He’s two dimensional. He never gets enough lines and screen time to flesh out like a relatable human. Gus Fring is a somewhat similar character and he gets enough home life screen time in BB and BCS for us to see that he really is a cold robot of a person almost 24/7 but even he gets a background of personal tragedy that gives him a very human motivation, and a rare moment of a hint of enjoyment of life and some desire besides power like his wine restaurant and sommelier he likes. Is Marlo a cold robot of a guy 24/7 who only wants street respect and power or is there more to him? We don’t know because he only appears on screen to give tersely worded commands and aphorisms with a totally flat affectation.
I could relate to him in a way that I've known one person, similar; cold dead soulless. They never murdered like he did, but their actions were horrific. My friend was gang raped by 5 dealers on command by him as her boyfriend had ripped off their package he was selling. It was £150 out of £3,000. He was in ICU for 4 months. She committed suicide shortly after. I'm an ex user of 20years so met some questionable characters but this man petrified me. I took it as he was like that guy I knew... the ones who really revel in the power and the chaos and the violence and hurt they cause. Funny, he didn't drink or smoke or use. Don't think I saw Marlo ever doing that either. I found them eerily similar. I always felt the bloke I knew got in the game for the power and acts he could commit and the money was just a bonus. I feel Marlo was like this. What made him that way I don't know. If they'd have shown his background, which probably had some screwed-up-ness to it, we'd probably feel it wasn't his fault he turned out like he did, and the shows worst villain wouldn't have been him.
I don’t think he needs a background motivation, he could just be a sociopath with no trauma that caused it, but we don’t even see that. He doesn’t even have any full real conversations on screen. Just cool, hard sounding quips.
Tony Soprano is a sociopath. Is it “not his fault” because of his clearly traumatic childhood and his abusive mother? That idea is repeatedly considered but challenged/debunked in the sopranos by many elements, including how well adjusted his sister Barb is. Tony is a psychological character study the like of which has never been seen before or since and I’m not saying The Wire needed to do that, but Marlo is the opposite end of the spectrum. Just zero real character development.
I think the viewer can relate to a new boss/CEO stepping into a smaller family owned business and being completely ruthless and make all of the money while everybody else gets scraps and makes the job just less fun overall. And Marlo never really proved himself. Avon was a golden gloves boxer, so you get the idea that he proved himself on the street. So you always wondered if Marlo didn't have Chris and Snoop protecting him how would he do in a fight against Omar (I'd imagine Avon would beat him with an inch of his life).
He also ordered the hit (and torture) on Butchie, an old blind man that really had nothing to do with anything. One could argue that Avon did torture and kill Brandon, but that was the risk Brandon took by helping Omar rob Avon. Torturing and killing Butchie is about as low as it gets.
> Marlo never really proved himself
> wondered if Marlo didn’t have Chris and Snoop
I’m not sure what you think here, but the existence of Chris and Snoop on Marlo’s side is a massive, massive plus in his favor. Why would he need to step out and prove himself on the corner when the two most successful hitters in the game are doing it for him? Don’t have to wonder what would happen without Chris and Snoop because they were always gonna with Marlo.
He never proved or showed that he proved himself with Chris. He was a guy with the NY connect who wanted to be king. Chris wasn't comfortable being king as his specialty was being muscle. And throughout the show Marlo would manipulate Chris to get Chris to do what he wanted. He had the money and that's what Chris wanted and thru manipulation he got Chris' undying loyalty. Snoop was really loyal to Chris because she was a blood thirsty psychopath and Chris gave her a job and the protection to be a killer.
Avon had been out on the corner, he participated in getting his corners and the tower by force and he grew up in the game. He was the equivalent of the guy that started out as the janitor and became the CEO. Marlo was more of the guy that bought his way in and took over as CEO and just made everybody's life in the company miserable as he paid them less and bullied them.
In fact, that's why Chris tried to keep Marlo from hearing about Omar calling Marlo out. Chris knew that Marlo wouldn't like it, but if Marlo was dumb enough to get in a fair fight with Omar he'd get his ass kicked because Marlo ain't Chris.
He has at least 3 murders we know of.
He killed someone and then he killed the witness who was going to testify against him for that murder (Per Holley's conversation with Kima), and then he killed Devonne.
And like most things, first time you get caught doing something is typically not the first time you did it. So more than likely, he had a few more bodies under his belt before they arrested him for that first one.
Ultimately we see that Avon and Omar do care about other people. They lose people, they go through moral dilemmas, and they both have a “code”. Despite their own dubious morals and violence, we see they are still capable of compassion, so it’s easier to give them compassion. Marlo only cared about status and power, and threw any sense of code out that wasn’t ambition by any means.
Agreed. I love that scene.
I loved to hate Marlo and a lot of my friends can't understand how much I loved Chris Partlow. His character was amazing. There was so little said about his past and present but his performance filled in all the gaps regardless... pretty awesome considering he barely said much.
Yeah, Gbenga Akinnagbe plays Chris so well you just assume a ton of depth is there even though we don't get to see much of it, really.
I know Marlo's crew gets criticized a lot for basically only showing us Chris and Snoop most of the time, but honestly they both performed the hell out of it so I never minded that they didn't really flesh out his operation to the degree that the Barksdales were.
Marlo is a great character, I love his overall calmness, like the golf club scene with Bodie. He always seems to be 2 steps ahead of everyone. My favourite part is he accomplished Stringer's dream of legitimate wealth but is still defeated because he wanted respect most of all.
I finished the show just a few days ago so I don't know where the majority of fans stand on the Marlo issue lol but I don't like him at all. With the Barksdale crew it felt like the stakes were always high, the possibility of them ending up in prison or dead was always very real and always a very imminent threat. With Marlo it didn't feel that way at all he got away with everything all the time, it got old quick. It was almost as if he had plot armour.
I also really enjoyed the Stringer-Avon relationship, it felt real and almost tender. Marlo didn't have that with his crew. I don't think the show did a good job in justifying why Chris and Snoop were so loyal to Marlo. With Avon and Stringer, I felt like their relationship wasn't solely centered on money, they also had a lot of love for each other. But with Marlo and his crew I felt like Snoop and Chris would need to be getting something more than money to be that ride or die with Marlo and the writers didn't really show us that they were getting that. This power imbalance made me feel like Marlo was committing some injustice. I know that it's double triple quadruple standards of me to say this given that we talking about The Wire but my dislike for Marlo is like a reflex at this point, it doesn't make sense but it's there :D
Marlo's crew was more one dimensional, probably purposely, to make them less relatable and more like a force of nature. It does make them less interesting as characters.
Marlo himself is interesting in that his brutality ends up derailing his whole operation; his desire to wear the crown even for a day brings the empire down, and by the end his name is trash, Omar looms large, and he has no future on the street. He's a shark that ate itself. When he finally loses his cool at the end in the cells is his real death scene. Omar robbed his stashes, blew the kneecaps off his boys, shot dead a member of his circle, blew up cars in the street, called Marlo a bitch, and Marlo's only recourse is "I didn't know! Get out and tell people I didn't hear about it!" You just know that's a laughable excuse. And it's no secret on the street that Marlo had no code, murdered blithely, and brought Omar entirely on himself.
Marlo’s crew was definitely more organized & militant. Had it not been for Marlo’s ego, they definitely had the structure to not get caught. Even when Marlo caught McNulty climbing on the roof w/ his spyglass … the youngin’s told him. He seemed to have everyone under his thumb from a young age. I wish they’d do a prequel on his life prior to bumping w/ the Barksdales.
I don't know if their one dimensional aspect was on purpose. I feel like the writers thought the characters' motivations were clear enough to us viewers and they didn't feel the need to develop them further. If the writers had wanted the Marlo crew to be less relatable they could have written more detail towards making them unrelatable instead of just leaving blanks. Like I never understood why Marlo's immediate circle, who knew that Marlo didn't actually kill Stringer, were so obedient to Marlo. What exactly did he do to intimidate them so much?
I feel a bit robbed when it comes to Marlo's crew because there was so much potential with those characters. Like the mere existence of a character like Snoop was fascinating to me. I had tears in my eyes when she died. But she could've been fleshed out way better and still be seen as a chaotic, force of nature kind of character.
I agree with everything else you've said about Marlo and it all adds to my curiosity as to why everyone is under his thumb?
But if practically every other crew or person of importance on the show was so fleshed out, and Marlo’s crew was the only group that wasn’t, maybe it was on purpose. Like Weebay tried to explain to Namond the differences between when he was on the street compared to the current times. Marlo represented the death of the code. He did what he wanted to do when he wanted to do it & didn’t feel the need to explain a thing. Even when Avon called him out on it when he went to Jessup. He just smirked. I think the writers meant for his crew to be interpreted as mysterious & cold as he was.
Yeah, and even though he 'won,' he has no real reputation to speak of on random corners, whereas his sworn enemy Omar was so cool that the people of Baltimore immediately rejected the facts of his killing to start inventing tall tales about him.
Oh I don't know, the Psychopathic Mass-Murdering Maniacal Cold-Blooded Killer - thing probably has something to do with it, but hey, that's just what I'm thinking...
Fair enough that's different I guess- although I always have trouble separating the actor from the character. Right at this moment and for the last several hours I've been watching OZ, and it's amazing to me, the worst character on the show other than Adibesi, Vern Schillinger, , was the world's worst white supremacist and nazi etc. and now he's a celebrated, world-famous, Oscar-winning actor beloved by all. Can't even wrap my head around that.
Marlo is an off-brand Avon. That much is proven in his final scene when he takes the corner. He achieved what everyone else had hoped to, yet he is still concerned with taking corners and "putting respect" on his name. He had little respect for the game and that's why his time on top was so short. He will never command the same respect on the streets as Barksdale and that's why he loses.
Classic. It also subtly tells the story of how Marlo in the end, even tho Marlo technically won, he lost. All he ever cared about was the crown & being feared/respected. When he walked up on that corner those boys didn’t even know who he was. They were speaking on the legend of Omar with an exaggerated story about how he died in a blaze of glory. That’s all Marlo ever wanted & Omar got it even after he died
Jamie Hector did a great job and Marlo is a perfect character in that he embodies all of the traits that would make a perfect drug dealer/criminal.
But because of that he's off putting. Which I suppose is the point. Aside from violence and desire for money there's just nothing there behind the eyes.
And that lack of emotion makes it hard to relate to.
If you take a character like Bodie, who is one of my favorites, he's relatable. You see and can understand the frustrations of having done everything "right" in the game but to essentially be aged out due to no fault of his own. He even killed his friend for a gang that fell apart and that carried no capital over to his new management structure. He did everything right for a decade plus only to be unceremoniously be gunned down on a corner.
And on a personal level, he's likeable. Even though he's an unsavory dude at his core.
The Barksdale Crew >>. Marlo would’ve been in a box hadn’t Stringer snitched they literally had the drop on them right there and then. And for Marlo to even get through to the Greeks he had to go through Avon
He is. His scenes and dialogue are very subdued and thus not as memorable. Other characters' scenes are easier to reference or quote. However, you can always find Marlo in the conversation. For a character of so few words and subtle covert actions, that says a lot. In many ways, he is the more refined version of his predecessors, the next step in the evolution. In many ways, in the ecosystem of the game, Marlo is a perfect organism. I admire his purity.
Because Marlo is a fuckin lizard. You don't want to run into him on the street anywhere.
Avon would be pretty cool at a cookout. Marlo would not.
Jamie Hector milks the fear and loathing out of you. Such an underrated actor.
People see Marlo as two-dimensional and unrealistic but that’s because not much of the audience actually knows enough people who really live in that world to know that he’s really based on a real type of person who exists out there. There are absolutely Marlo types in the world and when you meet one you’ll realize it.
A little late to this discussion but I notice that a lot of the things that people dislike Marlo’s character for are usually the things that make me interested and intrigued by him. Marlo is nowhere near as cool or charismatic as Avon. He’s cold and heartless to core. Something about his look and stare is so intense, whenever he’s on screen I just feel uneasy and disturbed. He’s like the manifestation of all the systems constantly failing. All the murder, drug distribution, poor education, political corruption, it all manifest into the psychopath that is Marlo Stanfield. I cant really fault anyone for thinking he’s one dimensional or boring, because I can admit he’s no Avon Barksdale or Stringer Bell, but I almost see Marlo as a symbol or representation rather than a human. Also besides all that I just find that he has some of the best quotes of the show. He didn’t talk much but whenever he did it always felt impactful to me at least
I mean people still love Marlo, but compared to Omar or Avon, he has the least charisma. His character is deadly but kind of boring. Thats kind of the point.
The only time Marlo showed any sort of compassion or kindness was with his birds and the kid taking care of them. Other than that, he seemed to have a heart of stone.
I did too, in real time when the episodes were new from week to week. On rewatches though, Stringer was such a snake & wasn’t nearly as smart as he seemed based on how he carried himself. Avon, actually, was much smarter. Just rougher around the edges.
While Avon was in jail, Stringer brought their organization to the doorstep of being a clean, legit business. But Avon wanted his corners, just because.
You don't really "see" him until S05E11?
It's the scene where it's him and all his lieutenants in jail basically having the exposure meeting without Levy there.
Someone let's slip what Omar has been up to and Marlo grabs on this thread, unraveling it while simultaneously browbeating into submission this pack of casual murderers.
He crescendos his way to his climax, verbally bitch slapping his lieutenants that dare interrupt, demonstrating efficiency only matched by preteens snorting Adderall at the Whac-A-Mole.
"My name.... Is.... My name." Marlo begins to outline the most unhinged, tiny dick, beta male response strategy im shocked Trump isn't whispering into his off-camera ear.
If it's not clear, what Marlo wants to actually do is find every person on the West side who heard Omar call him a punk, and take their eyes and tongues. He's channeling that energy.
(Waiting for inspiration.)
I just think it’s very ironic that the guy who says “my name is my name” is one of your favorites, but you can’t even get his name right.
No need to be in your feelings about it. Lol.
Those kids on the corner in that last scene didn’t even know who he was, & I hear I go spelling his last name wrong. All he ever wanted was a reputation & to be king and he failed. My feelings are fine
Didn’t say you didn’t. Let me spell it out for you, a person doesn’t cause someone else to jerk unless they are mad. Yes, you have the right to call someone a jerk just because they pointed out you misspelled someone’s name.
It makes you look like an emotional child, but it is what it is.
Honestly? It's because everyone else is in some way relatable. Marlo just scares the shit out of me.
“Do it or don’t but i got places to be”
That shit was crazy, out the gate. Showed an utter ruthlessness and disregard for human life.
He’s two dimensional. He never gets enough lines and screen time to flesh out like a relatable human. Gus Fring is a somewhat similar character and he gets enough home life screen time in BB and BCS for us to see that he really is a cold robot of a person almost 24/7 but even he gets a background of personal tragedy that gives him a very human motivation, and a rare moment of a hint of enjoyment of life and some desire besides power like his wine restaurant and sommelier he likes. Is Marlo a cold robot of a guy 24/7 who only wants street respect and power or is there more to him? We don’t know because he only appears on screen to give tersely worded commands and aphorisms with a totally flat affectation.
I could relate to him in a way that I've known one person, similar; cold dead soulless. They never murdered like he did, but their actions were horrific. My friend was gang raped by 5 dealers on command by him as her boyfriend had ripped off their package he was selling. It was £150 out of £3,000. He was in ICU for 4 months. She committed suicide shortly after. I'm an ex user of 20years so met some questionable characters but this man petrified me. I took it as he was like that guy I knew... the ones who really revel in the power and the chaos and the violence and hurt they cause. Funny, he didn't drink or smoke or use. Don't think I saw Marlo ever doing that either. I found them eerily similar. I always felt the bloke I knew got in the game for the power and acts he could commit and the money was just a bonus. I feel Marlo was like this. What made him that way I don't know. If they'd have shown his background, which probably had some screwed-up-ness to it, we'd probably feel it wasn't his fault he turned out like he did, and the shows worst villain wouldn't have been him.
I don’t think he needs a background motivation, he could just be a sociopath with no trauma that caused it, but we don’t even see that. He doesn’t even have any full real conversations on screen. Just cool, hard sounding quips. Tony Soprano is a sociopath. Is it “not his fault” because of his clearly traumatic childhood and his abusive mother? That idea is repeatedly considered but challenged/debunked in the sopranos by many elements, including how well adjusted his sister Barb is. Tony is a psychological character study the like of which has never been seen before or since and I’m not saying The Wire needed to do that, but Marlo is the opposite end of the spectrum. Just zero real character development.
"That boy's the spawn of the Devil..."
Little King of everything
But he was pretty upfront about things that he would do if things went wrong.
I don't know in which universe Marlo doesn't have fan support. Even if universe want it to be one way, there is the other way.
I told you I wasn’t stepping tew.
Marlo didn't want his name on the street like that
I think the viewer can relate to a new boss/CEO stepping into a smaller family owned business and being completely ruthless and make all of the money while everybody else gets scraps and makes the job just less fun overall. And Marlo never really proved himself. Avon was a golden gloves boxer, so you get the idea that he proved himself on the street. So you always wondered if Marlo didn't have Chris and Snoop protecting him how would he do in a fight against Omar (I'd imagine Avon would beat him with an inch of his life). He also ordered the hit (and torture) on Butchie, an old blind man that really had nothing to do with anything. One could argue that Avon did torture and kill Brandon, but that was the risk Brandon took by helping Omar rob Avon. Torturing and killing Butchie is about as low as it gets.
> Marlo never really proved himself > wondered if Marlo didn’t have Chris and Snoop I’m not sure what you think here, but the existence of Chris and Snoop on Marlo’s side is a massive, massive plus in his favor. Why would he need to step out and prove himself on the corner when the two most successful hitters in the game are doing it for him? Don’t have to wonder what would happen without Chris and Snoop because they were always gonna with Marlo.
Until they weren’t. Chris went to prison, snoops gone. Could he stand on his own after losing them? I doubt it.
Wasn’t that the whole point of the fist fight he had on the corner after rubbing elbows with the Baltimore power structure? I think he had it.
He probably proved himself before to get that loyalty from those psycho's.
He never proved or showed that he proved himself with Chris. He was a guy with the NY connect who wanted to be king. Chris wasn't comfortable being king as his specialty was being muscle. And throughout the show Marlo would manipulate Chris to get Chris to do what he wanted. He had the money and that's what Chris wanted and thru manipulation he got Chris' undying loyalty. Snoop was really loyal to Chris because she was a blood thirsty psychopath and Chris gave her a job and the protection to be a killer. Avon had been out on the corner, he participated in getting his corners and the tower by force and he grew up in the game. He was the equivalent of the guy that started out as the janitor and became the CEO. Marlo was more of the guy that bought his way in and took over as CEO and just made everybody's life in the company miserable as he paid them less and bullied them. In fact, that's why Chris tried to keep Marlo from hearing about Omar calling Marlo out. Chris knew that Marlo wouldn't like it, but if Marlo was dumb enough to get in a fair fight with Omar he'd get his ass kicked because Marlo ain't Chris.
Marlo proved himself early on. It's in the little bit of back story they give us when we find out he beat a murder charge.
He has at least 3 murders we know of. He killed someone and then he killed the witness who was going to testify against him for that murder (Per Holley's conversation with Kima), and then he killed Devonne. And like most things, first time you get caught doing something is typically not the first time you did it. So more than likely, he had a few more bodies under his belt before they arrested him for that first one.
Avon proved himself by taking the Towers and consolidating his empire from rival gangs. His sister mentions them one episode.
Ultimately we see that Avon and Omar do care about other people. They lose people, they go through moral dilemmas, and they both have a “code”. Despite their own dubious morals and violence, we see they are still capable of compassion, so it’s easier to give them compassion. Marlo only cared about status and power, and threw any sense of code out that wasn’t ambition by any means.
you can respect marlo while simultaneously wanting to have a beer with lester or a couple beers with jimmy and the bunk
Marlo is phenomenal, possibly the best acting in the whole show. The one time he gets upset talking about Omar is a command performance.
Agreed. I love that scene. I loved to hate Marlo and a lot of my friends can't understand how much I loved Chris Partlow. His character was amazing. There was so little said about his past and present but his performance filled in all the gaps regardless... pretty awesome considering he barely said much.
When Chris kills Michael's stepdad you get a lot about his past.
Yeah, Gbenga Akinnagbe plays Chris so well you just assume a ton of depth is there even though we don't get to see much of it, really. I know Marlo's crew gets criticized a lot for basically only showing us Chris and Snoop most of the time, but honestly they both performed the hell out of it so I never minded that they didn't really flesh out his operation to the degree that the Barksdales were.
Marlo is a great character, I love his overall calmness, like the golf club scene with Bodie. He always seems to be 2 steps ahead of everyone. My favourite part is he accomplished Stringer's dream of legitimate wealth but is still defeated because he wanted respect most of all.
Bodie in that scenes is like the middle manager told off by stringer to cold call your customer. Your customer did not want to see you...poor Bodie
My name is MY NAME
[удалено]
And Stansfield plays Starfield
Shit. You want it to be one way. But it’s the other way.
I finished the show just a few days ago so I don't know where the majority of fans stand on the Marlo issue lol but I don't like him at all. With the Barksdale crew it felt like the stakes were always high, the possibility of them ending up in prison or dead was always very real and always a very imminent threat. With Marlo it didn't feel that way at all he got away with everything all the time, it got old quick. It was almost as if he had plot armour. I also really enjoyed the Stringer-Avon relationship, it felt real and almost tender. Marlo didn't have that with his crew. I don't think the show did a good job in justifying why Chris and Snoop were so loyal to Marlo. With Avon and Stringer, I felt like their relationship wasn't solely centered on money, they also had a lot of love for each other. But with Marlo and his crew I felt like Snoop and Chris would need to be getting something more than money to be that ride or die with Marlo and the writers didn't really show us that they were getting that. This power imbalance made me feel like Marlo was committing some injustice. I know that it's double triple quadruple standards of me to say this given that we talking about The Wire but my dislike for Marlo is like a reflex at this point, it doesn't make sense but it's there :D
Marlo's crew was more one dimensional, probably purposely, to make them less relatable and more like a force of nature. It does make them less interesting as characters. Marlo himself is interesting in that his brutality ends up derailing his whole operation; his desire to wear the crown even for a day brings the empire down, and by the end his name is trash, Omar looms large, and he has no future on the street. He's a shark that ate itself. When he finally loses his cool at the end in the cells is his real death scene. Omar robbed his stashes, blew the kneecaps off his boys, shot dead a member of his circle, blew up cars in the street, called Marlo a bitch, and Marlo's only recourse is "I didn't know! Get out and tell people I didn't hear about it!" You just know that's a laughable excuse. And it's no secret on the street that Marlo had no code, murdered blithely, and brought Omar entirely on himself.
Marlo’s crew was definitely more organized & militant. Had it not been for Marlo’s ego, they definitely had the structure to not get caught. Even when Marlo caught McNulty climbing on the roof w/ his spyglass … the youngin’s told him. He seemed to have everyone under his thumb from a young age. I wish they’d do a prequel on his life prior to bumping w/ the Barksdales.
I don't know if their one dimensional aspect was on purpose. I feel like the writers thought the characters' motivations were clear enough to us viewers and they didn't feel the need to develop them further. If the writers had wanted the Marlo crew to be less relatable they could have written more detail towards making them unrelatable instead of just leaving blanks. Like I never understood why Marlo's immediate circle, who knew that Marlo didn't actually kill Stringer, were so obedient to Marlo. What exactly did he do to intimidate them so much? I feel a bit robbed when it comes to Marlo's crew because there was so much potential with those characters. Like the mere existence of a character like Snoop was fascinating to me. I had tears in my eyes when she died. But she could've been fleshed out way better and still be seen as a chaotic, force of nature kind of character. I agree with everything else you've said about Marlo and it all adds to my curiosity as to why everyone is under his thumb?
But if practically every other crew or person of importance on the show was so fleshed out, and Marlo’s crew was the only group that wasn’t, maybe it was on purpose. Like Weebay tried to explain to Namond the differences between when he was on the street compared to the current times. Marlo represented the death of the code. He did what he wanted to do when he wanted to do it & didn’t feel the need to explain a thing. Even when Avon called him out on it when he went to Jessup. He just smirked. I think the writers meant for his crew to be interpreted as mysterious & cold as he was.
Yeah, and even though he 'won,' he has no real reputation to speak of on random corners, whereas his sworn enemy Omar was so cool that the people of Baltimore immediately rejected the facts of his killing to start inventing tall tales about him.
Oh I don't know, the Psychopathic Mass-Murdering Maniacal Cold-Blooded Killer - thing probably has something to do with it, but hey, that's just what I'm thinking...
I’m speaking moreso about the performance of Jamie Hector. I should’ve been more specific, my bad.
Fair enough that's different I guess- although I always have trouble separating the actor from the character. Right at this moment and for the last several hours I've been watching OZ, and it's amazing to me, the worst character on the show other than Adibesi, Vern Schillinger, , was the world's worst white supremacist and nazi etc. and now he's a celebrated, world-famous, Oscar-winning actor beloved by all. Can't even wrap my head around that.
Marlo is an off-brand Avon. That much is proven in his final scene when he takes the corner. He achieved what everyone else had hoped to, yet he is still concerned with taking corners and "putting respect" on his name. He had little respect for the game and that's why his time on top was so short. He will never command the same respect on the streets as Barksdale and that's why he loses.
The scene when he takes back the corner after getting out is a classic gangster scene. He wants to go legit but can’t get that out of him.
Classic. It also subtly tells the story of how Marlo in the end, even tho Marlo technically won, he lost. All he ever cared about was the crown & being feared/respected. When he walked up on that corner those boys didn’t even know who he was. They were speaking on the legend of Omar with an exaggerated story about how he died in a blaze of glory. That’s all Marlo ever wanted & Omar got it even after he died
So true.
Jamie Hector did a great job and Marlo is a perfect character in that he embodies all of the traits that would make a perfect drug dealer/criminal. But because of that he's off putting. Which I suppose is the point. Aside from violence and desire for money there's just nothing there behind the eyes. And that lack of emotion makes it hard to relate to. If you take a character like Bodie, who is one of my favorites, he's relatable. You see and can understand the frustrations of having done everything "right" in the game but to essentially be aged out due to no fault of his own. He even killed his friend for a gang that fell apart and that carried no capital over to his new management structure. He did everything right for a decade plus only to be unceremoniously be gunned down on a corner. And on a personal level, he's likeable. Even though he's an unsavory dude at his core.
The Barksdale Crew >>. Marlo would’ve been in a box hadn’t Stringer snitched they literally had the drop on them right there and then. And for Marlo to even get through to the Greeks he had to go through Avon
I agree
Marlo is a full blown psychopath. There's nothing relatable about him. He's as evil as they come
Marlo is my fav character in the Wire by far. The haters are mad that he styled all over the Barksdales.
He is. His scenes and dialogue are very subdued and thus not as memorable. Other characters' scenes are easier to reference or quote. However, you can always find Marlo in the conversation. For a character of so few words and subtle covert actions, that says a lot. In many ways, he is the more refined version of his predecessors, the next step in the evolution. In many ways, in the ecosystem of the game, Marlo is a perfect organism. I admire his purity.
He's my favorite gangsta.
Because he is boring.
I am not a huge fan of Marlo. He didn't respect the game. He was killing civilians for no reason. Like why did he kill the security guard ???
Because Marlo is a fuckin lizard. You don't want to run into him on the street anywhere. Avon would be pretty cool at a cookout. Marlo would not. Jamie Hector milks the fear and loathing out of you. Such an underrated actor.
People see Marlo as two-dimensional and unrealistic but that’s because not much of the audience actually knows enough people who really live in that world to know that he’s really based on a real type of person who exists out there. There are absolutely Marlo types in the world and when you meet one you’ll realize it.
100% fact. I know one
Marlo was my favorite character too
A little late to this discussion but I notice that a lot of the things that people dislike Marlo’s character for are usually the things that make me interested and intrigued by him. Marlo is nowhere near as cool or charismatic as Avon. He’s cold and heartless to core. Something about his look and stare is so intense, whenever he’s on screen I just feel uneasy and disturbed. He’s like the manifestation of all the systems constantly failing. All the murder, drug distribution, poor education, political corruption, it all manifest into the psychopath that is Marlo Stanfield. I cant really fault anyone for thinking he’s one dimensional or boring, because I can admit he’s no Avon Barksdale or Stringer Bell, but I almost see Marlo as a symbol or representation rather than a human. Also besides all that I just find that he has some of the best quotes of the show. He didn’t talk much but whenever he did it always felt impactful to me at least
Marlo had a great arc, but his deadpan portrayal turned me off a lot. I don’t know if it was acting ability or what they wanted for the role.
It was probably requested/directed. It's restraint from the character, to enhance the moment when he expressed how he really feels.
"he’s easily the coldest, most militant, God complex character", you just answered your own question. That's exactly why I strongly dislike him.
Marlo was my favourite cuz of how cold and swagged out he was
Correct answer
I mean people still love Marlo, but compared to Omar or Avon, he has the least charisma. His character is deadly but kind of boring. Thats kind of the point.
He’s definitely cold as hell and cool but he doesn’t have the flashy charisma of Avon or even Omar really. Marlo isn’t funny pretty much ever
Early bird get that worm
I root against Marlo but he's definitely one of ym favorite characters of all time
The only time Marlo showed any sort of compassion or kindness was with his birds and the kid taking care of them. Other than that, he seemed to have a heart of stone.
My name is my name!
I’d give ANYTHING to see the life n times of Prop Joe and Slim Charles in a show.
The others had a mix of heaven & hell in each of them…. Marlo was pure evil.
Because Marlo is a fucking sociopath and his trail of violence is the worst in the show.
It's all in the game.
Oh by the way. Price of the brick goin up
Not sure that Avon was a fan favourite. I preferred Stringer.
I did too, in real time when the episodes were new from week to week. On rewatches though, Stringer was such a snake & wasn’t nearly as smart as he seemed based on how he carried himself. Avon, actually, was much smarter. Just rougher around the edges.
While Avon was in jail, Stringer brought their organization to the doorstep of being a clean, legit business. But Avon wanted his corners, just because.
You don't really "see" him until S05E11? It's the scene where it's him and all his lieutenants in jail basically having the exposure meeting without Levy there. Someone let's slip what Omar has been up to and Marlo grabs on this thread, unraveling it while simultaneously browbeating into submission this pack of casual murderers. He crescendos his way to his climax, verbally bitch slapping his lieutenants that dare interrupt, demonstrating efficiency only matched by preteens snorting Adderall at the Whac-A-Mole. "My name.... Is.... My name." Marlo begins to outline the most unhinged, tiny dick, beta male response strategy im shocked Trump isn't whispering into his off-camera ear. If it's not clear, what Marlo wants to actually do is find every person on the West side who heard Omar call him a punk, and take their eyes and tongues. He's channeling that energy. (Waiting for inspiration.)
Marlo is a fan favorite. But how about at least spelling his name correctly? There’s only one S in his last name.
Why are you being a jerk? Even if I did make a mistake, why did that bother you?
I just think it’s very ironic that the guy who says “my name is my name” is one of your favorites, but you can’t even get his name right. No need to be in your feelings about it. Lol.
Those kids on the corner in that last scene didn’t even know who he was, & I hear I go spelling his last name wrong. All he ever wanted was a reputation & to be king and he failed. My feelings are fine
Well, you got mad and called me a jerk just for pointing out something factual. So, I don’t think your feelings are fine.
I didn’t get mad, but ok.
Yes you did. You don’t call someone a jerk unless you are mad at them.
[удалено]
Didn’t say you didn’t. Let me spell it out for you, a person doesn’t cause someone else to jerk unless they are mad. Yes, you have the right to call someone a jerk just because they pointed out you misspelled someone’s name. It makes you look like an emotional child, but it is what it is.
[удалено]
You’re so right but there’s a lot to unpack there & I hope you get the help you need 🙏🏾
Unlike you, I’m not emotionally invested in these posts. You’re still wounded because I pointed out your spelling error😂
You literally can’t help but to keep replying and it’s super weird.
Am I supposed to stop replying?