The Wire: 5x10
Just watched the finale.
The show has always been about shit going around and coming around. One of the things that it has always done phenomenally well is to manage its storylines and characters so that, at the end of a given season, we simultaneously get some sort of closure on that season's arc and get reminded that things roll on: same song, hundredth verse; it's all in the game.
So it makes sense that what we get from the finale is the same thing amped up. We see new characters, secondary characters, moving to fill the spaces left by characters who have moved on, or been moved on. Greggs and Sydnor have become versions of McNulty. Carver's become Daniels - he's even a lieutenant now, as Daniels was when the show began; and Carver's one of the show's most hopeful stories: he's made some mistakes, but there's not the same kind of dirt on him that there was on Daniels, so maybe, down the road...
Michael's becoming Omar. Dukie's becoming Bubbles - and that breaks my heart, but yeah, I can see it, the desperation and the sweetness, the way, like Bubbles, he'll always want a companion - and it'll never be Michael. (Makes me wonder who Bubbles was trying to replace.) Fletcher's turning into Gus. Chris is following Wee Bey through the cycle of incarceration, and, god willing, the cycle of trying to direct his family down a different path. Slim Charles is moving to fill the shoes of Prop Joe. Marlo gets what Stringer Bell wanted, except that Marlo really is a gangster at heart and Stringer never was. Herc's not bright enough to become Leavy, but damn if he's not crawling right down into the slime with him.
And our original characters, the ones with whom we started out... Bunk is still Bunk, which seems exactly right to me. Daniels is practicing law; Pearlman's a judge. Bubbles is okay (I was worried about him, but I had no idea how worried until he walked up out of that basement and I started crying). Prez has, as Dukie said, figured it out; he's settled into his role, he's doing what he can - and he's both sadder and wiser for all that he's seen. Freamon's still making his furniture - and he's still with Shardene, which makes me happy for both of them. Greggs has taken on the best parts of McNulty, giving a fuck when it ain't her turn to give a fuck. And McNulty himself, McNulty who thought he was the hero of this story and turned out to be something else... McNulty's out of the game, and I don't know if he'll keep it together, and I don't know if he'll be happy, but at least he knows that he's got to try, and he's got a reason to try.
I'm trying to think of how I could love this show more. I got nothin'.
In conclusion, my need to vid this show is about to overwhelm me.
The show has always been about shit going around and coming around. One of the things that it has always done phenomenally well is to manage its storylines and characters so that, at the end of a given season, we simultaneously get some sort of closure on that season's arc and get reminded that things roll on: same song, hundredth verse; it's all in the game.
So it makes sense that what we get from the finale is the same thing amped up. We see new characters, secondary characters, moving to fill the spaces left by characters who have moved on, or been moved on. Greggs and Sydnor have become versions of McNulty. Carver's become Daniels - he's even a lieutenant now, as Daniels was when the show began; and Carver's one of the show's most hopeful stories: he's made some mistakes, but there's not the same kind of dirt on him that there was on Daniels, so maybe, down the road...
Michael's becoming Omar. Dukie's becoming Bubbles - and that breaks my heart, but yeah, I can see it, the desperation and the sweetness, the way, like Bubbles, he'll always want a companion - and it'll never be Michael. (Makes me wonder who Bubbles was trying to replace.) Fletcher's turning into Gus. Chris is following Wee Bey through the cycle of incarceration, and, god willing, the cycle of trying to direct his family down a different path. Slim Charles is moving to fill the shoes of Prop Joe. Marlo gets what Stringer Bell wanted, except that Marlo really is a gangster at heart and Stringer never was. Herc's not bright enough to become Leavy, but damn if he's not crawling right down into the slime with him.
And our original characters, the ones with whom we started out... Bunk is still Bunk, which seems exactly right to me. Daniels is practicing law; Pearlman's a judge. Bubbles is okay (I was worried about him, but I had no idea how worried until he walked up out of that basement and I started crying). Prez has, as Dukie said, figured it out; he's settled into his role, he's doing what he can - and he's both sadder and wiser for all that he's seen. Freamon's still making his furniture - and he's still with Shardene, which makes me happy for both of them. Greggs has taken on the best parts of McNulty, giving a fuck when it ain't her turn to give a fuck. And McNulty himself, McNulty who thought he was the hero of this story and turned out to be something else... McNulty's out of the game, and I don't know if he'll keep it together, and I don't know if he'll be happy, but at least he knows that he's got to try, and he's got a reason to try.
I'm trying to think of how I could love this show more. I got nothin'.
In conclusion, my need to vid this show is about to overwhelm me.