Thursday, January 15, 2009

Look Out, Michael... Here Comes Stringer

One of my favourite things these days is spotting actors who starred in The Wire now popping up on other shows. I'm about 6 episodes into Heroes (and so far... meh) and two of the best things about it have been Marlo Stanfield as a badass bank robber, and Bubbles creating a vortex with his hand and sending people and things into it when he's upset. Bubs (okay, Andre Royo) gave one of the best performances I've seen on that show all season. I tried to watch 90210 because of Tristan Wilds, but couldn't handle it. The suckage was sadly far too great for my head to take. I loved Amy Ryan on The Office when she played Holly, who was a VERY different character than the one she played on The Wire. But despite enjoying all of these performances, all these characters were secondary to my Wire faves: Omar, Stringer, and Snoop.

And now... Stringer Bell is following in Amy Ryan's footsteps and is coming to Dunder-Mifflin. If I were Michael, I'd run. Far, far away. Idris Elba is a fantastic actor. He's British, but tends to play American. His biggest role outside The Wire was American Gangster, and he was amazing in that, too. His character on The Office will be coming to Scranton for a six-episode arc, and will apparently be making Michael's life very difficult (who doesn't?) I can't wait!

Now, if we can just get Omar and Snoop on Lost, I think I would be the happiest TV viewer on the planet.

3 comments:

Eric Antoine Scuccimarra said...

I was at a place in the East Village in NYC a few weeks ago and I saw a guy who I felt I knew from somewhere. It was kind of crowded so I didn't get to ask him, but I swore I knew him.

Later that night I realized that he played Chris Parlow. I didn't even think that he was an actor, I felt like he was a someone I knew personally.

Anonymous said...

Cool! I thought I saw Spock once, but it turned out to be Sam Donaldson. Hey, Nikki, please e-mail me! I'm getting a bit nervous about something.

Anonymous said...

Has anyone ever read "Remember, Be Here Now" .. by Ram Dass (Dr. Richard Alpert)? Last year I saw it on a character's 'bookshelf' and I remembered Ram Dass was a Timothy Leary disciple.. so I bought it. Some of the imagery is amazingly like imagery in Lost. And the text is verrry interesting. You just have to read it or access it somehow in the internet to understand why. It seems to me that the entire Lost experience could be something that either one person or several people are 'dreaming or imagining or experiencing, while under the highly monitored influence of a psychedelic substance. (I've never had that experience, so don't ask me.) This is just one theory that plays with my mind. I also read "Fire in the Mind" by Geo Johnson, (physics and American Indian mythology, etc.) Fire in the Mind is a must read for Lost fans. Lost is chock full of references, mythological references, literary and artistic and musical references, scientific references, philosophic , sociological and perhaps political references.... So the writers are
firmly establishing the fact that our collective conscious is being manipulated. And of course that's the hook. Last year I had one theory after another. But I think taking the bait the writers throw out like candy leads us and baits us relentlessly taking our sights away from a basic premise. ONE basic premise. I just read your book on season four, Nikki, and am only just joining the blog. So I may be miles behind you, and everyone else on the blog. Just thought I'd leap in with these questions and see what you have to say. I'm logging on as anonymous, but the name I'll use is Fire Mind.
I'll refer to this if I email you.Thanks!