The Wire: Episode 55

I had much less a problem with the Dookie question, because he's shown that he's a pretty sensitive and intelligent kid, despite his circumstances. Was it too on the nose? Maybe, but I feel like there's been a little too much nit-picking of this season. One thing I'll pick, that I don't believe is a nit, is the Omar scene. I agree with whoever said it seems pretty unrealistic that four main characters can empty round after round in a small room and everyone makes it out alive. That couch worked a little too well for a little too long as a shield for a pretty defenseless Omar. I think to make it more realistic, and not lose anything, that apt. could have just as easily been on the second floor. That way Omar flies out the window, drops 10-15 feet and it's believable that he'd be able to get away in the night. Of course we have no idea what will actually come of this situation, but it just seems like anyway that he gets it out of it will be a little too Spider Man-ish.

 

Weird DD fixated on Dookie and not the unraveling of the reality of the series before our eyes.

 

I didn't care for Omar acting like he was Wesley Snipes in Blade either, I just didn't comment on that yet. I wanted to let that scene sink in a bit. I've already expressed my misgivings about David Mills on this thread, so you can assume that represents the entire show. But I'd like to watch it again before I declare it completely busted.

 

Omar jumped from the building right into the trash under the window. That is the only way I can explain that he survived.

 

I'd like to watch it again, plus I'll give this show the benefit of the doubt that it'll be resolved in a realistic manner (at least as much as that scenario can). The thing that is irritating is that there are so many ways that scene could have been done that wouldn't have required a super hero conclusion. Omar has always had a mythical air, but his shoot-outs always came across as having a touch of realism. Having three trained killers firing automatic weapons at you from about 10 feet away while you crouch behind a couch and then run through a glass door and presumably jump about four stories? Really stretching it.

Even with that, and a few other things this season that haven't been up to Wire standards, it's still the best show on TV by leaps and bounds. Nothing else is nearly as gripping or well-acted. I'm guessing that after all 10 episodes air some of these quibbles right now will fade.

 

What I didn't get about that scene was not just how Omar made it out (as a buddy of mine said, that must be a tough couch), but also, what was the point of it? What did that scene accomplish?
The whole episode built up to it, but if, as we can probably assume, Omar survives, what did we learn? That Marlo & co. are not just hard but smart? We knew that. That Omar can leap tall buildings? I hope not. They'll just reset and do it again, in which case we might as well have just had the shootout out in the open, where Omar could live to fight another day without stretching the bounds of realism.

 

Good point. I was waiting for Omar, at some point, to sniff out that something was up. And since he didn't, as much as I love the character, if the scene was going to go down like that, there's no way he should have survived.

And as you said, where does this leave that storyline? Nothing is accomplished. Again, we don't know what happened to Omar, but assuming he made it out OK, nothing changed as a result of that scene. One thing's for sure, Marlo will not be pleased.

 

How far was that jump? I thought they were only on the second or third floor? I would think you could survive that fall if you jumped the right way (you might break a leg or something, but at least you wouldn't be shot up).

That seen with Dookie was depressing. What I thought was worse was when he went to the woods to learn to shoot and heard the same advice he heard in the gym, basically that even if you have a gun or not, people are still going to try to roll you...I like to think he is the "good kid makes it out of the ghetto story," But I think it does not end well for him.

 

At 12:01 a.m. Super Bowl nigght I will be ingesting #56.

Still very good.

 

Is it fair to blame Mills for the uneven episode? Given what we know about Simon, I'd wager he signs off on every aspect of the show.

 

Finally got to watch this episode...I agree that the Omar scene is very dubious.
The realism of this show is what makes it so compelling, so they'd better have a good explanation as to how he jumped out of that window and survived. Plus he needs a new partner...Omar's gotta realize now that he can't take this crew down alone...they're too smart and too well trained. So who steps up...Slim? I can see him working on Marlo's crew from the other side if they don't get to him first.

Also, something different's up with that cellphone that Marlo has. Freamon and the crew picked a text message off the Wire back in Season 2 (the one typed out in Greek that said 'Shut Down Immediately' when translated). The noise that came out of the computer made it seem as if the message itself was scrambled. Marlo doing that on his own would be a stretch, but the Greeks? They could pull that kind of thing off.

Nice to see Randy's back for Episode 56.

 

I'm sincerely hoping this all comes together, but right now I'm starting to fear The Wire would've been better off fading to black with Namond looking out at the crossroads.

Really, Simon could be a victim of how great those first four seasons were. Because he explored every facet of that world so well, there weren't many more places to take this group of characters. Now we're left with what is feeling more and more like an unnecessary epilogue, and a newspaper-driven storyline that makes the show feel, for the first time, self-indulgent.

The thing about the first four seasons was that almost every character -- the cops, the drug dealers, the addicts, the corner kids, the teachers, the politicians -- all seemed representative of real people, intertwined because of the same real problems. Even if Omar was over the top and Hamsterdam was extreme, they served their purpose in illuminating something about the issues and people Simon wanted to show us.

But Scott Templeton? What does his character illuminate, other than how a guy like Jayson Blair can climb the journalism ladder? Simon has said the message of The Wire is that "life is worth less." Does Templeton, or any of the other newspaper characters, really fit into that? I suppose an argument can be made that "life is worth less" when a major newspaper buries stories about triple homicides and homeless serial killers. But do we need to spend a whole season hammering that point home? And by sensationalizing the problems of the newspaper business by using a character like Templeton, isn't that message being lost anyway?

I guess it boils down to the idea that we expect The Wire to be more ... what's the word ... revelatory. Through five episodes of the fifth season, the only remotely revealing storyline has been the one about how Carcetti's "new day in Baltimore" looks just like the old one. Before, Marlo and Omar were telling us something new, something important, about the streets -- now it seems like we're watching them just to find out what happens next, the same reason why people watch soap operas. And to me, The Wire has set a higher standard than that.

Again, I'm not giving up on it yet. And some of this post probably was more harsh than I intended. But right now, I'm relying on little more than hope. And if The Wire has taught me anything, it's that relying on hope usually leads to disappointment.