As a die-hard "Lost" fan, it always ruffles my feathers when TV people state, as if a matter of fact, that "The Wire" is the greatest drama in the history of television. I always make the same look whenever I read such a statement: lips curled in, eyebrows slanted down, and a slight head turn to the right, as if I just took a huge bite out of a really sour lemon. It's not that I don't like "The Wire". I love it, actually. It's probably my second favorite drama after "Lost", in the running with only an old pleasure that turned me on to obsessive TV-watching, "The X-Files", and a newer favorite that I just picked up last year and is in the middle of a superb run, "Mad Men".
Aside from my rabid homer-ism for "Lost", the thing that bothers me about these claims from those snooty writers whose ranks I aspire to join is that "The Wire" is not without it's weaknesses, weaknesses that these writers often chose to ignore. In effect, their homer-ism for "The Wire" is not unlike mine for "Lost", with the notable exception being that they're paid professionals who are supposed to be critiquing all the television that's sent to them sometimes weeks in advance (sense my jealousy?), and offering as objective of analysis as possible for a medium that's almost entirely subjective. They have no problem ripping most shows when they falter (*cough*nikkiandpaulo*cough*), but "The Wire"'s treated with kid gloves. Sure, the faults are few and far between, but they're in there somewhere. For the sake of my sanity, could they please acknowledge them once in a while?
The fact of the matter is, I don't really subscribe to such a view of television recapping. People know what they liked and didn't like about any given episode of television. Why should they care what I thought the weaknesses were, especially if they're all excited about what they just saw? They shouldn't be. It's about starting the discussion of whatever happened in that half-hour/hour/two-and-a-half hours in an interesting and unique way. And with "The Wire", there's a lot of room to operate in that regard.
So why am I writing about a show that I've already watched once and ended it's run over two years ago? Well one, I have nothing else to do for the next two months. And two, I want to watch the first couple seasons (seasons some people rank as the best in television history) from the perspective of an actual fan of the show. You see, I didn't really like "The Wire" until Season 3. I felt very similarly about it as I currently do with "The Sopranos": it's fine, but nothing spectacular, and it's kind of a chore to sit through an hour-long episode. But now I appreciate Stringer's cold calculations, McNulty's struggle against the establishment, the Department's behaving like a 6-headed snake, pulling itself in as many directions and moving nowhere in the process. Instead of trying and failing to root for a police as if they're the good guys like I spent most of my first run through Season 1 doing, I can enjoy the blurring of the line between the "good guys" and "bad guys" and the lack of difference in the behavior between the two (and soon to become four, with the government and newspaper coming down the road) sides.
So let's get to it. I watched the first five episodes of last night, each of which ended with a drunk McNulty scene, so forgive me if some if it blends together. Here's a quick recap of what has happened to this point -
We're introduced to the story of the West Baltimore drug trade with the trial of D'Angelo Barksdale for murder in the first degree. With a nudge from Uncle Avon's muscle, one witness flips her story and D wiggles off the hook of a case the police department had already chalked up as a victory. Right off the bat, we see the police losing the race even though they think they're in the lead. It's a reoccurring trend. While the Department is frequently tied down by budget constraints, competing agendas, and an overall lack of motivation, the Barksdale gang isn't hampered by any of that. We hear the Department demanding strict discipline to the chain of command constantly, but Barksdale's the one who has his soldiers in formation more often than not.
D'Angelo is one of a couple characters at this point - Wallace being the other - who has his doubts in the ways of the game. He's done his share of killing of course, not only the murder for which he was on trial in the first episode, but also some pretty young thang his uncle was seeing some months earlier. And he's not ashamed of any of it. But when McNulty and Bunk called one of their favorite plays from their interrogation playbook and got D thinking about his role in the death of a witness who testified against him, it softened him up a bit. But his loyalty to his uncle, Avon, along with the intimidating presence of String is enough to snap him back into tough guy mode.
D'Angelo's torn between the lure all the glamor that comes with being a high-level gangster, mostly the money and women. He was happy to be able to take his girl out to a nice restaurant, but self-conscious about whether everyone there knew he was just a gangster, and maybe a little ashamed of that fact as well. I'm always a sucker for the bad guy looking to get out of the bad situation he finds himself in (see Christopher in the Sopranos before he became a Capo), so I was naturally drawn to D, and his story gets even more interesting as season 1 draws to a close.
I don't remember thinking much of Wallace the first time I watched these episodes, but this time through I've picked up more on his potential as more than just an expendable pawn. He might struggle with some of the math stuff, but he was the only one who knew Hamilton wasn't a president. That counts for something. And unlike Bodie, he actually understood D'Angelo's deal where he questioned why the drug trade had to be different from other businesses where people didn't die all the time. Some serious potential here, which will make what happens in a couple episodes so tough.
I'm not sure why I wasn't so drawn to McNulty the first time through. At first I was thinking it was because of all the drinking, but I was watching these sophomore year in college, the height of my drinking career. Although later seasons might explore more of his flaws - his overcommitment to the job, his inability to follow any rule at all, his neglect of his family - right now he seems to fit loosely into the Jack Shephard mold. He's willing to go as far as it takes to take down Barksdale. Whether it's working around the clock (I already work around the clock!) or standing up to superiors who can make his life a living hell, Jimmy McNulty won't rest until the job is done. We haven't seen how this bite him in the ass yet (much like Jack in Season 1), so there's really nothing not to like at this point. I really liked the scene where he was telling Bunk where he'd least like to get reassigned, and he answered it was marine duty, which we know is where he'll end up in Season 2. Excellent setup there.
With the wire up and running, Omar playing along with the investigation into some of the Barksdale murders, and Daniels holding off Rawls for a little extra time, the prospects of the Major Crimes Unit look good. But the streets are usually a step ahead. I'm sure Avon and crew have a couple more tricks up their sleeves.
