Monday, January 7, 2008

The Wire, Season Five

Thoughts?

12 comments:

ppatin said...

David Simon sure is pissed off at the Sun. I'm also glad to see that Avon Barksdale will play at least a small role in this season, and it seems pretty obvious that the wheels are coming off the McNulty bus.

ppatin said...

It's a big day for capital punishment today. The Supreme Court is hearing the case about whether lethal injection is cruel & unusual punishment.

Hopefully the court will reject the challenge. Maybe then Maryland can get back in the execution business. Since witness intimidation is such a big problem in the area, and there are two death row inmates who're there for witness killing I think it would send a very positive message if they were put to death ASAP.

badfish said...

my favorite part of the first ep was the interaction between carcetti and the us attorney. i couldn't help but laugh at the tension and awkwardness of some of the scenes. i just hope they aren't bringing the russian/greek dock people back into the mix for the sake of tying up loose ends.

Maurice Bradbury said...

Yeah that season at the docks was so, so dull.

When are they going to whip out some Omar?!

Poor Michael Kenneth Williams is so typecast. I saw him playing the crazy ex-boyfriend in "I think I Love My Wife." He needs to do a nice, light romantic comedy with Mandy Moore after this.

ppatin said...

I think that the criticism of the Baltimore Sun is a little too heavy handed. It's almost like the show's creator is using the final season to settle a grudge.

I wonder if Omar will be back to his usual business? Bunk made him promise not to kill anyone anymore, and Omar seems like he'd keep his word. A man's gotta have a code after all...

Claude said...

I liked it but I can't tell if the Sun portions of the show were heavy-handed or just plain dull. It seemed as though the storyline would just start dragging every time we came back to the Sun's newsroom. I wasn't feeling the depth and the tension that I got out of every other scene.

If I remember a recent article about the show, Omar is supposed to be out of town at this point but should be back soon.

Dukie still doesn't get much respect. Heh.

Maurice Bradbury said...

Yeah, I think the Sun parts were just kind of dull. Someone pointed out to me though, the first season's episode has always been kind of slow. They're 'establishing.'
Gus is the smart guy, Alma is the true believer, Marlo gained a lot of weight, McNulty's a drunk, etc etc...

ppatin said...

Marlo gained weight? Whoa, I didn't notice. I don't want to give away any specifics about episode 2, but I promise you that things pick up quickly.

Also, Herc is working for Maury Levy! He's completed his transformation from bumbling sidekick to full-blown villain.

Maurice Bradbury said...

Dewd, Marlo gained like 40 pounds at least! He was kind of willowy before.

Did you see any of the advertorials pitching the show running in magazines the past few months? In "Vibe" they had a spread that interviewed "Melo" Anthony about how 'real' the show is. In "Blender" the show was 'endorsed' by Snoop Dogg, and in the NYker it was Tony Kushner. I guess New Yorker readers don't know who the first two are. "Snoop Doggy whom? I say, Mavis, who would want to view a program geared to ruffians named after pets? Indeed!"

Anonymous said...

I must say I have NEVER watched a single episode of the Wire, I KNEW it would annoy me since it would hit to close to “home.” I wish I had kept my personal promise. I was talked into watching this one. What garbage. The US ATTY would NEVER say to a mayor “good luck with your crime problem.” Totally ridiculous!! And the Baltimore Sun breaking a front page news story after 9:30PM? Yeah, right. The sad thing is people around here will think that Rod J or DiBiaggo actually did something like that….. NEVER would happen. I can tell you, because I was there, DiBiaggo told a room full of people that he was going to do what was right and he didn’t care what anyone said or did because he was appointed by the President.

badfish said...

first of all, it's a fictional drama dude.
second, i'd say the more outrageous scene of the first episode is when the city council president is linked via contributions to drug dealers. that doesn't seem so implausible or impossible.
i know where you are coming from though--my mom refuses to watch the show on account of it being too depressing. but the show never promotes itself as completely realistic, and to harp on one scene that really just provides an example of the political infighting is a little petty, regardless of how things really happen.

ppatin said...

Anon:

This season hasn't been the most "authentic," however I would suggest talking to people who work in the police department or the school system who have seen earlier seasons. They say that what they see hits very close to home.

Also, Rod Rosenstein is a good guy but Tom DiBaggio cared a lot more about self-promotion than "doing the right thing."