Wednesday, January 23, 2013

I'M A MURDER POLICE. I WORK MURDERS:  Remember when we weren't sure if Bunk was Good Police, given the conflict between the "fuck" scene and the drunk guy who has to burn his clothing to hide evidence of infidelity? This week's episode, "The Dickensian Aspect," (Sepinwall, THND, AV Club, Dickens) confirms yet again that The Bunk is on the side of the righteous, and he may be the last person left (well, Carver and Greggs have been quiet) working his cases completely right.

And that led him back to Randy, Poor Randy, who we see months later in his foster home hardened even further, victimizing others lest he be on the bottom of the pile again. Between that and the Nicky Sobotka shout-out (literally: he shouted out), it's sad yet unsurprising to see where these former featured characters have ended up.

Meanwhile: Omar limpin', but Omar comin'; Templeton does actual reporting; Marlo looks out for Marlo; McNulty and Carcetti continue to suck, even if they're doing it for the right reasons.

11 comments:

  1. I had a hard time watching McNulty with Larry/Donald. I'm not really sure how I'm supposed to like McNulty after that stunt.

    Also, it's fascinating to me how Omar became a guy we root for. Is it the charisma of the actor? Or the fact that he's not behold to an institution? Why do we like a murderous thief?

    And poor, poor Bunk - evidence SNAFU due to Latin.

    Line of the night for me: "My heart pumps purple piss for you."

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  2. Marsha1:32 PM

    I assumed the purple piss line would be Sepinwall's "as soon as" line or the title of this post, but perhaps it was deemed too inappropriate.

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  3. Watts1:38 PM

    For Sepinwall maybe, but I believe Adam's broken the "m-----f---er" barrier in titles here.

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  4. janet2:49 PM

    I'm curious, as well, about what dynamic of the characters, their story, or the actors that portrayed them made me root for both Stringer Bell and Omar. And, conversely, why I've never been a fan of McNulty, even when he was doing good things.

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  5. Watts2:57 PM

    With Stringer, I knew for me it was mostly the charisma of Idris Elba. And some admiration for the intellect of Stringer.

    Maybe it's Omar's cunning and style I'm drawn to?

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  6. Adam B.3:13 PM

    It's the showmanship, the bravado, and the code. Man's got to have a code.

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  7. Watts3:15 PM

    Yeah, all that and the silk pajamas and robe.

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  8. Marsha3:36 PM

    And so, so much older. I know significant time passed between filming seasons, but he looked like a young man in this episode, not the goofy kid he was so recently.

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  9. Randy4:40 PM

    Re Idris Elba's charisma. There's a bonus feature on the season 3 DVDs (I'm pretty sure it's season 3...) of a session hosted by Ken Tucker, featuring an audience Q&A. At one point, a woman about to ask a question says, "First of all, I would like to thank Mr. Elba for existing." Which about sums it up.

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  10. isaac_spaceman5:48 PM

    I'll say it again, the change that Maestro Harrell plays over the course of S4, and then the additional change for this one scene, and then the abrupt shift for Malik in Suburgatory is a pretty astounding range for a young actor. Michael B. Jordan shows similar range from Wire S1 to FNL S4-5, but he didn't need to play the gradual transition, and there was almost a decade between those two extremes.

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  11. Jordan7:13 PM

    Thank you for linking to the THND piece. There's one scene that really bugged me when I watched The Wire, and it was Carcetti namedropping O'Malley. Since O'Malley and Dixon were so clearly the basis for these characters, and we know the timeline because they mention in one episode about the mayoral election "Keiffer's thinking about a run" (then city councilman Keiffer Mitchell ran against Dixon in 2007 to replace O'Malley--guess what, his big issue was the crime rate), it just felt confusing.

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