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The Weekly Wire: “Snot Boogie”

terribleminds — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 05:01:49 +0000

It’s that time, again. Class bell’s ringing. Take your seat, cats and kittens, boots and mittens. I didn’t know what to do for this installment of The Weekly Wire. I figured I’d pluck something from one of the episodes after the last one I used — after all, I’m moving in a progression, right? (Finished the first season, holy crap awesome, why dear God why is Disc 1 of Season 2 listed as a ‘Long Wait’ on Netflix?). If I’m moving in a progression, why not go along with me? Except, a lot of the really killer scenes of dialogue are somewhat… mm, “spoiler unfriendly.” This makes me wonder how long I can keep this up, but for now, let’s stow that pessimistic bullshit. I decided, hey, fuck it. I don’t need to go forward. I can go backward. And so I give to you the opening scene of the entire series. Scene one, episode one. Watch it. Read it. Think about it. Talk about it. Consider: this is an opening scene. The opening scene of anything has to be it, baby. It’s hook or book, suck it or fuck it. It has to do more than that, too — it has to establish. I’d say that the best opening scenes establish and encapsulate the entire project in some way — thematically, visually, morally, whatever. So, when you look at this, when you talk about this, first ask, is it a good scene of dialogue? But second, how’s it as an opening scene to an entire series? Focus on the writing above all else.

Det. James ‘Jimmy’ McNulty: So your boy’s name was what?

Kid: Snot.

McNulty: You called the guy “Snot”?

Kid: Snot Boogie. Yah.

McNulty: God. Snot Boogie. He like the name?

Kid: What?

McNulty: Snot Boogie?

[beat]

McNulty: This kid, whose mama went to the trouble to christen him Omar Isaiah Betts… You know, he forgets his jacket, so his nose starts running and some asshole, instead of giving him a Kleenex, he calls him “Snot.” So he’s Snot forever. Doesn’t seem fair.

Kid: Life just be that way, I guess.

McNulty: So, who shot Snot?

Kid: I ain’t goin’ to no court… motherfucker didn’t have to put no cap in him though.

McNulty: Definitely not.

Kid: He coulda just whooped his ass like we always whoop his ass.

McNulty: I agree with you.

Kid: Kill Snot. Snot been doing the same shit since I don’t know how long. Kill a man over some bullshit. I’m sayin’, every Friday night in an alley behind the Cut Rate, we rollin’ bones, you know? I mean all them boys around the way, we roll till late.

McNulty: Alley crap game, right?

Kid: Like every time, Snot, he’d fade a few shooters, play it out till the pot’s deep. Snatch and run.

McNulty: What, every time?

Kid: Couldn’t help hisself.

McNulty: Let me understand you. Every Friday night, you and your boys are shoot crap, right? And every Friday night, your pal Snot Boogie… he’d wait till there’s cash on the ground and he’d grab it and run away? You let him do that?

Kid: We’d catch him and beat his ass but ain’t nobody never go past that.

McNulty: I gotta ask you: if every time Snot Boogie would grab the money and run away… why’d you even let him in the game?

Kid: What?

McNulty: If Snot Boogie stole the money, why’d you let him play?

Kid: Got to. It’s America, man.

The Weekly Wire: “I Wanted To Make That Shit Special”

terribleminds — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 05:01:42 +0000

Okay. It’s that time again, kiddies. Another look at HBO’s The Wire. I’m kicking the classroom door wide open. Here’s some dialogue between the two detectives, McNulty (white dude) and Bunk (black fella). They have great rapport. This dialogue is interesting — I don’t know that it needs much context. You maybe could know that McNulty is always putting himself in the political cross-hairs by trying to actually be a good cop (“good police”). What’s fascinating to me is that I don’t really know what’s going on in this scene. Something’s there. Something’s up. Some element of history that goes beyond what we see in the show. This is from Episode 7, Season 1, by the way. Here’s the dialogue. Both embedded video (longer, fuller scene) and the text (shorter to highlight the dialogue I want to highlight). Take to it. Like it? Dislike it? Go beyond that. Tell me why. Tell me what you think works. What doesn’t. How does it lay? How does it play? (And if you’re looking for the scene referenced last time in the comments, the one where they basically just say versions of “fuck” back and forth, you can clickyclicky and see it.)

Det. James ‘Jimmy’ McNulty: You know why I respect you so much, Bunk?

Det. William ‘Bunk’ Moreland: Mm-mmm.

McNulty: It’s not ’cause you’re good police, ’cause, y’know, fuck that, right?

Bunk: Mm. Fuck that, yeah.

McNulty: It’s not ’cause when I came to homicide, you taught me all kinds of cool shit about . . . well, whatever.

Bunk: Mm. Whatever.

McNulty: It’s ’cause when it came time for you to fuck me . . . you were very gentle.

Bunk: You damn right.

McNulty: See, ’cause you could have hauled me out of the garage and just bent me over the hood of a radio car, and . . . no, you were, you were very gentle.

Bunk: I knew it was your first time. I wanted to make that shit special.

McNulty: It was, man. It fucking was.

The Weekly Wire: “The King Stay The King”

terribleminds — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 05:01:51 +0000

In case you missed it, I’m suddenly hip-deep in The Wire, and hot damn, I’m hungry for more. So, here’s the deal. I figure if hoity-toity snooty-ass Harvard can have a college course about The Wire, we can do a little something like that here at terribleminds. From time to time, I’ll post a little snippet of dialogue from the show (yes, I know, the post title says “weekly,” shaddup shuttin’ up, rabbit). Why? Because you want to learn how to write, you have to learn how to pay attention to stuff like this. So I’m telling you: pay attention. Tell me what you see in this dialogue. Tell me what it does for the scene. If you don’t watch the show, this is largely without context, but even still, it’s some punchy shit. What do you like about it? What doesn’t work for you? Hit the comments. Discuss. Think of this as a class. Speak up.

D’Angelo Barksdale: Now look, check it, it’s simple, it’s simple. See this? This the kingpin, a’ight? And he the man. You get the other dude’s king, you got the game. But he trying to get your king too, so you gotta protect it. Now, the king, he move one space any direction he damn choose, ’cause he’s the king. Like this, this, this, a’ight? But he ain’t got no hustle. But the rest of these motherfuckers on the team, they got his back. And they run so deep, he really ain’t gotta do shit.

Preston ‘Bodie’ Broadus: Like your uncle.

D’Angelo Barksdale: Yeah, like my uncle. You see this? This the queen. She smart, she fast. She move any way she want, as far as she want. And she is the go-get-shit-done piece.

Wallace: Remind me of Stringer.

D’Angelo Barksdale: And this over here is the castle. Like the stash. It can move like this, and like this.

Wallace: Dog, stash don’t move, man.

D’Angelo Barksdale: C’mon, yo, think. How many time we move the stash house this week? Right? And every time we move the stash, we gotta move a little muscle with it, right? To protect it.

Preston ‘Bodie’ Broadus: True, true, you right. All right, what about them little baldheaded bitches right there?

D’Angelo Barksdale: These right here, these are the pawns. They like the soldiers. They move like this, one space forward only. Except when they fight, then it’s like this. And they like the front lines, they be out in the field.

Wallace: So how do you get to be the king?

D’Angelo Barksdale: It ain’t like that. See, the king stay the king, a’ight? Everything stay who he is. Except for the pawns. Now, if the pawn make it all the way down to the other dude’s side, he get to be queen. And like I said, the queen ain’t no bitch. She got all the moves.

Preston ‘Bodie’ Broadus: A’ight, so if I make it to the other end, I win.

D’Angelo Barksdale: If you catch the other dude’s king and trap it, then you win.

Preston ‘Bodie’ Broadus: A’ight, but if I make it to the end, I’m top dog.

D’Angelo Barksdale: Nah, yo, it ain’t like that. Look, the pawns, man, in the game, they get capped quick. They be out the game early.

Preston ‘Bodie’ Broadus: Unless they some smart-ass pawns.