NYT's Felicia Pearson "snoop" profile and interview

With her braids, oversize clothes and baseball cap turned to the side, the small, youthful Snoop looks like a teenage boy. With her partner, Chris Partlow, she is the muscle for the drug kingpin Marlo Stanfield. She is a cool, calm female killer who creatively makes enemies disappear with the use of a nail-gun, hiding the bodies in Baltimore’s vacant and condemned row houses on HBO’s much-praised series “The Wire.”
The actress Felicia Pearson, who plays Snoop, has emerged as one of the show’s most compelling characters; Stephen King, in Entertainment Weekly, called her “perhaps the most terrifying female villain to ever appear in a television series.”

What to watch when the Wire is over?

So what do I do when this season of the Wire is over? What do I watch while I wait for season five to show up? Battlestar, the Office, and...? I guess I can just read more. That's a good thought. And speaking of books, I should find out what the Wire related books are and make a list to post here. I think there's a bunch of them, fiction and non. Ok, that's coming up as soon as I have time. I hear some of them are pretty good.

Top 10 Reasons Not to Cancel The Wire

This came out early on in 2005, when people were not sure if the Wire would be coming back for the fourth season. Today, with the success of the fourth season (the best show ever is finally catching on), HBO is bringing it back for a fifth and last season. But it's still a good read in case you missed it. And like a lot of great the Wire coverage, it's from the Baltimore City Paper:

1) “Bring me a Shrek 2 slushie and some Krispy Kreme.” —Squeak

The characters are the most instantly and constantly gratifying aspect of The Wire, and over all three seasons its writers cared enough about everybody who utters a line to invest each with a personality that sounds more reported than written. Squeak is a minor character in the third season, a woman who junky/criminal informant Bubbles works through to sell bugged cell phones to lieutenants in the Avon Barksdale drug crew. And yet in her few scenes, The Wire doesn’t turn her into a mere plot-point pawn; you get to know her. She’s loud, controlling, and more than a little domineering. And when the cops do pick her up with her boyfriend and she barks at him, “You got to be the dumbest motherfucker I done ever gone out with,” and he fires back, “I can’t wait to go to jail,” you’ve digested an intimate portrait of a relationship in less than five minutes of screen time. Such detailed attention is lavished on every character, no matter how seemingly trivial, because in The Wire you never know what the next episode will unfold. (Bret McCabe)

Chicago Tribune's "Best Candidate to Break Your Heart" is Dukie of the Wire

BEST CANDIDATE TO BREAK YOUR HEART: Duquon "Dukie" Weems (Jermaine Crawford) on "The Wire" (HBO). Middle schooler Dukie shows up at school in dirty clothes because there's no running water in his house. His few other clothes are stolen by his family so they can buy drugs. You'd think that environment would break him, but there is a core intelligence and sweetness about Dukie, who blossoms under the attention of a caring teacher. Dukie's plight as a basically good boy tempted by the rough streets as his only way out of a rougher life may just be the most heartbreaking story on TV all year.

Agreed. I usually hate kids on tv or movies. They are usually all wise-cracking, with haircuts only found on screen. Best use of child actors on tv or film right now.

I bet Bugs is selling the discs out of his shopping cart

In a season when new technology is drastically changing the ways in which television networks try to reach viewers, The Wire, HBO's Baltimore-based drama, has found a new and avid audience in East Coast nightclubs and on online auction sites such as eBay and Craigslist.

There is, however, one problem with the gain: These new viewers are watching bootleg DVDs or illegal downloads of the entire season, often sold at a fraction of what it would cost to subscribe to HBO or buy a DVD of a full season of the Peabody Award-winning drama. Some of these viewers are then going online and posting "spoilers" - descriptions and comments about events taking place in episodes that have yet to air on HBO. -Baltimore Sun

Ed Burns, writer and producer of the Wire Interview

Recently a friend and I would always end our conversations about the Wire with, "So is Ed Burns the same Ed Burns? That actor guy who made that "Brothers" something movie?" I really wasn't sure. Maybe Ed Burns the actor had hidden depth? No offense to Burns the kind of famous actor but...well, it's the Wire! After having the same conversation a few times, my friend finally looked it up and no, he's not. He's actually an ex-cop and ex-Baltimore city teacher. And HBO has an interview online, talking about season four.

HBO
After 20 years as a cop you became a teacher. How did that come about?

BURNS
After I retired from the Police Department, Dave [Simon] and I wrote The Corner. I'm just a natural loser, so I decided it would be fun to teach in an inner-city school, because that's the kind of world I like. And that's pretty much the amount of thought I gave it until I walked into the room. (click on text for rest of the interview)

NPR asks, "What's better? The Wire or the Sopranos?"

NPR.org, February 25, 2005 · People tend to reflexively deplore the state of television these days -- but for the aficionado, it's a golden age. Granted, HBO is a premium pay cable service, but shouldn't we be grateful that we can now spend our time pondering this pressing question: "Which is better -- The Wire or The Sopranos?

Baltimore City Paper's story the music in the Wire

It's easy to think of The Wire as a show with a strong musical identity. Over the course of its three seasons, it's become a hip-hop touchstone. Wire cast members have appeared in videos for Boyz in Da Hood, Cam'ron, Jay-Z, Common, Fat Joe, Obie Trice, Fabolous, and dozens of other rappers and singers. The massively popular local hip-hop mixtape Hamsterdam--named for season three's open-air drug market--features plenty of gangsta koans from Wire characters like the imposing Slim Charles...

HBO's best show ever, the Wire

I just wanted to make a page with links to the Wire. Here's a few:

1. Wikipedia entry on the Wire

2. D.C. lifer George Pelecanos writes about murder, drug feuds, riots, dog-fighting—and also a little violence (Pelecanos is a Wire writer)

3. More with Pelecanos and more about the Wire

4. HBO's Official the Wire site

5. Salon primer on the Wire for newbies

6. Baltimore City Paper's review of the 4th season of the Wire

7. Baltimore City Paper's coverage of the Wire as a whole is so awesome, here's a complete list of links via google. I'm sure you can find something good here.


I'll be adding more as I find them.