(Just so I don't get zapped for infraction points, there is some language in the Grantland article about "The Wire" that is a bit NSFW, so don't click around the co-workers or family!)
Grantland did a bracket for "The Wire!"
This is the first day and the opening bracket... they DID finish, although there is no "one link" with all six days that I can find... I ended up have to google all six days. Kind of ridiculous.
Of course... with any bracket comes arguing over the seeding... and this one has some DOOZIES.
Let's go to the brackets!
Okay, in the West Baltimore region... I am fine with the #1, but Michael at #2 feels a little high. He really doesn't have much in the region to compete with, though... the #3 and #4, Snoop and Chris, are awesome but not a 3 and 4 seed, come on. A weak bracket.
The Hamsterdam region is STACKED. Bunk at a #1 feels high, especially considering Jimmy is a #3... and NO WAY IN HELL should CLAY DAVIS be a #2 over Jimmy freaking McNulty! Ridiculous! But the scandal of the whole thing? Bubs as a #7. Maybe the best character in the series, and he is on the same level as "Cheese"? RIDICULOUS.
Over in the Ports region, I am generally fine with the seeding... the top is stronger, the bottom is weaker... there isn't a lot I would change.
Finally, in the East Baltimore region, the major problem is OBVIOUS. Lester Freamon at #5? Are you KIDDING me? Below WEE-BEY?! Did you even WATCH the show? Ridiculous. Ab-so-frikking-loutely ridiculous. I would have done maybe this:
#1 Stringer
#2 Lester
#3 Bodie
#4 Marlo
#5 Kima
#6 Herc
#7 Rawls
#8 Wee-bey
I really don't get some of the decisions in this bracket.
So... anyone else want to argue about a MUCH more important bracket than this basketball thing?
(Just so I don't get zapped for infraction points, there is some language in the Grantland article about "The Wire" that is a bit NSFW, so don't click around the co-workers or family!)
Ooh, let me try a revised seeding:
West bmore:
1. Omar (duh)
2. Snoop and her nailgun
3. D'angelo
4. Chris Partlow
5. Michael Lee
6. Ziggy and his beer-sipping bird
7. Dennis the boxer
8. Cheese
Hamsterdam:
1. Bubbles (duh)
2. McNulty
3. Wallace (queue angry questions from D'angelo)
4. Clay Davis (censored exclamation)
5. Bunk
6. Danieils
7. Maurice Levy
8. Brother (down at #8 even if he does have more bodies on him than a Chinese cemetary)
Ports:
1. Avon
2. Prop Joe
3. Frank Sobotka
4. Carcetti
5. Mr Prezbo
6. Dukie
7. Bunny Colvin
8. Serge "Boris" Malotov
East bmore:
1. Stringer (duh)
2. Bodie
3. Cool Lester Smooth
4. Marlo
5. Kima
6. Rawls
7. Herc
8. Wee-bey and his fish
Where are Namond, Randy, and Donut the car thief? So many great characters that don't even make the list...
Exactly. There are so many you can't even count.
As some of y'all know, I'm teaching a course on The Wire at the Pierre Laclede Honors College at UM-Saint Louis this semester.
One of the dynamics in the seminar that has emerged is that, try as I might, or try as I fail, I can't steer the discussion away from certain characters. (We're thru III.10; Spring Break next week, and then I've slowed things down to do just III.11 and III.12, but especially III.11 on 2 April). The Avon/Stringer fracture is endlessly fascinating to people. I also have my own weaknesses, such as the Greggs/McNulty relationship, a pure love, motivated neither by family nor by sex, given that she's an inaccessible lesbian from his perspective, but they love each other as police partners. Each week, I have their essay responses, and the major topic for the week, but if I don't exercise an iron will (and I don't), we come back to the same things every week, at least within a season. Fatherhood in S2.
The heart of the mystery is that next class. We're dealing with allusions in III.11 to revisionist Westerns, among other joys in III.11. Simon said he and Burns took the same course on the Western at UM-College Park. I'm going to show them [the end of] High Noon, some of Shane, and a buttload of Sergio Leone.
I love late Season III so much I can barely stand it. IV too.
A movie is not about what it's about; it's about how it's about it.
---Roger Ebert
Some questions cannot be answered
Who’s gonna bury who
We need a love like Johnny, Johnny and June
---Over the Rhine