After following Stringer around town, McNulty goes into Bell's photocopying shop where Stringer gives him an interesting offer, which he later reports to Prez and Freamon. (Season 3, Episode 5 "Straight and True")
That coulda been real awkward if Mcnutty rented an apartment from String and was his landlord. Yo string my shower won’t work can you send someone. Yes weebey will be there next Friday at 2 am
@@deeznutz9869 sure he would of been hooked him up for free. As a way for Stringer to have McNulty in a compromised situation ethically, Hence why McNulty rejected it out of hand
McNulty: Oi Bell where's the food Bell: kisses teeth McNulty: I know you're on the roads with Avon and have the mandem running the towers. Bell: Yo listen bruv man don't know no Barksdale. But I can get you in a new yard fam. New westside flats innit.
I love McNulty's smile when Stringer tries to "sell" him the condo. He knows what Stringer is doing, and it reminds him why he's so enjoying chasing him.
@Timo Cruz sir No, its not a bribe at all. Its all a very tongue in cheek conversation. Stringer is clowning McNulty with that line, its fake kindness when he knows he would kill him if he could, and that McNulty would arrest him if he could. They are playing their roles in the game, and in that moment, String is getting the best of McNulty.
sam stone Yes, he had potential.... but NOT as a policeman in the field. He’s messed up twice! He took away a boy’s eye, and killed an undercover police officer.
Anyone notice how perfect rivals String and Jimmy were for eachother. Both were very narcissistic and egotistical men, who wanted to prove themselves right. Both were like ''fuck the bosses'', both did things their side didn't approve off (String being businessman in a gangster world, and McNulty committing fake crimes as a cop). These two were made for eachother.
After String's death, McNulty could tell by his apartment and collection of literature that String worked hard to try to become a legitimate businessman.
I tend to think Stringer had an unfortunate combination of intelligence and snobbery. He was intelligent enough to get to his position in the game but then he began thinking he was better than the rest of his fellow players. Look at him taking economics classes and trying to dip into the legit business world. He was doing that stuff mostly to play the game better and further his own ends. If he truly wanted out of the game he might have been able to make it happen but he didn’t know any other world. It’s an interesting exercise to ponder what might have happened if Stringer hadn’t been killed but obviously the odds are against any player surviving long enough to even start to honestly want to live a legit life.
@@elp5668 If he wouldve sticked more to his own guns WHILE also listening to Avon I think Stringer wouldve made it. He wasnt smart enough for Clay tho.
Part of his problem was he couldnt let go of the game. The first speed bump he finds in the business world has him hitting up slim charles to drop Clay davis. He wanted to be legit but keep all the benefits of being a gang boss. He wanted the best of both worlds but ended up with the worst of each, ripped off by davis and gunned down by Omar@@mistameff3528
String was still dealing drugs, even if he was in real estate. He was just not touching the drugs directly. But String was never going to become a "legit" businessman, as we see when he tried to get that Senator to "bribe" the government, and then Levy opened his eyes on how things actually work.
Stringer is such an interesting character due to his major flaws. His street smart got him to the level he was at in the game. The more he starts becoming aspirational about the legit world, the more removed he is from the game. The merger of the 2 muddles his judgment as the series progresses. In earlier episodes he talks about how the product they sell can be inferior but it will still sell; precisely because its addictive drugs. Distribution channels i.e. corners therefore are key. He loses sight of this later when he talks about how product superiority is more important: something Avon understood far better ('I want my corners'), precisely because his worlds didnt merge - he was in the game only. Stringers demise is due to him trying to apply legit world strategy to the drug world and vice versa. As Lester says here, he is far removed from the game at street level now, both mentally and physically. While the sordid tactics of the drug game have mirrors in the legit world of business, there are fundemental differences and nuances too which he failed to appreciate. Ultimately this diachotomy destroys him. He underestimates the street aptitude of those around him, in lieu of his own (somewhat deluded and missplaced) business acumen. The Wire is just incredible. So intricate and complex at every level.
Ateeq Ali the only mistake he really made was sending Omar at brother Mouzone. He should’ve sent one of his own hitters at brother Mouzone not Omar who you had beef with for years
True. He also got played by Clay Davis because he didn't know that world as well as he thought. Then he tried to put a hit on him, which really underlined how he was struggling to dance between the drug game and the legit business world.
Ateeq Ali The reason Stringer changed his opinion on street corners over product superiority is when he got a hold of Prop Joes product he saw a rise in turnover with less real estate. But i agree with everything else. He lost sight on how to handle street issues and made some big mistakes. Main one being the Omar/Brother Mozoune situation.
Stringer and McNulty go back a long way - little did we know this would be their last dialogue together. Notice that as McNulty is leaving Stringer addresses him as "Officer," contrary to McNulty's having earlier corrected him with "Detective" - a half diss, half good-natured kidding on the part of Stringer. Idris Elba and Dominic West are both as English as Englishmen come. It's neat to watch them both handle their American roles so well. Nice scene.
Salvador Allende That would have been a howl - a perfect comeback to the diss. However, it would have been a stretch because McNulty had no way of knowing that D'Angelo said it. Amusing thought, though.
Andreas Iversen I know about Elba's genetic ancestry. Nonetheless, he was born in London; he speaks, acts and lives like an Englishman. He's fully English in character - his ancestry has nothing to do with it. Character is everything on this topic.
Addendum to the comment: Stringer knows about "Detective" already. After all, the first time we see Stringer is in the first episode, in the courtroom, where he flashes his "Fuck You Detective" cartoon at (the very amused) McNulty. I knew I was going to love this show when I saw that cartoon.
That’s what I loved about the show. You couldn’t get too attached to anyone. Game of Thrones dibbled and dabbled into that but this show made it seem so real. Everyday people.
This scene shows what truly elevated The Wire above other 'cop' dramas- it let you see the whole business of dealing illegal drugs. A lesser show would have shown you the corners and that's all. But The Wire showed you that the drug business was not simply a collection of illegal acts; it was a multi-level corporate plan, and now Stringer had gotten to a point where he was legit enough to be virtually untouchable. Masterful story-telling...
@@sjc4091 Yea I would agree with this. McNulty definitely respected how organized and careful the Barksdale organization was. I'm less certain of Stringer's opinion but I have to imagine he was also impressed with the work the police did in season 1.
@@joefriedman9843 makes sense consdiering that "it's all in the game" is one of, if not the main thesis for the show. both sides understand they're doing what they do to pursure their own agendas.
That’d be funny. Imagine working at a printing shop and finding out your boss is secretly a heroin kingpin and your place of employment is really just a money washing front.
It is far fat far more common than you could possibly imagine. You ever seen a mexican restaurant survive for 10 years with no more than 4 customers a day? Ever seen a payday advance shop that has literally never had more than 10 people in it during it’s entire existence? A car wash with no working equipment but the lights still look open. Then you’ve seen one of millions of laundering organizations and shell companies that exist only to turn dirty money into clean money, no actual profits necessary they make them up.
@@EVILWAFFLE543 Police are pompous and feel an overwhelming compulsion to remind everyone around them about their accolades and current position. Being referred to as "Officer" a second time was to demeaning to him.
I love the subtle agression in the exchange and Stringer wishing McNulty "a nice day, officer" when he corrected him earlier in the scene. Stringer felt untouchable at this point and didn't mind being cocky.
Deliberately calls him an officer twice, then by the end of the series he actually does go back to the beat. McNulty always had this weird status rivalry thing with Stringer. He's increasingly frustrated about his position in life up until Stringer dies, then this nagging feeling is exorcised from him, and he goes back to being content with his lot as a uniform. Perhaps the dialogue here is deliberately prophetic. Given that it was written by full fledged Authors I wouldn't be surprised.
When stringer appeared in The Office. I immediately though, "Oh crap, shit's about to get serious in here." And I wasn't wrong lol. His serious strong businessman personality is really well done.
At least in the season finale he got Stringer on the Wire and he dissed Avon as he cuffed him. I mean the only way Stringer could avoid prison was to die at the hands Brother Mouzone and Omar.
Butt Sucker no 5 which was his parole violation and another 25 for conspiracy to commit murder if daniels took it to federal he likely got 10 to life no parole
redhawk44109 to bad his boy owned to all the weapons even the grenade lol, of course they knew it was bullshit, but it’s not what you know, it’s what you can prove in court.
McNulty was always excessive when it came to Stringer. While he's scouting String in this scene, he gets inpatient and confronts String, and in the scene of Avon's arrest with Daniels, he does the same thing.
Taylor Giavasis Thats because it became an ego thing for Mcnulty, it wasnt his goal to put stringer away cuz he was a bad guy, it was to feed his own ego. He was narcisstic as fuck, and i loved the character
Taylor Giavasis To be honest Mcnulty was an self-obsorved asshole. he was a "good guy" but it was primarily for his own reasons. When he failed his family he took the work as a substitute to be good at "something". Mcnulty is my favourit character, him and slim charles :)
***** No, I think he was persuasive, excessive at times maybe. He truly cared about people and he had a strong passion for what he did for a living. He did anything he could to serve justice, even if it meant conceptualizing a false theory about a serial killer on the lose in order to have a amoral drug kingpin locked up for life.
***** How do you know he cheated on every women he been intimate with? Where did you indicate this spew from? Did you forget the plot where he was the only person who was investigating D's death even though no one else cared? Do you not remember how guilty he felt after hearing about Bodie's death? And how persuasive and driven to take Marlo down after so?
THE FUCKING GALL ON STRINGER! I just now noticed! He mentions Court papers because he knows that Joe has a guy on the court, which Lester and McNulty only find out about way before Stringer's dead. God dammit, alright, time to rewatch The Wire for the 5th time, fucking masterpiece of writing.
1:30 "You disappoint me Stringer, I had such hopes for us." Bell plays it smart and boring. The confrontdation was not satisfying in the way McNulty had hoped.
what, they going to start analyzing each other's dreams? "I dreamed I was at ihop eating some waffles and then i fucked the waitress when she was done with her shift." "Really? What do you think that's about?"
Hey, why not? Stringer going into legit businesses. It worked for the Kennedys, soon enough everyone forgot that old man Kennedy was a bootlegger during prohibition the bigger he got in the legit business.
"You disappoint me String, I had such fuckin' hopes for us." LOL, enjoyed the brief moments of banter these two had during their Season 1-Season 3 rivalry.
I never noticed that he says, "have a nice day officer" at the end. After McNulty told him he was a detective. Just a subtle lack of respect. Gotta love this show.
"Leave it to Lester". Now that would have been a good show. 2:19 Lester helps those of us who are a little slow, by putting everything in a nice little package and giftwrapping it for us. My favorite detective!
Trying hard to do an American accent? Mate, they pulled it off really well. Most people are only finding out that these actors are English; so in my books they've done bloody well!
But he's running business, employing people abd contributing to the welfare of society. You on the other hand are so minute mentally that a business card's quality is your main focus. You'll forever be a pawn.
Does it get better after season 1? I really enjoyed both BB and Sopranos and watched them all, but Season 1 of the Wire just felt a bit slow to me with too much focus on the detective work and not enough on the criminal side.
It will be very slow, all five seasons. But as they chase realism, not action, it should be this way. Plus, there's more time to flesh out characters. "You want one way. But it's the other way."
Stringer already knows about "officer" vs. "detective." After all, the first time we see him in the series he's flashing his 'Fuck you detective" cartoon at (the very amused) McNulty. I knew I was going to love this show when I saw that cartoon.
Idris and Dominic forget they're in Baltimore... Stringer mutters to his employee "Bloody cozzers, get back to work I'll handle this" McNulty "Stringer, me old son. I've not seen you 'round the estate. You alright mate?" Stringer "Nah, guv...I've been here, haven't I? You need summat copied or wot? Stick a pin...where are you callin home these days? I've a got some flats hear Central London you may be interested in. I'll put in a good word for you." McNulty "You havin' a Turkish, son? You disappoint me, String. I had high hopes for us." Stringer chuckles "Well... this me now innit...mind how you go...cozzer."
That little dude was perfect for the print shop or office max!!! He comes to work early, he checks all the inventory he keeps the bathroom immaculate!!! Where's that guy we need him for our transportation and cleaning business
Funny that the two British actors slip up their accents when acting against each other. With Stringers posh pronunciation of “loft apartments, real nice..” to mcnulty sounding almost Australian in his response.
Absolutely - and v different English accents as well (Elba is urban/London and West is old school posh as all hell). But both English accents I somehow associate as being “hyper English”. Always trips me out.
Almost. Turns out he wasn't hard enough for them in there... and maybe... just maybe (definitely) wasn't smart enough for them out there. I loved it when Avon hit him with that line.
Stringer should have kept his drug money and used it to build that little business and whatever real estate he had. Staying in the game is what ultimately got him killed.
they do there homework and are more particular about getting things right in acting and mainly in theatre work. go to a British production then go to a American production and tell me how many times they do a scene or a line over
Wood Harris gives an interview on Vlad tv and is asked about this. He says he thinks they are better because they grew up with shakespeare among other things.....
I hope whoever is reading this goes on to achieve their hearts truest desires! Sending you all love and positive energy. Even one day when I'm long gone, may this message live on and continue to be a source of comfort to one and all 🙌🏾🔥🖤
this is for those who thought avon was broke, when he went to prison again in season 4 or when he taxed marlo for 100k in season 5 , they had multiple legitimate business
Two Amazing English Actors, convincingly playing American roles. For the record Baltimore accents are not the easiest, nor the most represented on the American TV and film screen, it’s not like the Boston or NYC accents.
