The Monday Evening Wire. Just a Step Behind.
Episode 58 "Clarifications"
cb sez -- Hey there fans of the Wire and friends of VINYL, I'm sorry to say there won't be a recap this week. I did watch the episode, I did love it, but I found myself even more in love with the idea of watching next week's directly following, (something I wasnt able to do, although I did call all of my buddies with On Demand).
Therefore, next week's episode 59 write-up will include this week's as well. If you need to read someone's opinion about last night really bad, here you go. I also took a couple pics from him. Thanks for reading.
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Uncool. Visual spoilers.
ReplyDeletesorry anonymous. a day late on the regular TV watchers and a week on the _On Demanders_, figured it would be an unnecessary warning. whoops, cameron?
ReplyDeleteI thought the same as Cuyler, anonymous. Apologies. For more spoilers and another thoughtful recap, go see the always entertaining Alan Sepinwall here.
ReplyDeleteBoy was that a good episode or what? Rough, sad, but really great.
Seeing Kenard with that cat was a bad sign. That whole sequence had me nervous. But I really dug how Omar spotted Dozerman and "Strawberry" (sorry) as cops from across the street. Maybe he heard their dialogue but, even if he did, that's some know-how. His death was fitting, however much it hurt, and however much it may be just as predictable as many other things in the David Simon worldview/writing scheme. But that's a dig. I don't want to denigrate how well directed that sequence was (so measured and quiet), how well acted that sequence was (calm and frazzled and fed up, tired), how well written that sequence was (so subtle). All in all this has to be one of the best episodes of all time on each of those levels. Even that early part of the Quantico scene was right on, if obvious. Really: Dominic West has been fantastic this season. His scene with Amy Ryan got to me.
When I think of the "heroes" on this show the ones that stand above/ahead of the others are the men and women who hold themselves accountable for their actions. This will be the real test of McNulty's tragic arc, I think. Because the lasting image I have of Omar is that amazing sequence from season 3, after one of his crew was killed by the Barksdale ambush, and after burning his hand with a cigarette to numb his tears, Omar stands shirtless in a doorway apologizing to his boy and the fallen girl's lover. Man's got to have a code.
Love that Lester shut up Clay Davis. Lester is so fucking cool. I hope McNulty absorbs the hit. It seems Lester is prepared for whatever but fuck me if it seems right to send him to jail for all his hard work. That's my whole problem with this show in miniature: what solution do you really propose? I mean, it seems kinda hopeless, and fruitless, this perpetual pilgrimage of the everyday, but even if a man's got a code, that doesn't mean he has any answers. But, regardless that pet peeve, I think what Simon and Burns are doing with this show is something special, indeed, if only for the fact that it employs so many black actors and gives voices and faces to something long willfully ignored with honesty: everyday hustling. That is, the vampirism of black street life. Not that I know much/anything about it beyond some hazy memories of batteries getting lobbed at my head and what media moguls allow me to see on television.
But, hey, I've got some final editing to do. This is long enough. I look forward to your double-up, Kels-style, next week, Cuy.
Better tip on out, detective. Indeed, indeed. Tippin out the cap, pourin back south, some liquid love to the ground and not my mouth. Big up yourself Michael K Williams. Big up yourself Omar. You'll be missed.
Nice recap, Ry.
ReplyDeleteI have been thinking how these episodes are written, how they practice a form of Irony I would re-dub Back Door Sentimentality.
Example one: Omar's death, full of surface ironies, but underneath, almost corny in its impact.
Example two: Omar's body in the morgue, misidentified at first. And when the correction is made? Not based on his street legend, but racial characteristics. He died unknown, 'unsung' as the ancient epic poets would say.
Reminds me of something I once read by John Updike... "Since the New Testament, all story telling is about the inner lives of the unknown."
True dat.