Reflections
I've tried to slow down but I'm almost done with season 2. The Wire is addictive because it's all about characters. And I've come to like them all, either from the police side or from the crime side. Some characters are more endearing than others (Omar, Bubbles, Kima, Prez, Freamon), but humanity is there, in the same way it was on OZ, wherever you look at.
It's difficult to top OZ though, for the prison thing makes everything so intense, magnifying stuff as if in under the microscope. In spite of its borrowing from Franck Baum and its mirroring the American "salad bowl", the gangs and the tendacy to group, OZ was in essence pure Greek tragedy - hence the importance of Augustus Hill as the coryphaeus and the relevance of the musical episode (only OZ and BtVS did a truly relevant musical episode IMO, the other shows just follow a trend)- with a pinch of Shakespeare here and there in the roles the characters played (Ryan was an avatar of Iago for instance) until they finally played Macbeth on stage in the final episode, a play within a play. It was the drama of dramas. And while making the characters undergo trials and change, OZ kept my heart in its fist and clenched so many times I was left drained, playing its role of catharsis, as Aristotle said any tragedy should.
The Wire is more modern in content and form. I think I might have figured it out how it works. This is America (in episode 10 Omar was wearing a t-shirt reading "American Dream" but it called to my mind the fact that Malcolm X talked once about "the American nightmare"), and this is globalization.
"The Greek" joked saying it was a smaller world, but The Wire actually gives us a broadened stage, the kind that only television can show. The quotations at the end of the credits, after the cold open, sound like slogans, not aphorisms. It's a world in which money is what matters and in which Stringer Bell might be a sort of king, but the kind that goes to business school!
And I see now how meaningful the title is and that, in its structure, the series works like a network with ramifications, connections, change of scales. Everything is wired up. I guess that the following seasons will keep zooming out and will complete the painting, giving us a view on the big scheme of things, while season 1 started local with the Barskdale's towers.
Prez, therefore, is a key character, because he focuses, connects dots and then sees the map of things; he guesses the threads and solves puzzles, and he draws the connections on the board, for us to see. Roland being pulled off by his father in law is the best way to put the team and the audience into the dark; it's more efficient, as an obstacle and a confusion element, than the FBI guy spilling the beans to "The Greek" about the wire.
But, as I said first, above all, the show is about the characters. And, even though they borrowed from The Godfather a lot (Brianna could have been a Corleone!), some of them are quite Shakespearian too (Stringer Bell for instance, McNulty too...).
As for this season 2, I wasn't sure about the East side/waterfront storyline first, but it makes sense if we think of the globalization logics and its tripod (Information technology, containerization, free market); I like the Greek connection (of course), also I like the union angle, the echo to Elia Kazan's film, and Franck Sobotka really is an interesting character...and Horseface? LOL I keep expecting Franck to yell at some point "A Horse! A Horse! My kingdom for a Horse!".
However Ziggy has been annoying the hell out of me. He made me miss D'Angelo even more. I am not sure that his character was necessary. I mean, I see how it fits in and what he is supposed to represent, on paper, but the character on screen didn't work for me. His breakdown after he shot the Greeks didn't even move me. That said, the duck thing made me think of Anya's joke from "Restless" !
Nick is another story. I can see a parallel with Bodie. Speaking of uncle/nephew arc, I like the fact that Butch the Blind is Omar's uncle.
On a shallower note: Dominic West is charming and Idris Elba is definitely the most handsome man on the show, but Lance Reddick's smile is just irresistible. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, it matters.
Two episodes to go and season 2 is finished. With that killer in town, brother Mouzone, I fear for Omar...
It's difficult to top OZ though, for the prison thing makes everything so intense, magnifying stuff as if in under the microscope. In spite of its borrowing from Franck Baum and its mirroring the American "salad bowl", the gangs and the tendacy to group, OZ was in essence pure Greek tragedy - hence the importance of Augustus Hill as the coryphaeus and the relevance of the musical episode (only OZ and BtVS did a truly relevant musical episode IMO, the other shows just follow a trend)- with a pinch of Shakespeare here and there in the roles the characters played (Ryan was an avatar of Iago for instance) until they finally played Macbeth on stage in the final episode, a play within a play. It was the drama of dramas. And while making the characters undergo trials and change, OZ kept my heart in its fist and clenched so many times I was left drained, playing its role of catharsis, as Aristotle said any tragedy should.
The Wire is more modern in content and form. I think I might have figured it out how it works. This is America (in episode 10 Omar was wearing a t-shirt reading "American Dream" but it called to my mind the fact that Malcolm X talked once about "the American nightmare"), and this is globalization.
"The Greek" joked saying it was a smaller world, but The Wire actually gives us a broadened stage, the kind that only television can show. The quotations at the end of the credits, after the cold open, sound like slogans, not aphorisms. It's a world in which money is what matters and in which Stringer Bell might be a sort of king, but the kind that goes to business school!
And I see now how meaningful the title is and that, in its structure, the series works like a network with ramifications, connections, change of scales. Everything is wired up. I guess that the following seasons will keep zooming out and will complete the painting, giving us a view on the big scheme of things, while season 1 started local with the Barskdale's towers.
Prez, therefore, is a key character, because he focuses, connects dots and then sees the map of things; he guesses the threads and solves puzzles, and he draws the connections on the board, for us to see. Roland being pulled off by his father in law is the best way to put the team and the audience into the dark; it's more efficient, as an obstacle and a confusion element, than the FBI guy spilling the beans to "The Greek" about the wire.
But, as I said first, above all, the show is about the characters. And, even though they borrowed from The Godfather a lot (Brianna could have been a Corleone!), some of them are quite Shakespearian too (Stringer Bell for instance, McNulty too...).
As for this season 2, I wasn't sure about the East side/waterfront storyline first, but it makes sense if we think of the globalization logics and its tripod (Information technology, containerization, free market); I like the Greek connection (of course), also I like the union angle, the echo to Elia Kazan's film, and Franck Sobotka really is an interesting character...and Horseface? LOL I keep expecting Franck to yell at some point "A Horse! A Horse! My kingdom for a Horse!".
However Ziggy has been annoying the hell out of me. He made me miss D'Angelo even more. I am not sure that his character was necessary. I mean, I see how it fits in and what he is supposed to represent, on paper, but the character on screen didn't work for me. His breakdown after he shot the Greeks didn't even move me. That said, the duck thing made me think of Anya's joke from "Restless" !
Nick is another story. I can see a parallel with Bodie. Speaking of uncle/nephew arc, I like the fact that Butch the Blind is Omar's uncle.
On a shallower note: Dominic West is charming and Idris Elba is definitely the most handsome man on the show, but Lance Reddick's smile is just irresistible. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, it matters.
Two episodes to go and season 2 is finished. With that killer in town, brother Mouzone, I fear for Omar...