NEVER GET HIGH ON YOUR OWN SUPPLY: Rules, codes, and bureaucracies dominate "One Arrest," this week's episode of The Wire, but really you can say that about every week. There's a lot of underestimating going on -- the police don't realize that Stringer will figure out why Stinkum wasn't arrested; Damien "Day-Day" Price the limo driver underestimated that Daniels' first name is "Lieutenant"; we need to stop underestimating the police work that Prez, Lester, and Bunk can do; and sadly Bubbles, Johnny, and Wallace can't underestimate just how gripping heroin addiction can be.
So Bird's in a cage, phone service is spotty, and Councilman Clay Davis makes his first appearance. I understand I'm supposed to pay attention to him.
Oh, yeah, this was the episode where Santangelo went from prick to untalented and gullible but decent guy. So tallying up the police transitions in this show so far, Daniels has gone from company man to diligent commander, Prez from fuck-up to puzzle-solving whiz, Lester from pawn-detail scrub to natural police, and then Sanny. A smaller, less significant change from the others, but still a change. One of the themes of this show, and it plays out both within seasons and across them, is the question of whether people can change or whether they are who they are; I think a subsidiary question is whether what looks like change really is a matter of people who stop fighting their nature and get comfortable with themselves in a scenario different from the one in which they had envisioned themselves. Prez, for example, didn't change so much as luck into a change of scenery into a circumstance where his talents were valuable and his liabilities were dormant.
ReplyDeleteWhat's amazing is the show's level of overall empathy -- when Stringer figures out the payphone issue, my reaction wasn't "damn, now the police won't be able to catch some bad guys," but "damn, he's smart."
ReplyDeleteI think what I'm loving about this show (and yes, I know, I'm ten years late to this particular observation) is how real everyone is. I can't remember ever seeing a show that would bother to show cops being exhausted and winded by chasing down a subject, certainly not the 10 seconds or so we get to see of the three cops literally sitting on their runner, breathing hard, and smiling like they just won the lottery. Victory is sweet, but it's hard won.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely loved watching the Pit crew in that same scene. Their runner is getting chased all over the pit, and they (mostly) just stand there doing play-by-play. It gives a lot of insight into how well organized the enterprise is - none of them has to run just because a cop shows up in their midst, because they have nothing on them that's problematic, and they're not doing anything wrong right at that moment. It's not just Omar who has that confidence with cops - the whole thing is set up so they can all have that.
I'm curious what that scene with Daniels and the drivers is all about. Is it to show us just how up he married? Or that he can "pass"? Or that he's always going to be more comfortable with the drivers watching TV in the kitchen than at the fancy party? Or that he's willing to toy with someone, but only for a little while? Or perhaps this information about how to break into the house and fence the goods is going to be relevant later? Such an interesting little scene, but I'm really curious why it was there.
I"m worried about Wallace. I cannot imagine this existential crisis is leading to a positive outcome for him.
Damn, Omar is fascinating. I just cannot figure him out. This is a scary man (sure, one with a code, but scary nonetheless) who has no problem whatsoever cooperating with the police. Does he think it buys him protection? Does he just want to nail people who don't hold by his code? Is he just trying to destroy the Barksdale organization? Does it make him feel important? Man, what a character.
And, of course, poor McNulty.
It's arguable, at least, that none of them actually changed - we just keep seeing new layers. Prez was a fuckup because he'd never have the opportunity to do what he was good at, perhaps because he didn't even know he was good at it (or that it was a worthwhile skill). Santangelo may never have been a prick, just a defensive guy in a political office. Daniels is STILL a company man, but he's also a good commander - if anything, the company has changed around him, and he'd prefer that it still be soemthing worth being loyal to, but it isn't any more.
ReplyDeleteBut either way, it's nice to see people with so many layers and dimensions, who manage to be both unpredictable and true to past behavior.
That's the question, though. As you watch the series and see people changing, try to figure out whether it's the person or the circumstance that changed. I think there's some of both, which is a more optimistic outlook that you get in, say, The Sopranos.
ReplyDeleteSo are you ready to let Omar babysit yet?
ReplyDeleteBubbs at the NA meeting is a great, great scene, and so wonderfully acted. And I love Steve Earl's Walon, and how he creates a character you could really imagine leading a meeting like this. Even an AA/NA meeting in something as awesome as Breaking Bad can come off as feeling a little contrived and Hollywood-ized; here it feels very naturalistic. The other moment that hits me in this ep is Wallace using. One of those moments I didn't see (but should have seen) coming and that just hit me on a visceral level--on a "want to reach into the TV and stop him" level.
ReplyDeleteCertainly closer than I was last week. But my reluctance stems as much from what others might try to do to Omar than what Omar might do to my kids.
ReplyDeleteRight now, it still feels to me like already-existing layers being revealed as new situations present themselves, rather than change. I'll keep my eyes open for what you're talking about as the series goes on.
ReplyDeleteOf course, there are clear examples of change already - Wallace has clearly changed as a result of his role in the killing of Omar's lover, and they keep telling us that D'Angelo is different than what he was before the start of the series.
Do people watching this show for the first time see Wallace as a proto-Vince (from FNL)? One thing I love about Michael B. Jordan is that he plays the two characters so differently that I really think of them as two completely different actors who bear a familial resemblance. I cannot wrap my head around the two of them being played by the exact same person.
ReplyDeleteYes! I keep saying this over and over, but this show makes me care (and root for) for characters who are on the wrong side of good and evil. Particularly Stringer.
ReplyDeleteAs I was typing the next sentence, and trying not to reveal too much of what will come later in the season and series, it occurred to me that what I like so much about so many of these characters is how intelligent they are. Maybe not perfect human beings. And certainly not all making the "right" choices. But they're not dumb thugs either. I continue to be fascinated by the different kinds of brilliance in humanity that is revealed in these characters.
I watched The Wire before FNL and never realized he was the same actor until y'all started mentioning it a couple of weeks ago.
ReplyDeleteIt's been hard for me to break him out of Vince mode in my head - I keep expecting Jess to walk in. But no, he's not a proto-Vince, and every week, I separate Wallace from Vince more.
ReplyDeleteI've watched the whole series before, and am now watching one episode a week with all of you, and for the life of me, I cannot remember what the point was of the scene with Daniels and the limo drivers. But since "every piece matters" on this show, Marsha's instincts that it means something are probably right.
ReplyDeleteI liked how the show reminded us of what Prez did to the kid in the towers. Not that I had easily forgotten it, but after having Prez the code-cracking hero for the last couple of episodes, it was a nice reminder that he's not out on the streets for a reason.
Yeah, when he showed up on FNL, I was like "oh, my god, is that Wallace? That cannot be Wallace." And I just cannot imagine frail baby-faced little Wallace being capable of the stuff that Vince does physically, or carrying himself with the confidence that Vince does.
ReplyDeleteI had a flashback to lit classes where the instructor would say, "Note this passage; it's an example of foreshadowing." The thing is you don't know it's foreshadowing yourself until after you've read the book. I watched this episode and kept thinking, "Hm, I bet that's foreshadowing...of what I don't know yet."
ReplyDeleteThe difference between this AA/NA meeting and Breaking Bad is that none of the people at The Wire meeting are pretty. It makes it seem much more real to have regular looking people in the background as opposed to people that look like extras hired for a scene.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Steve Earle's Waylon is much more convincing as the recovering addict than Jere Burns.
One of the many reasons I'm glad I finally watched the show is so that I can get in on the excitement when one of the actors turns up somewhere, which seems to happen almost every week, including on a bad sitcom we watched last night.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea that was Steve Earle until I read Alan's recap/review.
ReplyDeleteLook at me! I'm catching up! I watched this ep just now. I feel like I have to admit that I never watched FNL, either, so I can't compare Wallace to his other character, but it's tragic to see the one guy willing to step up and help out with all those kids succumb to the same problem that probably took out all their parents. They probably all know what it looks like, already.
ReplyDeleteLate to the game here, but much of Walon's story in this episode is Earle's contribution, particularly the mention of selling his guitars for drugs.
ReplyDeleteI adore that scene. Between Walon's speech and the look in Bubbles' eyes as he watches, it chokes me up a bit every time.