A New Year is dawning. A New Day is not. I spent the first hour of 2008 watching the first episode of The Wire Season 5 — which is now live if you have HBO On Demand — and it was time very well spent. Between instantly fascinating new characters in the Baltimore Sun newsroom and some even more byzantine connections made between the old regulars (Note Partlow’s errand to the Criminal Court, and wait ’til you see who Herc’s working for), the best show on television is back in a big way. (That being said, it might take me awhile to get used to Mel‘s husband Doug from Flight of the Conchords as the Sun‘s managing editor.) Update; More discussion of Ep. 51 here at Alan Sepinwall’s blog, who’s also compiling a list of The Wire‘s greatest moments (That might take awhile.)
3 thoughts on “The Bigger the Lie, the More they Believe.”
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I watched the first episode of Season 5 last night as well, and I have to say, I was disappointed. It really felt like Simon & Co. were phoning it in. Of course, a phoned-in Wire is twenty times better than anything else out there, but here are some of the things I was disappointed by (semi-spoiler alert)
— a lot of the dialogue from previous seasons is used over and over again in this first episode of Season 5 — the phrase “shameful shit” used by the Sun’s managing editor is one that I’ve heard a bunch of times in previous seasons; when McNulty says “someday I’m going to work for a real police department” and one of the Sun reporters says “someday I’m going to work for a real newspaper,” I thought of Sydnor saying the exact same thing in Season 3…I know it’s intentional but it just feels like they’re recycling old dialogue.
— McNulty starts drinking again, but we never see the transition — how he goes from total straight-edge guy back into hard-core womanizer. It doesn’t gibe with what we saw in Season 4. They needed to give more air time to him reflecting on Bodie’s death, which was the reason he got back into Major Crimes; they needed to show him being worn down more by the cuts in the police department (he seems pretty content while working his shifts); it’s too sudden a transition; we only see him getting annoyed when Daniel tells Major Crimes the bad news; and I think this is due to the fact that HBO only let The Wire have ten episodes to cram everything in.
— some of the Sun reporters really are terrible actors, but hopefully we’ll see more screen time from the good ones (Clark Johnson, the woman playing Alma) as the season goes on. Tom McCarthy’s character is an interesting one.
There were many good things about the episode too; the Michael-Dukie story is still touching (Jermaine Crawford is such a great actor), and Marlo’s stirring up trouble at the co-op…I know I should just settle down and wait for the rest of the episodes before I judge, but I’m such an obsessed fan! (and a loser for being this way, I know).
Hey Anney…thanks for responding so in-depth, and always good to meet another Wire enthusiast. (And IMHO, Wire fanaticism is about as far from loser-dom as you can get!)
Major Spoilers to follow, for anyone who isn’t caught up to 51.
The McDonalds and copier opening in Homicide (which apparently was a throwback to Simon’s Homicide show — I didn’t know that at the time) notwithstanding, I was a bit thrown by the first fifteen minutes or so, particularly the scene with the promoted Carver shouting down a bunch of cops I don’t remember (that is, except for Officer Colicchio, the guy who hated Hamsterdam.) But, I thought the episode (or I) settled into a groove soon thereafter, and it did a great job of [a] bringing (almost) everyone back into the fold, [b] introducing the newsroom folk, and [c] letting the story fold in on itself yet again (the two moments I mentioned in the original post.)
On the recycling thing, “shameful shit” is definitely a Bunkism, and that sounded to me like a repeat too. I didn’t make the “someday I’m gonna work for a real…” connection, so it didn’t bug me. Still, that’s one of the great things about the show — its showing different systems or organizations failing for quite often the same reasons. (For example, Carcetti’s gubernatorial aspirations putting Baltimore in a hole, or Tom McCarthy’s similar journalistic ambition no doubt causing trouble in short order.) So, some overlap, as you said, is part of the design. Now that you mention it, though, Clark Johnson’s city editor did seem a bit Bunkish.
But, speaking of the newsroom, I actually loved those scenes, just because [a] I’m really looking forward to Simon’s dissection of the media and [b] they did so much with so little. His Bunk mannerisms aside, Johnson’s city editor already seems like a great new character — cantankerous in the meeting when the (white) columnist-from-upstairs spikes a good story to help his J-school dean buddy, magnanimous about giving credit to people who don’t necessarily deserve it for the Fat Face Rick scoop. And then there’s the newsroom dinosaurs who grief about word usage, so on so on. Like everything else in The Wire, it feels real.
McNulty. Ah, poor McNulty. You’re right — it’s a bit of a reset button. He already seems way deeper in the hole than I expected…or than may be even warranted, given his good behavior in S4 and the fact that Beadie’s still leaving a light on for him. But I’ll give it a few more episodes. McNulty’s basically an addict, so it makes a certain amount of sense that going back to Major Crimes would get him drinking and chasing tail again. Freamon called it way back in S3: McNulty has no healthy support mechanisms in his life. “A life Jimmy, it’s the shit that happens while you wait for moments that never come.” Plus, even with the cop work, there’s the Bodie factor you mention, and the fact that nobody’s getting paid…which can cause all kinds of looniness.
Regarding the budget crunch, that’s one of my favorite new angles of the season. (It also puts the lie to the argument, made in the AICN comments, that Season 4 didn’t matter. Carcetti’s careerist actions in S4 have redounded against the entire city, and now there’s serious trouble brewing. (Also, Michael and Dukie are now working a corner…in effect, they’re the new Bodie & Poot.))
I think you’re right that the ten episode length may become a factor. There’s so much left to do, even notwithstanding the new media angle, so I hope the show doesn’t end up feeling rushed. But, so far, so good… 🙂
As far as McNulty goes, just keep in mind that a year has passed, so Jimmy’s descent isn’t as rapid as it might seem.
Clark Johnson’s character already feels like he’s been part of the show for years. So I guess it makes sense that he’s written as sort of like the Bunk, or Lester of the newsroom. I haven’t had a problem with any of the acting yet. Was the blonde with glasses gawking at the East Baltimore fire Laura Lippman? I though Bill Zorzsi (sp?) delivered his lines very humoriously, I bet they’ve fed him some good ones this season.
anyhoo, I wouldn’t fret Anney, but you could tell, IMO, that the pace was slightly quicker than normal.