The Wire Season 5 - SPOILERS, GOT THEM SPOILERS!

[Purves Grundy]

RELAX, NO SPOILERS

Well, here I am, two episodes from the end. A bunch of stuff has happened that generally makes me think that they were right to call it a day after series 5 - the shark is definitely prowling.

Trouble is, I can't really do much in the way of episode-by-episode reviews. Partly through fatigue, which is why I haven't done any on teh series 4 thread - I mean, my life is wake too early, work too much, home too late, kids too little/much, Wire too drunk, bed too late. There's no time to marshall my thoughts and tell you suckers how it is.

The other thing is that in the brief seconds I do have for reflection I just go and red Alan Sepinwall's Wire blog:

http://sepinwall.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Wire%20Season%205

It's brilliant and says all I could wish to and more, so much so that offering up my thoughts would be at best me paraphrasing what he says to try and dodge accusations of plagiarising him.

Anyway, pity me. Two more episodes and thereafter TV is broken.

[Purves Grundy]

The Wire Season 5 - SPOILERS, GOT THEM SPOILERS!

NO SPOILERS

IT MIGHT SEEM A TINY BIT LIKE IT, BUT IT REALLY, REALLY AIN'T.

Series 4: no jokes.

Series 5: Several. Dark humour, obviously, but in a sense the series itself is the condemned man, so it's allowing itself the luxury of a little gallows wit.

And right now the GLW is playing catchup with episode 8. And the scene with the psychological profile? Piss-your-pants funny.

Watching 9 & 10 later. Won't come straight through with analysis, will try and keep pace with the Rhino on repeat when he gets here.

[Crusoe]

The Wire Season 5 - SPOILERS, GOT THEM SPOILERS!

It was a little far-fetched for me ... no spoilers, but could they really have done that?

[Purves Grundy]

The Wire Season 5 - SPOILERS, GOT THEM SPOILERS!

So, series 5, episode 9 just watched.

And for the first time I felt the tears welling up. Never before, not even when Wallace got whacked in Series 1 did it happen. But when characters A & B say goodbye to character C, and then say goodbye to each other... Devastating stuff.

And as for the rest - not sure how it's going to pan out. is character D going to successfully use character E before F fucks shit up? I doubt it. This is The Wire, after all. But essentially, you know that shark? They put a bullet through that motherfucker, just as the series looked like it was preparing its run-up.

[Soccer Scrimmage]

The Wire Season 5 - SPOILERS, GOT THEM SPOILERS!

Yeah, for all of the final season's flaws, the final 2 episodes are among the series' best.

[jason voorhees]

The Wire Season 5 - SPOILERS, GOT THEM SPOILERS!

For me, season 5 is my favorite. It's not the best one, but it's my favorite.

If The Wire was Wu Tang Clan, it would be:

Season 1: Raekwon
Season 2: Cappadonna
Season 3: Method Man
Season 4: Ghostface
Season 5: Old Dirty Bastard

[Purves Grundy]

The Wire Season 5 - SPOILERS, GOT THEM SPOILERS!

Dunno about that; I spent too long being exasperated by Series 5 to be that fond of it. It turned things around massively over the last four episodes, but when I think about the penultimate episodes of series 2,3 and 4 there was nothing in series 5 that could live with them.

I mean, I think it's safe to say that objectively series 4 is the best. To the point where it is comfortably the best thing that's ever been made for TV, expanding the form to areas where it really hasn't ever been before.

Think my favourite may be 2, though. It was brilliantly self-contained and the sheer breathlessness of the final 5 minutes of the penultimate episode were overpowering. It also seemed more measured in composition, somehow. I mean, it was every bit as angry as series 4, but just edged it in the way that it seemd to have been deliberately crafted with allusions to classic drama. Some people might justifiably call it studied, even mannered, but it was pitched at just the right level to make a bear of very little brain like me feel good about myself.

[jason voorhees]

The Wire Season 5 - SPOILERS, GOT THEM SPOILERS!

See, 2 was by far my least favorite, but it's like saying "Chapter 5 in As I Lay Dying really sucked," or "that scene when Edgar whacked Oswald was totally lame" in King Lear.

It's also quite interesting that most of England absolutely loved 2, while much of America hated 2. (It must be something related to that Murray Gold thing.)

I would love to search the season 5 thread in otf2, but I'm not good at that shit.

It's just for me, season 5 was so much fun, like when they shot "Blue in the Face" at the same time as "Smoke". There was no way to top season 4, so it was literally ODB. It was weird, wacky, fun, and an acid trip.

[Crusoe]

The Wire Season 5 - SPOILERS, GOT THEM SPOILERS!

Nice post, Purves - agreed entirely. season 4 was superb, absolutely compelling, but something still brings me back to season 2. I hadn't thought about it being self-contained; it was more that right from the start you could see each character falling, and felt sorry for them from the start (in season 4 it took longer for me to see what was going to happen, and sometimes got blindsided, e.g. with Randy's final position).

Plus, that final scene in the penultimate episode with Frank Sobotka's walk is probably my favourite in the whole series. Just gut-wrenching. (I've other favourite scenes, but they tend to be the knowingly clever or funny ones - Bunk & McNulty re-investigating, Omar's breakfast shopping trip, etc).

[Spearmint Rhino]

The Wire Season 5 - SPOILERS, GOT THEM SPOILERS!

I'll be starting series 5 tonight...

[JtS]

The Wire Season 5 - SPOILERS, GOT THEM SPOILERS!

Barksdale wakes up in the prison shower where Wallace is soaping himself up. It's all been a dream.

[Brandenburger Toro]

The Wire Season 5 - SPOILERS, GOT THEM SPOILERS!

Also, Carcetti is Omar's real father.

[Jimmy Bignutz]

The Wire Season 5 - SPOILERS, GOT THEM SPOILERS!

And there's the wedding between Greggs and Marlo - I guarantee you will cry

[Anton Gramscescu]

The Wire Season 5 - SPOILERS, GOT THEM SPOILERS!

The S& M scene with Herc and Levy is good, too. There must have been a temptation to play it for laughs, but they kept it on the level. Herc's tears when he can't pronounce the yiddish safety word are just so vivid.

Also, it turns out Chris *is* a Zombie Master. I know it's meant to be amusing when the living dead make it to the eighth floor of the police deparment and can't find any brains to eat in Comstat, but I thought this was just indiative of the lack of subtlety in the final series as a whole.

[Spearmint Rhino]

The Wire Season 5 - SPOILERS, GOT THEM SPOILERS!

EPISODE 1 'MORE WITH LESS'

What a tease that opening scene was. Bunk on the left of the screen, interrogating an unseen suspect in the interview room. Quite Tarantino-esque in its execution. Who's he talking to? Is it Marlo? Is it Snoop? Is it Chris? Is it Michael?

No, it's some random we've never seen before, and it's just a set-piece for a (brilliant) lie detector/photocopier gag.

Song plays, credits roll, and we're in.

So, Marlo's using Vespa couriers to pass on his messages now instead of mobiles or pagers? I love how the surveillance from the Major Crimes Unit is forcing the bad guys into ever more primitive means of communication. How long before one of these fuckers starts using smoke signals?

You know how some people get promoted above their capabilities? Carver's been promoted above his authority, bless him. Blatantly doesn't carry the gravitas to silence a room of unruly cops. Not yet, anyway.

The running gag with the guy with the model of his still-unbuilt beach house puzzles me slightly. On one of the commentaries, a couple of the editors and writers of The Wire said that was "true to life" or something about older cops always planning to build a beach house when they ought to be working. Don't really see how it's different from Freamon making his doll furniture, but there you go. Maybe they should get together.

Dukie getting employed by Michael as a nanny is humiliating but, I'm guessing, not-unrealistic. There must be loads of guys who, like Dukie, aren't cut out for the gangsta life but their mates don't want to leave them behind completely, so they retain them in some sort of menial capacity...

All these journalists are gonna take a bit of getting used-to. I know The Wire always throws in a whole bunch of new characters at the start of a season and pushes us in at the deep end, but I feel like I'm gonna really struggle this time.

The news room seems fairly authentic though, from my experience of such places (and the story about racism on the university getting squashed because some old duffer is someone else's friend was all too believable). They seem to be going for a 1970s, gritty, All The President's Men type of atmosphere with the office.

Chris asking Rhonda and Cedric for directions in the courthouse - brilliant. If only they knew. (Hard to believe, by the way, that someone who's under suspicion of 17 murders can just walk into a courthouse and ask to see the file on another murderer, i.e. Sergei, but hey, freedom of information I guess...)

I'd have more time for an American newspaper editor lecturing us about the correct use of 'evacuate' if they'd be so kind as to use 'protest' correctly.

Herc's working for Levy now? Can't believe it. Oh wait. Yes I can.

This episode's best bit of new information: "Reginald!"

[Brandenburger Toro]

The Wire Season 5 - SPOILERS, GOT THEM SPOILERS!

always planning to build a beach house when they ought to be working. Don't really see how it's different from Freamon making his doll furniture, but there you go.

Well, Lester doesn't do that when he's up on a wire. It's only when there's nothing to do - because he's in the pawnshop unit, because he's new to Homicide and can't be a primary so spends hours waiting around in the office, because they haven't got the surveillance in place - that he does. And then, I think, it's Lester's way of silently protesting the futility of not doing poh-lice work his way; it's no accident that he makes sure to do it during Carcetti's walkaround in s4.*

* yeah, that's a spoiler, but you shouldn't be reading a s5 thread if you haven't seen s4. Moran.

[Spearmint Rhino]

The Wire Season 5 - SPOILERS, GOT THEM SPOILERS!

EPISODE 2 'UNCONFIRMED REPORTS'

The greatest scenes in this episode were the two with Marlo meeting Avon at the prison: the slow smile on Marlo's face as he realises he's being fed a plate of shit by Avon which he has no choice but to eat, Marlo doing a surprisingly diplomatic job of convincing a surly Sergei to pass on his proposal to Vondas, and Barksdale's sarcastic 'westside' hand signal at the end. Beautiful.

I'm really feeling for that middle-management guy at the newspaper whose bright ideas keep getting stamped on by cretinous superiors. Been there, so many times...

Incidentally, interesting to see the night desk at the Sun staffed by geriatrics. I'd assume it would more likely be staffed by kids.

So, McNulty's back to his old tricks (boozing and womanising), and more than that, he's fucking cracking up. First of all ranting at Pearlman completely unjustifiably, then going absolutely berserk at the crime scene and messing with the evidence. Unless I'm mistaken, the first time we've ever seen him do anything corrupt (in his police life, at least).

McNulty having to get the bus to a crime scene after not being able to find a working cop car really brought home the frustration of trying to do a job in a crumbling organisation. Brilliant scene.

So, Michael's showing the first signs that maybe he isn't cut out for the street soldier life. Unable to bring himself to shoot children, and questioning the reasons for the hit in the first place.

There was something oddly touching about Chris's speech in the car, revealing that he often waits for an hour, maybe two, before a hit, collecting his thoughts, and making sure that someone else isn't setting one up on him.

You know who I hate? Bubbles' hairy biker sponsor (who turns out to be played by Steve Earle, I've only just found out). I'm not sure if we're intended to hate him or whether he's meant to be a lovely guy, but he's way too touchy-feely for me, and parrots way too much dodgy twelve-step bollocks. Gives me the creeps. He's like the Meat Loaf character in Fight Club.

Freamon's got some nice retro music taste, hasn't he? Chilling in his stake-out car there with some Billie Holiday, Erma Franklin etc...

Best dialogue:

Marlo: "The crown ain't worth much if the nigga wearing it keeps getting his shit took."

McNulty: "What are you qualified for?"
Bunk smirks childishly
McNulty: "OK, aside from that..."

And I loved the journalists' banter about the 'mother of four', the 'innocent bystander' and the 'statuesque blonde'.

[Purves Grundy]

The Wire Season 5 - SPOILERS, GOT THEM SPOILERS!

Good posts.

I'm not sure I agree about Avon's 'sarcastic' Westside sign. I think he's a broken man now. That whole thing about only serving two days - I'm not sure it holds for him anymore. The whole way he tried to establish rapport with Marlo who is now clearly wearing the crown seemd al;most servile. And the Westside handsign stank of eagerness to please to me. I mean, he plays games over the whole Sergeio setup, but it's still clear who's holding the whip hand here.

Oh, man, I just knew you'd hate Walon (that's his name, I think). Gets on my tits, too. And his version of the theme is the weakest of the five.

[Spearmint Rhino]

The Wire Season 5 - SPOILERS, GOT THEM SPOILERS!

I agree about the song (didn't realise that was Earle, either). Series 4's version is the best by a mile.

I forgot to say: you can wash the pots and pans all you like, Bubbles, but can you scrub away the STAIN OF DEATH?

[Spearmint Rhino]

The Wire Season 5 - SPOILERS, GOT THEM SPOILERS!

Oh yeah, and another piece of dialogue I only remembered after reading Sepinwall's blog (which I've only started doing this season, and I only read after I've posted my own thoughts).

Freamon: "Negro, please."

Funny, and at the same time totally believable. Lester would never be able to bring himself to use the n-word.

[jason voorhees]

The Wire Season 5 - SPOILERS, GOT THEM SPOILERS!

What I like about Walon, and I agree with everything not to like, is the fact that that's who you get to help you if you end up in rehab in a skid row broken-down Baptist church in West Baltimore.

I loved the prison scene, and I wonder if I loved this series because I saw it on a bootleg. During that whole scene, there was a small buzz and the lighting was incredibly twerked out. It seemed spacy. But to see Avon appear at that phone was nothing short of ghoulish, as if his ghost was haunting Marlo.

I agree more with Purves about the westiiiiide sign. The fact is, Avon knows that Marlo's gunning for Prop Joe, and while he's sad that he wasn't the one to do it, Avon is happy that someone's trying to do it. As we saw at the end of series 3 at the trial, Marlo and Avon belong to the same tribe. They respect each other. But there's snotty little political details to take care of.

Avon has to respect Marlo because he controls the outside...but Marlo better keep Avon happy in case he ever ends up inside.

[Spearmint Rhino]

The Wire Season 5 - SPOILERS, GOT THEM SPOILERS!

jason voorhees wrote:

Avon has to respect Marlo because he controls the outside...but Marlo better keep Avon happy in case he ever ends up inside.

I hadn't thought of that aspect. Very good point.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

The Wire Season 5 - SPOILERS, GOT THEM SPOILERS!

the man knows his wire.

I love how the surveillance from the Major Crimes Unit is forcing the bad guys into ever more primitive means of communication. How long before one of these fuckers starts using smoke signals?

haha, that immediately made me think of the wargames that the Pentagon ran in the lead up to the war in iraq.

And let's not forget the sharp, military wake-up call that the US press gave scant attention to back in August. The combined US military forces staged their summer exercise--the "Millennium Challenge"--over three weeks in late July and early August. Planned over the course of two years, it was the most elaborate war game ever attempted, involving 13,000 troops from all branches of the military and sophisticated virtual reality computer models. The scenario was as follows: the Blue Team (representing the US military) would undertake an invasion of Red, a Middle Eastern country in the Persian Gulf ruled by an evil dictator. Obviously, it was a dress rehearsal for the invasion of Iraq.

The Red Team was led by a retired Lt. General and Vietnam Veteran named Paul Van Riper. Van Riper managed in the first few days of the game to bring the war to a halt and defeat the combined US military forces before the invasion has even begun. How did he do it? He sank the entire US naval fleet.

Van Riper used small speed boats, fishing boats, civilian yachts, and small propeller planes armed with conventional explosives. As the US naval fleet steamed towards Red, Van Riper gave a coded signal--broadcast not as a radio transmission (which could have been jammed by US technology), but as a call to prayer from the minarets of mosques. The fleet of kamikaze boats and planes then went to work, smashing into US military ships and airbases in the same way that terrorists had bombed the USS Cole in Yemen two years ago. In addition, some of the small boats were armed with a few Chinese Silkworm-type cruise missiles, which they used to sink the US' only aircraft carrier and two marine helicopter carriers. Within hours, Red had won the war.

That was when the US military planners who were refereeing the exercises called a halt and resurrected the US navy from its watery grave. In addition, they told Van Riper that US planes he had already bombed to pieces had just flown over his country and destroyed his microwave communications system. He would have to use satellites and cell phones. Oh no, Van Riper insisted, we'll use motorcycle couriers and make announcements from the mosques. When it looked like he was going to win a second time, the planners told him to turn off his air defenses and move his troops away from the beaches so the Blue Team could land and invade. Even with these improbable handicaps, Van Riper managed to inflict significant casualties on invading US forces. Finally, when Van Riper found out that his orders to subordinates were being countermanded by the referees, he quit in disgust.

[Spearmint Rhino]

The Wire Season 5 - SPOILERS, GOT THEM SPOILERS!

That's like the time I won the penalty shootout competition which was meant to help decide who would play in the school football team... then they retrospectively decided that a penalty shootout wasn't the correct way of picking the team. Pah.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

The Wire Season 5 - SPOILERS, GOT THEM SPOILERS!

yeah, except the penalty shootout was for the Liverpool team in a european cup final.