The Wire: The Hunt   First Watch 
July 17, 2014 3:26 PM - Season 1, Episode 11 - Subscribe

With Greggs still in the hospital, everyone Downtown is on the hunt for anything or anyone who might lead them to the shooters and Savino. Barksdale and Stringer move their pieces around the board when they find out they got police. Burrell demands results and orders The Detail to play all its cards against Barksdale.

"Dope on the damn table. - Daniels"
posted by carsonb (12 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I was wondering, although not enough to google, if there were actor salary negations on the table at the end of season 1 that left the character of Greggs at deaths door?
posted by sammyo at 8:24 AM on July 18, 2014


Finally, Herc is partnered with someone who makes him look like the smart one! "Shit, comes to dunkers you probably solve six, seven outta ten."
posted by Lorin at 10:42 AM on July 18, 2014


I was wondering, although not enough to google, if there were actor salary negations on the table at the end of season 1 that left the character of Greggs at deaths door

I don't think so. I think the Wire is pretty tightly plotted. In particular, each season has the number of episodes the creators want (with the exception of Season 3 (or was it 4) where two threads get a bit blended).

Here yet again the Detail get screwed. What is a major victory for them: finding the stash: gets soured by the Burrel's desire to show progress. Its frustrating because its clear that the stash provides the detail amazing power to catch criminals, but sort of understandable: Burrel has to deal with politics no-one in the detail has to, and he's sick of where the money keeps leading. Meanwhile Rawls shows that he's actually a pretty good leader of men when he needs to be, getting people to work when they need to for Gregg's crime scene.

And theres McNulty, making it all about him. Perhaps its a little bit of his hubris catching up with him here, but his moping actually does frustrate me a little. Go solve this Jimmy!
posted by Cannon Fodder at 10:56 AM on July 18, 2014


Yeah that scene with him drunk at the detail office is particularly pathetic, but gives Daniels the opportunity for one of his forceful motivational speeches. Do your job. McNulty has so much "fire in the belly" and yet when the chips are down he's such a fucking baby.
posted by Lorin at 11:01 AM on July 18, 2014


And as I reach the end of the episode, man, driving D to take care of the fish is cruel. Cruel to the viewer for what we think is coming, and to D himself!
posted by Lorin at 11:03 AM on July 18, 2014 [1 favorite]


Meanwhile Rawls shows that he's actually a pretty good leader of men when he needs to be, getting people to work when they need to for Gregg's crime scene.

One of the things this show gets right is that even the "bad guys" catch your sympathy at times, and you get to see people, if not redeemed, then at least in their context for why they are who they are.

Rawls is a total fucking asshole, but he's never better than in this episode. Taking charge of the crime scene. Telling it to McNulty the only way McNulty will understand, and the way it needs to be said.

It's great to see McNulty put the screws to Levy, except it's still classic McNulty, burning everything around him for the case. Poor Rhonda, but still, I hate that smug prick of a lawyer and it's always nice when somebody gives it to him good.
posted by rocketman at 12:39 PM on July 18, 2014 [2 favorites]


Also, this is the episode that made me fall in love with Landsman. The way he turns into a hound dog at the murder scene, following the trail, just gives me the shivers.
posted by rocketman at 12:41 PM on July 18, 2014 [1 favorite]


Landsman is such a great secondary character. He's lazy by default, a dick when he can get away with it, a suck-up when he has to be, but damn it if he doesn't get the job done. I know the character is somewhat based on an actual Baltimore police officer, maybe that's why he feels like such a classic cop archetype without being a total cliche. I guess it's about time I read the books.
posted by Lorin at 1:53 PM on July 18, 2014


The real Landsman was also the inspiration for Munch in "Homicide" and, as is the case with a few characters in "The Wire", appears as an actor on the show playing another character. I think he was also in "The Corner" playing either himself or a character based on himself.
posted by GeckoDundee at 6:54 PM on July 18, 2014


I know the character is somewhat based on an actual Baltimore police officer

Indeed. The character of Jay Landsman is based on real life cop, Jay Landsman (who, as mentioned above, later appears playing a cop in the series). Many of the characters are based on real-life people or composites thereof. But of course from all this reality the writers produced a great work of fiction that illustrates the way the world is in certain corners in a way that might not be so successful with a documentary.
posted by juiceCake at 7:24 PM on July 18, 2014


Nice little exchange on the character with actor Delaney Williams here, excerpted because spoilers abound:

How was the Jay Landsman character described to you initially? What kind of direction did they give you?

Absolutely none. There was no direction. It’s partially there in the writing and I knew that a Jay Landsman existed. I hadn’t met him until the end of the first season, actually. It’s not really based on that person. But, there is a Jay Landsman and he worked for the Baltimore City Police Department and now he works in Baltimore County.

But, it was one of those things where I could see in the writing how I thought they wanted it to go, my audition took it there and then when we started working on the show, I didn’t know it was going to recur as much as it did, but I think they were pleased with what I brought to the character. It worked out that the choices I made were something they were interested in having for the character. Of course, they’ve written to that since then. I think that’s true for a lot of the character traits you’ll see in Landsman’s scenes throughout the four seasons.

Do you know why they decided to name the character after a real person?

I think it was a shout out, sort of an homage. It was a person that David had known when he followed the homicide unit for a year in Baltimore before writing the book Homicide: Life on the Street.

When you met the real Jay Landsman, what was his impression of the show and what was it like meeting him?

I think he liked the show a lot. It was kind of fun. We got a picture taken together and we’ve met several times since then. I think he enjoys the show a lot. It says a lot of the things he thought about working in the Baltimore City Police Department or any big city police department. He’s a much smaller man than I am, so I think that was sort of a joke played by David Simon on him. Of course, I don’t get the joke. (Laughs.)
posted by Lorin at 7:51 PM on July 18, 2014


They also gave both the fictional Landsman and other characters in the show actual lines that the real Landsman spoke.
posted by juiceCake at 7:09 AM on July 19, 2014


« Older Utopia: Episode #2.2...   |  Masters of Sex: Phallic Victor... Newer »

You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments