So I was pretty surprised everyone loves him so much.
He's a character with strong beliefs which leads him to go to silly lengths to protects his and his mobs way of life. This shows huge flaws in his character which leads to his eventual downfall.
I'm guessing most believe this leads to a well rounded character to root for despite the knowledge he's going down. I'm guessing he's also supposed to represent some romantic view of the working classes.
To me he's frankly insulting to the working classes. Stubborn, thick, a grass, shit kids, You can say "but he's lived that way of life and he's trying to protect it' but his kid/nephew also buy into it. Grow up and move on ffs.
I was rooting for the copper to stitch him up. I enjoyed the character in that I enjoyed hating him. He was a villain for me. I was chuffed when he made his walk to get got. That's not me being big, D'Angelo had a similar mixed character and was also quite cowardly/melty but I was a sad panda when he got got. You get the vibe with the street punks that they have no choice but to lead that life. Frank has lots of choices but just fucks it all up holding onto some selfish stupid dream.
So I was pretty surprised everyone loves him so much.
He's a character with strong beliefs which leads him to go to silly lengths to protects his and his mobs way of life. This shows huge flaws in his character which leads to his eventual downfall.
I'm guessing most believe this leads to a well rounded character to root for despite the knowledge he's going down. I'm guessing he's also supposed to represent some romantic view of the working classes.
To me he's frankly insulting to the working classes. Stubborn, thick, a grass, shit kids, You can say "but he's lived that way of life and he's trying to protect it' but his kid/nephew also buy into it. Grow up and move on ffs.
I was rooting for the copper to stitch him up. I enjoyed the character in that I enjoyed hating him. He was a villain for me. I was chuffed when he made his walk to get got. That's not me being big, D'Angelo had a similar mixed character and was also quite cowardly/melty but I was a sad panda when he got got. You get the vibe with the street punks that they have no choice but to lead that life. Frank has lots of choices but just fucks it all up holding onto some selfish stupid dream.
I'm too hungover to get into it. but he's grassing on someone who caused the deaths of lots of women, thats not unnacceptable. he's on the take like loads of people, like loads of people I know and surely you do but he's doing it out of a sense of solidarity with his union, until its fucked up at the end he's never acting out of self interest.
I'm too hungover to get into it. but he's grassing on someone who caused the deaths of lots of women, thats not unnacceptable. he's on the take like loads of people, like loads of people I know and surely you do but he's doing it out of a sense of solidarity with his union, until its fucked up at the end he's never acting out of self interest.
he's the ultimate don.
You did not own me.
PMSL
He's completely stubborn in his own beliefs though. He won't pass on the baton to Horse. Why not? Could Horse not handle the pressure? Would Horse not agree with it? Either way reflects bad on his character. Horse is a good man.
I think I'm right in saying you never see his home life (could be wrong) so all your left with is "Where did all the money come from Frank?" which to me is open ended on purpose. The idea of him not being on the take is so ridiculous they don't show his home life. I'd rather he was on the take so they made him a bit more genuinely complex (like Omar/D'Angelo/Stringer) instead of a cliched predictable take on 'complex' much like Noel's cliched predictable take on 'experimental' music.
You dig?
You're best off arguing he's a great character because he's instigating the debate
Frank has lots of choices but just fucks it all up holding onto some selfish stupid dream.
What were his choices? Why was his dream selfish?
His choices were either get involved with the gangsters and get a bit back whilst he continued his fight or let 'the man' shit all over him and his men.
His 'dream' was almost entirely selfless. I can't see how you don't get that.
thing is, the wire is the kind of show where you can't really say "total don" or "complete melt" about anyone, imo. pretty much every major character in the show says and does things that make you question their character one way or another. there are maybe a couple of characters that are bad through and through, but i can't think of anyone who's presented as a hero throughout (maybe butchie but he's only a small character really).
with frank it's the same. he had multiple loyalties, to his union, his family and, absolutely, to himself. i don't buy the grass thing because he never had any real loyalty to the greek or vondas anyway, they both needed each other for purely selfish reasons. but then i do agree with the stubborn comment, throughout the series he often tried to do the "honorable" thing and take the whole load himself when sharing the weight might've been better for everyone.
in fact his biggest mistake was involving his family in the first place, making nick his right hand man rather than one of the more experienced stevedores. then he goes back to the greek to try and save ziggy when sticking with the police might've been the smart thing to do at that point. but to be honest he was in a pretty much untenable position by that point anyway.
so yeah, not a clear-cut character either way. i think he genuinely cared about his family and his union, but had definite character flaws that caused him to make a lot of dumb mistakes in trying to show that care. clearly not a romanticised "working class hero" type because there's no place in the wire for characters like that. although to cut the guy one last piece of slack, he was at least partly manoeuvered into the whole mess because of valchek's petty feud that started the whole detail in the first place.
