The Wire: Episode 60 "-30-"

Speaking from experience here: Start at the beginning. I tried to jump on board at the start of Season 4, which most have said is a decent place to do so if you have to do it that way. But I failed. The kids, the street talk that my brain hadn't yet been "wired" for and a real sense that I didn't know enough backstories made me stop halfway through the second episode.

So, knowing I wanted to watch the newspaper plotline of Season 5, made a commitment to catch up. PTL for Netflix -- I signed up for the three-DVDs-at-a-time membership, kept running them from my mailbox to the DVD player and back, always had at least one disc at home and was able to watch them all in order in about five weeks. About 10 episodes a week. Meanwhile, I was recording Season 5, so as soon as I watched the final disc of Season 4, I was ready to go on this year's stuff.

Caught up on Season 5, everything but the finale, by Saturday. So I got to watch Sunday's show "live." Immensely gratifying and a strong, strong final episode (kicks ass on The Sopranos' farewell).

And given the state of newspapers, and newsroom management, it makes a lot of sense to me that the jerk reporter doesn't pay a price and in fact gets lauded. Reinforces the distrust that the public has for journalists, way too much of it deserved.

 

In case there are still some here who, for some reason, are reading a thread about last night's episode yet might get upset re: spoilers, I'll warn you, I'm about to write what could be deemed a spoiler. So, um, go somewhere else....look at any of the 17,217 great threads on SportsJournalists.com besides this one....Gone? Good....




***SPOILER ALERT***




***SPOILER ALERT***




***SPOILER ALERT, AND IF YOU'VE KEPT READING AND HAVEN'T SEEN THE FINALE, YOU'RE AS DUMB AS A BOX OF SQUID AND I HAVE NO SYMPATHY FOR YOU....***




OK THEN.......That end montage was very satisfying, I thought, despite the mixed outcomes for the characters we've come to know and love. Dukie shooting up, contrasted with Bubs finally accomplishing what, in other circumstances, would be the simplest of acts -- being allowed to come upstairs and sit down at the dinner table with his sister and niece (nephew?) -- epitomize the Wire for me: a bittersweet mix of optimism/hope & tragedy/hopelessness.

 

Alan Sepinwall has a very informative interview with David Simon on his blog. Re: the newspaper storyline, Simon says the real story isn't Templeton. It's the fact that no one at the paper is covering the stories that really matter in the community the way a newspaper should (i.e. Omar's death, Prop Joe's death, the games the politicians and police are playing).

http://sepinwall.blogspot.com/2008/03/wire-david-simon-q.html

 

If anyone had the motherload of hard facts Gus did, there is no way even those deluded ME and EIC characters go with Templeton to the bitter end.

No way.

 

As someone -- Sepinwall? The two Wire nuts at Slate? -- pointed out, this argument would be more plausible if the Templeton subplot hadn't taken up so much valuable time. Even when he wasn't onscreen, he was the focus of practically every Sun scene, especially in the final five episodes.

 

Exactly.... Simon is talking out of his ass.

 

OK, so since the finale made such a point of showing us nothing ever changes, and that everything is just like it was when the series started, I thought it'd be fun to match up the characters at the start of the series with their counterparts at the end. Some of these may be up for debate, but some aren't:

OLD = NEW

McNulty = Sydnor (that scene in Gerety's office was a nice touch)

Burrell = Valchek

Royce = Nerese Campbell

Bubbles = Dukie (unfortunately)

Gus = Mike Fletcher (or, at least, Gus would like to think so)

Bunny Colvin = Carver (maybe)

Prop Joe = Slim Charles (maybe a stretch, but I like this one)

Omar = Michael

I realize the last one will cause some disagreement. A lot of people always have seen Michael as the next Avon. But Michael's more complicated than that. He's got a code, or at least the start of one. I'm not sure he wants to run a crew, or to hear his name ring out. Like Snoop told him, he was never one of them. So he might as well pick up where Omar left off.

Any others?

 

I enjoyed the finale. My new goal is to learn how to make my dvd player work and buy the Wire so I can watch it from start to finish.

Fascinating interview with Sepinwall.
I enjoyed this part, since it was much discussed, at least on here.

 

Nobody would disagree with it, at least nobody who saw Michael's last scene. He's robbing drug dealers. He's carrying a shotgun. How much more explicit of a picture could be drawn? (Aside: I stopped by the real-life rim shop, The Rim Source, in East Baltimore a couple of weeks ago, strictly for Wire-voyeurism purposes.)

Also, Slim Charles is not Prop Joe. He made it clear earlier in the season that he has no interest in management. "I'm not the CEO type" or something to that effect. Slim is a company man, having worked for Avon, Marlo and Joe.

 

I agree with you, Mr. Pirates.

Dedo, read Sepinwall's blog column about the last episode - specifically the part about Michael and him being a "mirror character". It was the most enlightening part of the column, in my opinion. He made such a convincing case for Michael being the next Omar that it was interesting to consider what Omar was like when he was young.

 

Write-brained -- haven't read Sepinwall yet. Was hoping to get to it later. You guys are right about how the Omar-Michael thing should be obvious, but I guess I've heard so much Avon-Michael stuff over the years that I felt like I had to defend it.

And Pirates, I'm not saying Slim Charles will end up exactly like Prop Joe, but who else is going to take charge of the co-op? Charles has a good head on his shoulders, and (when he's not letting his emotions get the best of him) he can show the same kind of pragmatism Joe did. It's admittedly a loose connection, but I like the idea of it.

 

I don't think Carver = Bunny. Carver is the next Daniels. I thought that one was as clear as any others with the exception of Michael-Omar and Dukie-Bubbles.

Sydnor = McNulty is also pretty spot on, though I thought the Sydnor stuff felt rushed. I believe someone else made the point that we never got the feeling that Sydnor was happy or excited about being a renegade cop. Also, I think Slim Charles is still just Slim Charles. If anything, he's Wee Bey or Chris who just hasn't been caught.