The Wire - Season Five

[Wally]

I don't know what caught me more off guard, was it Karnard killing Omar or Michael taking out Snoop, or how skinny Nicky looked in his brief cameo. I know that seeing Randy made my heart break even more so when in comparison with Namon. Dukie's future was probably clear from the very first time we meet him, but jesus fucjk. Whatever Michael's next stop is don't we all wish he'd take his killing skills into the mayoral office, followed by doing a little shootem up in the court house, and maybe stop of at whatever hole Mcnulty's drinking at, because those pious fucks should never be forgiven for their neglect and retarded priorities.. Watching Marlo almost lose his shit when he found out that Chris had been keeping street rumours from him was pretty fucking awesome. And can I just give a giant fuck yes to Carver's five series arc, and Seth Gilliams incredible performance.

[dieblucasdie]

So in re: that, an actual, though vague spoiler from an interview with Dominic West:

He stated that at the end of the series, we'd see characters become a "new Omar" *and* a "new McNulty."  I think at this point the "new Omar" is almost certainly Michael; I'm just at a loss as to the "new McNulty."  It has to be either Carver or Sydnor, right?  But neither quite fits.[/quote]

[Wally]

If it was going on what happened before this series then I think Kima would be a good call for the new mcnulty, but she's become a little more straight this year, although it's not as if Mcnulty didn't have periods of calmness, however brief those periods were.

[heather marie]

wait are there only 10 episodes in this season?

oh hey did I tell you guys how comcast sent me dad a claim for downloading torrents of the Wire so now he can't watch it? I want to laugh but it's not really that funny.

[elpollodiablo]

Way to babysit your customers, Comcast. I'm so glad they're not our cable company.

[heather marie]

yeah, I'm moving back in with my parents soon and that's gonna suck not being able to download anything. the hilarious thing is that he runs millions of torrents but in the claim they only listed The Wire ones, not the Sopranos or Deadwood or music ones he was running. anyway, sorry to hijack the thread.

[dieblucasdie]

So the last episode is apparently called "-30-"

[edison]

Can people point out places w/ some good/interesting writing about the show going on? I know people have mentioned several over the months, but it'd be nice to have a recap.

I'll start with Sudhir Venkatesh NY Times blog

[guanajuato]

i'm disgusted with this season. i think the newspaper angle is pretty boring. everybody who works at the paper gets on my nerves because they all seem like fucking cheesed up cutouts. i think the show could have ended last season on a higher note, than this mess. and what happened with omar was just plain dumb, it was that nuke-the-world this is the last season, patheticism. i hope they all fucking die at this point, in a big fucking nuclear blast that hits baltimore, with mastodon in the background. would david s be happy then? i still love the show. but this is, imo, the worst season by FAR. 

[hannah]

Can people point out places w/ some good/interesting writing about the show going on? I know people have mentioned several over the months, but it'd be nice to have a recap.

I'll start with Sudhir Venkatesh NY Times blog

I read Alan Sepinwall's recaps and the comments. I also read the House Next Door, but their Wire writer always seems to get a few too many facts wrong. There's also Heaven and Here, but I find something off about the whole blog.

Don't read Slate.

[edison]

Thanks. The Alan Sepinwall one is the one that had seemed the most interesting to me, so to the bookmarks it goes! Will check out these two others, though.

[DCDave]

The prosthetic hands the guy had in the last episode weren't prosthetics.

[elpollodiablo]

I thought that whole scene felt really tacked on. Also waaaay too long.

[DCDave]

The triple amputee was an actual triple amputee.

[dieblucasdie]

So apparently episode 7 (ie the best one this season by quite a wide margin) was the one Dominic West directed.  Hey.

[hannah]

I thought 8 and 9 were fabulous...

[hannah]

I mean, all due respect to McNulty and everything. Though the crane shot in the Kima/Elijah scene was total cornball.

[dieblucasdie]

Me too, 9 is probably my second favorite and 8 my thrid, but 7 was just the turning point where I stopped feeling like I was making excuses for this season and it started being genuinely awesome.  Plus the Clay Davis stuff.  And the fake-phone-call scene is probably my single favorite this season.

xpost:  heh you're right about that scene.  Slate loved it though!

[andronicus]

I was thinking on the way home on the bus about the neat progression you could make from the motives/methods of each successive drug kingpin.

Prop Joe: Drugs --> Money
Avon/Stringer: Drugs --> Money --> Power
Marlo: Drugs --> Money --> Power --> Image

There are even distinct scenes where each distinct view of the game is laid out, for Prop Joe that talk with I think Marlo where he talks about all the drug dealers of old who just made money and can't we all just get along, for Avon and Stringer any of their conflicts over the stay a gangster/go legit paradigm, and for Marlo especially that hissy fit in jail last episode.

I'm sure this is hell of obvious and blucas is like rolling his eyes right now.  Still, neat.

[dieblucasdie]

That is pretty neat; especially since it seems like we're finally getting a glimpse of Marlo's ultimate goals.  He's seem so paranoid and nihilistic that I've been unsure to this point, though killing the whole family just because someone called him a cocksucker should've been a big clue. 

I'm not sure how well it'd hold up to close inspection, though.  For example, Avon took his street rep very, very seriously.

I think we're going to get some more insight into Marlo in the last ep, though, so we'll see.  The promos show him on the street in a suit, and there are reports of a scene (mild spoiler) at a cocktail party where Levy tries to introduce him Stringer-style to some of the Baltimore power-elites.

[elpollodiablo]

That is pretty neat; especially since it seems like we're finally getting a glimpse of Marlo's ultimate goals.  He's seem so paranoid and nihilistic that I've been unsure to this point, though killing the whole family just because someone called him a cocksucker should've been a big clue. 

I'm not sure how well it'd hold up to close inspection, though.  For example, Avon took his street rep very, very seriously.

I think we're going to get some more insight into Marlo in the last ep, though, so we'll see.  The promos show him on the street in a suit, and there are reports of a scene (mild spoiler) at a cocktail party where Levy tries to introduce him Stringer-style to some of the Baltimore power-elites.

QFT w/r/t the middle bit, that's exactly what I was thinking

[andronicus]

It's not to say that each thing excludes the others, Avon cares about his image, but to what end?  Because no 'cocksucker' is going to be viable to run the terraces/towers, which is what Avon does, and is.  He was willing to back off and wait on getting Omar, letting his reputation suffer, in order to protect what was his.  He guards his rep because it's a component of his power.  Would Marlo have done the same, or would he have started a war, destroyed and salted the earth of his corners in order to ensure that everyone knows that Marlo is Marlo.  Everyone knows who Marlo is. Avon's very identity was a mixture of common knowledge and deep mystery to the cast in the first couple of seasons.

I mean, meh, I dunno.

[hannah]

Interesting. From an article about a talk Simon gave recently:

He even made a point of exonerating HBO for "The Wire's" shorter run this season by explaining that if they truly needed more time to wrap up their story (which initially included the revelation that Randy is indeed Cheese Wagstaff's son), HBO would have provided it. But he feels the tighter story is stronger for it. In Simon's view, "The Wire," its characters, and to an extent the complex issues plaguing Baltimore itself have ultimately been served.

Hmm. Although Randy's last name remains Wagstaff, which I suppose is all the revelation you need, I'm glad they didn't go that route.

[dieblucasdie]

That's doubly interesting, because in that interview with Dominic West last week, he bitched a bunch about the shortened season and how he thinks things were rushed in the first few episodes because of it.

[hannah]

hey it looks like episode 10 is up...