TEACHING TO THE TEST: A fuller review of The Wire's season 4 episode "Corner Boys" will come in this space later today. Start discussing now.
added: I mean, talk about an episode on one theme: everyone's being pressured to generate statistics which might not actually reflect positive outcomes, whether it's Prez in class, Mayor-elect Carcetti on crime, or Landsman giving Bunk such a hard time over solving the shooting at Andre's place. In the meantime, let's just reveal in Sidney Handjerker's and Ervin Pepper's phone skills, because that was just classic.
Agreed: Prop Joe's scene as fantastic.
ReplyDeleteCarcetti finding Daniels makes me very, very happy. I mean, it's The Wire, so I'm sure they'll end up thwarted, but I want to see what those two get up to together.
Sad we're seeing so little of McNulty these days. (Tangent: Why do recovering alcoholics always drink soda and lime? Why not orange juice, cranberry juice, or cola? It's to the point that when someone I know in real life orders club soda and lime I automatically assume they have an AA chip.)
And who knew Bunny Colvin had such a natural gift as an educator? Loved his discussion with the kids about "Corner boys."
Aaaah. That makes sense.
ReplyDeleteMy granddad always just has iced tea or water. But he's kind of one of those guys that if you asked him why he wasn't drinking he would answer, "Oh, because I'm a drunk."
Bunny was pretty good at educating police over the years (prize pupils like McNulty and Carver), so he's adapted to teaching knuckleheads.
ReplyDeleteSimon has me well trained - I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop on Carcetti. Not to say the guy is squeaky clean, but on The Wire so far, the only good politician has been a bad politician. I find it hard to imagine that Carcetti is riding into Balmer on a big white person horse to save the day with idealism - that can't be where we're going. Sure, he'll get thwarted, but are we really to believe he's a truly good guy? That said, I'm with Watts - getting him and Daniels together was a pleasure, and good on Rhonda for encouraging Daniels to blow it all up. A whole different story than with his wife, no?
ReplyDeleteI wish this episode didn't confirm for me that Michael's life has been terribly, terribly hard up to this point, and doesn't show signs of improving any time soon. At least Dukie seems to be coming out of his shell a little...
Carcetti's the same guy who liked to stare at himself in the mirror while having sex with a woman other than his wife, but the gravity of the task in front of him may have humbled him some. Still, it's the ambition of the next thing (Gov) which may prevent him from succeeding at this one. Drop crime 10%, build something, etc.
ReplyDeleteNot just the gravity of the task, but that realization near the end of the campaign of "Holy crap, I could win this thing and I want to win it not just to win it but because I want to do the job and do it well."
ReplyDeleteThe guy that sent Teresa home without post-election celebration nookie is not the guy Carcetti saw in that mirror back then.
Question about Michael: Are we to assume the stepfather abused him in some way? Most likely sexually?
ReplyDeleteThat's how I read it.
ReplyDeleteHis abject terror and palpable fear when the teacher said his brother's dad had picked him up was so hard to watch.
ReplyDeleteI read it that way too. And that kid is so broken that I wouldn't be surprised if there were other abusers too.
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