(no subject)
The Wire is over. Now, being unsatisfied by a series conclusion isn't uncommon. I'm hard pressed to think of any finale of a series I enjoyed that was anything more than barely satisfying. I've said in the past that I feel that The Wire ended with Season 3. Seasons 4 and 5 have been nice additions, but haven't been nearly as compelling since they're not really about the same thing. Then again I've only watched season 4 twice, and season 5 once.
When I think back on Season 5, I find that I did enjoy it. There was alot of good dialogue, and there was alot of shaking up and unpredictability. Several times throughout the season, I felt a lack of direction, a lack of purpose, that what-the-hell-is-going-on feeling. I enjoy that feeling. It's like planting an unfamiliar seed, forshadowing the anticipation of what might sprout. Like when Kima was putting together Ikea furniture, it felt so incongruous, you wonder if it means something. I also liked the focal institution of the season. I did feel it was overdramatized and paralleled the police department too closely, I did enjoy the depiction of characters and interactions of a newspaper reporting room. I did not, however, take well to the central fabrication of the season. I can see the irony. I can feel the metaphorical "gravity of the void". I can appreciate the accidentals and the favorable coincidence. I guess it just isn't enough of a moralism for me. Maybe it just wasn't punchy enough. Maybe I just need to watch it over.
I have very different kinds of feelings about the finale itself. This is the last time we are to see these characters. It is the ride into the sunset. I think the traditional anti-climax of the last episode held more anticipation than the climax itself did. Ultimately I think it tracks to how I felt about the central premise of the season. It does not lend itself to continuity. Honestly, I didn't want to see such a dispersal and I'm sad to see the story end with the show. I just think it could have been more poetic, more bitter-sweet than just moving right along. I mean, I get the message. Life goes on, people move on to other things, blah blah blah. It just doesn't make me feel. And one thing I've learned from The Wire, is to do what you feel.
What bothers me just as much is what and who was left out. No Dennis/Cutty? No Sidnor? In my mind, these are two guys that that I like watching, maybe because I identify with and admire them a little, and they didn't die. I would've like to see McNulty move up in the chain, and I thought his delgation fiasco might have been indicative of that. I really would like to have seen Daniels stick around, but since he did go, I would've like it to be about doing the job, rather than about the numbers. On the other side, lets just say I'm glad Slim Charles got it, and I'm glad that (off brand) Cheese got it. Though I think Omar reborn is overdoing it.
For me personally, The Wire coincides with the infancy of my professional career, so it is strange for it to have ended. Alot of the events that occurred in the show eerily paralleled those of my workplace. When Daniels was being asked to jump the line on the investigation in Season2, I was being asked to do much the same. I could take the finale, and the parallels to my personal life as forshadowing the future. I could.
-tJ
When I think back on Season 5, I find that I did enjoy it. There was alot of good dialogue, and there was alot of shaking up and unpredictability. Several times throughout the season, I felt a lack of direction, a lack of purpose, that what-the-hell-is-going-on feeling. I enjoy that feeling. It's like planting an unfamiliar seed, forshadowing the anticipation of what might sprout. Like when Kima was putting together Ikea furniture, it felt so incongruous, you wonder if it means something. I also liked the focal institution of the season. I did feel it was overdramatized and paralleled the police department too closely, I did enjoy the depiction of characters and interactions of a newspaper reporting room. I did not, however, take well to the central fabrication of the season. I can see the irony. I can feel the metaphorical "gravity of the void". I can appreciate the accidentals and the favorable coincidence. I guess it just isn't enough of a moralism for me. Maybe it just wasn't punchy enough. Maybe I just need to watch it over.
I have very different kinds of feelings about the finale itself. This is the last time we are to see these characters. It is the ride into the sunset. I think the traditional anti-climax of the last episode held more anticipation than the climax itself did. Ultimately I think it tracks to how I felt about the central premise of the season. It does not lend itself to continuity. Honestly, I didn't want to see such a dispersal and I'm sad to see the story end with the show. I just think it could have been more poetic, more bitter-sweet than just moving right along. I mean, I get the message. Life goes on, people move on to other things, blah blah blah. It just doesn't make me feel. And one thing I've learned from The Wire, is to do what you feel.
What bothers me just as much is what and who was left out. No Dennis/Cutty? No Sidnor? In my mind, these are two guys that that I like watching, maybe because I identify with and admire them a little, and they didn't die. I would've like to see McNulty move up in the chain, and I thought his delgation fiasco might have been indicative of that. I really would like to have seen Daniels stick around, but since he did go, I would've like it to be about doing the job, rather than about the numbers. On the other side, lets just say I'm glad Slim Charles got it, and I'm glad that (off brand) Cheese got it. Though I think Omar reborn is overdoing it.
For me personally, The Wire coincides with the infancy of my professional career, so it is strange for it to have ended. Alot of the events that occurred in the show eerily paralleled those of my workplace. When Daniels was being asked to jump the line on the investigation in Season2, I was being asked to do much the same. I could take the finale, and the parallels to my personal life as forshadowing the future. I could.
-tJ