A man's got to have a code

June 11, 2011 3:52 PM

Attorney General Holder mandates, at a minimum, another season of the Dickensian TV serial, The Wire. David Simon and Ed Burns agree that they "are prepared to go to work on season six of The Wire", with one small catch: "if the Department of Justice is equally ready to reconsider and address its continuing prosecution of our misguided, destructive and dehumanising drug prohibition". Simon, Burns, et al previously on the futility of the war on drugs.
posted by autopilot (81 comments total)

He could have just said "No."
posted by empath at 3:56 PM on June 11, 2011 [7 favorites]

I think both of these things belong in the past.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 3:58 PM on June 11, 2011

You know, I'd trade a contived, unnecessary extra season of The Wire for an end to the War on Drugs.
posted by Threeway Handshake at 4:00 PM on June 11, 2011 [22 favorites]

Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.
posted by RakDaddy at 4:01 PM on June 11, 2011 [24 favorites]

Wow, this is Kafkaesque. Did Holder watch The Wire? Or if a high ranking US official speaks out on the War on Drugs, does the ghost of Nixon and Reagan sweep in to kill them?
posted by geoff. at 4:03 PM on June 11, 2011

Without people like David Simon, life wouldn't be worth living.
posted by doteatop at 4:11 PM on June 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

I'm ok with this so long as he also orders another season of Arrested Development.
posted by found missing at 4:11 PM on June 11, 2011 [14 favorites]

Wow, this is Kafkaesque. Did Holder watch The Wire? Or if a high ranking US official speaks out on the War on Drugs, does the ghost of Nixon and Reagan sweep in to kill them?

All in the game, yo.
posted by never used baby shoes at 4:13 PM on June 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

It would be funny if this was for real, and there were actual "contractual obligation" versions of TV shows. Gangstas rollin' down the street, blasting Van Morrison's "You've Got Ringworm."
posted by StickyCarpet at 4:14 PM on June 11, 2011 [8 favorites]

I believe he means a fifth season of The Wire. There was no Season Five, remember?
posted by orrnyereg at 4:16 PM on June 11, 2011 [6 favorites]

Also in the news, Janet Napolitano requests more episodes of Max Headroom, while Joe Biden would like another season of Manimal.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 4:17 PM on June 11, 2011 [30 favorites]

Goddamnit 3 years in office and still no new firefly, and now the administration is making efforts to get more seasons of Obama's favorite show? Thanks a lot Obama, maybe you and the almost dozen people who can still afford cable will enjoy it. Guess who is voting Palin in 2012, me that's who.
posted by Ad hominem at 4:22 PM on June 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

I have a lot of power Mr. Burns and Mr. Simon.

I don't know why American elected officials seem to find it amusing how much power it is that they hold. Or more correctly, I don't know why they seem to feel free to showcase that amusement publicly. Personally, statements like this terrify me.
posted by TypographicalError at 4:28 PM on June 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

Mefi's gettin' slow in its old age.
posted by IvoShandor at 4:28 PM on June 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

Goddamnit 3 years in office and still no new firefly

Is there an internet rule that every discussion of a cancelled TV show will inevitably end up with a call for Firefly to return? If not, there should be.
posted by lesbiassparrow at 4:31 PM on June 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Obama can simply sign an executive order that new episodes of Firefly be made and shown on c-span but so far he has refused. This is not the Obama I voted for, what a dissapointment.
posted by Ad hominem at 4:43 PM on June 11, 2011 [15 favorites]

Since he's apparently a fan, I'd at least love to see Holder address head-on what lessons he thinks we should learn from The Wire. Does he agree with one of the program's overarching themes, that drug prohibition is "misguided, destructive and dehumanising?" If not, why not?
posted by grouse at 4:43 PM on June 11, 2011 [9 favorites]

Is there an internet rule that every discussion of a cancelled TV show will inevitably end up with a call for Firefly to return? If not, there should be.

"GodwinJustGetOverItAlreadyPeople"?
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 4:44 PM on June 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

There is a new season of The Wire. It is called Treme and it is as good as any season that preceded it. Only this time instead of the cops dealing with dock workers or school teachers, they are working with musicians, chefs, and land developers.
posted by munchingzombie at 4:49 PM on June 11, 2011 [5 favorites]

well, it has many of the same actors, I guess
posted by found missing at 4:51 PM on June 11, 2011

I don't know why American elected officials seem to find it amusing how much power it is that they hold. Or more correctly, I don't know why they seem to feel free to showcase that amusement publicly. Personally, statements like this terrify me.

Every time a person makes a joke, there will be someone to step in and take the joke deadly serious.
posted by kafziel at 4:52 PM on June 11, 2011 [5 favorites]

doteatop: every person makes life worth living.
posted by scunning at 4:53 PM on June 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

David Simon: I've got a proposition for you.
posted by bwg at 4:59 PM on June 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

RobotVoodooPower: " Joe Biden would like another season of Manimal."

I was thinking more along the lines of Sledge Hammer.

Come to think of it, that wouldn't be too bad.
posted by notsnot at 5:07 PM on June 11, 2011 [7 favorites]

Let it go ya'll. They stopped writing when they had no more stories to tell about what they knew. If only others did the same.

Firefly had its shot with the movie Serenity. It was an amazing box office failure, failing to recoup costs even at the international box office. Let it go ya'll.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:12 PM on June 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

I'm ok with this so long as he also orders another season of Arrested Development.

The Wire : War on Drugs :: Arrested Development : War in Iraq
posted by Sys Rq at 5:12 PM on June 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Let it go ya'll.

I suppose I will have to compromise, otherwise I might end up with something worse.

How bout more Sarah Connor Chronicals then? Or more SGU, it was just getting good.
posted by Ad hominem at 5:19 PM on June 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Idea: Michael Scott does a ride-along through myriad stacks of shipping containers.
posted by Sys Rq at 5:19 PM on June 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

It was an amazing box office failure, failing to recoup costs even at the international box office. Let it go ya'll.

I'm cool with letting Firefly go, but just listing box office sales ignores the huge DVD and other home video sales that Whedon's creations bring in.
posted by formless at 5:23 PM on June 11, 2011

Simon's gonna get Omar down to DC to have a little conversation with Mr. Holder, you feel me?

No doubt.
posted by Mental Wimp at 5:30 PM on June 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Is there an internet rule that every discussion of a cancelled TV show will inevitably end up with a call for Firefly to return? If not, there should be.

There is now.

Lesbiassparrow's Law: As an online discussion about cancelled TV shows grows longer, the probability of a call for Firefly to return approaches 1.

Conjecture: As an online discussion about any TV show (regardless of current status) grows longer, the probability of a call for Firefly to return approaches 1.
posted by formless at 5:32 PM on June 11, 2011 [6 favorites]

I'm cool with letting Firefly go, but just listing box office sales ignores the huge DVD and other home video sales that Whedon's creations bring in.

According to this, DVD sales of Firefly may have pushed gross profit up to $60 million with a net of $11M for Universal films. Not a whole lot of encouragement to go broader with the series. The overt western motif was hard for most viewers to swallow the premise, IMO.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:39 PM on June 11, 2011

He could have just said "No."

Or he could've pressed the telephone receiver to his crotch and shrieked, "You hear that? YOU HEAR THAT?"
posted by Smart Dalek at 5:51 PM on June 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Another season of the Wire would be a beautiful thing, especially if it focuses on the unwillingness of the Federal government, and I mean the Congress the White House and the DOJ to go after Wall Street and the big banks and the cozy servile relationship that industry has with politicians Right and Left.

Speaking of which, damn is this Anthony Weiner doucheCircus something right out of the Wire or what?
posted by Skygazer at 6:06 PM on June 11, 2011

"Let it go" is like telling someone to "shut up."

Nope. One of the best things about The Wire is that it ended and that ended on such downnote, with the moral center/protagonist reduced to immoral means. The series was designed and intended to end that way. Putting out another season now destroy that ending.

Firefly just ran into bad luck and never managed to reach a large audience. Another season of it would have been nice, but it's been years now, the movie didn't do well and it's not coming back. Still it ended nicely (I don't count the movie) and it's neat to imagine them still criss-crossing space, doing barely legal jobs, getting into scrapes, etc.

Until then, go fuck your disinterested self.

No one has personally attacked or insulted you, so the aggressive response is odd and bizarre. But if that's how you wanna roll, then go find a bottle of good lube and I'll see what I can do.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:15 PM on June 11, 2011 [7 favorites]

You guys do know I was kidding about blaming Obama for not bringing back Firefly right?
posted by Ad hominem at 6:21 PM on June 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

I liked firefly, but it wasn't in the same league as the Wire. I've just introduced my dad to it, he's halfway through season 1 and loving it.
posted by arcticseal at 6:22 PM on June 11, 2011

Where was Big Government during 14 years of delays to Duke Nukem Forever, I ask you? Where was the bailout then?
posted by running order squabble fest at 6:50 PM on June 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

It was an amazing box office failure, failing to recoup costs even at the international box office. Let it go ya'll

I've let it go awhile back, but being 200k short of breaking even is not a terrible box office failure, that doesn't even count as a flop.
posted by mek at 6:58 PM on June 11, 2011

Holder just wants some pap culture to take everybody's attention off the real war on drugs that is needlessly ruining the real lives of real people who aren't actors. If there's no TV crap to absorb people the way that reality TV subsumes the interpersonal rage and impotence undergirding society, they might demand something from the powers-that-be, from reality, and we just can't have that. Holder knows this.
posted by rhizome at 7:08 PM on June 11, 2011

Remember how Omar died? That needs to happen to Firefly fandom.
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 7:10 PM on June 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

Brandon Blatcher writes "According to this, DVD sales of Firefly may have pushed gross profit up to $60 million with a net of $11M for Universal films. Not a whole lot of encouragement to go broader with the series. The overt western motif was hard for most viewers to swallow the premise, IMO."

Ya, 15% profit with Hollywood accounting is pretty horrible. /hamburger

I imagine it'll be a gift that keeps on giving though. It began another syndication run last March.

arcticseal writes "I liked firefly, but it wasn't in the same league as the Wire. I've just introduced my dad to it, he's halfway through season 1 and loving it."

I love both these shows, it'd be tough to choose. The Wire is pretty depressing though and of course Firefly never got the chance to develop it's arc.
posted by Mitheral at 7:11 PM on June 11, 2011

On the Firefly note, I just have to point out I watched it recently for the first time having previously avoided the claims of how good it is. Well, lets just say that I'm now a convert.

I've heard a number of good things about the Wire. I really should watch it.

Funny though how something that might be an offhand comment gets widely publicized due to the person who made it.
posted by graxe at 8:03 PM on June 11, 2011

Well; I've backtracked though "The Corner" and I am now going through "Homicide: Life on the Streets"; sixth season of The Wire would be nice.
posted by buzzman at 8:06 PM on June 11, 2011

It is a little weird that someone opposed to ending the War on Drugs is supposedly such a huge fan of The Wire. It'd as if Donald Rumsfeld's favorite book was Johnny Got His Gun.
posted by Sticherbeast at 8:10 PM on June 11, 2011 [10 favorites]

Remember how Omar died?

Omar will never die.
posted by Skygazer at 8:24 PM on June 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

You know, I'd trade a contrived, unnecessary extra season of The Wire for an end to the War on Drugs.

The funny thing is, if Simon's precondition was followed, the extra season wouldn't be either contrived or unnecessary. The end to the War on Drugs would so fundamentally change the characters and the setting of "The Wire" that further exploration of the new circumstances surrounding this New Baltimore would be mandated by the laws of the universe.
posted by lewedswiver at 8:34 PM on June 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

*cough*
posted by gingerbeer at 11:13 PM on June 11, 2011

They already did a legalization plotline anyway.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 11:15 PM on June 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

It is a little weird that someone opposed to ending the War on Drugs is supposedly such a huge fan of The Wire.

Some of us identify with Omar, and presumably some of us identify with Rawls...
posted by PeterMcDermott at 1:03 AM on June 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

Attorney General Holder mandates, at a minimum, another season of the Dickensian TV serial, The Wire.

The catch is probably that he has only seen the first two seasons.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:24 AM on June 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Any law about the still endless discussions that is often had by Firefly fans should be called: Serenity Now!

When said by fans, it is a Whedonesque call to arms. When said by it's detractors, a Seinfeldian release from the redundancy of it's fanaticism.
posted by P.o.B. at 1:35 AM on June 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

1) after season 5 I don't want a season 6

2) we need a Goodwin for firefly and tv posts
posted by nathancaswell at 5:29 AM on June 12, 2011

3) Carcetti is now little finger and you can't have him back
posted by nathancaswell at 5:30 AM on June 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

It is a little weird that someone opposed to ending the War on Drugs is supposedly such a huge fan of The Wire. It'd as if Donald Rumsfeld's favorite book was Johnny Got His Gun. posted by Sticherbeast at 10:10 PM on 6/11

Or if George W Bush's favorite song was Creedence's "Fortunate Son."
posted by jtron at 5:32 AM on June 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

While I'm sure another season of The Wire might be a neat sort of thing, as an unofficial ambassador of Baltimore (a side effect in managing first one, then another of the city's beloved landmarks), I'm just glad I don't have to keep explaining that no, the city's not quite the way it seems on that show. Treme sounds like a perfectly reasonable substitute, and New Orleans is a more apt subject for creative reinvention. Can't we have an airy sitcom about Baltimore, starring Betty White, maybe, instead of another tense, brilliantly written crime saga? Nevermind me, I get in these moods.

The desk in my office when I started at my job was from the police station sets on The Wire, and I thought it was quite a cool thing to have until I realized that it was just another awful 1980s particle board and fake wood formica monstrosity that was oppressively bulky while still having no actual storage space, with razor sharp corners that bloodied my knees every time I went skittering across the room on my office chair. I painfully lugged it into an elevator so small I had to send it upstairs with the desk alone, running after it, then dumped it in a vacant office, and made myself a nice big sturdy desk out of an asbestos-filled ladies room door removed in the building's renovation that I set on four elegant cast aluminum legs. It's very large and strong enough to stand on.

It's not the Wire desk, to be sure, but people spent decades urinating behind my not-so-fame-adjacent desk, so it's cool in its own peculiar way.
posted by sonascope at 5:50 AM on June 12, 2011 [6 favorites]

End the war in Afghanistan and I will see to it that the crossover show everyone is waiting for will finally be made.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 6:32 AM on June 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

End the War on Abortion and I'll make sure there is another season of Deadwood.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 7:07 AM on June 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

End the Chicken Tax so I can get a reasonably priced small truck, and I will personally write and perform a new season of Otherworld with hand puppets, and even throw in a story involving a crossover with Cleopatra 2525.
posted by sonascope at 7:22 AM on June 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

Omar will never die.

Omar is the thug we'd be if we were all much better people.
posted by doctor_negative at 7:50 AM on June 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

btw, Holder and Obama's policy of not enforcing US marijuana laws against medical marijuana where such laws exist is the biggest step forward for any politician, ever. Its easy for the Ron Paul's of this world to confuse the hippie kids into supporting his "unleash capitalism on the weak" plan when he voices support for legalization. But he doesn't have to worry that the House will take him seriously and actually do it.

But Holder issued a guidlne to federal prosecutors, telling them not to prosecute medical marijuana with federal resources.
posted by Ironmouth at 8:48 AM on June 12, 2011 [5 favorites]

Needing little startup cash, Omar worked in a specialized market inadvertently created by the poor policies of the government. So the invisible gun hand of the market stepped in.

Omar worked hard, using his own God given talents to establish and grow his brand in a volatile market. He was a fine example American entrepreneur, leveraging capitalism in a niche market.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:54 AM on June 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

Speaking of which, damn is this Anthony Weiner doucheCircus something right out of the Wire or what?

Yes, and I called it.
posted by Threeway Handshake at 9:19 AM on June 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

It is a little weird that someone opposed to ending the War on Drugs is supposedly such a huge fan of The Wire.

Eh. People are able to appreciate great art even when they don't agree with the politics. I'm not a Trotskyist, but I love me some China Mieville. And it's not as though the Wire doesn't address with equal ruthlessness and sympathy issues of bureaucratic dysfunction, the illogic of politics, and corruption which might be of interest to government officials like Holder.
posted by AdamCSnider at 9:30 AM on June 12, 2011

btw, Holder and Obama's policy of not enforcing US marijuana laws against medical marijuana where such laws exist is the biggest step forward for any politician, ever. Its easy for the Ron Paul's of this world to confuse the hippie kids into supporting his "unleash capitalism on the weak" plan when he voices support for legalization. But he doesn't have to worry that the House will take him seriously and actually do it.

Not sure what universe you're living in, but they're absolutely continuing to enforce these laws.

May 19, 2011: Feds raid more Spokane marijuana dispensaries; DEA in New Spokane Medical Marijuana Dispensary Raid; The Obama Justice Department Is Forcing Legal Medical Marijuana Patients Into the Illicit Market.
posted by hippybear at 9:31 AM on June 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Dr. Negative: Omar is the thug we'd be if we were all much better people.

Omar is the thug we'd all be if we had no other option and we weren't afraid of death and we were ten times smarter than the other thugs.
posted by Skygazer at 10:10 AM on June 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

NathanCaswell: 2) we need a Goodwin for firefly and tv posts

I have no idea how this thread veered into talking about Firefly, but any TV show mentioned in the same breath as The Wire is going to get my interest so I streamed the 90 minute pilot last night, and was quite pleased to find it a unique sci-fi/Western outlaw adventure story with snappy crackling writing displaying depth and personality. Some nice words too.

Is Treme available to stream from anywhere as of yet?
posted by Skygazer at 10:22 AM on June 12, 2011

Yes, and I called it.

Exactly. Weiner is like the Jewish version of Carcetti.
posted by Skygazer at 10:23 AM on June 12, 2011

Yeah, please don't hold Obama and Holder up as paragons of respecting state laws on medical marijuana. Despite the Ogden memo, the DoJ and various federal attorneys have been busily sending obnoxious letters to state governors trying to dissuade them from signing or implementing wider medical access. Not to mention sending Kerlikowskie out to Washington State and other places to directly lobby against bills.
posted by gingerbeer at 12:16 PM on June 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Holder and Obama's policy of not enforcing US marijuana laws against medical marijuana where such laws exist is the biggest step forward for any politician, ever.

Not sure what universe you're living in, but they're absolutely continuing to enforce these laws.

But they announced that they were going to stop enforcing them. In the world of Obama defenders, that was enough to constitute a big step forward; they don't have to actually do anything about it.
posted by steambadger at 12:17 PM on June 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

/derail/

I make no judgment on whether Firefly is good or bad. But its fans seem completely incapable of imagining that there are people who might not like it. I didn't like it was on the Telly. I didn't like it when I saw it in the right order the first time ('oh, if you watch as it was meant to be seen, you'll change your mind'). I didn't like it the second time I saw it ('you just have to watch it in the right mind and with someone who can explain it!). The third time I was asked to watch the pilot I may have gibbered in horror and fled. Now when I go to people's places I check their shelves to see if Firefly is there, because if it is I know what's coming. If it's not the tv series it's that bloody film.

If this is not the sort of thing I will like, then I will not like it.

/derail/
posted by lesbiassparrow at 12:45 PM on June 12, 2011

I didn't like it was on the Telly. I didn't like it when I saw it in the right order the first time ('oh, if you watch as it was meant to be seen, you'll change your mind').

It's fine if you don't like it, clearly a lot of people didn't. But I'm curious, what didn't you like about it?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:57 PM on June 12, 2011

I watched Firefly and Serenity. Didn't love them or hate them. I ultimately liked it in a kind of got under my skin sort of way where each episode appealed to my inner nerd just enough to keep me watching until I became invested enough in the story to see it out to the end, since there were so few episodes. It wasn't much of a commitment to watch 13 episodes and a movie on Netflix.

Things I liked about it: Mal, sudden violence, flawed characters, portrayal of the vastness of space and scavenging limited resources, Christina Hendricks.

Things I didn't like: the overt western theme was a little campy and slightly difficult to get past. The production value wasn't always top-notch. Felt a little to serialized and pulpy, not enough throughline from episode to episode... each episode seemed to have a theme, or hook, in a cheesy Star Trek kind of way. It's a planet that worships Jayne! It's a planet that's like this! It's a planet that's like that! The western-ness seemed inconsistent. Jayne wasn't a very good actor.
posted by nathancaswell at 1:15 PM on June 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Oh and add the theme song to the dislike category, that shit is terrible.
posted by nathancaswell at 1:20 PM on June 12, 2011

Yeah it is pretty much Outlaw Josie Wales in space, maybe that's why I love it.
posted by Ad hominem at 1:45 PM on June 12, 2011

Not sure what universe you're living in, but they're absolutely continuing to enforce these laws.

May 19, 2011: Feds raid more Spokane marijuana dispensaries; DEA in New Spokane Medical Marijuana Dispensary Raid; The Obama Justice Department Is Forcing Legal Medical Marijuana Patients Into the Illicit Market.

I'm talking about the federal prosecutorial guidelines. And those guidelines are clear--when a dispensiary is merely distributing to patients, the guidlines strongly discourage prosecution. However, when it is a source of distribution to the illegal market, they will prosecute.

And some of these places are distributing to the illegal market. I can't tell you my source for this knowledge.
posted by Ironmouth at 2:13 PM on June 12, 2011

Oh, well; that settles that. When an anonymous mefite tells me that, according to his anonymous source, the administration's position is entirely different from what U.S. Attorney's are saying it is, that's good enough for me.
posted by steambadger at 2:37 PM on June 12, 2011 [4 favorites]

Well that's settled then. Glad I'm not the only one who might trust a metafite over the US government.
posted by Mitheral at 2:43 PM on June 12, 2011

I'm surprised that people are surprised that Holder watched The Wire. Obama has listed it as his favorite TV show.

So this is kind of tangential, but I was thinking about The Wire and how its writers talked about explicitly modeling their plotting and characters on Greek tragedy. It made me wonder who the characters in the show corresponded to. Clearly Avon Barksdale was a king, even alluded to by D'Angelo's quote "The king stays the king". He ruled over a large organization and had run-ins with other "kings" like Proposition Joe.

But then the question is how the ruling classes (police, politicians, etc.) fit in to this analogy. I think the only answer is that they correspond to gods of some kind or another. They do what they want, like McNulty going on drunken binges, and their actions are rarely life threatening to each other, but only to the "mortals" working in the drug trade. It's a pretty damning analogy--we have maybe even more power than we believed, and yet things stay the way they are.
posted by A dead Quaker at 2:46 PM on June 12, 2011

And some of these places are distributing to the illegal market. I can't tell you my source for this knowledge.

Good. That means we get to write it off as the complete horseshit that it reeks of.
posted by Sys Rq at 7:33 PM on June 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

"I'm ok with this so long as he also orders another season of Arrested Development."

Hurwitz stipulated that it would only be on condition that Holder do something about "all these goddamn loose seals."
posted by Eideteker at 11:36 AM on June 13, 2011 [1 favorite]