Great job Alan, thanks for doing this. The Wire is by far the best television show ever produced and deserves the great analysis and attention to detail that you provide.
I'm one episode into season 3 and even though I was slightly underwhelmed by the season 2 story arc, I can tell that down the road I will look back and realize how profound the season truly was.
I'm looking forward to finishing the series and reading the veteran's edition of your Wire blogging.
Thank you do much for convincing me to watch The Wire. It's an amazing show and I've enjoyed reading your posts as we've gone along. Now I can hardly wait for next summer and season three.
First of all: thank you so much for these great reviews. They make the enjoyment of watching a finely crafted show even better.
Also I thought the funniest part of Herc and Carver thinking that their policing skills were being taken for granted came from the fact that the bad guys knew they were staking out Nick, but they did not notice that bad guys were on the stake out too.
Thanks for the Season 2 blog, which has been a great companion this summer. My wife and I enjoyed the show so much though, that we're watching too fast, and are now more than half way through season 3! To avoid spoiling anything, I don't even want to say anymore, because my memory of what happens in which season is blurring. But it's great stuff all around.
I just want to say a massive thanks for all these posts. I finally sat down to watch my boxset of boxsets (currently at the end of Season 3) and have not been disappointed. I really love that each episode is about 1 hour compared to the usual 43 mins, so you get that much extra enjoyment. Each episode has so much depth to it and these posts have really helped to flesh things out.
For me, Season 2 took a wee bit to get going but once it did, things started motoring on. 'All Prologue' was probably the stand-out but there was a real high quality throughout.
The thing that gets me about the show is the cruel timing of things - the detail executes their raids just the morning after all the drugs gets washed away and the paper trails scrapped; they find out The Greek's hotel but he had left earlier in the day; if only they hadn't of told Frank to come back the next day and got him to wait around. Then again, if things wrapped up happily with a nice little bow it probably wouldn't be as great a show.
Frank's death was beautifully handled and credit to the writers that we feel sympathy for him (and D'Angelo too) even though they fell into the 'bad guys' camp. I also found a twisted irony with the closing montage music as Nick doesn't "feel alright" given he has lost everything (totally awesome song, by the way).
A question though Alan: Would the links to the Seasons 4 & 5 on your blog be considered newbies or veterans? And are they breakdowns of each episode or should you wait until the end of each respective season before reading? Many thanks once again.
Paul, I wrote those reviews as each episode initially aired, so they're more or less Newbie style. Because I had watched season 4 in its entirety before I reviewed any of it, some people complained that some of the early reviews were too colored by what I knew was coming. There's probably some truth to that, but I got that under control quickly, and there's certainly nothing of me referring to events in season five, since I obviously hadn't seen that yet.
Well, OK. I get that the Greek was an asset for Koutris, and that he did his mental calculus. But...what does that mean? Does he know the Greek's real name? Does he know how to contact him still? Is it not a professional courtesy to tell Fitzhugh that he's going to undermine his case? To quote Oman, it don't feel right.
One minor quibble with the finale, though I acknowledge it's something that had to be glossed over given everything else that was happening: given the difficulty the detail had even finding, let alone tailing, Stringer and Avon a season ago, how did Kima and Jimmy get a tail on Prop Joe and/or Stringer so easily?
I didn't think so much about that as about Jimmy sitting there so exposed, peering out his open car windows, with Kima snapping away. No one calling "5-0"? No one notices them at all? It seemed implausible.
Getting that close to Stringer, though--isn't that a sign of just how exposed he is now? He said it himself: Wee-Bey, Stinkum, Bird--all gone. He doesn't have muscle. He barely has a posse. Bodie is the highest-ranking, most competent support he's got. I think it makes a lot of sense that he's easier to get close to, because his operation has suffered a lot.
The closing scene, with the fast cut photo montage of Baltimore's decayed/decaying industrial infrastructure just about killed me. You said in an earlier recap that the show is about the death of an American city, perhaps of the American city, and this finale really sent that home--you can feel the death of the auto industry, the decline of the steel industry, everything that gets written about in the NYTimes summed up in that one montage. It IS heartbreaking to watch--but compelling. This is our story. This is our history.
I want to echo the sentiments of thanks to you Alan for introducing me to The Wire this summer (I watched the first 3 seasons, pretty much over the span of a few weeks) - and the best thing is my library had 'em all.
I've started Deadwood (and kicking myself for not watching it when it was on HBO originally, wtf was wrong with me?) (the library had that as well) while I am waiting for Wire s4 to arrive.
I'll echo the thanks for taking on this project for those of us late to "The Wire". It's been a pleasure reading your take on things and I'm looking forward to whatever else you bring to the table!
More thanks for these newbie reviews, Alan. The local free-to-air networks down here in Australia just started showing the first series this week, and after seeing the first two episodes I had to go out and rent them all. These reviews have been excellent.
These guides have been like my little companions through each episode. I like to sit down almost straight after and read your posts, they have helped crystalize my own ideas on the show and now, as I move into s3, I find that I am so much more astute and "trained" in watching The Wire, so thank you for writing these newbie posts and helping us along! (I'm not American and so these posts have helped immensely with both the street language, rankings and allusion to politics/history.)
Some thoughts on this last episode, Beadie sitting back in her car looking sadly at the old club house was very painful to watch. What could become of her, given some time and investment in her future? After all, if it wasn't for her shrewdness, those girls in the can would have never been found...
The way that Sobotka's body being dredged up while all the stevedores stood around staring, dumbfounded, was absolutely horrible to watch. Beautifully executed, it felt like the cruelest of revenges to dredge him up out of the harbour he so badly wanted to see dredged too...
And up until Prop Joe was watching those Russian girls walk out of the can, he was one of my favourite characters- every line he speaks makes me crack up. But there is something much more sinister about trafficking girls than drugs, even though as Beadie sadly confirms earlier on- it's not even really a crime to sell girls, the drugs have much more cache. Especially in a place like Baltimore, ravaged to its core by them.
I'm now 2 eps into season 3, but I find myself unable to disconnect how horribly s2 ended for nearly everyone. *sigh*
As it seems nobody answered your question, Valchek says "rest in peace" in a quite bad Polish accent;)
Alan, just wanted to thank you once again for posting these. I'm looking forward to reading through your thoughts on season 3 whenever they are posted.
Just one thing I don't understand... After Wallace's death in the previous season, was it really THAT difficult to predict that Frank Sobotka might have been in danger after leaving the detail???
Alan, good job reviewing season two. It was especially helpful to read that Koutris was not corrupt, as I assumed he was. I do think Fitz put things together unrealistically quickly at the end there though.
Overall, a wonderful season, but I did have a few quibbles. Although the brother Mouzone side plot was enjoyable as a set piece, I found it too out of character for the show to be really integral to the season. Omar, may be larger than life, the ultimate gunslinger/existential hero, but he still seems believable as character that would inhabit that world. Brother Mouzone, on the other hand was pure caricature, and while it was funny to see him dialoguing with "Mr. Cheese" or demanding his Harper's, it was ultimately more distractio than anything else.
More importantly I actually was disappointed with the ending. The first season ended with such a great portrayal of the futility of all the risk and hard work -- as good as the end of Costa Gavras's Z . This ending, which essentially had the same message seemed both a little too rushed and pat. I think we all get the point that great results and sweeping changes are fairy stories. I'm sure that message will continue to be presented in future seasons, but I do hope each season doesn't end with a pat balancing of the small victories against the bigger losses.
Overall, though a very good season with some great performances and excellent new characters, especially Frank Sobotka and Beadie. Episode 6 was just masterful.
I also loved the irony of the FBI being so hell bent on breaking that union when the union was on its last legs as it was.
I'm even sadder ( in a good way) by the end of this season's run than S1. Don't think I've ever been so depressed from watching a TV show ever before. And that's a compliment, as depressing as that sounds. Again, like the end of S1, I feel spent and exhausted with the weight of all the thoughts the show has put in my head. Remarkable, awful, depressing, but also a fantastic feeling, if that makes any sense.
And we (and the detail) still knows absolutely nothing about The Greek whose influence spans so far and wide (and linking back to S1, as the origin of the Eastside drug industry too). The Sobotkas never had a shot once Frank made the fatal decision to work with them. Which is just tragic.
Question: I know the S3 rewatch reviews won't come til 2010, but when I get to the S4,5 reviews (which would be quite soon, if the time it took to devour S2 is any indication), will those be all essentially 'newbie' editions (that won't spoil anything after the episode that was reviewed)? It would only make sense that they are, but I wanted to make sure. Thanks.
Yes, Belinda. While I had seen all/most of seasons 4 & 5 before I began writing those reviews, they were written for an audience who were watching them one week at a time. In a few spots, people complained that I was letting my knowledge of what was coming color the reviews, but I think I tamed those tendencies quickly.
As someone watching a few months out of sync with your reviews, I wanna thank you profusely for them, Alan. They got me through season 1 when I was still finding my feet in how to watch the show, and even when I was following season 2 better your insights were invaluable to my enjoyment. By the last stretch of episodes, I was even able to watch 2-3 at a time without using your writeups as a crutch. Though I'd love to wait until you've gotten through reviewing S3, I hope you see it as a compliment and testament to your work here that I may not be able to!
Can't wait for new reviews in Summer 2010. If they're half as interesting as these, they'll be gold.
Thank you so much for these reviews, Alan. I just finished season 2, and it's so frustrating that my friends haven't had time to invest in The Wire yet, or have seen all five seasons and can't discuss them with me.
The only problem I had with this season was how flat the foreign drug-smugglers all seemed. In season 1, we spent nearly equal amounts of times with the detectives and the drug-slingers. This season, they seemed like caricatures for most of the season. For a show that takes such nuanced views of every other side, them doing it for pure capitalism seems awfully...easy.
I watched the last three episodes in a row, and I have to say I didn't anticipate the end, and that by the end, I had the most sympathy for Ziggy out of him, Frank and Nick. After episode 9, I "got" Ziggy better. The Springsteen comment in your review totally put Ziggy in context for me and I agree with another commentator who put Ziggy in the Nebraska album.
When Ziggy breaks down in his car after shooting Double G, it's honest and I got the sense that he couldn't believe he had just done that--like snapping out of a fog, and having a moral wake-up call with a chaser of self-disgust and regret. Now I understand Frank is complicated, and I applaud the writers for it, which allows me to say that I think Frank is still lying to himself when he's walking to the end of the pier to meet the Greek. Yes, he's going to do the right thing and go with the cops, but he's still excusing himself for all the moral compromises he has made by saying it was for the Union, when he did it as much for himself and having the glory of being the one to save the Union --just the fact that he won't let go of the Union leadership undermines his character in a way that the smuggling, the treatment of his son, etc. didn't.
One more comment--by the end of the season two things really struck me. First season 2 set up a white working man's world to season 1's black working man's world. Here's what happens when legitimate work disappears. Men will still work, whether they're black or white, they'll just find work in the underground economy. Second, the FBI (the Bush year's FBI?) hates Unions almost as much if not more than drug gangs and smugglers. Wow.
Alan, I'm going to really miss reading these posts as I go into season 3, but I can't wait until this summer to watch the remaining seasons. Thanks so much for this.
Thank Alan, fantastic job on Season 2 of "The Wire"...I am sad about Season 3 but eager to start Season 4 and 5 with you...
Alan - a rather late comment, as I've only just got around to The Wire, despite having it on my computer for a couple of years! Just finished season 2, which I have been viewing with your newbie reviews as an excellent post-episode complement. I just can't wait until the summer to watch season 3 so I'm going to miss the simultaneous experience your commentaries for that season, but look forward to synching back up for seasons 4 and 5.
Many thanks for these great write-ups. Just got to the end of Season two, watched on DVD straight after season one. I'd watched bit of it on The BBC last year but never had time to watch it all.
One question I wanted to ask, when they killed Frank Subotka, why didn't they cut his hands and head off? "If he had hands and head, it wasn't us!"
I loved the entire season, and this episode was great, but I found myself wanting to see at least a few seconds back at the church, where the season's conflict began. The stained glass windows, the Catholic priest... I figured with Frank's death, we'd get to see at least a shot, but nothing. I wanted that loop closed, or at least re-visited. It's a rich visual, one that was abandoned at around episode 3, and ties the community together (cops, stevedores)... seemed like a lost opportunity.
When Fitz told Daniels that it was his guy (Koutris) that was the leak, there was a quick pan to Herc and Carver. Do you think Daniels had them on crap detail as he was wary of one of them leaking something? He already had trust issues with Carver in season 1.
I wanted to add my voice to the people thanking you for doing this who got to the Wire late. I've been hearing how great the show is for years from people I respect, but could never get past the first few episodes. The reviews really helped ground me and now I'm convinced of what a masterpiece the show is and am looking forward to watching Season 1 again once I'm through the run (and reading the other edition of the reviews).
The shot of the girls being loaded out of the can in the final montage sequence really hammers home the "New faces, same game" aspect. Ultimately, all the detail did was accelerate the decline of the stevedores and the downfall of the Sobotkas. The importing and marketing of drugs and women will continue "same as it ever was."
Thanks for adding another layer of enjoyment to my experience of watching "The Wire" for the first time. I don't have much more to add, except that what (surprisingly) brought tears to my eyes in the closing montage was the groundbreaking ceremony for the Grain Pier condos.
Thank you very much, Alan, for writing these reviews! Since "The Wire" was never aired in Switzerland, I have never seen the show before I bought the complete DVD box set a few weeks back.
I do not agree that the finale of season 2 was depressing and that nothing was achieved. Ok, the "Greek" wasn't arrested and the Game goes on (it always does...). Nobody here expected otherwise, right? But after episode 11 I was really expecting them to fail completely. Yet Daniels really got his new unit; they made a few arrests and everybody seems to be fine :)
Overall, without having seen seasons 3-5 yet, I think that season 2 fits in very well. Not only is it connected to the whole drug business (as you correctly mention); it also broadens the scope of the wire beyond the low and high rises.
I hope that you'll write an essay one day comparing the Wire to other excellent shows like Lost, BSG, Mad Men etc. Why I'd like to read that? It always strikes me how differently I respond emotionally to these shows. Lost, for example, did a great job of making me cry the whole finale. Here, I think I'm less invested (albeit it was hard to see Wallace, Dee and Frank getting killed), despite the excellent performances and scripts. I guess it is the realism of the Wire, the missing "mythology", that has this effect on me. Enough for today :)
This was an extremely eventful finale but one minor sub-plot stuck with me: the cut to Herc and Carver at the bar immediately after Fitz reveals to Daniels the actual source of the purported leaks. My take was that Daniels then intentionally left them out of the loop while they haplessly waited outside Nick's house. Daniels, for all his talk about being open to working with Carver again at the beginning when the detail was being assembled, obviously hadn't gotten over his trust issues. It was sad to see these two put it all the grunt work (more ignominious this season with the window washing) and end up as the chumps on yet another 'career building case'.
Also, am very intrigued by Brother Mouzone's cryptic reaction in the hospital to what transpired with his shooting. When he tells Stringer that he will handle the matter himself, does he mean he will exact his retribution against Omar or Stringer for playing them? I hope his code or whatever causes him to forgive Omar. They can't kill off another one of my favorite characters, they just can't! :(
Speaking of String, it was both sad and satisfying how he got taken down a peg by Avon, who bluntly reminded him of how petty, low down and dirty 'the game' actually is - no amount of discreet and well-planned strategy or erudite macroeconomic theory is going to change that. I almost feel that it would do him more good to be mentored by cold capitalists such as The Greek, instead of dealing with all this ego and gang reputation bullshit that Avon and crew are fixated upon.
As a side note on 'near misses' (which 'Dexter' is pro at...aargh), I would have thrown something at the screen had Lester somehow missed overhearing a ready-to-confess Nick Sobotka speaking to the officer at the desk at the station!
All in all, I liked Season 1 better than Season 2 but as you implied, this season was more important overall because it placed the show in a much larger context. As you and others pointed out, the character of Frank Sobotka was especially moving. He perfectly captured a sense of obliviousness and helplessness for an incoming wave of change that I'm sure is prevalent in so many sectors in the country now. In a way, I'm almost half glad they killed him off because the thought of his growing desperation as the years pass and he and his beloved union become irrelevant just depresses me. And this was 2003! All ports are probably wayy more mechanized than the Rotterdam robot revolution eight years ago!
Oh no I'm so devastated that there will be no more newbie reviews from now on. Will just have to do the veteran version at the end then, thanks a ton for doing them so far. You still have at least one very dedicated and grateful reader 3 years after you wrote these :) On to Season 3 Episode 1!
I just wanted to chime in with everyone else, even after the fact. Thanks for doing this Alan, it's been fantastic going through some of the best shows of the past half decade and recounting them with one of your posts after. Especially for a show as dense as this, or even Mad Men, it's been tremendous to find someone leading a civil, thoughtful discussion like these have been to help "debrief" after. I can't watch an episode of anything anymore without critically thinking about it or thinking of a "coming up just as soon as...". I'm rambling now, but again, thanks Alan! It's been greatly appreciated!
Just got done watching season 2. I haven't commented until now, but since I see I won't be the fist to post in 2011, what the hell? Anyway, nothing deep, just a few thoughts from this season:
- The first thing that stood out to me from episode 1 was this: it may be a demotion, but damn Jimmy looks handsome in a uniform!
-Chris Bauer played a pedophile in 1997's "The Devil's Advocate" so convincingly that every time I've seen him since (including in "True Blood"), I've never been able to get that out of my head. This is the first role I've seen him in since then that I was not thinking "Ah! Pervert!" every time he was on the screen.
-Even if I didn't love this season as much as season 1, I'm really glad they took the time to show the importation side the drug game.
Another terrific recap, Alan. I just started watching The Wire for the first time this month (I'm not two episodes into season 4) and I've been using these episode recaps to help guide me through the show. I love how insightful and well-thought out they are. Oh, and as for what Major Valchek said in Polish, it was "spoczywaj w spokoju," which basically means R.I.P. (referring to Frank Sobotka). Just wanted to add that since I haven't read another comment on this newbie post that already answered your question.
Alan, I'm not too sure if you come back to read these comments but I wanted to thank you for your reviews of S1 and S2.
My wife and I are finally watching The Wire from start (S1) to finish (S5) as our Winter project. We're just about to start S3.
Your reviews have been really helpful for confirming what we think is happening in the story - but most importantly, for reassuring us that although episodes start slow, they come to a crescendo at the end of a season. Thank you.
Although I didn't find season 2 as satisfying as season 1, I have to say that the performances made up for it. Chris Bauer as Frank was so much fun to watch; Such genuineness to his scences. I was blown away.
I agree Pablo Schreiber wasn't as strong as some of the other players, but to me it fit in with the fact that he was the little big man: Trying hard to be something and measure up to something but falling flat. I wonder if that came into consideration when he was cast. To his, and the writers credit, I was amazed at how quickly I could switch from really liking him as a character to hating him by the final episode.
I really can't believe how incredible the writing is. I enjoyed The Sopranos for the same reason but as someone as already said, The Wire's strength is in the fact that you often know what is going to happen but you're glued to the screen to see HOW it happens. Amazing.
One small note: what the greek leaves behind is not rosary beads but a koboloi.It has no religious value and is just used to keep the hands occupied.
This is such a superior way to enjoy television - find great content, watch it at your own pace, get expert criticism and commentary from a pro (Alan) and the fans (commenters).
Season 2 was really great. I'll never forget that duck and poor Ziggy. And Beadie, back at the harbor, uniformed up and clicking away the hours.
Alan, I just wanted to let you know that there are still a few of us out here who are just now discovering this great show. I'm glad you've left these recaps up all these years later for us late-coming newbies.
As a real latecomer I started watching The Wire a month ago, and just finished Season 2. I found your commentaries early on, and enjoy coming here to read your thoughts after viewing each episode. It really adds so much for me. Looking forward to the remaining seasons.
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