The Wire -- 12/03

[Trunk]

Anyone want to discuss this one before getting into the season finale thread?

That was some heavy shit.

I figured that opening bit of Michael running was a set up. A gun-toting chase through a warehouse is just too out of character for the show so you knew something was up.

Also, they really flipped his character pretty quickly. I guess it was sort of sizzling under the surface for the first few weeks, but it’s interesting anyway.

But, just a bummer across the board. . .Namond is a punk (within his framework) and has ZERO options.

Randy and Duquan: no trust, no security, no hope.

And, you had to see the thing with Bubble’s protege coming.

I don’t have mcuh else to say about the episode, but IMO, it’s a classic. Can’t wait for the next ep (the season finale, I guess). Interesting to see where the Omar/Marlo stuff will be going.

Oh, side note : remember when Carcetti was leaving the governor’s and the security guard stopped him and said, “the gov will see you now”? That security guard is the governor of Maryland, Bob Ehrlich. He just got defeated in the election but it’s him.

[LateComer]

I have a friend who won’t watch the Wire because it’s too real. I told him yesterday that he was lucky. This episode was brutal, all the options for each kid was broken down hard, and the boxing dude getting shot doing what he felt he had to do was just as hard to watch. Randy’s foster mother? No good deed goes unpunished indeed.

Anyway, in case you missed it, here’s an excellent interview on Slate.com with David Simon.

More than anything I’ve seen on the wire this quote from Simon brouth home to me the folly of the way the war on drugs is being fought:

When we finish filming at 1 in the morning, it’s even odds that one of the African-African members of the cast and crew will be detained. My first assistant director was arrested, dumped unceremoniously at central booking, and ultimately released after seeing a court commissioner. The charge against him was never brought into court. This is common in Baltimore under the current administration.

[Trunk]

Great interview. I like this part. It really speaks to what makes the show so good. I also like how he called the show a 66 hour movie. If only more TV shows would treat themselves that way.

If I had to write a police procedural right now, I’d put a gun to my head. And I really have to say this, even Homicide [on which Simon was a producer and writer] was prisoner of the form. On shows where the arrest matters, where it’s about good and evil, punishing crime, the poor and the rich, the suspect exists to exalt the good guys, to make the Sipowiczs and the Pembletons and the Joe Fridays that much more moral, that much more righteous, that much more intellectualized. It’s to validate their point of view and the point of view of society. So, you end up with same stilted picture of the underclass. Either they’re the salt of earth looking for a break, and not at all responsible, or they’re venal and evil and need to be punished. That’s a good precedent for creating an alienated America.