Wednesday, May 9, 2012

I GOT THE SHOTGUN, YOU GOT THE BRIEFCASE. IT'S ALL IN THE GAME, THOUGH, RIGHT? Just like last week, this week's Wire episode, "All Prologue," (Sepinwall, Ariano) was satisfying and dramatic in ways that you've trained me not to expect the show to be. Whether it's the Omar-Maury confrontation or the overwhelming inevitability of what happened to Dee (really, flushing the drugs and looking at your kid's picture at the start of the episode, and he explains Gatsby ... stack the deck much, Mr. Simon?), it just felt a bit too predictable, even when we were seeing what we wanted to see.

So, yes, I'm happy to see Shardene happy with Lester, and I was delighted to see Prop Joe back in action and to see the police back together so easily applying season one's methods to the Sobotka detail. But overall, I feel like some shades of grey are being washed out -- other the Sobotkas, who receive the kind of 3-D empathy that the show is capable of at its best, the ambiguity's going away. No reminder of Dee's past bad acts when it comes to his death; no nuance with the Greek, Etan, and the new Big Bads the way there was last year with Avon and Stringer; everyone on the police seems clean and competent.

Still, there's half a season to go; let's see what happens next.

13 comments:

  1. isaac_spaceman11:39 AM

    Yeah, just hold out for that, because on this show you can always count on the police to be clean and competent.

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  2. I finished this season this weekend and really liked the arc of it all so there's much to look forward to. This episode though...man, poor Dee. Larry Gillard, Jr. did such a great job with this role, and even though the wriiting was on the wall for this character, Dee was a beautifully portrayed tragedy from season 1 through now, and an inevitable tragedy, not because of the foreshadowing in the writing, but because of who the character was, who he was surrounded by and the choices or lack thereof that he made. I really love that even though Dee's story isn't a central arc in season 2, that we got to see the sad end result after the season 1 finale. And again, Larry Gillard, Jr. just killed it.

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  3. Chin Music12:56 PM

    When this episode ended, I was left with the nagging concern that the show was going to find a way not to have Dee really be dead.  Maybe it was the way they played up the Kima shooting in season 1 (including as much, if not more, foreshadowing as was done with Dee here) only to have her pull through with relatively no long-term consequences, but I was concerned that even the Wire was not brave enough to kill off what seemed to be a main character in the middle of the season.  Judging by the commentary here, it seems everyone thinks dead is dead and I have nothing to worry about.  So, maybe there is more training to be had in watching this show.

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  4. Jordan1:39 PM

    <span>I was concerned that even the Wire was not brave enough to kill off what seemed to be a main character in the middle of the season</span>

    To clear things up, here is a handy guide to people in the game you can consider "safe":

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  5. Tosy and Cosh1:53 PM

    I guess there's a benefit to being dumb; when I first saw this episode I, never mind being convinced D was going to die, wasn't even sure he had been killed - The quickness of the strangulation led me to be lieve he was being framed for a suicide attempt (even though, I realize, that makes no sense). Just a shocking moment and so incredibly sad - the scene with D and his mom and his throwing the "you have to live in it" moral back at her was heartbreaking. Can I also say that as someone who's watched all x seasons of In Plain Sight that seeing how good Paul Ben Victor is as the Greek's #2 is endlessly delightful? What else. The cocky ignorance of the "sober" (for, what? 12 hours?) Jimmy thinking a date and "fuck for the road" meant he and Elena were married again was both sad and funny. And Ziggy is breaking my heart even more tihs go-round; the  ighting up of the $100, and the disgust Nick and Frank feel makes me wish things had been different for the little jerk. It's really hard, I'll tell ya, sticking to one a week now that I'm finaly caught up with you all; if this was my first time through I wouldn't stand a chance.

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  6. God, I loved Ziggy.  I have trouble putting into words how much that character touched me.  I grew up with a neighborhood full of dumb, cocky, white boys just like him.  Most of them didn't make it out.  It has been a while since I watched but there were a few episodes that when I turned off the tv, I just sobbed for all of them.

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  7. bill.4:51 PM

    Frankenstein's Monster and the blind man recreate the shotgun-briefcase scene.

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  8. Slowlylu8:48 PM

    Ziggy is a character who rewards on repeat viewing. I loved to hate him the first time around and then on 2nd and 3rd viewings I just love him. It was really good to see him pop up on Spike Lee's Inside Man two nights ago.

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  9. I loved Omar's testimony.  It is kind of a truism in criminal law that the prosecution often has to rely on people with records and with dirt on their hands.  Watching a witness turn that upside down was really entertaining to me.

    We accidentally started the next episode of the Wire and learned that Dee was dead before seeing this episode, which altered the surprise factor.  Sigh.

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  10. tortoiseshelly3:19 PM

    This episode gutted me. Larry Gilliard did such a superb job.

    Any yes, I know this comment is three months late.

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