satisfied with incredible wealth and impunity from the law. This is the hardest game in the entire collection. He's like the first season you say you see Avon Barksdale and who's his partner? Stringer Bell.

[01:03:23] Stringer Bell. Stringer Bell. And these guys are like, our plan is to do everything. Like we want it all. We want it all. We want it all. We want it all. We want it all so much that like we also want to be going legit, which they do. Like they have actual businesses and stuff. And then basically this other kid just gets to where they wanted. Yeah. So like he doesn't actually care about going legit. He cares. Marlow cares about I want to be respected on the street forever.

[01:03:51] And yeah, he wants all corners to be his. So turns out. So when I said that they were waiting for like the hammer to drop regarding the law, turns out their crooked lawyer has gotten them off. And in fact, Marlow ends up in a much better position because now that the heat is off, it's like now we can in order to keep the heat off of you, we're going to pretend you're a legitimate businessman. And now you can make some real money.

[01:04:21] And he goes to the fancy dinner where everyone's treating him with respect and saying you're a legitimate businessman. And he stays there for 10 seconds and immediately goes back onto the street and asks some kid on the corner, do you know who I am? And when they say no, he fucking freaks out. Yeah, punches him in the face. It's very illuminating. It's a really good example of the hedonistic treadmill, buddy. You'll never get it. We forgot to talk about Stringer Bell. Stringer Bell needs a minigame in this Game Boy Advance game.

[01:04:50] I think given that he is famously played by Idris Elba, the goal is have any good role ever again, which he hasn't hasn't done. He is really good in this. He's what has he done since? He's had to have. He was in a bunch of bullshit movies that all were not very good. He was in a crappy Fast and Furious movie. He is in a lot. Oh, he was really good in.

[01:05:19] There's a detective series where he is the main character. Yeah, Luther, I think. That's very good. Not surprising. It is also kind of a procedural. He was in the Dark Tower movie that everyone hated. He was in a House of Dynamite, which is a movie that I think everyone hated. He hasn't been in any good shit since The Wire. He is great. Because, okay, Marlo gets what Stringer Bell wants.

[01:05:44] Stringer Bell wants so much to not be a gangster and be a legitimate businessman. And he can't get it because he's too desperate. He's too desperate and everyone can tell. When he finally figures out that none of the people who he respects respect him back, it is like heartbreaking. But yeah, Idris Elba needs to get a fucking role this good. This is why he's famous. This is why you know who he is.

[01:06:13] Because he fucking ruled in this show. This is just like five seasons of nonstop good performances. We said this about Deadwood 2. And this is also an ensemble show. Yeah. Oh. But just watch it. I also like, I don't know, I am neutral on crime procedural stuff. And I say that to mean I was completely engrossed in this.

[01:06:42] To say it's not, it was not made to have its hooks into me. Mm-hmm. I love it. It's good. And I think we will, because when you talked about the ensemble, I remember one shining star who we have not yet brought up. And I think this is going to be the final Game Boy Advance mini game that we have to put into the Wire official tie-in game. Greetings, Agent. You are Ziggy Sabatka. Your mission.

[01:07:08] Can you get a picture of your cartoon huge dick on everyone's computer? Yeah, he's just pulling out his like luffy penis all the time. Yeah, he slaps it on the bar too. And the bartender's like, not again. Like he's reaching crotch forward. And she's like, Ziggy, not the dick again.

[01:07:36] This is, yeah. I mean, I have now watched, I think, what is the holy trinity of the HBO prestige TV classics. Which is to say, The Sopranos, Deadwood, and The Wire. And as much as I love all three, at this moment, especially thinking about how good that Game Boy Advance game would be. I think The Wire might be the best one.

[01:08:01] I mean, objectively, The Wire wins for having like the most active set pieces. Yeah. Deadwood does a very nice job of making that town feel like kind of real. But again, it is just like a single street. Also, Baltimore is real. Is real. It's real. And they got the act, like the child actors, I believe, were like from there. I believe they've made a concerted effort to make that happen. Yeah.

[01:08:28] A lot of the supporting characters, especially in the crime syndicates, like were from Baltimore. Like Snoop, the terrifying lesbian who buys the nail gun. Like everyone says like she wasn't an actor. And I don't mean that in the sense that like she wasn't an actor before, but put in a great performance. No, she just did her thing on camera. Yes. That was just how she lived her life normal.

[01:08:54] But like Deadwood's more fun, obviously. It's got a lot more sort of like flavor and the language is so unique and fun to live in. But I mean, there's I think if if they had equal amounts of seasons, I wouldn't be so confident saying this. But there's more of the wire than Deadwood. And it ends on an ending that feels like it was like it feels satisfying.

[01:09:24] Deadwood just stops in the middle. The wire does have its goofs, but I agree. I'd like I regularly think of Deadwood related things that are just like, oh, that's a fun show. Wow. I mean, like it's obviously very heavy and everything, but with. The wire. Is it the first season where they are inspecting the trajectory of the bullet holes and the detectives are only saying fuck? Yes. Yes. What the fuck? Fuck. Fuck.

[01:09:53] Like every fuck you can tell exactly what that's what it's saying. They all have different. It's really good. It's really good. Oh, I didn't even talk about bunk. But yeah, this is the last. This is the last mini game is bunk. Bunk is like normal, right? Kind of. Relatively speaking. He's not an alcoholic. He is. His thing is that he's wearing sharp suits. He's the suave detective.

[01:10:20] He is as good a detective as McNulty, but he plays the game a little better. But his mini game is going to be like. Greetings, agent. You've had three beers and a bad bitch has taken you to her house to fuck raw. Can you stop from having diarrhea and puking everywhere? He also calls McNulty McNutty. No, he doesn't. He does. I thought the bubbles does that. I mean, they both do. Maybe that's where it comes from.

[01:10:50] It's just a Baltimore accent thing. I think McNulty. Anyway, but no, it's good. And I haven't watched The Sopranos, so I can't speak on the Holy Trinity. It's not. It's a moral failing on my part. It's not. I am not putting my foot down for a reason. I know I'm going to fucking like it. And then after it's done, I'm going to be like, yeah, you were right, asshole. Yeah. I mean, if you like stories about the rot where they look at how America is the rot and it

[01:11:18] ruins people's lives and makes people worse, which you do because you like the wire, you're going to love Sopranos. But I love things that are anchored to schlubs. Tony Sopranos is the schlub of all time. He's like. Sometimes it's hard as a non-actor to know what really great acting looks like. You kind of gravitate towards like the most acting, you know, but like, what does it mean for like a like a small scene, like a like connective tissue where you're just sort of

[01:11:47] like doing expositional dialogue? How do you like do that good? Like, what does it mean for there to be great acting in a scene like that? I don't know if I can like put into words, but it's fucking Tony Soprano. Like, wow. Anyway, we got to go. You got to pick your son up from daycare. This has been anime sickos. It's 2006. Yeah. HBO is going to continue to have quality television forever. Guantanamo is going to get closed for sure.

[01:12:17] Obama said so. This Obama guy. Yeah. So the senator from Illinois, right? He's been saying. Do you remember when he was running for Senate and there was a real shot that Jack Ryan was going to beat him? And then his wife, seven of nine from Star Trek said he took me to fucking pervert clubs and I didn't want to go. This guy's one of them sex poiverts. And it worked.

[01:12:46] Can you imagine that working now? Yeah, that would be a non-issue now just because everyone is like a hedonist. I think the fact that his wife didn't like it would like make it a positive. It's fucking GOP. Jesus Christ. Yeah. All right. Well, this has been Anime Sickos. I've been Tom and Anime Sicko. I've been Joe and Anime Sicko. Watch the wire. Bye bye. Bye. Thank you for listening to Anime Sickos. I've been Tom, a sicko.

[01:13:16] You can follow me on Blue Sky at Tom Harrison. Joe was also a sicko. You can follow him on Blue Sky at Sharia Uncle. You can follow Anime Sickos on Blue Sky at Anime Sickos or email us at AnimeSickos at gmail.com. You can give us money at Patreon.com slash Anime Sickos if you want. Please leave us a review or something. I don't know. Tell a friend. Anyway, until next time, bye.