This will probably get me downvoted to oblivion, but I guess I just needed to get it off my chest.

This summer has been a TV show drought thanks to the dumb World Cup dominating everything, so I decided to start watching The Wire. I always see comments in various subs about it when people ask for show suggestions.

I’m 45 so I feel like I’ve seen my fair share of shows over the years, but wow the blatant misogyny on The Wire is so bad. Is this how detectives and city officials act? I mean I knew most police depts were just a boy’s club, but it’s honestly gross. And the violence against women in the projects was alarming. In season one, they have a party and basically take turns raping an unconscious young woman who later dies from an overdose. They talk about her being raped and sodomized by multiple men like it’s no big deal.

In season two, it takes place on the docks. A container full of eastern european prostitutes comes in and they all die because someone purposely cut off their air supply. The next few episodes are the depts going back and forth over who is taking the case because they don’t want all those dead girls to affect their homicide numbers. No one seems to give a shit that actual human beings died (not to mention these girls didn’t choose that life). McNulty gives the illusion of caring for awhile… don’t even get me started on his cheating ass. Is this what writers thought women wanted back then? He’s supposed to be the hot detective who women swoon over and is seen throughout the show basically fucking anything that moves. Meanwhile they make his ex wife out to be the bad guy because she won’t take him back. Poor McNulty.

Now I’m watching season 3 which introduces some slimey male character who wants to run for mayor of Baltimore. He also cheats on his wife left and right. Everyone cheats. All of these men cheat. At least the Lieutenant waited to sleep with someone until he and his wife were separated. That’s something.

I had high hopes for my girl Kima, the only female police detective in a sea of men. I hate what they’ve done to her character in season three. Her partner has a baby, and suddenly Kima becomes one of the boys. Drinking and staying out late on purpose to avoid helping her partner care for their newborn… a partner who helped her through rehab when she was shot multiple times, I might add.

The storylines are interesting, but no wonder our boys and men are fucked up if these are the type of men they’ve looked up to for decades. The patriarchy hurts everyone.

Edit to add: I normally love cop shows. I was a huge fan of Third Watch back in the day. I still watch Law & Order and SVU, also loved OC when it was on. So I’m not new to cop shows, but this one feels extreme.

The best part is that it's essentially a cameo in exactly one episode that season ("Stray Rounds", S2 E9), yet it perfectly foreshadows his character arc in the next two seasons—and all for a guy who wouldn't even become a regular character until the next season.

For anyone who's forgotten: he shows up in two scenes presiding over the police crackdown that ensues after an innocent local boy is killed in the crossfire between the Barksdales and a rival crew, and he proceeds to spend most of his screen-time angrily lamenting the cycle of senseless violence that accompanies the drug trade—establishing him as a jaded veteran officer who's grown disillusioned with the War on Drugs, and is long past ready to try something new. And in the next season, that "something new" turns out to be his Hamsterdam experiment. Lieutenant Mello even shows up alongside him in one scene, establishing their dynamic in Season 3.

This is the third time I've watched Season 2, and somehow I never noticed that he was in the show before Season 3. It honestly kind of blows my mind that the writers (seemingly) had so much of his character worked out before Season 3 aired, and they took the time to slip in a cameo setting up his arc a whole season in advance. It just goes to show how solid the show's continuity is, and how intricate its storylines really are.

Apologies if that was common knowledge to everyone except me, but I just did a double-take when he showed up onscreen, and I had to share it.

You betta watch up back and that

For me it has to be season 4, when that one fuck kept robbing and beating up Bubbles every time he saw him 😭

Which also lead to him accidentally giving Sherrod cyanide, then begging the cops to throw him in prison out of sheer guilt, then trying to kill himself.

My God Bubbles has a sad arc in season 4 :(