The kids playing Prop Joe and Omar are fantastic. Proposition Joe is probably easier to do in some ways, but that's not to take anything away from the kid, who gets it absolutely spot on.

This makes me all mixed up inside. Season four out on DVD! Great. Except Australia hasn't even got Season Three yet. HBO is going to be showing shorts before every episode of Season Five. Also great. Except Season Four hasn't been shown here yet.

If only there were some sort of international network of computers (concatenated in the form of trucks or possibly tubes) that allowed people to share digitized copies of television programs...

We can only but dream, GeckoDundee...

And yeah, I really admired the actors playing both Omar and Prop Joe. I'm also fascinated to learn that Omar got his scar at such a young age.

If I recall correctly, Robert Chew, who plays Prop Joe, also does a lot of teaching and mentoring and whatnot of young actors. He might've given the kid the inside dope, so to speak.

His scar and his moral sensibility, it seems. Did I hear right? The guy at the end seems to be saying "your brother is not cut out for this shit". It could be "the brother" or "lil brother" or something like that, but it seems the older kid is Omar's brother. I wonder what his story is.

It would make sense that Chew had helped the young actor playing Joe, but the kid really does get the mannerisms just right. Prop Joe giving dope though? What's the angle?

I'm really keen to see Generation Kill too.

He-Chew might've given the young actor the dope-meaning-information about the character, or how he-Chew approaches it.

Omar's brother is No-Heart Anthony. You mean you ain't heard of No-Heart Anthony?

Oh intartubes, how I love thee. Forbidden episodes of The Wire and mountains of information too.

Kima is quiet for a minute, and then blurts,
"So who’s No-Heart Anthony?"
McNulty chuckles, and explains that No-Heart ran drugs in the Homes in the early ’90s:
"So a couple years back, I don’t know why, he finds himself in Randallstown, trying to take off a jewellery store. He fucks it up; half the county chases him back downtown. I guess No-Heart figures he’s not up for doing the time, ’cause he puts a .44 against his chest, pulls the trigger."
Kima makes a face like she just smelled skunk:
"A .44?"
McNulty grins:
"It’s a contact wound. Wakes up two hours later in the University ER."
"With a new nickname," Kima surmises, giggling.

I remember the story, but I completely missed that it was Omar's brother. Thanks, box. (I got the pun btw, but I was too obtuse in my response to it, sorry).

Okay, so I'll ask:

I've watched the first two episodes of season one. They're well done, and do a good job of showing the intricacies of the drug trade and the frustrations of fighting it, but I'll be damned if I can yet see what has people so riveted. Is this just the sort of thing that I'm going to have to hang in there until it stops being just good and gets really really good?

I'm willing to do that -- Carnivale was that way, took its time but ultimately paid off big. But is it really the Best Thing Ever?

middleclasstool: you just gotta keep watching. I find each season never really grabs me and holds tight until the 4th or 5th episode. For the first season, I started loving it around the episode "The Wire".

Oh, and we have season 4 all here on netflix. Were going to start watching last night, but instead are holding off for an all-weekend binge. Oh yeah.

Best Thing Ever? That's a pretty high bar. I'm a huge fan, but, considering that I'm also a fan of crime fiction, serial teevee drama, hip-hop culture and drugs, it's pretty much aimed right at me.

One of my coworkers, knowing I'm a big fan, asked me what the hype was about, and whether I thought she'd like it. I told her that it's a slow-building, novelistic story about cops and drug dealers. If none of that is a dealbreaker, I told her, then she'd probably like it. A while back, I tried very hard to sell one of my best friends on it, but she found it 'too male.' And I've read people arguing that one reason The Wire hasn't grabbed the large audience of, say, The Sopranos, is because it's 'too black.' I guess this is a roundabout way of saying that, while I think it's very, very good, there isn't much that appeals to everybody.

(I also just got the Season 4 DVDs, 'pode, though I must admit that I've already seen all the episodes. HBO VOD users, and file-sharers, might be interested to know that HBO will have all the fifth-season episodes available on VOD one week before their first regular airdate. That's the word on the street, anyway.)

slow-building, novelistic story

That's what hooks me to just about any show. Sometimes I'm rewarded (The Wire, Babylon 5, Deep Space Nine) at other times disappointed (Alias, The X-Files) but I cannot resist a saga.

The thing about The Wire, though, is that it is adamant in requiring the viewer to be attentive to the story unfolding. For example, there's one established been-there-since-the-beginning character who, late in the third season, has a very telling personal detail revealed about himself in a wordless half-second shot. If you blink, you miss it, and I can't help but think that with the fifth season's focus on the media, this one little detail will become of some significance.

Ooh, I hope so.