The Wire Series 5

[faustus]

Well, I accidentally watched the final episode today - having planned to save it for later in the weekend. If you've never seen the greatest tv series ever made, it's not a great place to start but set aside a week and work up to it.

The Wire explores the city of Baltimore - initially you might mistake it for a crime show, but equal time is given to the criminals. Not all the forces of law and order are good, and some of the criminals have their uses. Each season deepends and enirches the world. The first season saw a police task force working to bring down a drug kingpin in West Baltimore, by use of wiretaps. The second season shifted focus to the docks and various smuggling operations. The third season saw a shift of power in the tenements, and a cop's experiment on turning a blind eye to drug dealing in one area but zero tolerance in another. It also introduces a politician on the make. Season four follows the mayoral election and also looks at the schools system - how individuals learn or failed to learn, and how criminals emerge.

At the start of the final season, the police are being starved of resources and cannot work over time. There are a pile of murders left unsolved and cases against Senator Davies and kingpin Marlo are stymied days from being concluded. McNulty finds a way of drumming up resources, but in the process creates a monster. Meanwhile, a journalist at the cashstrapped Baltimore Sun begins to bend truth in search of the next story.

The texture is as rich as ever, and McNulty is more prominent than in the penultimate season. There are surprises and nods to the fans, but the mantra is to avoid repetition so I think they are right to stop now. Just don't expect easy answers, or easy viewing.

Comments

[drasecretcampus.livejournal.com]

TV doesn't do well with the sort of thing that demands concentration - which is not to say the viewer cannot do this (see the density of structure of NYPD Blue and The Sopranos) but networks lose their nerve and shuffle it off to graveyard slots (were all the eps of NYPD Blue shown on terrestrial?).

There may be issues with drug usage and swearing. And possibly the racial dynamic. It also - and I emphasise this is from the endings of the first four seasons of it which may or may not apply to the ultimate wrap up - does not do consolation. In The Sopranos life went on (or didn't), in NYPD Blue they get their man - in The Wire (ditto) the serious crime squad don't get up the food chain, and if a kingpin falls another takes his place. In Series 5 muffle uffle wuffle muffle.

Usually US TV drama seems to take place in real time - you get Thanksgiving and Christmas but curiously no July 4 and six months suddenly pass, Abby goes into rehab, Ryan goes to Europe, Pacey sails his boat... The Wire's timescale is more complex. It feels like a month or so.

[kayxh.livejournal.com]

Ture about the concentration. I've no idea how the Wire would work on a weekly basis, having only ever seen it on heavy dvd consumption.

it does not do consolation
I was also thinking that it shows how ineffective, and to a degree pointless, policing is. They arrest the corner kids and new corner kids come along. You get someone higher up the organisation like Barksdale, he's not in jail for that long, and he's still running the operation from inside with the help of senior members who are still outside.

I too would think a month or so for Hamsterdam. Which sort of works - people are dealing drugs but they'd be doing that anyway and it's away from where people live.

Abby goes into rehab
Or in an earlier series, has to spend a few weeks in quarantine with Carter and to alleviate the boredom dyes her hair. Yeah, right.