Dark Poutine
Over The Edge: Death And Daring At Niagara Falls (ON)
At some point in the life cycle of any true-crime podcast, the hosts inevitably experience “murder fatigue” and need a break from endless tales of brutal homicide. In the latest episode of Dark Poutine, a Canadian dark history podcast hosted by Mike Browne and Scott Hemenway, the morbid Canucks’ vacation from killing still includes plenty of death as Browne recounts to Hemenway several instances of accidents, suicides, and daredevil antics at Niagara Falls. The most notable daredevil was the first to go over the falls in a barrel: a 63-year-old ex-dance instructor named Annie Edson Taylor. She cooked up the scheme to achieve fame and escape crushing poverty, and in 1901 she rode down the falls with only pillows to soften the impact. She would later say of the journey, “I felt as though all nature was being annihilated.” This and other incredible stories are delivered with a cozy energy that might remind listeners of the strange but well-meaning Canadian uncles they never had. [Anthony D Herrera]
Strong Black Lead
Taye Diggs
Calling all aunties, thirsty folks, and pop culture junkies on whatever day of isolation this is. Netflix’s Strong Black Lead is a podcast that passes the mic to black entertainment legends, and this week host Tracy Clayton (formerly of Another Round) speaks with entertainment icon and notable beautiful person Taye Diggs. The multi-hyphenate talent recounts the defining moments in his long career: the first time he went with his mother to rehearsal as a child, his experiences in performing arts school, and working with celebrity crush Lucy Liu on the romantic comedy Set It Up. Diggs and Clayton discuss using art as activism, the challenges of transitioning from stage to film, and the pitfalls of the entertainment business, particularly the ways in which black artists often have uniquely complex career trajectories. Diggs’ anecdote about the original cast of Rent (known then as the Bad Kids Of Broadway) singing “Seasons Of Love” together for the first time makes this a can’t-miss episode for musical theater geekdom. [Morgan McNaught]
The Wire: Way Down In The Hole
“The Target”
Over the years, The Ringer podcast network has made a concerted effort to perfect the rewatch podcast format. So it seems fitting that they would eventually get around to developing a show dedicated to one of the most rewatched series of all time, The Wire. Though criminally underappreciated when it originally aired on HBO, The Wire has since been recognized as one of the greatest if not the greatest television shows ever. There’s a reason all of your annoying friends act shocked and appalled when you say you haven’t seen it yet. Here to be your tour guides through the rough streets of West Baltimore are Jemele Hill (The Atlantic) and Van Lathan (formerly of TMZ Live). Together, they discuss the multilayered themes explored in each episode, do detailed breakdowns of specific characters, and even highlight the show’s occasional narrative missteps. Be warned, though, this is a spoiler-filled zone. If you don’t already know which characters end up on the wrong side of a gun by the end of the series, you might want to binge all five seasons before heading Way Down In The Hole. [Dan Neilan]
34 Comments
Is this meant to be only three podcasts long, or am I just missing the rest of the article?
I need to convince my wife to watch the wire with me. Just to see Omar every once in a while. He’s damn near the top of my favorite tv show characters ever. But goddam he deserved a better ending.
Deserve ain’t got nothin to do with it
Touche
Nah, they truly demonstrated the cosmic indifference and cyclical nature of “the game” by having a little hopper, Kenard, be the one to kill Omar…..It was a smart move on their behalf.
Yeah, I get that. Thematically, it makes sense. Consistent with the show. But fuck. I just wanted to see him win. It would have been amazing.
Patience, give him 10 years and Michael will get that win, right?
I love the late-season reveal that Omar and Bunk, two of my favorite Wire characters, went to high school together, though they didn’t know each other. But Omar remembers Bunk being the first “brother” he ever saw play lacrosse
It’s going to be real interesting to see how Season 5 of The Wire is dealt with in general.It’s obviously weaker. Some of the stuff done to characters would be seen as “character Assassination” in 2020 hyperbole. The finale wasn’t considered great at the time is also a bit tropey with its “circle of life” ending. Also, wonder how picky and pedantic they’ll be about retcons and stuff that it avoided by starting to air early in the 2000s.
I think the problems with the last season had a lot to do with Simon being too close to the Baltimore Sun subplot. The management and crooked reporter weren’t just bad, which would have been fine, they were mechanically bad, which made it seem like Simon was just scoring unearned points.
It didn’t help that Marlo was also so personality free. I know Simon was trying to make a statement about new villains being more sociopathic than the old style kingpins, but statements tend to make weak TV. I think the thematic need for Marlo to prevail meant they gave him too much plot armor to compensate for the lack of compelling personal qualities to show why people would follow him.
There’s an article out there on the internet somewhere (I’ve tried SO hard to find it again but can’t seem to do so) that takes a close look at Simon’s history at the Baltimore Sun with the two real-life analogs of the editors in S5, Marimow and Carroll. Really annoying that I can’t find it again because it offers some perspective on things and kinda validates a lot of people’s opinions on the portrayal of the newspapers, i.e. that Simon has a few legitimate (and serious) complaints that have perhaps been over-marinated in his own personal gripes with the editors. It’s a fantastic read; if anyone knows the one I’m talking about then please post.Aside from that, the other reason I’ve heard why people like S5 less is down to the serial-killer plotline. Which threw me for a loop on first watch as well, but actually makes a lot of sense on re-watch and if nothing else is a pretty ballsy creative decision for a show to make going into its final season.
http://www.cjr.org/cover_story/secrets_of_the_city.php?page=allI found this on sepinwalls blog. May be what youre referencing. But its a great read regardless – really explains Simon and the editors side without declaring an obvious winner.
That’s actually it! Much appreciated – I was starting to think I’d imagined it. It is as good as I remember it. Apologies for the late response BTW, my Kinja’s been acting up recently.
I always had trouble explaining why I didn’t like the Marlo character, but you nailed it in your second paragraph. I always had a problem with the idea that somebody wouldn’t have put a bullet into him by the end of season four.
Agree about the Baltimore Sun subplot, strongly disagree with Marlo not being compelling.
“conscience do cost.” The best line in a series of 500 best lines. IMHO
I just watched the whole series for the first time (thanks COVID!). Omar got the worst ending of all my favorites. In some ways I guess that’s fitting for this show. Life doesn’t always give the endings people “deserve”.
Hmmmmm… Over the course of a decade, I’ve been watching The Wire at a snails pace. Last episode I watched was somewhere in Season 3. Maybe I should finally make a push to finish this thing (I did just finish Red Dead Redemption 2 yesterday, a year and a half after starting it).
Just rewatch it from the beginning, there’s a lot of stuff people miss on first watch, not to mention all the stuff you’ve undoubtedly forgotten by now.
The Wire podcast will be great if the hosts can break from the Ringer/Bill Simmons house style and just talk about the show. Too many ‘[X] of the week’, running tallies, that sort of thing. But the hosts are great and I’m sure they’ll transcend their sponsor.
What you don’t want CHARACTER POWER RANKINGS in your podcast?
It ain’t like that. See, the king stay the king, a’ight?
Everything stay who he is.
THE WIRE IS JUST LIKE TEEN WOLF
While I admit that format wouldn’t work with the Wire, I have come to love Binge Mode and all of its lists and hilarity, specifically for Game of Thrones and Star Wars.
Sorry to inform you that Jemele has already started a running count of how many times Bodie spits in an episode, and is threatening to start a count of “how many times Stringer acts like a fuckboi” in each episode.One feature that is actually pretty cool is “file this away for the future”. In the first episode it is the beatdown that that Bodie and Poot give to Bubble’s friend Johnny. That beatdown motivates Bubbles to become the Michael Jordan of snitches, and without him, the detail probably crashes and burns. That, and the D’angelo Barksdale trial are the two most important motivating factors for the whole series, but you don’t necessarily realize that upon first watching it.
Yeah Jemele’s running counts are exactly what I had in mind. That’s the sort of thing that sounds like a Simmons note. She’s better than that tho, I hope it falls away after a bit.‘File away for the future’ is actually helpful! Especially with The Wire–last time I watched it it hit me that the real villain on the show is Andy Krawczyk, you realize dude is into *everything* once you start paying attention…
now we’re recapping recap shows? fml
And we used to be right at the source. RIP AV Classic.
FWIW: Meet my Friends the Friends is really quite funny.
I live in a somewhat gentrified neighborhood in Pittsburgh, where my street in particular is resisting gentrification and still has the corner boys and back alley drug deals. I’ve noticed some of the corner boys are wearing masks now, and every time I see that, I imagine some Stringer Bell character having a sit down with all of them explaining that no virus is going to stop the game, but they still have to take some health precautions.
The wire podcast isn’t particularly entertaining as a podcast. The binge mode model works because Mallory and Jason are uber dorks and they’re mining fandoms with crazy in depth scholarship for research. Hill and Latham seem to be more like a married couple watching it and then doing some half assed googling, which seems more like the rewatchables, and any one Simmons is on gets an immediate skip from me because he epitomizes pseudo-intellectual discussion of popular culture.
Thanks to whoever recommended 372 Pages We’ll Never Get Back to me in this feature last week. It’s sure nice to hear Mike Nelson’s low key humor again. I started with The Eye of Argon, because if “typo- and malapropism-riddled fantasy novella written by a teenage boy and published by The Journal of the Ozark SF Society” isn’t “MST3K material in book form”, I don’t know what is.
During a boring global pandemic they could only find 3 podcasts to review?
Here’s some suggestions for people: -Streetfight Radio: A couple of Ohio dads being funny-Desert Oracle Radio: Broadcasts of the odd and eerie from the Mojave desert-Not another D&D podcast aka NADD Pod: funny D&D podcast that is about to end their first campaign. -Vaguebooking: a pretty new podcast that features/views internet oddities from the last decade. -Episode 1: Like Comedy Bang Bang, but doesn’t feel antiquated.