In this installment of the ongoing video discussions, Paul and I were joined by Syd Bauman and Travis Peed for a really stimulating and far-ranging conversation on season 3, episode 6 of the The Wire: “Homecoming.”  Travis and Syd came with their A-Game, and this back and forth proves why a conversation around a specific episodes brings forth so much fruit. I’m also loving how these ongoing hangouts provide a very focused way to convene with the wire106 internauts and share our ongoing ideas of the show through the lens of one episode.

Some of the themes we covered, though were the presence of Westerns in The Wire; the struggle for community in West Baltimore; the ongoing challenge of leaving the game; early American references to “wilderness” a la Nathaniel Hawthorne‘s work—to name just a few. This was a fun discussion, and kudos to Travis and Syd for showing up and being prepared to engage in some deep exploration of this episode, and by extension the series.

Below are a series of screenshots we shared during the discussion in no particular order.