Re: All-purpose, never-ending "Wire" thread
Wow. Lot of pressure to live up to, especially being grouped with the likes of DD.
I'm still plowing through the last season for a second time on the DVR, but one thought keeps coming back to me: What if the kids not only echo the original characters, but what if the whole season is sort of a meta-textual comment on the show itself? There seems to be deliberate examination of aspects of Baltimore life that up to this point had conjured their power from being spoken but largely unseen (for example, "The Corners" was used as a touchstone in the first few seasons, but we really didn't see them. When we did visit the street-level dealers, it was in the Terrace. Likewise, the "little hoppers," who before were used to show how bad the drug problem had gotten now have faces and names.) A show that has largely developed its own language might well feel the need to comment on itself in such a manner, or it could simply be a function of these places being "next" as Simon has alluded to in interviews.
As I said, food for thought. back
Speaking of McNulty, his genuine happiness is portrayed, well, genuinely in Season 4. Very unlike the Wire, and it makes you wonder when the other shoe will drop. Will Beadie die? Will one of the kids? A show this critical probably isn't going to let McNulty be happy in his radio car in the final episode.
You could write a graduate thesis comparing Omar to the bandit anti-heroes of the old west like Jesse James and Billy the Kid. All the code of honor things, plus the rob from the rich and give to the poor themes are there. He's just, you know, big and black and gay.
