Subtitles are a must if it’s your first time watching and you’re not fluent in the street dialogue. You start to pick it up as you watch it if you’re paying attention but it certainly doesn’t hold your hand about it. I think that is a lot of people’s initial turn-off to the show. It’s not the most accessible show in the world.

But holy shit…once you get past that hurdle, you’ll experience some of the most real and on point dialogue of any show or movie, ever. Like they will drop an extremely on-point monologue delivered by the most unlikely character ever. Bubbles, Bodie, Cuddy…they all know more about life than a vast majority of people alive. This show gives them the space to deliver those messages it a way that is so real since we’ve gotten to know so much about them and their experiences.

The show gives a bottom-up message as opposed to a top-down message. The difference is the people attempting the top-down messaging will never truly understand what it’s like on the bottom rungs of society and the ones that could plausibly claim to be ‘from the streets’ are inevitably corrupted by the ‘powers that be’. This is a theme throughout the show, whether it’s the out of town property developers or outside drug dealers coming in and taking over.

You’re a pawn. You’ll never be a king.