The Wire, Season 4
Aka the one to rip your emotional guts out.
I haven't said anything about the title sequence(s) so far, but I was pleasantly reminded of Babylon 5, where we also got a different musical interpretation and different credits for each season, fitting with the addressed themes of the "chapter". After we've been earlier examined various institutions from the police and drug trade to the waterfront to city hall, this season (while continuing with the drugs and city hall) goes for school and education as the the institution and theme, and the new characters, four boys - Michael, Duquan, Naimond and Randy - through which we see this (in addition to already established characters like Pres, now a teacher, and Bunny Colvin) - are absolutely heartbreaking. I mean, the show being what it is, I didn't expect a happy ending for them, but the individual fates still gutted me when they came (except for Namond, who gets the annual one good (preliminary) ending. They aren't the only youngsters given central focus - the new king pin on the rise, Marlo, is in his early twenties a best, one part of his duo of main assassins, Snoop, is a teenager. And chillingly sociopathic. (So is Marlo, so far; he'll kill you just as well for looking at him wrongly as for actual snitching.) When watching the season, I was often reminded of articles and documentaries about child soldiers, and it's both horrible and important to remember that you don't need Third World conditions for kids to end up as such; it happens in First World countries just the same.
In a way, the four boys were also younger versions of the kids from s1, who are already involved in the drug trade, and we see how they get there; younger versions of the adult characters, even. Randy strikes me as headed for Bubbles' life (and oh, Bubbles, that was heartbreaking as well), Michael, if he doesn't die early on, could end up as an Avon or Stringer (and isn't that a cheering thought). One factor which makes the season so good is that we do get adults who want to help and keep trying - Colvin, Cutty, Pres, even Carver - but in each case (except for Colvin adopting Namond at the end) - they can only provide temporary band-aids, because, to quote Bodie, "the game is rigged", and so is the system. There are no moustache twirling evil headmasters around ordering cannings, but fixation of tests and matching quotas and the resignation of the aim of actually teaching the kids something beyond question replies is just as grinding, and goes hand in hand with the overwhelming peer pressure and the double ruthlessness of the drug trade and the police force. Which reminds me: Officer Walker was a moustache twirling villain, towards the kids and Bubbles both, but there are Officer Walkers around, and we got more screen time on Herc, who causes far more damage (again, to both the kids and Bubbles) not via moustache twirling but sheer stupidity and lack of attention. Incidentally, the later is a neat illustration what a change of pov can do. In the first two seasons the show used Herc (and Carver more often than not, too) mostly for comic relief, and we only rarely (as in the case of the kid who lost an eye) saw the havoc stupidity can wreak. In this season, however, the focus is on the ripples caused by Herc's stupidity, on its victims, and it's not that Herc's behaviour has changed but the pov which makes it so horrifying.
Carver, however, seems to have taken both Daniels' and Colvin's words about policing to heart (and Kima's about a good detective only being as good as his informant). This doesn't mean he doesn't also cause damage by neglect (he really should not have given Randy to Herc to interrogate but gone directly with him to Bunk), but he tries. Colvin's words from last season, especially that speech about how a cop used to be part of the neighbourhood and now is more taught to be part of an occupying army, and about the fatal consequences of that change in attitude (the behaviour of soldiers, which cops aren't supposed to be, the increasing contempt and disregard for the general population, with and without drugs), really haunt this season.
Regular on the law enforcement side wise, this season had the biggest spred of the various s1 team members in different units so far. Ponygirl commented to an earlier entry that Lester is a realistic depiction of what would actually happen to a genius detective (i.e. put in the basement, literally, and ignored for years until even the reason why he ended up there in the first place or that he was ever good at something were forgotten), and when Daniels told Lester that "for me, you ARE the Major Crimes Unit", I was reminded of this again. The Wire however plays Lester significantly different from other genius detectives, starting of course with the fact he's not the hero of the show but part of the ensemble, but also because he is usually (not always) unfazed and not the part of the team who throws temper tantrums. (As Daniels also observes, to Rhonda, Lester instead gets results with the fatherly "don't disappoint me again" look.) The other characters aren't circling around him to indulge him, anything but, and there are no big revelations about his past trauma. Conversely, McNulty, who did throw the temper tantrums, in this season is only a very minor character, and a, gasp, actually grown up one at that. Of course, no sooner has he claimed to have let go of that anger near the end of the season does Bodie die which together with Marlo being now the next white whale gives McNulty the incentive to go back to Major Crimes. I predict plenty of anger next season. Though I do hope that he doesn't regress too far, because Beadie deserves better.
The Bodie-McNulty conversation earlier also had a callback to s1 which I'm not sure I'd have caught if I hadn't been marathoning the show, Bodie making the chess comparison without being sure about what to call the pieces and McNulty saying "pawn", and you could see in Bodie's face he was remembering D'Angelo giving them the chess lesson right then. Impossible to overlook was of course the other call back, the conversation between Bodie and Poot about whether or not Marlo ordering Little Kevin dead was comparable to Stringer ordering Wallace dead, and Bodie insisting there was a difference. I'm in two minds about this, because yes, Wallace had actually talked to the cops, but neither Stringer nor Bodie knew that when Stringer gave the order; Stringer was simply eliminating all eventualities, which is indeed comparable to Marlo ordering the death of Little Kevin. Then again, Bodie's larger point stands as Marlo really hands out the execution orders left right and center because he can. Anyway, Bodie's death: expected but another powerful scene.
This was also the season of the Evil Mothers, between Michael's who not only was an addict but also unwilling to do something regarding her lover who had evidently abused her son, and Namond's who wanted him following his father's footsteps in the drug trade to keep her creature comforts. I wish we'd seen more of Randy's nice foster mother, Miss Adela, as a counterpoint, but alas, no. (Duquan's "folks", gender neutral, were sight unseen horrible by implication.)
And then there was Bubbles, who tried so hard to make Sherrond go to school, give him a better life. Whose pleas for help got ignored again and again. By the time we got to Bubbles' suicide attempt I clawed my face in despair on his behalf, which Kima finding his NA sponsor of sorts from s1 and bringing him to Bubbles in the hospital only soothed a very little. This was when I decided I need to take a break before moving on to season 5, I need to recover and regroup before the next trauma.
Mind you: if one hasn't seen the season, all my descriptions probably make it sound relentlessly grim, and it isn't, because the scriptwriters of this show know that you twist the knife best if you mix it with affection and humor scenes in between. Also there was the ongoing political storyline, which if you like fictional politics (and I do, actually) was highly enjoyable to watch; Tommy Carcetti and Norman the campaign manager made for a great entertaining double act. Though given Carcetti kept making the right decisions throughout the season I had a feeling he would conclude the season making the wrong (i.e. selfish over selfless) decision in the finale. (Conversely, if he hadn't resisted temptation on the election night and had actually cheated on his wife I would have had optimism for him choosing humilation and less governor chances but money for the kids over the reverse in the finale, because tv, even quality tv like The Wire, works that way. See also Herc screwing up throughout the season then near the finale taking the blame instead of letting Dozerman and Snyder fall with him as well.) (Speaking of rules for tv: Omar making the successfull scoop of stealing more drugs than he ever could sell from the entire drug cartel of Baltimore and selling it back to them in the last but one season makes me afraid for his survival of the final season and having now finished four seasons in a row coming out well of the tale. But then, he is a player.) But again, putting his career first in the end makes Carcetti plausible for this show. (On the West Wing, he'd have chosen the kids, but that's a completely different narrative.) The position of most slimy and corrupt politician of them all is already occupied by Clay Davis (and btw, I forgot to mention in my s3 review that I found it hilarious Stringer the ruthless veteran gangster was outfoxed and successfully conned for money by Clay Davis the politician; makes the same point the little conversation between Kay and Michael in The Godfather about Don Corleone in comparison to a senator does, only more subtly and funnier). But I appreciate that the evil of politics otherwise isn't conveyed by evil people, if that makes sense, but, as with the school, through the system; you can see where each of them is coming from and that several have actually good intentions. But the game, the game is rigged.
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/867965.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
I haven't said anything about the title sequence(s) so far, but I was pleasantly reminded of Babylon 5, where we also got a different musical interpretation and different credits for each season, fitting with the addressed themes of the "chapter". After we've been earlier examined various institutions from the police and drug trade to the waterfront to city hall, this season (while continuing with the drugs and city hall) goes for school and education as the the institution and theme, and the new characters, four boys - Michael, Duquan, Naimond and Randy - through which we see this (in addition to already established characters like Pres, now a teacher, and Bunny Colvin) - are absolutely heartbreaking. I mean, the show being what it is, I didn't expect a happy ending for them, but the individual fates still gutted me when they came (except for Namond, who gets the annual one good (preliminary) ending. They aren't the only youngsters given central focus - the new king pin on the rise, Marlo, is in his early twenties a best, one part of his duo of main assassins, Snoop, is a teenager. And chillingly sociopathic. (So is Marlo, so far; he'll kill you just as well for looking at him wrongly as for actual snitching.) When watching the season, I was often reminded of articles and documentaries about child soldiers, and it's both horrible and important to remember that you don't need Third World conditions for kids to end up as such; it happens in First World countries just the same.
In a way, the four boys were also younger versions of the kids from s1, who are already involved in the drug trade, and we see how they get there; younger versions of the adult characters, even. Randy strikes me as headed for Bubbles' life (and oh, Bubbles, that was heartbreaking as well), Michael, if he doesn't die early on, could end up as an Avon or Stringer (and isn't that a cheering thought). One factor which makes the season so good is that we do get adults who want to help and keep trying - Colvin, Cutty, Pres, even Carver - but in each case (except for Colvin adopting Namond at the end) - they can only provide temporary band-aids, because, to quote Bodie, "the game is rigged", and so is the system. There are no moustache twirling evil headmasters around ordering cannings, but fixation of tests and matching quotas and the resignation of the aim of actually teaching the kids something beyond question replies is just as grinding, and goes hand in hand with the overwhelming peer pressure and the double ruthlessness of the drug trade and the police force. Which reminds me: Officer Walker was a moustache twirling villain, towards the kids and Bubbles both, but there are Officer Walkers around, and we got more screen time on Herc, who causes far more damage (again, to both the kids and Bubbles) not via moustache twirling but sheer stupidity and lack of attention. Incidentally, the later is a neat illustration what a change of pov can do. In the first two seasons the show used Herc (and Carver more often than not, too) mostly for comic relief, and we only rarely (as in the case of the kid who lost an eye) saw the havoc stupidity can wreak. In this season, however, the focus is on the ripples caused by Herc's stupidity, on its victims, and it's not that Herc's behaviour has changed but the pov which makes it so horrifying.
Carver, however, seems to have taken both Daniels' and Colvin's words about policing to heart (and Kima's about a good detective only being as good as his informant). This doesn't mean he doesn't also cause damage by neglect (he really should not have given Randy to Herc to interrogate but gone directly with him to Bunk), but he tries. Colvin's words from last season, especially that speech about how a cop used to be part of the neighbourhood and now is more taught to be part of an occupying army, and about the fatal consequences of that change in attitude (the behaviour of soldiers, which cops aren't supposed to be, the increasing contempt and disregard for the general population, with and without drugs), really haunt this season.
Regular on the law enforcement side wise, this season had the biggest spred of the various s1 team members in different units so far. Ponygirl commented to an earlier entry that Lester is a realistic depiction of what would actually happen to a genius detective (i.e. put in the basement, literally, and ignored for years until even the reason why he ended up there in the first place or that he was ever good at something were forgotten), and when Daniels told Lester that "for me, you ARE the Major Crimes Unit", I was reminded of this again. The Wire however plays Lester significantly different from other genius detectives, starting of course with the fact he's not the hero of the show but part of the ensemble, but also because he is usually (not always) unfazed and not the part of the team who throws temper tantrums. (As Daniels also observes, to Rhonda, Lester instead gets results with the fatherly "don't disappoint me again" look.) The other characters aren't circling around him to indulge him, anything but, and there are no big revelations about his past trauma. Conversely, McNulty, who did throw the temper tantrums, in this season is only a very minor character, and a, gasp, actually grown up one at that. Of course, no sooner has he claimed to have let go of that anger near the end of the season does Bodie die which together with Marlo being now the next white whale gives McNulty the incentive to go back to Major Crimes. I predict plenty of anger next season. Though I do hope that he doesn't regress too far, because Beadie deserves better.
The Bodie-McNulty conversation earlier also had a callback to s1 which I'm not sure I'd have caught if I hadn't been marathoning the show, Bodie making the chess comparison without being sure about what to call the pieces and McNulty saying "pawn", and you could see in Bodie's face he was remembering D'Angelo giving them the chess lesson right then. Impossible to overlook was of course the other call back, the conversation between Bodie and Poot about whether or not Marlo ordering Little Kevin dead was comparable to Stringer ordering Wallace dead, and Bodie insisting there was a difference. I'm in two minds about this, because yes, Wallace had actually talked to the cops, but neither Stringer nor Bodie knew that when Stringer gave the order; Stringer was simply eliminating all eventualities, which is indeed comparable to Marlo ordering the death of Little Kevin. Then again, Bodie's larger point stands as Marlo really hands out the execution orders left right and center because he can. Anyway, Bodie's death: expected but another powerful scene.
This was also the season of the Evil Mothers, between Michael's who not only was an addict but also unwilling to do something regarding her lover who had evidently abused her son, and Namond's who wanted him following his father's footsteps in the drug trade to keep her creature comforts. I wish we'd seen more of Randy's nice foster mother, Miss Adela, as a counterpoint, but alas, no. (Duquan's "folks", gender neutral, were sight unseen horrible by implication.)
And then there was Bubbles, who tried so hard to make Sherrond go to school, give him a better life. Whose pleas for help got ignored again and again. By the time we got to Bubbles' suicide attempt I clawed my face in despair on his behalf, which Kima finding his NA sponsor of sorts from s1 and bringing him to Bubbles in the hospital only soothed a very little. This was when I decided I need to take a break before moving on to season 5, I need to recover and regroup before the next trauma.
Mind you: if one hasn't seen the season, all my descriptions probably make it sound relentlessly grim, and it isn't, because the scriptwriters of this show know that you twist the knife best if you mix it with affection and humor scenes in between. Also there was the ongoing political storyline, which if you like fictional politics (and I do, actually) was highly enjoyable to watch; Tommy Carcetti and Norman the campaign manager made for a great entertaining double act. Though given Carcetti kept making the right decisions throughout the season I had a feeling he would conclude the season making the wrong (i.e. selfish over selfless) decision in the finale. (Conversely, if he hadn't resisted temptation on the election night and had actually cheated on his wife I would have had optimism for him choosing humilation and less governor chances but money for the kids over the reverse in the finale, because tv, even quality tv like The Wire, works that way. See also Herc screwing up throughout the season then near the finale taking the blame instead of letting Dozerman and Snyder fall with him as well.) (Speaking of rules for tv: Omar making the successfull scoop of stealing more drugs than he ever could sell from the entire drug cartel of Baltimore and selling it back to them in the last but one season makes me afraid for his survival of the final season and having now finished four seasons in a row coming out well of the tale. But then, he is a player.) But again, putting his career first in the end makes Carcetti plausible for this show. (On the West Wing, he'd have chosen the kids, but that's a completely different narrative.) The position of most slimy and corrupt politician of them all is already occupied by Clay Davis (and btw, I forgot to mention in my s3 review that I found it hilarious Stringer the ruthless veteran gangster was outfoxed and successfully conned for money by Clay Davis the politician; makes the same point the little conversation between Kay and Michael in The Godfather about Don Corleone in comparison to a senator does, only more subtly and funnier). But I appreciate that the evil of politics otherwise isn't conveyed by evil people, if that makes sense, but, as with the school, through the system; you can see where each of them is coming from and that several have actually good intentions. But the game, the game is rigged.
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/867965.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.