Grid Effect

Two days removed from the finale, and no one seems to be all atwitter any more on these here internets. That’s the thing about a finale like this, there are not complaints, no speculation about character destinies, no animus, little discontent and a lot of satisfaction. If you compare that to The Sopranos finale, in which rampant speculation, wild discontent and feelings of betrayal, was about evenly matched with audience contentment, we have little lingering discussion about The Wire’s last episode. Whereas David Chase had people
dissecting and over-estimating the symbolism of his finale weeks later.

We suppose this contrast is related mostly to the discrepancy in size of the two fan bases and the nature in which the episodes ended. When ambiguity is the dominating tone (we didn’t think The Sopranos finale was all that ambiguous, but we could certainly see how it would be interpreted as such), it opens a Pandora’s box of everyone attempting to out guess each other. That isn’t to say we can just assume what the future beholds for each and every character on The Wire. We had some abstraction in the finale, most notably with McNulty and Marlo, but there was enough finality for people to feel almost speechless in a way. I mean, what is there really to say about Dukie or Michael or Carcetti or Gus or anyone we’ve come to admire or disdain now that they are absent from our lives?

Of course not everyone has abstained from voicing an opinion. The two scenes that seemed to have gripped the hearts and minds are, of course, the last we saw of the street (before the seasonal montage): Marlo getting a taste of his old lifestyle and, if however briefly, reclaiming a corner. We weren’t exactly sure how we should interpret this. It certainly looked like he was too impressed with himself to let his old ways die right there. And if he was back in the game permanently come January of 2009 (after the elections and everyone is sworn in), it wouldn’t surprise us.

We wish you were still on the street so Michael could finish you off.

This scene was the first time we’ve ever seen Marlo get his hands dirty and he made quick work of those random corner kids. People had always speculated on how he attained the rank he did and why any of the ruthless killers from Chris all the way down to O-Dog and Michael even bothered taking orders from him. Well, now we all know why. To be honest, it made us wish him dead even more. How does one go from murdering probably well over thirty people to hob-nobbing with local real estate executives and politicians? Have Maury Levy make the transition for you, of course. Now it’s like those murders never took place.

Some have said that Marlo losing his name in the street and no one knowing who he is, is ultimately a greater punishment than death for someone so narcissistic. While we may be inclined to agree, a fate even worse would probably solitary confinement. A fate in which everyone knows who he is, but he isn’t around to bask in it. This really sticks in our craw (though its not supposed to), probably more so than anything else. A man murders dozens of people, then is financially rewarded for it? To think he’ll live out a better life than McNulty is something we can’t even comprehend. Here’s hoping Slim does him in a similar fashion he did Cheese.

Speaking of which, probably the most discussed scene from Sunday night is Slim Charles ending Cheese’s life at the makeshift co-op meeting. You could refer to all these people as unsentimental or hardened or sociopathic, but doesn’t Slim, whose epitomized The Game since his first appearance in season three, dropping Cheese to everyone’s glee yet financial detriment kind of refute that? Then everyone walking away from Cheese’s twitching body then reinforce it? There is so many layers in Simon’s portrayal of the drug trade that an exact interpretation is almost hopeless, It seems like everyone left breathing realizes the nature of their lifestyle and adheres to it accordingly. It’s quite a show when the only semblance of justice is one “legitimate” drug dealer killing a corrupt counterpart and it all seems plausible. One thing we can be certain about, is PETA members will finally feel content with something in pop culture.

On the other side of the aisle, the wake’s in the Wire are always top notch. Cole’s from the third season even got us listening to the Pogues and we probably would have had it on our top five memorable moments, had we actually remembered it, which is sort of like a qualifying round for such a thing. But McNulty’s (and by proxy, Freamon’s), was a nice alteration. Everyone in good spirits, completely unconcerned with what McNulty’s life after policing. Because really, he still has Beadie and is still smart as hell. He’ll obviously find something else to do and live out a productive, hopefully vice free life.

After Beadie, being forced out of the BPD is the best thing that’s ever happened to him in this series. After those two homeless men died as a result of his staged murders, it seemed like McNulty knew it was no longer in his best interest to be a po-lice, despite how remarkably good he is at it. Even Landsman conceded as much.

At the very least, we’re not going to have to write a post clearing up any rumors like we did for The Sopranos. Whether that makes this a more successful finale is a question with a pretty subjective answer. It was almost impossible to end The Sopranos on a definitive point unless they killed Tony, which would have been predictable and, amazingly, somewhat tame. But David Simon, with his bleak world outlook and pessimistic view on all bureaucratic entities, can end a series with the overlying message that while individuals may break the chain of corruption and despair, but the city at large is subjugated to its shortcomings. Quite depressing, so it almost has to be counterbalanced with some positivity to make the series watchable.

Back with a post summarizing the tales of the four boys tomorrow.

And would that be Levy or Carcetti?

Well, that was very anti-Sopranos of David Simon and Clark Johnson, wasn’t it? The characters stories couldn’t have been more finalized than if they tied a pretty red ribbon on them. The point was certainly made, though, the American city trudges forward in a circular path of destruction until everyone is consumed serving their master: The institutions.

But on a personal level, virtually every character who deserved one received a happy ending on some level, sans Dukie and Michael, which is just too tragic for words and a reason I’m thankful they didn’t spend too much time dwelling on their downfall, particularly the formers. But that’s been the concept the entire series though: the cops, the politicians, the kingpins aren’t the victims of the game but the benefactors. They build careers and make lives off of it. Sure, some may have lost their jobs or been forced out of the game by either circumstances or actions, but ultimately no one was irreparably damaged. Shit, Freamon and McNulty weren’t even bitter towards Kima after she admitted to airing their plan to Daniels, who was so far removed and so jaded by the system he became a defense lawyer. Now his enemy is his former alliance.

He’s been around but you may not recognize him, Mr. Dipasquale is the sole reason all our protagonists stayed out of prison.

McNulty was forced to retire, and even he seemed to recognize it as a blessing in disguise. He isn’t able to do police work ever again, which hurts the city but saves his soul. With his retirement, one would think we’d never see another drug lord put cuffs, but like every empty slot left in any institution, there is always someone to fill it. For McNulty, that someone is Sydnor.

I’m reminded of a quote from Carver in the first or second season, when he’s staking out the Barksdale crew with Herc, he leans over to his equally dim partner at the time and says. “this is why we can’t win, we fuck up, we get pensions, they fuck up and they get beat.” After this stunt and despite all the excellent work he’s been apart of, so it is true for Freamon, and McNulty to a lesser extent (he didn’t get the full pension). The police are rarely effected by their involvement in The Game by any other means than professionally, they have fail safe’s and an entire institution willing to protect them, the same can’t be said for Chris Partlow or Dukie or Sobotka, because they’re not part of the city elite.

But the unstoppable beast ruining the American city continues its cyclical pattern. Carcetti eventually sold out every single principal he started his mayoral campaign with to become Governor, where he will be doing the same for an eventual run in federal politics, Naresse became his successor, Valchek becomes commissioner (a spot politically available to him with a black mayor, I suppose) and Daniels is forced into defense law. Thing is, as far as the politics are concerned, nothing really changed, and if any of us thought so we were just as naive as your typical Clay Davis backer. If you’ll recall in the third season Royce had every intention of firing Burrell but it was never politically feasible to do so, it wasn’t until he juked the stats one time too many that i was politically viable to fire Burrell and begin the final grooming stage for Daniels.

Even though the city is going to hell in a hand basket, we at least got to see Cheese take one to the dome. It was even more satisfying that Slim pulled the trigger in front of the newly reformed co-op, the only institution to weed out all its bad apples, at least for the time being (see Carver’s season one quote mentioned above).

We’ll have much, much more coming later this week if not today, including character synopsis’, a recap of the series finale and maybe one or two more top five’s for the greatest series in the history of television.

Kima’s snitching! Marlo’s in cuffs! Snoop’s dead! The world is on its ass! What a penultimate episode, which some are calling the best ever (can’t agree, but it definitely rates). Tristan Wilds and Jermaine Crawford damn near made me cry, the only time I thought I’d cry over a male teenager is when my future son inevitably killed himself in a drunk driving accident or something as a result of my lackluster parenting skills.

But in all honesty, has this series ever produced anything as tragic? The only thing rivaling it is Wallace’s death, and we never got to see Wallace pre-game involvement. Seeing Dukie go from desolate, to hopeful, to dropped out, to prosperous and misplaced, to now homeless, the whole journey has seemed like nothing more than a delaying of the inevitable. Fuck you David Simon for teasing me with your semblance of hope and whatnot. We haven’t seen the finale, but since it leaked online we won’t make any predictions about the fate of any of the characters, lest someone assume we’re just “guessing” as opposed to guessing. But after watching 59 episodes of The Wire, it seems quite obvious what is going to happen to Dukie.

I think even more painful than Dukie’s departure was Bug’s. Here’s a kid who doesn’t even have to speak to be devastating, he wants nothing else than to be with his brother, even if that means staying in west Baltimore and not out in the suburbs. And for someone who’s been an adult since he was thirteen, seeing Michael choke up really brought home the degree of tragedy that we were privy too.

You could make a claim that Michael was born in the wrong decade. Had he come up with the Barksdale’s running the westside drug trade, he might have had a chance at growing a la Bodie, given that there operation was ran with a little more intelligence and a little less brutality. But, just like for Bodie, the game is rigged for Michael as well. Nothing more than pons in the whole scheme of things. I have absolutely no idea what’s going to happen to Michael, so speculation isn’t even worthwhile. But after the way he took out Snoop (which some people were conflicted by, but I couldn’t have cared less, to be honest) he is certainly a marked man.

Michael did get a little validation, though. When asking Snoop why he was being setup, she told him the truth, they never thought he cooperated with the police but even under the remote possibility he could have, he signed his death warrant only to be the first soldier to get the drop on Marlo’s crew since Slim (where the fuck is he?) and Cutty. At least Snoop realized, deserves got nothing to do with it. Even though she totally does. One thing is for certain, Marlo does run a tight ship.

People have always thought Jamie Hector was playing Marlo poorly as opposed to efficiently. Ever since his introduction Marlo’s sole purpose was to consolidate power, never wanting to talk about it, never had any other interests or goals like we see with so many of the other gangsters on this series, running and operating the Baltimore drug trade has consumed his entire being, and he’s accomplished just that without any emotion and certainly no remorse, which made his scene in lockup with Chris, Cheese and Monk all the more powerful. For anyone who never understood why any of these soldiers took orders from him, there is your explanation. All three of those stone cold killers did nothing more than cower in the wake of his outburst. Even with Omar’s demise, there is still plenty of room for drama and complications in the game.

Speaking of which, while we understand why Kima did what she did, we certainly do not condone it. From a pragmatic standpoint, it makes little to no sense. The publicity surrounding the homeless murders would have eventually gone cold, as they did with the vacant murders, good police work would continued to get done and police would continue to get paid. Some manpower would have been wasted, sure, but no more than what was wasted doing meaningless street rips and low level arrests.

Kima has always been unwilling to cut some of the corners that McNulty was. Even when she was nipping at his heels in season three going outside the MCU orders and investigating Barksdale, she seemed more reluctant than the enthusiastic McNulty. And granted, we know she interviewed the homeless victims families, so she is closer to the living consequences than either McNulty, or Freamon and Sydnor, but now that the Stanfield crew has been brought to justice it just seems ill-timed and pointless. If she wanted to turn him in she could have done it immediately and saved everyone a lot of time and money. We really hope nothing happens to the Bunk for staying disapprovingly loyal, that would render Kima unforgivable, which is unfortunate because like everyone in that homicide department she is simply trying to do the right thing.

McNulty, we fear, is at a crossroads. Remember from season three how he came up under Bunny Colvin’s command? Well, like mentor like protege, or something. If Bunny is capable of turning something like Hamsterdam, then it’s not terribly surprising how McNulty developed the capacity for these shenanigans. Albeit they are completely different schemes, one was a tactical liberty that everyone underneath him was (begrudgingly, in some cases) complicit in, McNulty is putting the entire city in fear, desecrating bodies and devastating families. Something Bunny was specifically attempting to avoid.

It’s good to know that the man who’s going to turn this season on its ass we will be immortalized in Arby’s commercials.

Never the less, it worked, at least in the short term. And probably only for the short term, even if they can somehow make the charges stick against Marlo and Co., we have no idea how — with Levy now knowing full well that the information was attained by an illegal wire tap — any of them stay in prison. Thanks to Herc, more lives will be ruined by his incompetence. We’d be angry with him if he had any idea what he is capable of and the repercussions of his actions. It’s like watching a monkey throw knives into a crowd full of people.

Going off the street and into the NA meeting, Andre Royo gave his most tear-inducing performance yet as Bubbles. Outside of Bodie, this is our favorite character arc from the beginning of the series. Did Fletch contribute to his full recovery? We have to believe he did, someone he can reflect on without judgment or pity. Just being able to share his story and regrets on a daily basis has to have been cathartic. Fletch and Alma are supposed to represent the antithesis to Templeton, and while most of them have been deemed stock characters by the masses (something we thought was almost unavoidable due to it being a shortened final season), we’ve found the growth Alma and Fletch have shown this season to be satisfying.

Gus surely sees this, but is more concerned with the Templeton’s of the world. Hiring the bureau chief from London as some sort of PI seems practical, at least his bias will no longer interfere with his decision making, even if his bias is rock fucking solid. Again, while some have complained that Gus has been portrayed as too saintly and infallible (something we also disagree with), Gus Johnson has played the hell out of that role. At no point did we feel like we were watching a rerun of Homicide on WGN. Seeing the reaction to the realization that McNulty duped the paper like everyone else in the city will be climactic, but again, we’ve seen enough of The Wire that we can probably guess what happens.

So this is it, five seasons, six year of almost flawless storytelling with the crumbling American city as its muse. We have 90 minutes left, appreciate it, respect it, but most importantly try to enjoy it. Because with maybe (and that’s a big fucking “maybe”) the exception of Mad Men, I don’t know if we’ll ever see another drama this good on television. Or in film, for that matter.

Continuing our day long break from Wire irreverence, we bring you this Survivor recap of last weeks episode. It’s eventful yet telegraphed. Outside of Tracy arising from fans tribe purgatory, we probably could have mapped out the entire episode for you after seeing the first ten minutes.

Pre-credits scene, the favorites are not exactly jubiliant about the results from the night before and Cirie is still on a bit of a power trip. Jonathan and Cirie are still arguing and she is really killing any good will she earned from her original season. If she is voted off tonight it wouldn’t be too soon. Plus, I didn’t watch the original all-star season, but was it also this contentious? They all seem regretful about not winning originally and will regret coming back for a second go-around even more if they lose again. Have these people never heard of the double transgression theory? I’m not sure it applies to appearing on Survivor twice, but you can make it work.

Back with the favorites, they are all speculating about who was booted and they speculate correctly with either Yau or Eliza. Someone catches and eel while Alexis encourages them to behead it, she is quite medieval, that girl. Natalie (I hate throwing these names out here like anyone knows who I’m referring to, just know that Natalie is the half-pug) is voicing over Chet’s lack of contribution around camp. He does seem to just be idly sitting in the water, Mikey seems to take this, much like everything, too personally. Of course all these contestants do. 90% of the time, when someone does nothing it’s either because they are fatigued (the case here) or because everyone lets them (Jenna Morasca).

At the favs, James is offering Eliza some help with her weakened state. He and Ozzy discuss how they made a mistake voting out Yau instead of Eliza, and despite his awesome lack of perception, even James realizes this. They even talk about it right in front of her, which draws an eyeroll that shifts the earth’s axis (it’s funny because her eyes are like bowling balls), James responds to her petulance in kind, “your sick and you’ve got attitude?”. She voices over that nothing would make her happier than to see her entire tribe become stricken with cancer. Lot of morbidity from this season’s cast.

At RC, the fans revel in amazement that Yau is gone. Once that os over, Jeff explains that the challenge is taking colored coconuts each with a letter from an underwater bin then unscrambling a one word puzzle. They’re playing for live chickens. Ozzy and Jason are the first out to the cage while Ozzy spends about five minutes under water while moving all the coconuts towards the opening his teammates will subsequently take there coconuts out of. If there were a challenge God in Survivor, it would most definitely be Ozzy, he’s like the fucking terminator.

Are we sure he isn’t Aquaman?

The strategy works as the favorites finish their puzzle before the fans even finish gathering their coconuts. We liked how James solved the puzzle for his team by asking if the word it spelled was actually a word, then mocked his teammates for letting him be the one to solve it. A little, shall we say, cocky self-deprecation goes a long way on our book.

Over at the fans camp, who have yet to win a reward when it isn’t inclusive with the immunity, lament the state of their tribe and camp. Again. That pretty much sums up every interaction with these people, really.

On exile, Kathy has thrown in the towel in regards to finding the idol. Ozzy, being the competitor he is is now looking for the idol himself. He doesn’t really understand how immensely strenuous this finding this thing is, but if anyone can endure it handily it’s him, since it involves swimming from one island to the next, and naturally he discovers its locale in about two minutes of camera time, with limited sunlight. He shoves it in his hat and holy Christ, he shoves it in his bag without Kathy being any the wiser. It is fucking. bad. ass. he also assembles a fake idol and puts on a ruse that he is looking for food, even at one point plucking some sea vermin out of the water and jokingly asking if she wants to eat it. Since Kathy for whatever reason doesn’t think any of these people she for some reason admires would ever lie to her, she doesn’t even look or act suspicious. He plants the fake idol where the original was, and it is outrageous. He, of course, is assuming there is anyone left in this game that can still find the thing, or that if anyone can they’ll actually buy that the wooden log he carved is an idol.

With this, I think we have a new frontrunner. Ozzy is in a strong alliance, is a challenge beast and now has an immunity idol that no one knows about, at least not at the moment. In addition, he knows of a fake one as well.

Back at the favorites, Cirie is harassing the chicken, and for whatever reason Eliza follows suit. She and Parvati discuss Jonathan “the liar” and Eliza points that out emphatically. Jonathan sidles them intentionally and describes how painful it is, and it’s pretty apt. If anything Jon needs to approach Ozzy and James and try and beat some sense into them should they try and vote out Penner. They can pull Amanda in with all the guys and get rid of either Elize or Cirie, but that is probably wishful thinking.

At IC, they hand back the immunity idol without joking around about it. Incredible. Probably the biggest surprise this season. The challenge consists of collecting necklaces and placing them on a decoding wheel that creates a three word phrase: “Tribe stays intact”. Chet isn’t allowed to sit this challenge out so they bench Kathy. I’m sensing a theme with this tribe. The favorites begin unlocking their, uh, locks beforehand and take a decent lead. Ami is really under the radar this season, I just saw her for the first time I think. The favorites are in this large contraption they have to maneuver through the woods with, they’re doing it pretty masterfully and it looks like Chet is going home unless Joel decides to save him for no reason again.

In short, the favorites win in a landslide as Probst makes abundantly clear for us. They do everything they can to ratchet up the suspense, but the fans are sending one of their teammates home. It seems like the challenges that involve the most luck are the ones the fans thrive in. Its amazing we’re going to be at a dead 8-8 heap here.

Back at the favorites morale is low. Once again. This tribes temperament fluctuates like Carcetti in his primary race. Mikey wants to keep Joel around for as long as possible then “chop his head off” right before merge. I hope his powers of foresight are powerful that he knows exactly when the merge is coming. Now that would be impressive.

The old birds are sitting in their cave and worrying about their fate, at the very least the older blond wants to attempt and maneuver some. Joel is explaining to all the female contestants what’s going to happen and the older blond plays him like a fiddle putting it in his head that he has to get rid of Mikey like he said he would and just all but calls him a pussy. She even refers to herself as intuitive as a reason he should listen to her, which is somewhat meta, because her intuitiveness is impressive as she is playing to his insecurities right now. If anything, her intuition should be a reason for him not to listen to her. She breaks down the simple math that Joel needs to get one more vote with the three of them in order to vote out Mikey. We go to tribal with Chet saying he believes he’s going home.

At TC, Mikey voices his disdain with ineffectiveness at challenges and Tracy wisely points out that in both of the challenges they lost this episode the older teammates were sitting out, so his logic is faulty. Joel is quick to concede that his physical strength, and physical strength in general isn’t the be all end all of challenge skills. Jason halts Probst from sending everyone to vote, emphasizing the importance of the vote they’re about to cast, which upsets Probst and annoys me. We go to the vote, Chet votes for Mikey and Jason (I think) votes for Chet asking him to please leave. Well, its not really his decision now, is it? They read as such:
Chet
Chet
Mikey
Mikey
Chet
Mikey
Mikey
Mikey
What in the hell, Tracy is my new favorite contender on this tribe. God, that handily was like the easiest manipulation I’ve ever seen in this game, she convinced it was in Joel’s own best interest to keep her and Chet around. Who the fuck did they convince to vote with them? Did I miss it because I was looking at my keyboard? It’s interesting how they keep shooting their tribe in the foot at the insistence of the physically strongest yet least reliable teammate. Or I suppose this was more at Tracy’s insistence.

In his parting word, Mikey talks about the weakness of his current tribe and while it is self-congratulatory and an ill-advised attempt to save face, I can’t say I disagree with him about the description.

Tonight: We’re already switching tribes and people start to get a little intense, Joel talks about his insatiable desire to murder yet again.

We decide to partake in a week long tribute to the greatest drama of all time after weeks of monotony in the television industry, and sure enough, news breaks on several fronts that interest us. We’ll be discussing The Wire all day tomorrow and next week, but today we’ll post some links and our Survivor recap later today.

First and foremost, It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia is returning for a fourth season. We;re not exactly certain what the delay was, every one we know watches and enjoys it, and that is reflected by the stellar 9.6/10 ranking it has on IMDB. Yes, IMDB people tend to consist largely of teenagers with skateboards and dimebags on their person in school, but it indicates a larger audience than FX could ever expect for such an abnormal sitcom.

I can’t believe this was announced in the same week, much less the same day as It’s Always Sunny’s return, or really I can’t believed this was announced at all: Friday Night Lights is set to be renewed for a third season. How, you ask? Direct TV is going to share production costs with NBC and air the series on one of their selected channels. So not only does the series get picked up, it gets a larger platform. The city of Seattle probably wishes they could be so fortunate with the Sonics.

There back this summer, long underwear and all.

So that’s encouraging for two of the series’ we regularly review here, could anything beneficial happen to another, making this an extraordinarily good week for television even if it’s a bad week for everything else? Well, looky here: The Office cast is returning to work today. Holy shit, my head’s spinning with good news this morning. Seriously, I’m like Lucille Osterro right now.

Not exactly news, but we loved this feature on one of the blogs we regularly visit. Three critics each picked a show and argued for that series’ status as the greatest television drama of all time. The three shows in question: The Sopranos, The Wire and Deadwood. If forced to choose, and mind you each series has it’s own characteristics that make it better than the other two, we rank them as such: The Wire stay the king, The Sopranos, Deadwood.

If you’ve ever read this blog you could probably guess that, and its not that we dislike Deadwood but after a season and a half of it we bowed out because it struck us as somewhat one-dimensional. The former two series’ have plenty in common but approach them from different angles, we gave the nod to The Wire because it has a wider range of characters, more of an emotional core, and it emphasizes the political, rather than the personal, which The Sopranos does in spades ever so eloquently.

Speculation on whether or not SNL sparked this Clinton surge is rampant. If it’s true, and it certainly looks like it could be, it would represent a new low in American politics. First off, SNL isn’t even remotely funny anymore. They might as well have us watch the last five minutes of Million Dollar Baby on a continuous loop for ninety minutes, because that would be equally hilarious. Second of all, if sketch comedy shows are determining election outcomes then we really need to collectively reevaluate how are leaders come to fruition, because this is getting absurd. Though to be fair, any of those politically oriented sketches were ten times more persuasive than that bullshit ad with the ringing phone.

We’ve actually known about this for some time, as we saw the movie 25th Hour the week it came out. But Isiah Whitlock, better known as Clay Davis, first used his catchphrase, “Shhhhheeeeiiiit” in the Spike Lee film, not The Wire. Does it kill its efficacy? Not really because it seems so appropriate for the character, it’s just another example of institutional bureaucracy.

Finally, a British man has opened the “Tony Soprano Pizza Shop” somewhere in North Hampton. It immediately becomes the best restaurant in its area, not because of its name, but rather because it serves something edible. This might be better than the local McDonalds.

Back with the Survivor recap later today.

I said yesterday that picking out the five best character defining scenes was probably the most difficult categorization we could think of, just based on the sheer mass of characters and how great the development is for 90% of them. Well, this series’ loyal fan base didn’t become such apologists for nothing. Picking your five favorite scenes is like Barkley making room for Dwayne Wade, narrowing it down to five is daunting, and while there are sure to be disagreements about what qualifies one scene as better than the next, we’re going to try and keep these scenes different from the two lists we’ve already done and the last one we plan to do.

Mind you, these aren’t scenes aren’t necessarily uplifting or funny or tragic or depressing, they’re just memorable. So, without further ado, Grid Effects five greatest moments in Wire history:

5) Season three, episode 33: “Moral Midgetry”
McNulty damn near drives Brianna to suicide. (Couldn’t find the actual clip, but here is the aftermath of it).

On this series it is rare we see people from the police department speak so candidly with leaders of the drug trade. And Brianna isn’t necessarily an evil or despicable character, but she’s lived in a bubble her entire life and McNulty all but blaming her for her death with total disregard and callousness was, well…I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t somewhat satisfying. I kind of connect that scene, to a scene in season one when Avon is imploring Brianna to convince D’Angelo to take the twenty years instead of turning state’s evidence by saying, “you like this house, that furniture, that couch you’re sitting on”. Like her son was murdered for her vanity. And she fucking knows it.
The way McNulty explained to Brianna that he didn’t approach her about his suspicions regarding D’Angelo’s death because he was, “looking for someone who cared about the kid”, really enlightened us to his disdain for the drug trade and why he acts the way he does.

4) Season one, episode 12: “Cleaning Up”
“Where’s Wallace?!”

The culmination of D’Angelo’s angst with the game and his frustration of being a patsy for his uncle. Stringer obviously never felt any sort of connection to D’Angelo that Avon did, and that is epitomized in his scathing at at D’Angelo’s eruption here. He was probably similar to Michael in a myriad of ways, but had the family connections so he never had to instill the same brutality Michael has, instead just skated along almost mindlessly until his conscious got the better of him.

3) Season two, episode 10: “Storm Warnings”
Ziggy kills Glekas (Again, we couldn’t find the clip, but here’s part of the aftermath.)

Probably the older, white, middle class version of Randy. After being constantly harangued by his peers, and undermined by his partners in crime, when Glekas attempts to short change Ziggy on the agreed amount for some stolen cars then roughs the undersized Ziggy up, Ziggy decides his tolerance for verbal, physical and financial abuse can only go so far and murders Glekas and shoots a store clerk, only to instantly regret it. As judged by his giving the aggrieved money to the clerk, his violent trembling while being apprehended and his immediate confession.
I compare him to Randy because his reaction to death is so visceral compared to many of the characters portrayed, Randy was clearly the most effected between him, Michael and Dukie at seeing the dead body in the vacant row house. What’s amazing is Ziggy’s eruption was all underpinned by a lack of gainful employment brought about by Government limitations on the docks. I need a drink.

It’s horrifying to think about him in prison.

2) Season three, episode 36: “Middle Ground”
Brother Mouzone and Omar kill Stinger Bell

While filming this season David Simon was unsure as to whether he would be renewed, so season three, more so than one, two or four, has a tinge of finality to it. Avon goes to prison, McNulty returns to the western, Bunny is fired from the force and Stringer Bell’s misdeeds come full circle to bite him in the ass. As is the case with everyone in this series, if a character decides to go outside the confines of the institution with which he operates, he is inevitably punished.
Stringer wanted to turn the Barksdales into Baltimore’s version of the Kennedy’s. Ultimately he was killed for trying to maintain stability and avoid violence within the drug trade, and that particular institution does not allow such alterations. The same thing happened to Prop Joe this season, though he avoided his fate much longer because he wasn’t nearly as devious about it.

1) Season four, episode 50: “Final Grades”
Bodie agrees to testify against Marlo.

Bodie wasn’t necessarily my favorite character in the series, but he had my favorite arc. Here is a kid paying his dues in the drug game, hadn’t ever left Baltimore until a dry drug run to Philly, obligingly and gladly did everything that was asked of him, only to have the rug pulled out from under him and relegated to a corner working for people who’d kill him if it were legal, but can’t be hassled to do so. His frustration differed from D’Angelo’s in that he loved the game, saw it as a means to an end and didn’t want a part of anything else. So when any chance he had at upward mobility was thwarted and Marlo killed his friend for virtually no reason, Bodie had reached his wits end, and harks back to one of the more symbolic scenes about the plight of your average corner boy. His self-realization and sadness here is palpable, and is probably my favorite scene in the history of the series.

Other contenders for this were Bunk’s lecture to Omar, Stringer telling Avon about D’Angelo, Kenard killing Omar, Michael beating down Kenard, Michael killing Snoop, the aforementioned chess game, Omar robbing Marlo’s poker game, Omar in prison, Carcetti convincing delegate Watkins to back his campaign, McNulty staging his first homeless murder, Bunk and Freamon interrogating Sobotka, etc.

I guess what I’m saying is every scene is memorable in some way, and this list isn’t nearly comprehensive enough and is totally absurd. But I need something to write about, and doing a lengthy post about the Shakespearian and Greek elements abundant in The Wire seems a little too academic for a blog. So, it is what it is.

A Survivor recap and a most tragic list coming tomorrow. Comparing tragedy, now that’s a useful practice.

Welcome back to Wire week here at Grid Effect. I know that for some of you, in fact, most of you this is pretty excruciating. Few people are actually aware of this series and even fewer actually watch it. So I guess what I’m trying to say with a week’s worth of posts is I really don’t give a shit. This is the greatest drama in the history of television (it’s undebatable as far as we’re concerned) and if you can’t appreciate it, then that my friend, is on your shoulders. But hey, I promise that when 24 is approaching its series finale, we’ll mention it in a links post somewhere.

Today we’re counting down the finest, most astute character defining moments. Instances that don’t really have anything to do with the series at large, but rather make this series a scripted drama and not a documentary. Moments that humanize these characters and later when they do something almost irreparably stupid or thoughtless, we actually sympathize with and/or comprehend rather than disdain them.

This is probably the trickiest themed countdown that one could drum up for The Wire. The reasoning is two-fold: there has probably been close to 150 characters throughout the five seasons, all of them nuanced and developed before their time on the series ended; and limiting this to five when we could go up to twenty in a moments notice. We are at work, however, and actually fairly busy today. So while we’re not paying tribute to the series like we want to, we’re doing the best we can with the available time we have.

5) Season four, episode 38: “Boys of Summer”
Michael guilts Namond into buying ice cream for Dukie.

We know him now as a reluctant criminal with a conscious, but before he mistakenly waltzed into the game, Michael was a typical middle schooler raising his younger brother and compensating for his drug addicted mother. In this scene after an ill-advised attack on the terrace boys, Namond is buying ice cream for everyone involved in their group beat down, but refuses to for Dukie, supposedly because he’s poor or something (even those in west Baltimore can be elitist). With the implied suspicion that Namond ran away without defending everyone else who caught a beating and a stern look from Michael, Namond forks over the dollar. We see Namond’s socialization (or lack thereof), under-privileged Dukie’s decency and Michael’s nobility ecapsulated in a mere 30-45 seconds.

What a long strange trip it’s been.

4) Season one, episode 4: “Old Cases”
Omar gives money to a single mother

We’ve just met Omar, and the last time we saw him he shot a teenager in the knee with a shotgun. But here, when he is celebrating his score with Brandon and some other unseen, unheard from again guy, a woman approaches them with baby in hand asking for some financial relief. Omar holds her kid momentarily and lovingly before obliging. Here’s hoping she didn’t spend it on drugs.

3) Season one, episode 3: “The Buys”
Kima enlightens McNulty on her sexual orientation.

We know Kima’s a lesbian, and apparently so does everyone else besides McNulty, whose innate prejudices towards female police officers leaves him unsurprised. The two share a bonding experience after discovering each other are severely passionate investigators with Bubbles providing early commentary, and thus sparks a three season long rebellion against the bosses and significant others for both of them, only to be trumped when Kima dimes to brass on him six years later.

2) Season five, episode 58: “Clarifications”
McNulty’s FBI profile

We mentioned the hilarity of this scene in this episode’s recap, but since it literally summarizes the tragedy of Jimmy McNulty we felt it belonged here. Of course the profiler is under the impression he is describing a deranged serial killer, so as he lists trait after trait that describes the now anti-hero, we get a close up of McNulty squirming uncomfortably with each spoken word from the federal agents mouth. Pulling something off like this without anyone being the wiser speaks to the genius of McNulty but also the misguided, intrinsically flawed and unstableness of our resident alcoholic.

1) Season three, episode 36: “Middle Ground”
Avon and Stringer reminisce while overlooking the city skyline

Arguably the best scene in the series, as both seems all too aware that the other wants him dead. Or at least out of his hair. We saw the climax of their friendship/partnership three episodes beforehand in “Moral Midgetry”, now we see the understated result, as these two reflect on the vast enterprise they built and the childhood bond it developed from, all while regrettably but willingly signing each others fate. There are a million other themes at play here, but the personal is what makes it dramatic.

Many consolation scenes to be had, most notably Frank Sobotka giving an employee a wad of cash for his financial woes as a result of being underemployed, D’Angelo teaching the Wallace and Bodie chess, which we felt qualifies for a different list; Rhonda and Daniels laughing in bed together and Dukie offering to buy Randy’s lunch. For the most part all of these scenes listed can seem insignificant, but they speak to the heart of the show. And if these characters weren’t developed to the point that we actually concern ourselves with their outcome, then the principals and societal commentary of the series doesn’t work.

With the series finale for The Wire on the horizon this week, set aside the exception of a Survivor recap on Thursday, this site is going to be nothing more than a retrospective for what I’ll concede is the greatest drama of all time (it’s this or The Sopranos, and really you could flip a coin to determine which is more praiseworthy).

Today, since it’s the furthest from the finale, we’re going to countdown the top five triumphant moments in Wire. Those rare instances in which our beloved characters overcome all the injustice and institutional bureaucracy to seek out a better life for themselves and those around them. Going back through the years, it’s hard to pinpoint five specifically (and it should be noted that we are making this up as we go along, so if there are any glaring omissions, please let us know).

Side note: If we don’t have a link to a clip, it’s because we couldn’t find one.

5) Season five, episode 59: “Late Editions”
Bubbles comes to terms with Sherrod’s passing.

He’s looking to be one of a handful of characters with a atypically happy ending. In last night’s episode Andre Royo delivered about as great of a performance as anyone on the series and his confession to NA about his contribution in Sherrod’s death just about confirms his well-being. Part of why this carries so much weight is Bubbles has always been the face of drug addiction for a series that revolves around the drug trade. The hope for recovery, the capacity for rehabilitation is something that David Simon needed to acknowledge, and you could argue that he did with Waylon, but seeing Bubbles do so was something I wasn’t expecting this season.

4) Season four, episode 50: “Final Grades”
Bunny convinces Wee-bey to let him adopt Namond

In what we consider to be the greatest season of dramatic television ever made, the season finale did not disappoint. In what was mostly an hour and fifteen minutes of death and despair, Simon & Co. gave us this one silver lining, highlighted by a humble, hat in hand police captain asking a convicted murderer to adopt his son from his ungodly bitch of a mother. The bonding over Baltimore drug wars, relating them and the ever changing game to Namond’s incapacity to maintain in such an environment, led to a chance given to at least one of our four young protagonists.

3) Season three, episode 31: “Homecoming”
Cutty leaves the game

Cutty was introduced as an old Barksdale soldier coming out of Jessup in season three, appropriately the season chronicling reform. Finding the straight life ever more difficult for an ex-convict whose done some unspeakable shit in his day, Cutty eventually devolves and resigns to his life of thuggery. Only to rise up on Fruit and his corner to discover that he is now a grown man in his thirties being asked to kill high-schoolers. Or rather, would be high schoolers. He refrains from killing Fruit and subsequently retires. Though he doesn’t now live the lavish lifestyle that most Americans hope for, it’s honest and decent. And involves coaching boxing — the only pure thing he’s ever known — to mostly troubled youth.

2) Season one, episode five: “The Pager”
Prez deciphers the Barksdale pager code.

Check out the big brain on Roland Pryzbylewski.

A smaller moment that the others on this list, but for someone who had been nothing but a fuck up charity case at the behest of his father-in-law, him making a significant contribution while being suspended from street work turned out to be a blessing in disguise. As he produced solid case work on three high profile arrests…at least before shooting an undercover officer. Lets just move on.

1) Season two, episode nineteen: “All Prologue”
Omar testifies against Bird

In his everyday fear mongering attire, Omar takes the stand to put Bird in prison for the Gant murder, the series’ first at the end of the pilot episode. In the span of five minutes, he puts the jury in stitches, publicly indoctrinates Levy for his role in the game, and convinces everyone and their mother that he indeed, saw Bird shoot Mr. Gant (whose death is recognized in a community meeting in season three) in the back of the head. Despite the entire scene being predicated on that lie, we saw a murderer put away and Baltimore’s robin hood exalted by citizen and lawyer alike.

There were a couple of other scenes we toyed with throwing on here, some more nuanced than others. But when it came down to it, a hefty amount of the encouraging moments were followed by some sort of catastrophe directly relating to that specific scene, so we had to discard them. Like anything with D’Angelo including the “Where’s Wallace?” scene and his last conversation with his mother.

If you will notice, we didn’t even mention McNulty in the top five here, which considering all the proactive police work he leads the helm on, is pretty astounding. Obviously it has to do with the self-destructive nature his police investigations seem to enable, and speaks to the lack of sympathy many in the audience seem to have for his fifth season antics. This would make it all the more depressing should he go to prison. In The Wire, the right thing done the wrong way is probably going to render the worst results.

So, so much has already been said about this episode. That’s the problem with doing these posts a week after they air, it feels like I’m just lifting choice portions out of ten different articles then throwing them all into my post, but the God’s honest truth is I write snippets of thoughts and reactions down while watching the episode, then turn it into a somewhat legible synopsis a couple weeks later (as is the case with being an on demander).

But this episode, more so than any other one before it has been rehashed and discussed to the point of over-analysis, so this seems particularly redundant. It’s understandable though, one way to reign in viewers during a season that loyal fans are uneasy about is to kill who’s collectively their favorite character, and do so in a very unceremonious manner that is fitting with the series. Watching him bob up and down those alleys helplessly looking for any sign of Marlo and fruitlessly calling him out and stealing minute amounts of drugs from him just felt aimless. And when he waltzed by Kenard (whom I didn’t notice stayed put while all his counterparts fled) getting ready to set a cat on fire it seemed like the beginning of the end. Take the most feared criminal walking the streets of Baltimore and have him gunned down by a kid whose nuts haven’t dropped, way to be David Simon.

Omar’s death reminded me of Ralph Cifaretto beating his stripper girlfriend to death in the alley. Not in a plot or development sense, but in a thematic one. We were never supposed to root for Omar or think of him as a hero, and seeing him gunned down and everyone’s lack of a reaction to it, from the paper not even knowing who he was, to the cops shrugging it off as another drug slaying to the mortician confusing his name tag with that of some deceased old white man, Omar’s death in Baltimore was nothing more than another gang/drug related slaying. And in the same vein that we weren’t supposed to like Tony or any of his underlings, we were never to consider Omar a noble character. Ironically Bunk, the only character who ever villainized Omar’s lifestyle (stick up artist, not sexual orientation) was the only person who seemed even remotely effected by his death.

Set aside Omar’s death, this was an extremely significant episode in plot development. McNulty is now getting an unlimited source of funds directly from the mayor and using Carver’s men in the western to supply the manpower Freamon needs to actually build a case. With the added responsibility has come with additional guilt and the airing of the plan. And saying Kima and Beadie weren’t exactly impressed is like saying Carcetti is only slightly in love with himself (more on that later). It sky seems to be falling for our fourth season absentee character. Shoulda stayed on patrol, McNulty. It’s a shame you’re a fictional character and are unable to accept my sage advice.

So long Omar, if we would have known we would never get to see you make out with another man we would have prepared ourselves more appropriately.

With his fall comes Bunk’s rise, who realized the evidence is always their if you search hard enough. While things have been dire for the city and the department for the entire season, McNulty’s ploy, while a lot of effort it did require, seemed lazy. At least intellectually. I’m now worried because Bunk got the forensics done on his case made against Chris Partlow under McNulty’s behest with the fake serial killer case. While the two are completely non-related, I worry the evidence could be rendered inadmissible by a court and everyone walks away on technicalities. Like, say, illegally gathered evidence attained by fabricating an imaginary criminal terrorizing the homeless. Not everyone is accepting his plan so willingly, detective Barlow whom we haven’t seen since the first five minutes of the first episode has now made about seven or eight appearances this season, and is now blackmailing our young anti-hero. We doubt this will have any longterm consequences, because when the shit hits the fan there won’t be any more money to use for trips to Hilton Head.

The other half of the scheme and all of its unintended consequences that goes by the name of Lester is now seeing his case on Clay Davis slip through the cracks. So, as I’m sure he figures, what’s one more cut corner. The move to bribe Clay Davis, however, is sheer genius and ungodly entertaining. There probably hasn’t been two smoother characters on the series, and use their unflappability in remarkably contrasting ways. If Isiah Whitlock can’t get an Emmy nomination or any sort of award recognition, then there is no justice in the world.

The Sun plot is finally starting to live up to the hype. The actor playing the PTSD stricken homeless veteran deserves some recognition as well as he confronted Scott (and by proxy, Gus) about embellishments of his story and profile. That was one of the more intense scenes this season and it was over nothing more than what Scott perceived to be a little white lie. That embellishment leading to Gus’s stance on Scott’s vigil piece seemed like something that Gus could have glossed over, but after weeks of suspicion, I guess he finally reached his wits end.

Carcetti is probably the least likable character on the series. Given the immense amount of power he holds you expect more out of him than a drug kingpin and he continuously disappoints. We were treated to another dose of his narcissism in this one with his unflinching focus of him on CNN, and lord even his wife picks up on it. You would think arriving home from work wanting to see video of himselg would have done that, but no, its his loving gaze of his own television image that does it. Also, its good to see he’s willing to sell out the schools yet again for his own ambition.

And the victims of said decisions? Oh, they’re doing fine. Dukie is well on his way to being a crack addict and Michael is a nose hair away from being clipped by the most vicious gang ever portrayed on television. Man, talk about wasted talent. As hard as it is to stomach Michael associating with such characters, the scene where he was rehashing his Omar encounter was done beautifully. Michael in his bright blue resembling someone with a semblance of a soul trying to humanize the situation and question the tactics of his employers, while Snoop and Chris just glare at him in their colorless garb while he rambles on looking for some sort of response. Just subtle beauty, really.

Other notes:

-MCU invoking Cheese’s shared last name with Randy Wagstaff, really had me believing we might see some dots connected, but it looks like that coincidence is going to be nothing more than a tease.

-The FBI profile of the serial killer, followed by McNulty’s ballpark line was the funniest moment of the season.

-Apparently during the third season when Bunk was investigating Tosha’s murder after the shootout at the Barksdale stash house, we saw a trio of kids playing like they participated in said shootout that Bunk later chastised Omar for, one of those kids, specifically the one who says, “my turn to be Omar”, was Kenard. If you don’t believe me, look closely at this youtube clip of said scene.

-Interesting how all the technology used in tracking drug dealers on this show actually hurts them in the instance of using the map vs. the GPS. If Sydnor had been in one of the rented cars from enterprise (the most blatant product placement ever on this show), he never would have cracked the Stanfield clock code.

This episode seems to have put an end to all the nitpicking and complaining that this season didn’t follow up the fourth season as well. Because, you know, when you make the best season of dramatic television in the history of the medium, you have to follow it up with the next best season of television in the history of the medium. Which is good, this series is always the best thing television has the best to offer. It’s good to see it treated as such. Sorry, we’re feeling very apologetic today.