THE WIRE - Season Five

[take5]

R.I.P. Omar

I was confused by the body tag thing at the end as well. I'm taking it as a poetic visual moment: the sort-of-noble, brave warrior reduced to just another bag, susceptible to mislabeling. And the initial error of the label is just another case of bureaucratic incompetence.

[Tom Storer]

I'm next to positive it was the same kid.

Yeah, I went back and had a look. It was the same kid. And later when Omar tells Chris and Snoop about it, he says something like "the hopper went in and popped him just to see the damage." Omar wasn't even done in by his enemies.

[catesta]

Sheeeeeeeeeiiiiiit!

Looks like it is all coming unraveled for the police. McNulty, Lester and company going down? Or, does the Mayor have Rawls and Daniels sit and cover?

Marlo walks?

Have to say I'm really surprised with Kima.

[Tom Storer]

Hell of an episode! Hard to see how they can realistically cover up McNulty's fake investigation, but enough is at stake that they might try to...

It was Snoop's end that I thought was stunningly well acted. The final moment, when, knowing Michael is about to kill her, she catches sight of herself in the side mirror of the van, brushes her hand over her head almost coquettishly, and says with resignation, "How my hair look, Mike?"

Meanwhile, we've learned that lawyer Levy has been selling courthouse documents to the gangsters, but who is the source? I think it's the judge. It's possible that all of Baltimore will end up behind bars in the final season!

[Harold_Z]

Sheeeeeeeeeiiiiiit!

Looks like it is all coming unraveled for the police. McNulty, Lester and company going down? Or, does the Mayor have Rawls and Daniels sit and cover?

Marlo walks?

Have to say I'm really surprised with Kima.

Yeah..didn't figure Kima as a rat.I

[Tom Storer]

She's not a rat, she's a responsible professional who doesn't accept that the end justifies the means! I mean, a little cutting corners is one thing, but falsifying evidence and wholescale deception is another. Was she going to slide down the slippery slope of self-deception and rationalization until she was willing to lie and cheat in order to set her own agenda, as McNulty did?

The role that"chain of command" plays in the show is complicated. On the one hand, it allows people at the top to enforce their own corruption; on the other, it provides people in the middle and lower regions of the force with a standard by which to judge their own behavior in the sea of ethical ambiguity that surrounds them. How can McNulty credibly complain that the people on the top are liars and cheats if he does the same thing? Furthermore, his lying and cheating was itself criminal, and he's a cop. That's what Kima declared her allegiance to in reporting McNulty: the rule of law.

[Harold_Z]

She's not a rat, she's a responsible professional who doesn't accept that the end justifies the means! I mean, a little cutting corners is one thing, but falsifying evidence and wholescale deception is another. Was she going to slide down the slippery slope of self-deception and rationalization until she was willing to lie and cheat in order to set her own agenda, as McNulty did?

The role that"chain of command" plays in the show is complicated. On the one hand, it allows people at the top to enforce their own corruption; on the other, it provides people in the middle and lower regions of the force with a standard by which to judge their own behavior in the sea of ethical ambiguity that surrounds them. How can McNulty credibly complain that the people on the top are liars and cheats if he does the same thing? Furthermore, his lying and cheating was itself criminal, and he's a cop. That's what Kima declared her allegiance to in reporting McNulty: the rule of law.

I see your point and don't disagree with it but I see myself more in tune with Bunk's response to the situation.

[catesta]

Hell of an episode! Hard to see how they can realistically cover up McNulty's fake investigation, but enough is at stake that they might try to...

It was Snoop's end that I thought was stunningly well acted. The final moment, when, knowing Michael is about to kill her, she catches sight of herself in the side mirror of the van, brushes her hand over her head almost coquettishly, and says with resignation, "How my hair look, Mike?"

Meanwhile, we've learned that lawyer Levy has been selling courthouse documents to the gangsters, but who is the source? I think it's the judge. It's possible that all of Baltimore will end up behind bars in the final season!

You might be right about the judge. They may have given a small hint when he casually slipped McNulty his lunch tab.

The killer would be if it was Pearlman.

I just don't think the Mayor will allow the fake investigation to go public. There is too much at stake. The huge drug bust takes a lot of attention away from other problems he has. This is not to say it doesn't go public. It probably will, but it may have more to do with the wire taps that Levy has been made aware and the newspaper finding out the homeless killing were bullshit.

[catesta]

She's not a rat, she's a responsible professional who doesn't accept that the end justifies the means! I mean, a little cutting corners is one thing, but falsifying evidence and wholescale deception is another. Was she going to slide down the slippery slope of self-deception and rationalization until she was willing to lie and cheat in order to set her own agenda, as McNulty did?

The role that"chain of command" plays in the show is complicated. On the one hand, it allows people at the top to enforce their own corruption; on the other, it provides people in the middle and lower regions of the force with a standard by which to judge their own behavior in the sea of ethical ambiguity that surrounds them. How can McNulty credibly complain that the people on the top are liars and cheats if he does the same thing? Furthermore, his lying and cheating was itself criminal, and he's a cop. That's what Kima declared her allegiance to in reporting McNulty: the rule of law.

I still say I am surprised, not so much that she turned on McNulty, more so that she turned on Lester after he made the bust of his career.

[Tom Storer]

I feel for all of them, actually. No one has a happy choice there. The Wire does an excellent job of showing how everyone is interdependent and hence compromised in a complex system.

[catesta]

No matter how it ends up, the actors, writers, director(s) and producers of the show hit it out of the park this season just as they have since the start.

The show may not have received the same amount of hype as the Sopranos over the years but I think it was a much more quality consistent series.

[jlhoots]

George Pelecanos, one of my favorite "crime" writers, has been heavily involved with the series, & I believe wrote the screenplay for the episode we've just been talking about.

[take5]

The whole Michael/Bugs/Dookie sequence just killed me. I was weepy emotional wreck afterwards.

[Harold_Z]

No matter how it ends up, the actors, writers, director(s) and producers of the show hit it out of the park this season just as they have since the start.

The show may not have received the same amount of hype as the Sopranos over the years but I think it was a much more quality consistent series.

Word!

[PHILLYQ]

The whole Michael/Bugs/Dookie sequence just killed me. I was weepy emotional wreck afterwards.

I found that pretty hard to take also. Of all the kids on the education season, only one is doing OK, when all any of those kids needed was someone to care about them. How true to life unfortunately.

[PHILLYQ]

No. this is not a comment on the series finale as I haven't watched it yet. In the penultimate episode when Clay Davis & Lester are in the bar and Clay Davis is starting to spill the beans, the tune playing in the background is Ramsey Lewis playing 'The In Crowd'!!

[BruceH]

Any comments about the series finale?

(I hope it was good.)

[Harold_Z]

The ending was good. One I could live with. I would have liked to see Marlo get his but I was glad to see McNulty and Lester NOT end up going to prison or something. Any of the of dope dealers and there cohorts who were killed or otherwise put out the business will only be replaced by those waiting in the wings. Dope dealing will go on and on and so will phony politicians. A symbiotic relationship - the gangsters give the politicians something to make believe they are doing something about.

I'm sorry to see this show go. As Chris pointed out - it was a consistently great show. It never suffered from the "treading water" that the Sopranos eventually did.

[marcello]

I loved it when Prop Joe's nephew got a bullet in the brain.

Great show/Series. Much better than the Sopranos, which should have ended after the 3rd season or so.

[Tom Storer]

I liked the Sopranos all the way through, but I have to agree that the Wire is more consistently excellent.

I thought the finale was great. Wrapped everything up very nicely. Some bad guys come to a bad end, others triumph; some good guys come out OK, others decidedly do not. And the institutions remain--gangsterism, politics, police departments, the media, chewing people up and spitting them out, with the almighty dollar the winning faction wherever one looks.

Some great scenes: Carcetti speechless with consternation in the opening scene; McNulty putting Templeton in his place; Marlo's palpable excitement at being back on the street, grabbing a corner with sheer personal aggression; Levy and Herc delightedly reviewing their sunny situation soon after Pearlman thought she had hamstrung Levy; Cheese enjoying his first big, chest-puffing, macho speech as the newest alpha male in the game when he is summarily euthanized; Michael's appearance as the latest Omar; and I'm sure there were others.

[catesta]

Slim putting a bullet in Cheese's head was great.

They gave us a real nice peak at the end of how things played out.

A bitter-sweet ending to say the least.

I am anxious to start all over again with season 1.

[analogak]

hi. after having a few days to shit it over i will say that i do not think the wire was very good. it was a crappy series, imo.

however, the sopranos still holds up. i bet in twenty years when people are truly ready to debate this and it is a classic sports radio argument, people will share this opinion.

[catesta]

hi. after having a few days to shit it over i will say that i do not think the wire was very good. it was a crappy series, imo.

however, the sopranos still holds up. i bet in twenty years when people are truly ready to debate this and it is a classic sports radio argument, people will share this opinion.

Crappy? You must be out of your mind. The Sopranos was a great series and one of my all time favorites, but at times it was a disappointment. The writing was often sloppy especially in the later years.

The Wire on the other hand never seemed to struggle.

[analogak]

just my feeling. the wire had no juice. meh.

[Tom Storer]

Specifics, give us some specifics!