bob the moo The corner on West Fayette Street is the heart of the community. Buzzing with life, its where to go to find out what is happening. Ironically it is also the place of death, whether it is the slow death brought by drugs or the quick pain of the bullet. In the middle of this community is one family torn apart by it. Gary McCullough once had a good job and a college education but now goes from scam to scam trying to get enough money to get his fix. Wife Fran is no different, longing for the pride she once had in her family but longing even more for drugs. Meanwhile their son DeAndre McCullough finds himself facing a future that offers little more than the easy money available to him slinging. Meanwhile in the background the corner captures Fat Curt, Ronnie, Blue, DeAndre's girl Tyreeka, Hungry and the ever hopeful Miss Ella; all part of the corner world to varying degrees.Two years before The Wire came out, The Corner came out but I, like many others, came to the latter off the back of falling in love with the sheer quality of the former. Well, in reality I actually came to the HBO miniseries off the back of reading the book and being so impressed by it that I wanted more. This is a bit of a problem because the book does such a good job of developing the characters across their experiences while also making wider points about the war on drugs that the series had a lot to live up to. It doesn't really manage it though, which is a real shame. It does get very close and the rate rating on this site is mostly deserved but the penetration into the characters is not to the same degree as the book (although this is perhaps understandable). The script is still strong though and paints mostly convincing characters, using flashbacks to good effect. It lacks dramatic highs and lows and it does tend to drift rather than have a definite direction, but that is part of the territory and part of this being a true story about the lives of those hooked on drugs – there isn't a start and an end and lots of action in between.Dutton's direction is mostly reasonably good and, although he is flat at times, he is well supported by the convincing locations and use of the street. I disliked the "to-camera" moments at the start and end of each episode. The book never resorted to it and mostly it didn't work that well in the series and just smacked of laziness. When they do work it is due to the strength of the performances and not the device suddenly becoming good. Of the cast Alexander was one of the most impressive as she delivered a convincing Fran – spinning between being a drug fiend and a mother really well. Carter works well beside her with the same quiet desperation the book brought out of him, although his wig in the flashbacks were a bit funny. Nelson was a weak link though. He didn't convince me as DeAndre and this was not the character that had come across in the book; he seemed too light for the character, too quick to smile and lacking the edge that I was looking for him to have. It was a real shame – he was such a central character and I didn't always buy it. A difficult role maybe, but he was not the right man for the job. The support cast does more than fill in the edges as they are roundly good – Ferrell, Peters, Robinson, Plummer, Rawlings, Connor and others. My personal favourite was Smith's Ronnie, who seemed frighteningly real with every look, every swagger and every irrational fight. The connection to The Wire and Homicide is welcome to a point as it does bring in a quality but occasionally it is distracting (I couldn't accept Reddick here and could only see his later turn as Daniels).Thinking of The Wire, it is a fair point that many viewers will see this as inferior to that series and they will probably be correct. In some ways you can see the formative stages of that series here, with the quote at the beginning, the casting, the attention to detail and ability to draw the viewer into the characters no matter how unlikeable they are. Of course it is not as good as The Wire but, having so far seen seasons 1-3 of it, I must confess that I can think of very little on television that can compare.That said though, The Corner is still a very strong miniseries that deserves to be seen for how real it is. There are weaknesses of course but mostly it is engaging and cries out to be seen for those who see the war on drugs as a matter of black and white (and yes I mean that in both senses). Fans of The Wire who come to it off the back of that will rightly note that it is not the standard they expect but this is more praise for that series rather than criticism of this one. An important and honest series then – it isn't as impacting as the book but it is still essential viewing for anyone with even a slight opinion on drugs.

ruffrider Living just outside Baltimore, I've driven through the corner of Fayette and Monroe streets more than once; I've seen and felt its ugly presence, but never really knew the place. It consists mostly of slums and you pray your car doesn't break down here. I read the area was a prosperous, middle-class neighborhood not so long ago, but now it looks as though everything of value has been torn out of it and that's because it has. Once you've seen Charles S. Dutton's "The Corner," you'll understand just what this corner is and how it got that way. What's more, you will never be able to forget it.Gary McCullough is the living symbol of The Corner: he used to drive a Mercedes, had a good job, invested his money well and could have had a comfortable life in the suburbs. He had money to burn and that's just what he did with it: he married Fran, a junkie, and they probably both thought she was only a "recreational user" until they fell, individually and as a family. Now they're the most miserable, wretched addicts imaginable, with nothing to show for their lives, existing only for the next fix. To get drug money Gary and his friends have employed every scam they could think of, from shoplifting and stealing cars to stripping every retrievable piece of metal from every building around and selling it for scrap. The McCulloughs' son DeAndre is only 15 but headed straight for the same oblivion: he's stopped going to school and he sells drugs on the street with his friends. He's still young and healthy, but give him time - he'll become a user and end up like his parents. The Corner sucks you in, so they say - it takes everything and gives back nothing. Many of the once-well-kept homes have turned into shooting galleries, where ghost-like beings lie about with open sores, wanting nothing from life (and having nothing) but their next drug high. Oh, the McCulloughs try to right themselves - Fran goes for treatment, Gary temporarily holds a job and DeAndre promises he'll go back to school (anything to avoid being sent to "juvie" with the violent "D.C. kids.") But Fran and Gary slip back and DeAndre's sporadic "education" consists largely of playing basketball and reading a Martin Luther King speech aloud. Worse is yet to come, for rival gangs will try to shoot DeAndre and his drug-selling pals off the street and Gary will eventually succumb to an overdose. Only Fran, her will and endurance tested to its limits, will detox and return to work and a life of sobriety, trying to rescue DeAndre in the process.This series is based on the people who actually live on The Corner of Fayette and Monroe and uses their real names. It's done in mock-documentary style and director Dutton even interviews the real McCulloughs at the end, bringing a kind of closure no mere fiction could hope to attain. Just as powerful as the story is the cast. T.K. Carter as Gary, Sean Nelson as DeAndre and Khandi Alexander as Fran are simply splendid (as is the rest of the cast) and they bring a gripping and terrible poignancy to their roles. Reading David Simon's "The Corner," on which the miniseries was based, only made me appreciate Dutton's achievement more. This is as powerful a drama as you're ever likely to see and should become a true American classic. It is a biting, awful and only-too-true story of American cities like Baltimore and what drugs have done to them. Now that I've seen "The Corner," I feel I finally know The intersection of Fayette and Monroe -and every open-air drug market like it - for what it really is.

DunnDeeDaGreat In one word The Corner =brillance. Charles S.Dutton displays masterful storytelling in the stories of crack addicts. Sean Nelson contunies to show his dramatic range as an actor and he has a carrer ahead of him. But the acting standouts are Khandi Alexander & T.K. Carter as the parents of Nelson's character.

PinnHed It's hard for me to convey the impact of this type of film to those who think it is "cinema". I lived five years in Baltimore, and cut through these neighborhoods everyday on my way home. I am not a junkie nor did I want to be in this neighborhood. I was in school and broke and needed to get from point A. to point B. The gut-wrenching truth of this documentary/film makes me thankful for the advantages I received. Mr. Dutton took a brutal story and directed a brutal documentary that rings so real, it was painful to watch. I could've given money to Gary, or "Fat Kurt", or "Blue". My first year there I was a sucker. I gave a dollar to every cause and every story. They looked like junkies, but I didn't know that at the time. Those were the easy days. I was stopped/accosted/confronted by every type of junkie/thug/moron portrayed in this film in the days following. In fact, the "Wendy's" that Andre works at was less than two blocks from my home. Anyway, This film portrays to America the grip drugs have on our cities. This not a race issue, it's a junkie issue. Drugs don't know color, or age, socioeconomic boundaries. Mr. Dutton has grittily revealed this slice of Americana few want to believe is there. There is no whimsy or exaggeration or sentimentality or cinematic liberty taken here. The gloves are off and the cast are some actors, some real people. If you've ever wondered why our inner cities seem to perpetuate problems, watch this documentary. There is a portrayal of the larceny of childhood, the desperation of the poor, those who wish things could go back to the way they were, The gravity established is unavoidable. And if you think it's a joke, the finale reminds you this was not an episode of some show on a major network. This is not easy to watch. But it's well worth it.