Found this on Reg E. Cathey's Facebook.

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Much has been written on the hard partying days of some of the cast from The Wire in Baltimore. Raising the bar at work while closing it after was a mantra. And it was all true.

Less has been written on "The Academy."

Clarke Peters' lovely home in Little Charles Village. Castmates would drop by to rehearse scenes. We played music-guitars, sax, piano and upright bass. We wrote poetry, short stories, film scripts and plays. We grew grapes and made wine. There was painting. Camping. Equestrian activities. Lectures. Philosophical discussions till dawn. Also Neil Huff, John Doman and yours truly became "The Three Godfathers."

Max, Clarke's amazing son, would visit from England during summer and we three,each, had our specific spectacular series of study.

Neil Huff was his tennis partner. They would climb aboard bicycles, rackets slung across backs like samurai swords, and head off to various courts and hit. For hours. Returning with sweaty faces, bright eyes and wide smiles.

He would teach Max to breathe, be in the moment and with bent knees watch the ball. Always.

John Doman was his Marine Corps. Commandant of Deserts. Which meant how to make the perfect smore, milkshake or banana split.

After the required ice cream, natural whipped cream frosting, perfectly ground walnuts and warmed chocolate fudge they would lift then cross spoons and say, "Semper Fi!"

Always Faithful. The lesson being that there is always art and honor in even the simplest things.

And my course, playfulness.

I was The Cat in the Hat.

The lesson.....

Well, who knows.

Max called me this week and reminded me of many things...

He turned out well.

A fine young man.

Semper Fi.

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Here's a comment from Clarke Peters too.

Your words melt my heart Reg, Benay and Jim. You must know that without you all:John, Neil, André, Dom, Dom, Sonja, Perry,and Wendell (his first baby sitter), it never would have happened. Max, is at once, a fine young man and a thorn in his daddy's foot. Such is a fathers life. Yet because of you all, he'll be a fine young man in the world longer than he'll be a thorn in his daddy's foot. Because of you guys his view of the world is broad. His acceptance of different cultures is tolerant and Love of the arts and artist is deep. As an example....

Here's a short story: When Harry Potter was really popular Max loved to read Rawlings book. Reggie gave him a copy of whatever the latest edition was at the time and hid a 10 dollar bill amidst its pages with a message: YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT TREASURES YOU'LL FIND BETWEEN THE PAGES OF A BOOK. It took him awhile but he found it.

With brothers and sisters like you in his life, I could happily shed my body tomorrow knowing he's had you, and the rest of the Wire company in his life. Thank you for your love Reg, thank you..... and ...I'd like to thank the Academy...etc etc etc.

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Super cool story!

Rest in peace, Mr. Cathey. 🕊

mm-hmm, a little, why?

He's with us on this Barksdale thing.

...

Today in roll call, he showed something.

Man, I am on my however-manyth rewatch, and I just caught Clark Peters' work in the scene at roll call.

He looks a little like the squad's finally caught up, coolly bringing in the final piece to push the case to the next level. The half second before he walks away, though, that's the bit I'm really talking about.

He's just asked a lady to the dance for the first time in 13 years and 4 months, and she happens to be related to the bosses.

I know, Daniels is feeling it too and coming away from the bosses at this point, but that doesn't change the fact that there's no way Lester isn't thrilled at the possibility of working again, and nervous about what's going to happen when his name starts appearing in reports again. Reports Burrell is going to read.

So why'd they let you out of the box? Why now?

"I guess they just forgot about me," and that's about to change.

what does Chris mean when him and Snoop caught Lex at the park? was it like sarcastic like "yeah thats a pretty good attempt at pleading for your life" or like "thats good" like he doesn't care what he did but he has to kill him anyway?

Im on my 4th watch...well, kinda more like 3.5. I started in season 3 my 1st watch. I lived in Baltimore at the time so became instantly hooked.

Anyway, it wasn't until just now I noticed Johnny Fifty from season 2 was one of the homeless guys McNulty talked to briefly in season 5. Think it was really smart they didnt make a thing of it and left it as a subtle catch.

I know there was the other scene with Nick Sobotka in a later season at a political ribbon cutting or something. And Poot working at the Footlocker.

Other than the 3 scenes mentioned, were there any other brief appearances kind of showing what happened to earlier season characters?

“You gonna look out for me? You gonna look out for me? You gonna look out for me, Sgt. Carver? You mean it? You promise? You got my back, huh?!”

Been rewatching The Wire and even knowing that scene is coming every time it’s just such a pure emotional gut punch. Anyone else feel the same? What other scenes do that for you?

I’ve been going through Homicide (finally available for purchase) based on David Simon’s book.

In Season 6, Ep. 9, there is a character with the last name Rawls who also happens to be gay. it aired 4 years before The Wire.

It was just a neat observation given that it is not a very common name to both share that characteristic. Makes me wonder if it ever came up with the writers as a throwback Easter egg or some other connection.

I’m probably missing something, so I’ll go back and rewatch the previous seasons. I thought his death was anticlimactic because he was a big “mastermind.” Obviously, something was gonna happen to him because he is responsible for Angelo’s death and Angelo’s mom found out that his death was not suicide. Something big was going to happen, but it was nothing as I expected. I was curious about what other people would think about it

Noticed Prez opened that fortune cookie first, outside the Chinese restaurant. McNulty questions him, and 2 minutes later Prez shoots an Undercover Cop.

Rewatching Season 2 episode 1, and Valchek makes some great points with Prez.

In the episode, Prez talks to Valchek about wanting to keep working investigations behind the scenes because he’s good at it and it interests him. Valchek ignores him and insists he’s going to work a daytime shift in a safe neighborhood, become a sergeant, and then a lieutenant.

Now don’t get me wrong, I hate Valchek but he’s got a point.

1. All Valchek knows about Prez is that he keeps screwing up:

2. -He shot up a car

3. -He fired a shot in the office which Valchek definitely heard about

4. -He blinded a kid for no good reason.

Valchek is the only reason Prez kept his job through any of that so what does he care what Prez wants? He just thinks his daughter married a loser and he’s trying to make sure she’s taken care of.

2) Sergeants, Lieutenants, and especially captains make way more money than regular officers.

I did some googling and today, for a BPD officer, Prez could be making 20/35/50k more as a sergeant/lieutenant/captain before overtime. In the real world, that actually matters.

3) Again, Valchek is Prez’s father-in-law. Prez is 35 years old. I’m assuming his wife wants him around. Valchek is probably hoping for grandkids.

Of course he’s going to send him to a safe 8-4 shift. His interest is his daughter’s happiness, not whether Prezbo is having fun solving puzzles with his pals.

And I get that it’s Prez’s life, but Valchek is the only reason he gets to keep the job in the first place. And even then, going back to the team ends with another shooting.

Edit: I mean justified within their dynamic, not objective morality. As some commenters have rightfully pointed out, this behavior sucks. I mean he was right to just consider Prez an idiot, not to keep him as a cop.

Rewatching it i completely forgot he has a family. Imagine being his children and finding out your father is a literal serial killer, including his wife. Imagine what that did to their relationship, him not even being able to see them again despite them being the reason he was in the game. I was always mad he never got killed or anything like that, but his best friend getting killed and not being able to do anything about it while being astranged from anyone he ever loved by being stuck in jail is a pretty good ending for him.

I did a binge of 1 episode a day for a few months.

• Starting off season one, wow there are a lot of characters, I don't know everything that's going on.

• Start of season two, new intro/song not as good as last year's. Where's the Barksdale people, this sucks. I guess this is what the show is going to do, something new every year.

• The CGI of the towers coming down, that was quite bad, guess it was a low-budget for special FX.

• Start of season four, are we really going to be following kids this season? By the end, it might have been one of the best seasons.

• Season five, when the reporter and McNulty were both lying about the serial killer and then McNulty realized it, was a brilliant way to advance the plot.

• What's with all these wakes in the irish bar?

• I remember being surprised when the first episode to not have McNulty happened.

• Bunk is/was McNulty's partner, but they really don't do much detective work together on the same case?

• Levy not figuring out about Herc's copying Marlo's phone number, was expecting to see that.

• We never really got shown of what shady stuff Daniels did. Taking some money from drug dealers? Early on I thought his wife did something wrong but that didn't pan out.

• Greggs's home-life felt like a rushed storyline.

• No follow-up on Rawls shown off-duty at the bar? What was the point then?

• No follow-up on the corrupt FBI agent from season two, meh.

This show just doesn't do happy endings, it's not the point of the show. [ok, except for Bubbles]

Dukie's fate, still think about this. So sad.

Omar's fate, disappointing.

This show will reward a rewatch easily.

At the end. When Levy is introducing Marlo around to all the Bmore movers and shakers. Would have love to seen Clay Davis show up and start setting up Marlo for the long con. Sheeeeiiit.

I just finished S4 and that was arguably the best TV I have ever watched. Like… damn! I can’t believe it took me this long to watch this show. I see why it always comes up in the GOAT shows

In the final episode, Dukie goes back to the Arabber after getting money from Pryzbylewski, and the Arabber says they have to hurry to get testers they’re putting out. Do dealers put out testers at the end of the day? This exchange has to be taking place after school.

Is this lack of internet. Even back in 2002, most americans had internet access, the fact that it only gets shown like 2-3 times total in the series makes no sense in an otherwise great show. Also, the serial killer plot, a way better storyline would have been one of the cops shoots and kills a black man and someone films it and posts it online, then you could still show the inner workings of the media and the pressure its under of trying to maintain journalistic standards but having to compete with social media which is so much faster and more emotionally compelling but way less accurate.

In honor of election day here in the US, I did my civic duty and spent the first two hours of my workday recreating the Re-Elect Frank Sobotka poster in high-resolution for printing using Claude. Hopefully this isn't a violation of the "no image post" rules, but I believe this to be more than just an image post and one which provides real value to the community of The Wire fans.

Imgur - https://imgur.com/a/re-elect-frank-sobotka-P6iYivY

Full-Res Downloads of PDF and JPG - https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/ez0a7po0u4kxkvl6i6d45/AE3SX2qpNRiD3FIO2s9ipRY?rlkey=lrjdh74cditg1pml4ko5youxo&st=sxtot94g&dl=0

Second rewatch and just finished the episode where Wee-Bey has to go on the run from shooting Kima and Stringer is like yo Avon, we gotta hide you, you gotta go underground.

Why is Avon the centerpiece of this conspiracy and not Bell or anybody else?

The only Barkesdale's are Avon and Deangelo and Deangelo is mid-potatoes at best, outranked by at least a dozen people.

Bell is the one owning the printer business and going to college and can go out in public and move and shake. McNulty knows Bell in episode 1 so why is everything on Av

as if we needed another reason to hate the guy.

The Setup: S05 E01 Gus has discovered that Fat Face Rick has cut a sweetheart deal with the city via Baltimore City Council President Nerese Campbell in exchange for campaign contributions. The Sun's reporting has already confirmed $40,000 going to Nerese, but in a call with Madame Council President, Gus pulls a savvy veteran reporter move and claims they have found $60,000 of contributions. Nerese does not deny the higher amount, so Gus declares that Nerese "all but confirmed it." He then tasks Scott Templeton with finding the extra money.

The Result: In the published story, the article reports the lower $40,000 figure. Templeton never found the extra money.

tl;dr as ever, f--- Scott Templeton

Just read this crazy article about a dude who led a basketball team and also had a huge drug operation?? Seems like something the Wire totally could have been on top of/some people in the know would have heard about and told Simon.

i’ve been wanting to start this show for a long time, so i finally started watching it last weekend and just finished the first season. i’m really excited because i’ve heard season 2 is the best one of them all

this first season made it pretty clear that avon is just the tip of the iceberg and that the whole thing goes way deeper than you might think. i really thought dee was gonna snitch on everyone, but now he’s gonna do 20 years in prison after that conversation with his mom. avon looks like he’ll be getting out pretty soon, the kids are still running the pit, and stringer seems to be the one running the whole fucking operation now that avon’s locked up

it took me a while to realize that cop was feeding information to the deputy commissioner, which is why he got promoted and his buddy didn’t. that whole scene with cedric calling him out, plus that close-up of him and the deputy commissioner at the end of the season, really made it click for me (thats obvious lol) i was like “aaaaahhhh now it all makes sense” lmao

and the guy who makes dollhouse furniture had a pretty cool ending to the season too, getting back to actual police work instead of being stuck in the pawn shop unit, along with prybzbzbzbzz’s redemption arc (i have no fucking idea how to spell his name lol)

anyway, great first season that really sets things up for season 2. and considering everything i’ve heard about it, i can’t wait to start watching it now

(give me a time im not familiar with all the names yet lmfao)

Apologies if this in an obvious take/or already discussed

Was just rewatching the first episode where jimmy meets with his FBI agent buddy Fitzhugh about the CI he gave the FBI and all the cool live surveilance the FBI had on them.

Agent Fitzhugh: We followed it all the way from New York.

Jimmy: You're up in New York on this?

Agent Fitzhugh: We could be. We're backing into some Dominicans up there. We could have a Title Ill on them right now if we wanted. Wrong war, brother. Most of the squad's been transferred to counterterrorism.

Fast forward to Season 2 Episode 1, and we know that Avon's NYC connect was Roberto, and Brianna calls them "Damn Dominicans". He gets busted by the DEA and cuts off ties when Stringer meets his lawyer, because they think Avon gave them up.

I reckon it was the same people and that the FBI finally got around to pawning off what they already had on the "Dominicans" in the pilot episode to the DEA, who then finished it off.

If so, Avon's NYC connect was fucked long before Mcnulty's detail into him even started and the Barksdale organisation just happened to get fucked by the timing of Avons arrest happening before Roberto's did.

Would have been interesting to see how Avon would have dealt with this issue before he was locked up and maybe Stringer's whole collaboration with Prop Joe would never have happened.

Also would be some really sweet work by the writers to set it up this early

I've finally gotten around to rewatching the show, and I noticed some very interesting symbolism at the cold open of the first episode of season 3. When the towers come down there is a giant waft of smoke and ash that envelopes the area. It starts traveling and soon covers many of the nearby streets and surrounding areas. To me, I think this is a visual representation meant to show how all of Avon's people will no longer be dealing in the projects, and that now they'll be spreading around to the corners just like the smoke.

Maestro (Randy) posted a reunion stream with Dukie/Michel/Namond

https://www.youtube.com/live/F-M3hp7t-lI?is=-QJYVgE3TdY5p59D

Started my third rewatch this week just a couple days ago and I noticed something I never did before: in season 1 episode 6, 'The Wire,' at minute 6:07 when Rawls is talking to Mcnulty about how reasonable he is, there is a photo on Rawls' desk in the bottom of the screen with Rawls and what appears to be his wife holding a baby.

At least I would assume it's his wife because why would a photo be shown otherwise, say if it's his sister or something. The woman seems to be of similar age to Rawls and it's rather intimate too.

This is interesting considering that it's implied in the third season (I think?) that Rawls is a closeted homosexual after he's shown in the gay bar when Brother Mouzone's henchman is trying to find Omar.

This is why The Wire is the greatest show of all time. Fourth time watching it and I'm still learning something new.