I disagree on Lester's part. Lester could live with Marlo walking so I don't really think he was driven by justice. He was just natural police solving a case
@@danielmiller6286 That is true. Season 4 was the peak. Season 5 had some moments but aspects of it started to fizzle out in season 5. Season 4 was the best. Everything up to that point was great - even season 2 which was subtly great and I found improved over time.
The consistent theme of Bunny Colvin is, "We can't lie." He is an honest, decent man surrounded by self-serving careerists, bullshit opinions, and corruption. He tells the truth with the best of intentions and is knocked down for it every single time. Bunny Colvin is my favourite character, the voice of reason in a corrupt, ignorant, and greedy world. Every day he tries to save lives.
nyterpfan exactly! Crime will always have murders but as Bunny says to Wee Bay game has changed now it’s run by people who never had any values installed into them (Marlo) where as it used to be violent but there was a code (Sunday truce etc)
@@Max-cr5ex well said. Also Marlo kills citizens (convenience store security guard) for no reason at all. Omar is proud that he "never put his gun on no citizen." The Barksdale gang did kill a security guard too, but it was in order to protect D'Angelo who messed up. This still brought a ton of "karma" on them in that it kicked off the whole special police unit.
No he didn't. His comment just caused her to entrench in her position. He almost changed a discussion into an argument by bringing emotion into it, even if he was right. Colvin did the "owning" with his masterful explanation. Dude built bridges.
@@solamon77 "Owning" generally means making someone look stupid, not bringing them to your side. "Owning" means embarrassing them. So yes he did own her. Not saying it's more productive than the alternative, but it is owning.
To you idiots who say Colvin is not realistic....his character is based on Ed Burns own life. Burns is one of the PRODUCERS of the show. Ed served in the Baltimore Police Department for twenty years. Following his retirement from the police force he became a teacher in the Baltimore public school system. Burns has said that he stumbled into teaching with little preparation because of the intense demand for teachers in inner-city schools. Burns taught seventh and eight grade....the exact same age of the kids in season 4. Psychologically, Burns compared the experience of teaching to the Vietnam War (he was a Vietnam Vet) Burns found the experience profoundly challenging because of the emotional damage that the vast majority of his students had already experienced before reaching the classroom. He saw his primary role as instilling caring behavior in his pupils. He felt his major impact was in giving the children an example of an "adult who's consistent, who's always there, who always comes through with what he said, then that's a new world for them. When Colvin speaks, that is literally Ed Burns talking.
"No snitching" isn't just the law of the streets. It's the law of police departments, Wall Street, of any organization or group of organizations that has something to hide. On the street they're called snitches, elsewhere they're called whistleblowers. And they're always punished unless someone else goes out of their way to protect them. And even then.
"I expect them to be students." Gah such a frustrating line. Those kids don't give a shit about you or what you want them to be. If you want them to be ideal citizens make it about them; start actually caring about their social well being and any problems they may be having, not about your ego and how the school looks politically. So disconnected with reality its unbelievable.
See, I go the other way. I don't have any problem with her saying that. They're trying to teach the kids. If the kids choose not to learn, that's their problem. People are responsible for their actions. If I try to teach you something, and you ignore me, that's your fault, not "the system's". Show some responsibility.
@@timesink8947 You're trying to tell somebody who has no real idea or sense of the larger world, that it's their fault they don't know and they should listen to what somebody older says. You're missing the point of what Bunny said; what's the point of teaching a kid some abstract problem if he knows, heart and mind, it won't do crap for him when he's facing a gun pointed at him, because that's his reality. That's all he's known from birth. That's like someone forcing you to learn ancient Sumerian, you know good and well for the purposes of your life there is literally no point in learning that. That's what they're trying to say, you can try to moralize from a high ground with abstract "ideals" or you can actually show them there's an entirely different world and way to be successful without having to worry about mortal danger. That's the whole reason he took them to the restaurant, to show them that 'look, that person is just as well off as those bosses you know, and they're not worried about getting shot' that way the kids ask the question, well how do I get there? This lady was obviously only concerned about the appearance or facade, based on her asking if they were embarrassing.
Timesink wow what a stupid ignorant remark, from a place of zero understanding. Your so lost and out of touch. Colvin was trying to build a better tomorrow and reach at risk youth. Coming from a place of understanding and caring. Your just as stupid as the out of touch high paid education admin. “They didn’t learn it’s their own fault” yeah okay moron but it’s not just “their problem” there’s a societal component. These people will commit crimes,victimize others and eventually wind up in prison on the tax payer dime. Their children and family will feel hopeless, the cycle just repeats for generations. Thanks for your super insightful remarks, idiot.
Small observation but I love the fact the Bunny is able to de-escalate literally any situation. The man can talk to absolutely anyone in any situation and not lose his cool It's a good bit of subtext that shows why he is an amazing cop and leader. Something we desperately need in this world right now.
For the most part. He did screw up in the meeting where the program was on the chopping block. "We're leaving them behind anyways. We just don't wanna admit it."
That was a nice inversion whereby the academic was the one doing the “what he means is…” I put that down to the city hall meeting being a less uncomfortable environment for the academic than the inner city school, and vice versa for Bunny.
Bunny definitely learned that skill while on the job as a cop. Being a cop is not always about cuffing people and putting them in jail, many situations just need a cool and collected voice of reason in a sticky situation to de-escalate and prevent from getting out of hand.
This show was incredible at focusing on the institutional failures that define urban life in America: Season 1: the police department Season 2: ports/labor unions Season 3: city hall Season 4: public school system Season 5: the press/media
@@freaky_j2207 I agree. It's actually the one show that is simply better than Sopranos at all avenues that they both tread. I once thought MAYBE Sopranos was better in terms of interpersonal drama. Then I watched The Corner, the spiritual prequel to The Wire. And after that, I shut my damn mouth. David Simon is a genius. A literal, walking brain power organism from another world. I simply cannot congratulate the man enough.
Watching the Wire, post-2016, and the deindustrialisation theme in season 2 is very salient. Arguably more so now than when it was made. The social commentary of season 2 is not a criticism of unions. It’s about the death of work in American cities and how its effects ripple across society. In fact, the problem of structural unemployment/under-employment is alluded to in seasons 1-3.
As if there's any way to objectively prove my initial statement true or false. It's a matter of perception and taste, not intellect. So go ahead and try genius, and I'll have a laugh as well.
Just as I thought. More ungrounded and presumptuous bullshit. I couldn't care less about your opinion on anything to be honest. Done wasting time on you, troll.
It's not a matter of perception and taste - it's pure fact. Bunny is one of the most idealistic characters in the show, everything he does is following an unconvetional ideology, through which he seeks to improve the society. If he was realistic, he would never even start the Amsterdam project, he would be much more pragmatic and not so radical when it comes to interfering with the drug problem in the city. I think the word you're looking for is "empathic", which is something he most definetly is - he, apart from dozens of other characters in the show, has the capacity to recognize the sheer misery these people live in and what they go through. To cops and media, they're just potential criminals, for the teachers, they're students, for the politicians they're votes and nothing but trouble. To Bunny, they're people.
"They weren't being educated before, there's no point in being obtuse!" LOL! I always loved that line. And Colvin was....man, i don't know if there are words to describe how i feel about Colvin's character....
@@GeraldHarris-cf2zh And times you have to settle for a narcissist like McNulty, who is your greatest ally when he is on your side, but when he's not he's an excruciating pain in the backside.
The older I get the more likely I am to tear up at scenes like these in The Wire. Goddamn man, what a show. No other program comes close. The great American drama is The Wire.
+Robert Teague mmmm no. not at all. Bunny worked hard, was smart and "bucked" the system after trying to work in it and then coming to the end of his rope. Namond was a spoiled, lazy, little criminal. So yeah, you could not have been more wrong if you tried.
DaleRobby rear At first yeah Namond could considered that but he grew and was able to actually be productive and have a life outside of the hood, if you were, y'know, actually paying attention to the show
They did, Hamsterdam worked, but what it revealed is that those in control of these systems aren’t really interested in finding solutions to these endemic societal problems, so much so as making it appear that they are working on them in a way that is acceptable politically and not controversial to middle America. That’s why they got rid of Hamsterdam even though it worked; despite the great results it was unacceptable politically so the results didn’t matter. These people make their living off exploiting the system just as much as the criminal element does, which is a major theme of the show.
Also, Bunny Colvin might be my favorite character on the show. He was the only person who could effectively communicate with any police bureaucrat at police headquarters, any civil servant at city hall, principals and teachers in the school system, and anyone involved in the drug game. Remember the speech he delivered to the police commanders and majors about the paper bag for drugs? How about the casual chat he had with the corner boys regarding Hamsterdam? What about the homily he bestowed upon Carver about police work? How about the conversation with Stringer (or as he called him, "Russell") in the cemetery? Of course we all remember Colvin's heart-to-heart with Wee-Bay about Namond. Truly awesome character.
Colvin talking with Carver about how “this drug thing not being police work” is another prime example. He treats those he is talking to as fellow human beings, not their status.
Anyone who’s ever taught in a non-rich school would know. I taught in a school in a small community where people didn’t know what it was like to not be poor. Most of their families were farmers and the kids also worked the farms on weekends. They didn’t really care about trigonometry or mechanics. They were very aware that they would end up as farmers. Some were in gangs, most were rebellious. Your goals change in that situation. You can’t care about test or exam scores anymore. You just want to help them see that there’s more out there than the life they have so they can want more for themselves.
The Wire is not the kind of show where you can take the end game out of a 2 minute soundbite. Bunny is perhaps the closest thing David Simon and Ed Burns have to a mouthpiece in the show, the guy who in both this situation and the Hamsterdam experiment goes out and says "our system is NOT working" and experiments with other left of field solutions. Pryz was achieving some results with his class before being forced to teach his kids the exams, and the point is, the approach needs to change
Bunny was a man amongst boys in the BPD and decided to turn boys into men after the pd couldn’t handle him ending drug violence and making the police obsolete. He was the strong alpha man doing good in every hood. They get told to give up but thanks t their work, the brilliance in the hood is able to flourish. I’ve been lucky enough to meet a couple of bunnies in my life and I can tell you that they’re mentor ship is singlehandedly the difference between 300 and 600 murder in a city like bmore and dc. They do God’s work and never get a thank you.
Colvin is really a special person, and a super important character. If more police modeled theirselves after Colvin, the world would be better. He sees people for who they are and can be. He is about the truth at all costs, and isn't satisfied with going through the motions just to maintain the status quo. He has so much heart.
Every time I watch another clip, my affinity and affection for this show grows. Bear in mind, I lived in Baltimore for nearly 40 years. My ex-wife was a middle school principal in Baltimore for several years then worked as a high-ranking official for the Baltimore City Department of Education. Season 4 is as real as it gets.
As a former teacher I met so many educators like her, well meaning, genuinely cared about students but too often blinded by their own idealism. It was frustrating, didn't hate them but getting them to see that you can still be idealistic but you also need to be more realistic. Once you do that then you can start making the type of progress your blind idealism is hoping for.
If I ever find myself teamed up with Bunny Colvin with the task of trying to convince someone to do something I want them to do...I'm just going to keep my yapper shut and let him do all the talking.
We need more bunny’s in the world…. I love how Colvin is all about not being 100% result driven in processes… that is so important in the world we live in… doesn’t hurt to be empathetic and understanding about problems
Frank Sobotka, Howard Colvin, and Dennis Wise are the 3 true protagonists in the series. They were great men who did so much for others while putting themselves at risk by doing so.
@Elias Galeas they did and 2 of them still had a happy ending. Frank, however, did not. And his union died anyway. Frank is the TRUE selfless hero of the entire series.
Bunny Colvin was such an amazing character, beautifully written and brilliantly performed, he’s one of the best characters of the entire series for me.
Don't be so hard on the principal, she's just trying to do her job. She's naive and idealistic - amazing she got so far in the system with such attitudes, but she's still young. Bunny has 30 years experience on her and the white dude has at least 15. They both know the system is kind of a sham, whereas she still believes in it. They're trying to fix a disaster zone and she hasn't even come around to wondering where the walls went or why the roof is leaky lol meanwhile there's nothing but debris for miles. Bunny Colvin was, more than any other character, the hero of The Wire. He understood exactly how fucked up everything was and he still did the right thing - not for ego, not for money, not for career or for friends or family or reputation, he did it just because he cared.
+Colonel Hart Well first off, she's actually the superintendent, and secondly I'm not sure if she believes in the school system, but her main goal is not to make the schools look bad for political purposes. The first thing she says when they bring up the project is as long as it won't cause a fuss during the election. The problem she has with Colvin's project, although it's actually benefitting the kids, it reveals the school system's own incompetence. Definitely agree with you tho, Bunny is one of the noblest characters, all he does is try and help the community around him and in the end, it chews him up and spits him back out.
Actually, its her stat driven attitude that got her so far into the system. I thought the show made a clear point that those who eat shit from higher up will progress further in their careers.
Colonel Hart she's exactly what most kids need... She isn't just giving up on kids... If more people were like Bunny... They would just be creating problem kids cause any random scared white teacher would say "that black kid can't learn" the moment she senses what she deems as a attitude from them
Sankofa NYC Disagree. She's what they need, e eventually. Like Colvin said, they aren't ready to recieve what she thinks they need. So its up to Colvin to prepare them as best the could in the only way they know how.
DreadPages and I disagree with you... There are already studies you can read now that show that certain children are suspended and expelled at higher rates for the same offenses... Teachers would be creating alot of problem children this way, because some teachers just like some police officers are actually scared of the people they are paid to support and help, usually for no good reason... The kids may need structure... Some may even need a total change of environment... But what isn't cool is just telling them they will never learn this shit so don't try... She's an educator, he's a police officer... Just let that dynamic sit with you for a sec
@@JahmilBlair She's the superintendent, not the principal. The principal is in the school every day and knows the students. Superintendent just drops in when she hears someone's not teaching to the test.
Colvin is a great example of reassuring confidence. He doesn’t yell at you; he makes you feel comfortable, knows how to smile, and then gives a speech that helps you understand where he’s coming from. Great example of never escalating the situation even when you might be tempted to 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻
“It’s not about you or us”. It’s important and extremely hard for any human to keep things in perspective. Asking yourself why you are doing something is a step towards becoming an adult. Repeating that step is how you stay an adult.
Don't remember where I read this but it is simply TRUE. When TV goes the way of the gramophone or the telegraph, when television is a machine or medium that is no longer used and they write the history of Television, THE WIRE will be said to be the GREATEST EXPRESSION of that medium. It is a PURE PICTURE of our Human Condition and the HORRORS that we can do to each other.
The thing I'll always love most about this show are scenes like this. Yes we're all responsible for our own lives but damn if situations don't play a major part in all of our lives. This is the truth for millions in this country & its long overdue for change
Bunny Colvin was by far my favorite character in this series. I loved how he just saw right through all of the BS, and I could empathize with how often he was unable to change it on a large scale. And I was jealous of his creative ability to change it on that smaller, more localized scale. That's the part of being human that we all want to get to. We imagine it in our heads, but for many of us, excuses and obstacles in real life stop us from doing that hard work.
Linc Crajon it wasn’t as popular then as it is now because it took people a while to realise this dense, slow, depressing ass show was actually very good. Nothing to do with being a threat to the system lmfao
@@theoeguia3302 The thing with the Wire is that you couldn't really take one episode on its own as a great piece by itself because it's designed to be a slow buildup wherein all the episodes combine to form a greater whole. Plus, the actors on the Wire are all character actors chosen because they were cheaper than traditional leading men and helped in the realism of the setting. That might have hurt the acting award chances because those usually go to more "normal" leading men and ladies.
Schlock Jocks And yet a lot of this show’s cast are now in high demand across the board, either continuing as character actors or as critical/commercial stars in their own right (Elba, Jordan, Ryan).
That woman and the people like her who're at the head are exactly what's wrong. It's all about their ego. It's totally not about the children. It's only about what they want.
+absurdmaverick If she was a professional doing her job she wouldn't ask loaded questions like "Did they embarrass us?". An educated person like herself should have enough common sense to ask more enlightening questions.
+MoRiellyMoProblems That's the implication though going both ways though. She wants to produce educated polished kids who do not make the school (and as she implies, her race) look bad - there's nothing wrong with that goal but she is a professional who is quick to not want to deal another fire to put out.
i figure those experiences of socializing outside of their enviroment will stick with them for the rest of their lives. even give thm confidence to exist beyond their own world at some point
If there was a prequel of the Wire, there should be one of Colvin. He knew who Avon and Stringer were before they became major players. He has a lot. Shoot, his character may have been more appealing to me than Omar.
TV tries to make you see one point or another.... The Wire made you see all the points. They showed you in terms you could relate to and those that you never gave thought to. They showed you the dreamers, the down & out, and the deplorable. They made you look and relate... they made you sick to your core and made you want better for others. No one was a real saint or sinner. Just people with their own codes of conduct.
This is part of the problem no one wants face the truth because it would require acknowledging they too are apart of the problem. Even with all the hardwork, good intentions, time and effort they got it wrong. So they'd rather "play the game" than change it for the better. It's always easier to go with the flow. Now almost 20yrs this same problem is even worse.
Bunny is the only one in the room who understands the kids and the problem. The so called educators are just posturing and bloviating about their own perspectives. This is the real reason why Malik can't read.
the sad truth about public school education in the U.S. sinking ship going down that nobody wants 2 call a sinking ship. 2 many problems that should be addressed only get worse b/c of neglect, bureaucracy & rhetoric. Mr. C is right though. Kids learn a lot more by what they say than most of the B.S. that's said 2 them.
Outlined here are universal issues in numerous government funded institutions applicable accross the board globally. There is a lack of life affirming encouragement and too much typecasting students branding them for life as incompetent delinquents. They need to think of the children not just themselves instead of avoiding responsibility and actual hard work.
While I still debate whether Season 3 is in the top 3 seasons of the show, I admit after rewatching that Colvin really makes it important. He highlights on what is a cop and a criminal and tries to show how those 2 people can coexist by giving and taking on both ends to create the best environment considering circumstances that are still beyond their control.
Bunny was a smart caring Guy , hell He made that" little Amsterdam", where the junkies could go get high and not get busted . Which cost Him His job , then in the Public Schools He really tried to help that one kid who everyone thought He was a snitch .
ofc it did, but you gotta ask yourself whether these problems(the crime, the prostituition) would've existed if society hadn't made it illegal to sell these drugs. The Wire was never about painting a nice(r) picture or ignoring the effects of policies; it was about what happens with society, policing and politics(atleast in season 3) when you declare war on something that should never have had to feel the touch of this kind of "war". Wars end--
