@@gideonpotok8592the first season is a bit like a stage play sometimes.. it’s great but it’s still finding its legs. Barely anything ever feels scripted again after this. But I agree - if only cause it’s an old school line n everything since ripped off the wire so it feels even more cliche
I love it when McNulty asks, "what'd you do to piss'em off?" And Lester just looks at him and says "Police work." You can see it on McNulty's face, he's thinking "I think I just met my best friend."
Exactly! Together a ying and yang, McNulty obviously a young punk, Freamon a dignified elder statesmen, and both happen to be the best police in Baltimore.
I also like Lester's comment at the end: "When they ask you where you want to go, keep your mouth shut". McNulty obviously, rightfully so, had immense respect for Lester, but that comment showed Lester also saw himself in Jimmy and had respect for him. Lester was my favorite character on the police side.
Only two times have I heard All Blues by Miles Davis in television. In this episode and in The Line of Fire with Clint Eastwood (before he gets the first call)
I recall one episode in the first season when LT. Daniels is working with "Fleurette Africaine" by Ellington/Mingus/Roach in the background. great choice of Music, only The Sopranos can compete
I thought that was Coletrane. Lol! I literally just told a friend, Lester looks like one of those cool older brothers that drives to work with leather gloves, a leather coat, a broken down kango and Miles playing in the whip
The funniest part about this scene is Lester warns McNulty not to say anything when a supervisor asks "Where don't you wanna go." At this point in the show, Landsman already asked him that in a previous episode. McNulty realizes he's fucked.
In the last episode of Season 1, Rawls asks McNulty where he doesn't want to go, McNulty grins, and the scene cuts. I took this to be McNulty taking Lester's advice, but Rawls finds out from Landsman where he really doesn't want to go, so he ends up on the boat anyway. He calls Landsman out for telling Rawls in the first episode of Season 2, which shows that he didn't expect Landsman to say anything, and that he did what Lester said to do when Rawls asked him the question.
It was only on the second watch-through of Season 1 that I realized McNulty does indeed say the last place he wants to go is on the boats, several episodes before this scene, when the judge starts things. The writing in this show was just so tight.
What really amazes me about Lester is the unbelievable patience he has: tells McNulty in a casual tone that he was stuck in the pawn shop unit for over 13 yrs. Later he has part of the team collecting paperwork & records all over town -- daunting task but Lester knows it'll lead somewhere, he doesn't mind the effort. Hell, even the way he takes down Bird while acting like a drunk on the street is calm, cool, collected. Great acting by Clarke Peters and great writing.
Gotta love the miles Davis playing in the bar. My dad used to put this track (All Blues) on every Sunday morning when I was a kid. Had to have woken up to it hundreds of times lol. Great song. Great artist.
I remember watching this episode and being like "Wait, that''s Miles Davis." I listened to Kind of Blue a ton my sophomore year of college. That was when I zeroed in on this show.
Even the way they drink their beers tells something about their characters. Lester drinks his beer slowly and holds it in his mouth for a few seconds as if to ponder the flavor while Jimmy just opens his mouth and pours his beer down his throat.
Miles Davis in the background at the bar - loud enough to hear the trumpet line, too. The Wire sure knew how to frame a character so the audience understood exactly where they fit into the world.
Stuck in my own version of the Pawnshop Unit, I console myself with the thought that Lester Freamon rolled away the stone. In 13 years... and 4 months.
Buddy, we're all in the Pawnshop Unit. You just have to figure out how to make dollhouse furniture while you're whittling away the time you're being paid for.
Nah old Lester has that experience; that life knowledge. I bet he was actually a little bit like McNulty in his youth. Probably why they connect so well. Old Lester is king.
It's like making prequel to House MD, and saying he was probably doper before he's leg injury. Both of these characters are build, and written around these events. Without it, they're diffrent characters, not the one you loved.
Cool Lester Smooth. Love these two, and this show is the greatest. I frequently wish I could go back to before I watched it the first time and have it all to unfold in front of me. It's pure and perfect.
It's fascinating, the concept of "natural police" in the show. As dirty as the streets are, as much as back-dealing and corruption are just a generally accepted part of life, there's still an ideal of what a good cop would do, even if no one actually behaves that way. It's a firm devotion to a model that does not exist; where the people acting as "natural police" have no reason to hold so firmly to the rules--except that they're devoted to the idea of being a good cop.
Also loved after the end of the season when McNaulty is getting disciplined and I think its rawles or jay ask him "where don't you want to go" he just smirks and remembers this convo
@@Onigirli At the very start of the season, when the judge starts making noise and McNulty is taking heat for it, Jay and Bunk are ribbing him about where he's going to end up, and McNulty says that the last place he'd want to work is the docks (because of the fumes). In Season 2, McNulty comes back and makes a few comments at Jay about telling Rawles about the docks. Jay claims he honestly thought Rawles wanted to make sure McNulty landed all right.
Yeah. It's fictional and it still pisses me off. Guy's a fucking savant detective and that's how they do him. Sad thing I'm sure it's happening to a lot of real police out there. The shitheads always win.
I use too sneak in the kitchen at night when my parents watch this 😂😂😂 it’s crazy I’m 29 now! In 2015 I had the entire shows dvd set but I’ve lost it 😢 now RU-vid is my refresher
Holy shit, you can literally find every fucking scene from this show on RU-vid. This one of McNulty and Freamon in the bar as Miles Davis blares out of the bar radio is one of my favourites from the series, I've been trying to find it for weeks with no luck.
Jimmy McNulty is a hell of a character and a great detective, but Lester Freamon arguably beats him in both categories. And the end of this scene is sad, where Freamon is like "you do realize where this is all going to end up, don't you?" Pure arrogance fuels McNulty, he looks so young and self-assured here, he has no idea about 13 years in the pawn shop unit lol...
+Colonel Hart inarguably. Lester is the brilliant detective McNulty aspires to be, and he's grounded, too. He's like Ben Kenobi or Gandalf without any magic, just consistent policework. At this point, the conversation where Landsman had determined to put McNulty on a boat had already happened and been quickly forgotten.
+Colonel Hart hmm and yet i can't help but think mcnulty might mature and become the new freamon. After all, it's heavily implied mcnulty can't be kicked out of the job, but he's buried so deep he's never seeing real police work again. who knows, 13 years down the line after the wire ended, mcnulty might be put into a proper detail out of sheer accident just like lester was put into the barksdale case
+HighLordBlazeReborn Yea, I think that is what the writers are going for. McNulty is a young Freamon full of fire and not willing to play by the rules. And then...... the boat.
mcnutty wouldnt be mcnutty without the blind arrogance freamon wouldnt be freamon without the stubbornness levels of detection and instinct...theres not a lot between them
13 years and 4 months. The amount of good that he could have done for the city in that time but some asshole wanted to prove a point and throw some weight around because he did his job. 2020 UPDATE Should note that the move is what made Lester a far more dangerous investigator. I'm sure he wasn't bad before but now even the smallest thing doesn't get by him. There's a clip from 'First 48' on RU-vid of cops working a murder case out of New Orleans. It's Mardi Gras and there's trash everywhere of all kinds and one of the detectives sees a random hat on the ground among the trash and picks it up and sends it to forensics. Later on after they're watching video of the murder that same random hat falls off the head of the murderer. They got him on his DNA. Something random doesn't go by these guys, like a telephone number written on the stash house wall with the letter D next to it which everyone else missed. Lester didn't want to get tied down with "paper shuffle" as he calls it, but we see later on how paper shuffling is exactly how the really sophisticated crimes are done. Watch the scene where he schools Prez and Sydnor on following the money and paper trails and ask yourself who else in the entire department could do that. I talk about the good work he could have done being on the street, looking back now he's impossible to beat while sitting at a desk.
+Hermit574 It has nothing to do with following chain of command. It has EVERYTHING to do with the incompetent and/or corrupt "bosses" keeping their status/rank and positions safe from true police like McNulty and Lester.
The dialogue is so great. the banter, the chemistry. Between so many characters. Weebey and stringer, stringer and avono, omar and mouzone, omar and everybody, lester and mcnulty, prop joe and everyoneo...sheeeeeeeeet. I really can't choose just one.
Glad someone caught Miles Davis playing in the background. It is "All Blues." After "Freddie Freeloader" it is my fav work on the classic, "Kind of Blue" album.
Great visual of Jimmy appearing and the bar and then we get Lester's slow reveal....almost like a curtain rising and one of the most important characters in the show's history appears...God I love this show 👏🏾
@TheNikolatesla34 ah, I'd never considered that possibility. But I don't know if it's part of landsman's m.o. to rat McNulty out. He seemed like the guy who would always cover for his people. And it's not like McNulty was ever concerned with self preservation; in season 2 he spends hours just calculating the tides so he can stick his old unit with fourteen murders, even though he knows it would come back to him. I still wouldn't put it past mcnulty to put himself on the boat just out of spite
By far my favorite character in the Wire! (although, in all honesty, the character development in this show and the acting was just at such a high level).
When Mcnulty in his genius created the phantom ribbon serial killer to drum up unlimited overtime for his buddies it forced the forensic psychologists to get involved. When they layer out the imaginary killers profile it was point by point match of of Mcnulty. He was even trying to duck down and hide his face. I was roflmao!!!!!
@@beav1962 it wasn't just about getting overtime, it was about getting the resources to take down Marlowe Stanfield (which includes overtime). The police budget was slashed to the bone by Carcetti after he refused the Governor's (poisoned chalice) offer for financial support to Baltimore. Lester went along because he was past the point of really giving a shit (in my view) and knew this was their shot to catch Marlowe and put a true monster away.
One of the most intimate moments in the entire series, as we learn through Freamon's story much of his motivations and what he wants to do in this conversation. On the surface, it is just barroom talk between two detectives, but there are lessons learned and taught within this conversation.
The opening shot in the bar sets up the moment perfectly. The pan over to McNulty standing before a silhouetted wall, dark and inscrutable, which then slowly recedes to reveal Lester is just artful.
I wish I knew bars that played Miles Davis. All I got are some disco shit, pop rap, classic rock and sports bars around here. I'd instantly switch where I'd go!
the classic rock part im fine with (thats part of what makes a bar) altho I don't like bars to begin with but...pop rap ? in bars ? wtf kinda bar is that ? some gay ass night club ? lol electronic dance pop music or some rap hybrid ...eh ok...classic bars = classic rock OR (maybe some jazz instrumentals for the artsy-fartsy older crowd) tho I respect miles davis n bitches brew but...sports bars aren't playing radiohead, or leadbelly LOL or anything in between...disco shit (even that I could see) but pop rap that still gets me...could you imagine a smoke-filled bar w/ some Trina or Nelly ? LOL
Something tells me you live in middle america. Top 40 rap in bars is pretty ordinary in cities on either coast. It won't be smoke filled, though....don't remember the last time I was in a bar where you could smoke.
the background music the bar scene man conversation legend type of thangs ... it's like yo dad and grandpa sitting back reminiscing on some past happening and ya the little kid running about ,mom screaming go down to the bar get yo dad and grandpa dinner time ... the WONDER YEARS ..
I was already invested in the show from the first few episodes - but it was Lester's emergence in episodes 3 and 4 that really had me on the edge of my seat. Ep 4 is one of the best of the whole series, in fact.
If anyone is wondering what the music is in the background is when Mcnulty and Lester are talking its the brilliant All Blues from the album Kind Of Blue by Miles Davis. Perfectly sums up Lesters character, one of the smartest and coolest people on the show but largely forgotten about, just like the music of Jazz.
Saw this scene when the show was just in the HBO rotation and a hundred times since and it still gives me chills to think of all that is yet to come with Jimmy , Lester and the boys...:)...Great show! Arguably one of the best. ..Raw and pure and living 80 miles north of B-more; in philly, which makes b-more look like Beverly Hills...I appreciate the portrayal of the game.
3:42 Jimmy looks a bit concerned after Lester says this because by that point he had already told Sgt. Landsman that he would hate to be transferred to Baltimore's naval police
My goal in life is to be as smooth as Lester Freamon, unfortunately I'll be lucky to be as smooth McNulty in season 4 when he was a good boy for a bit.
Pawn shop life taught Lester to pay attention to the little things and that's what he did. Nothing was too small of a detail. That's how he found out info while the others were scratching their heads. He entertained all the details not just some. On crime scenes he had everything dusted.
In Lester I see The personification of The Myth of Sisyphus thesis. He does his job knowing that his higher ups will not reward him, for all his hard work he has been shoved to the corner of Baltimore police. Yet he still does it not with a smile or scowl but with a persistence and faith he that is in him alone and perhaps a wonder to those around him. I might be taking to far a leap ( given I did not watch the show in it's entirety, but the only time he cuts a corner is when he and McNulty team up to invent the Red Ribbon Killer to bring down Marlo, and that's all I got.
