Is it because he’s always nailing smug weirdo rich fuckbags? Is it the peter falk hard carry? Is it because despite being canonically a cop he does anything but act like a cop?

Is everything downstream of columbo an attempt to erase his legacy as the hound of wealthy sociopaths?

Is Columbo a demigod?

  • large_goblin [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    17
    ·
    4 months ago

    The wire was ACAB throughout. Every cop in that show was either a criminal themselves, corrupt, incompetent and almost always extremely racist. The one (arguably) good cop in the entire show gets forced out.

    It did a great job of showing how the police and the gangs are two different criminal organisations with their own heirarchies filled with actual human beings.

    Season 3 was the highlight of the entire show, watching the police become the “muscle” for the drug dealers.

    I’d go as far as to say it was a crime show, not a cop show.

    • Belly_Beanis [he/him]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      4 months ago

      Even the “decent” cops in The Wire are terrible people outside of policing. They’re constantly cheating on their partners, drinking and driving, or looking the other way.

      • large_goblin [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        4 months ago

        McNulty was a terrible person the entire series who committed a series of crimes being saved by his badge every time and whose only decent quality was being a passable detective willing to tackle big cases.

        He even put himself on the level of the completely irredeemable fuck ups like

        Major Spoilers

        Herc when he gets Bodie killed in the final season because his illegal case building meant he had to pick him up in the middle of the street instead of doing any degree of witness protection

        • Belly_Beanis [he/him]@hexbear.net
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          9
          ·
          4 months ago

          I was thinking more Bunk and Kima. They’re serious about solving homicides but outside of work they’re just more functional versions of McNutty. Daniels could also be considered decent, but he likely built his career on top of dirty money.

          Really ACAB. Bodie killed one of his best friends, sold heroin, and still was less of a shit than the entire Baltimore PD lmao

          • large_goblin [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            6
            ·
            4 months ago

            Bodie was so conflicting because he showed zero remorse and the little bits of humanity we saw died when he killed his friend who was also still a CHILD at the time and just went on business as usual.

            But he still didn’t deserve what happened to him,

            𝅹𝅹𝅹󠀵󠀵󠀵󠁇󠁇ᅟsp

            Death by cop in the dumbest way possible

            And then McNulty tries to do the exact same shit the day after.

            This is the face of the show and the cops in general for most of the seasons too, the reference point for cop behaviour, he’s even portrayed as one of the “better cops” when Omar gets arrested.

            Kima was the most human of them all and Bunk was just sad. It felt like as long as he kept being one of the more / only competent detectives noone would ever try get him to avoid liver failure in the next few years.

            If we start Prez discourse we could get a 200+ comment hexbear thread going.

            • Orbital [none/use name]@hexbear.net
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              7
              ·
              4 months ago

              Kima was the most human of them all

              Det. Greggs beats down a physically restrained “suspect” not once but twice

              My first time through the Wire I knew very little about copaganda. Mildly embarrassed about that now, although the show presents plenty of ACAB counternarrative.

              David Simon comes off pretty penitent in We Own This City when spilling the tea on cop brutality and lawlessness so that’s a plus

              • large_goblin [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                4
                ·
                4 months ago

                Det. Greggs beats down a physically restrained “suspect” not once but twice

                Hey ACAB applies to them all. I was referring to Kima’s personal story being about commitment and compromise in relationships and eventual parenthood instead of what all the other cops were up to. Still a bastard but we see some personal growth and a welcome break from the self-destructive behavior of the other characters.

      • Orbital [none/use name]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        4 months ago

        I love Matthew like a parasocial brother but he and Felix together couldn’t grasp the fairly simple overall message of S3-S5

        Not unlike MC’s total air ball on seeing (ultra tame extra LIB treatment of) women’s issues in Barbie