The Wire Season Finale: Comments? (May Be Spoilers)

OK, so Season II is over.

I thought it was good, but the sub-plots seemed kind of all over the map (ghetto drug dealers, Greek mafia, Russian prostitutes, local trade unions, prison inmates, big dick, drunk duck.).

Plus, although the main story was almostkindasorta resolved, there were so many loose ends. I know they need some meat to get back into Season III, but…

So what did you think?

All in all, I would say a good season with some good acting and interesting stories. On the flip side, a less than satisfying season finale and maybe one or two or ten too many subplots.

Well, this was The Wire, they don’t do neat story resolutions. I was very disappointed that they killed off Frank Sobotka, though they kind of dead-ended his character anyhow…either he was going to end up dead or in witness-protection. Frank was the main reason I tuned in week after week. Great tragic character. I’ll watch whatever show Chris Bauer appears in next…

All those episodes and I still don’t quite get the politics going on in the drug family side of the show. I’m probably hindered by the fact that I gave up on watching Season 1 after missing two episodes and still have yet to catch up on those shows.

I did like the last five minutes…the rush of clips as Nick was staring out at the docks from the fence. Nothing ever changes… And I especially felt sad to see the port cop returning to her normal dull rounds. Didn’t necessarily like the almost throwaway obvious setup for the next season, catching the meeting of the drug kingpins. That seemed a little too convienent.

Question…did Vondas call “The Greek” (who isn’t Greek!) by his real name towards the end of the show? I could of sworn I heard him call him “Guilermo.” Hope to see him next year, and maybe find out more about him. Hopefully the fact that he forgot his rosary/prayer beads and the cops found them wasn’t a throwaway but a setup for next year. Why is he an FBI asset? If he’s not Greek, what is he? I doubt Vondas will return since the cops made him.

It would have been nice if they finally did come up with a name for that dead Russian girl McNulty seemed to be hung up on.

Not enough Omar. I recently read he was supposed to be killed off but he’s so popular they made him a major player. String’s gonna have his hands full next season with Avon, Brother and Omar.

I think they did a good job with the three main subplots (Docks, Projects, Cops) but they didn’t really tie them together until the last few episodes.

I thought it was rare to have a cop show with local detectives and FBI guys actually cooperating.

I appreciated the show more after I decided to watch with closed captioning on.

I never did understand the drunk duck.

Because whenever he gets in a little trouble he hands the FBI a truckload of drugs and gets his contact’s picture in the papers.

I thought it was less connected than the first season but still very good – and Nico’s 13th-hour conversion was not only completely surprising it was also, in retrospect, absolutely believeable. One detail I loved was the scene where Maj. Valchek gets the latest photo of his his surveillance van and gets wistful about Frank. The actor (Al Brown) hasn’t had a lot to do with the character – mostly to run around and shout – but in that scene he really sold Valchek’s sense of regret (after all, he didn’t kill Frank, but he got him killed) but he did it subtly, which was perfect for someone as big a blowhard as Valchek who spends 23.5 hours a day convincing himself he’s hot shit.

–Cliffy