Patreon Clip-Out: 'The Wire' vs. 'The Sopranos'

patreon.com/jenkinsandjonez to unlock full episodes

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're about to hear a clip from one of our
Patreon exclusive episodes. To hear the entire episodes, sign up
now at patreon dot com. Slash Jenkins and Jones. Do
y'all want to talk about the Bomani and the Adam
Freelan Wire and Sopranos clip?

Speaker 2 (00:17):
We can?

Speaker 3 (00:18):
I think I think it's go ahead, go ahead.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
So for those who didn't see on the Old Man
in the three, you know, Bomani is interviewing Adam Freelan,
and he said that he liked the Sopranos more than
The Wire, two all time great shows, but he liked
them more because he felt that the characters in the
Wire were one dimensional, whereas the characters and the Sopranos,
even down to the tertiary characters, he kept saying, we're

(00:45):
more fully fleshed out.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
He also said that they were characters of gangsters, which
is really odd because a number of them actually were
pulled from the Baltimore Street so like, and they were
just basically, hey, come on, come here and play yourself. Yeah, like,
so that's just too but like saying that they didn't
have depth, I don't know what question I'll pose when

(01:07):
I sent the clip.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
You said, you said, like, is this racist?

Speaker 3 (01:13):
I didn't know. I didn't know if I did or not.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
But I think.

Speaker 3 (01:15):
Heist because everything is. But also I don't feel like
he's a racist. I actually like his show, so I don't.
But I'm just like, for you not to see and
I just feel like, for you not to see see
the depth of those characters, that's a blind spot which
falls under the I disagree.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
With people saying he was trolling with the comments in
our chat because he had a specific point about Omar
that I do think he was. I do think he
was being serious.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
What's so deep about him? He's gay? Like what do
you talk like Omar? Omar was like the embodiment of
of of of you know, when do people fudge their
morality code? Right? Because he was he was a robber
who had morals who who who's still about it by
cod But he for sure like like fudged up the
rules every now and then to his benefit, Like that

(02:04):
was kind of his thing. And I don't understand how
you can say that these dudes were characters caricatures of
gangsters when like when like one of the the most
profound scenes to me is when they go to to
stranger's apartment after he gets killed, and they look at
his book collection and they're like, Yo, this dude was
reading Wealth of Nations and shiit like like they were
legitimately blown away there, Like I never thought gangsters would
read shit like this, Like.

Speaker 3 (02:25):
But also if you like knowing people who have moved
in that space, gee, it's like, first off, like.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
That's such a funny phrase to use about I.

Speaker 3 (02:37):
Don't know how to say it.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
You know what I mean, you've operated in that space?

Speaker 3 (02:40):
Yeah, like you feel me like Mohama sposed to say,
like like you know what I mean, Like I gotta
sound like a lawyer when I'm talking about this ship.
You feel me well, like like ge like how people
get there? There is there's a trillion ways to get there,
and not everybody just out there tugging a lot of
people I know that are good at that shit, that

(03:01):
have been good at that shit. You know what I'm saying,
do look more like shringer Bell than what you would
think a character caricature of a gangster is. I think
they show the the fact that these gangs that that
motherfuckers do some shit aren't monolists. And I think that's
more true than not.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yeah. Yeah, Like like like Stringerbell, for instance, It's whole
thing was was he wanted to you know, debunk the
whole notion that he was just like a gangster, and
that's it. Like he wanted to be a businessman, he
wanted to get into the corporate world, and you know,
everything just kind of harkens back to that chess scene
wherehere it was like the pause stayed to pause, and
so much of the Wire is like it doesn't matter,

(03:38):
you know, your aspirations of getting out of your living situation.
Sometimes you're born into such a living situation that you
just can't make it out. It's going to be your demise,
you know, like like like there's no social ability, there's
no way you can get out of the hand that
you were dealt when you were born. Like that's kind
of a prevalent theme with the Wire. So to say
that that the characters were flat and they were caricatures,

(03:58):
like it's like, bro, were you even paying attention?

Speaker 3 (04:00):
And that's what I'm saying, Like if you've seen that
and you felt that, I just think that's a blind
spot that a white person would have. So I don't
think he's like, means he don't think he's trying to
he's ill, you know, intent, because that's ill intent. I
just feel like that just feels like somebody that doesn't
see black people in the reality of who black people are.