The Sound of Young America, a podcast I’d never heard until today, but to which I think I will now subscribe, has a fantastic interview with Wendell Pierce and Andre Royo. There’s a spoiler or two, but mostly they’re speaking more broadly and conceptually about the show as a whole and their experience being part of it. Two highlights: Wendell Pierce talking about the real Bunk Moreland, and Andre Royo describing an appearance on Law and Order after he’d been on The Wire.
Thanks to Dylan for the heads up!
Anyone who’s been reading this a while knows of my extreme devotion to The Wire. I finally went ahead and made a Wire category, since with the fifth and final season fast approaching, I suspect I’ll be posting about it even more often. (I still suck at categorizing posts, though. Matt, maybe I should hire you as a consulting taxonomist…)
Anyway: found via the comments thread on Matthew Yglesias’s site, here are three very short ‘prequels.’ Warning: they won’t make much sense if you haven’t seen the show before. If you haven’t, of course, I urge you with evangelical zeal to get seasons 1-4 on DVD.
Bunk and McNulty (2000, Baltimore, Maryland)
Young Prop Joe (1962, Baltimore, Maryland)
Young Omar (1985, Baltimore, Maryland)
Bunk and McNulty is fun, the uniforms at Prop Joe’s school are a nice touch, but the Omar one is my favorite. It feels like a real character-forming moment, not just fanservice.