January 29, 2008

Season Five, Episode Four

Okay, so maybe this blog is turning into a review of The Wire. I didn’t even realize that I hadn’t posted since last week. I have been working on some other writing lately and Annie has been such a calm, complete baby, that I haven’t had time to update all of you on what we have been up to. I think I can sum it up as so…Annie is the shit. She sits up on her own whenever I have to fold the laundry and she plays with toys or Zoe whenever I feel I need to jot down some notes on the computer. That being said, here are my thoughts on episode four of the last season of my favorite show.

In retrospect I should have seen Prop Joe’s demise coming. My Wire watching skills have been wasting away while I worry about this Baltimore Sun issue. While Marlo has been learning everything there is to know about being a true kingpin from Prop Joe, he was courting The Greek behind his back. I’m pretty stupid, yes.

With Joe’s killing, Marlo has fully entrenched himself as the craziest character on the show. Marlo kills ceaselessly and he shows not an ounce of emotion. Every week I’m waiting for him to crack a smile or show some anger and he never does. Maybe when his impending face-off with Omar happens he will, but I doubt it. Wait, this just in as of my second watching of this episode. When Marlo sees Herc while waiting for a consult with Levy, he hears that Herc lost his job over the stolen camera from season four. Marlo quietly chuckles in his face and walks out. That opens the door for a rush of emotion coming soon I’m sure.

This week our friends Jimmy and Lester are still way off the reservation. They continued their “killing” spree and the genius Lester added some new twists to the plot, including a fake set of teeth that they are presumably “biting” their victims with. The best part about this nuance to the case is that we see Lester carving the teeth with the same tool that he uses on his doll house miniatures. I still don’t see how this is going to fund the police department well enough to get their unit back.

Despite the return of my boy, Omar was not involved with the best scene this week. That honor goes to that sniveling creep Templeton. He interviewed at his dream paper and got completely and indistinctly pushed from the room. His interview didn't warrant a smidge of emotion from the higher ups, and when they referred to Sun stories that they loved, he had to look at his lap and tell them he had nothing to do with them. They shuffled him out of the office and told him that with a little more polish they would reconsider. He may as well been interviewed by Marlo, Snoop and Chris. Finally, at the front door of the building he was ignominiously told that he could just throw away his guest pass on the way out. A nothing reporter, given a nothing interview. He deserves it.

While writing the previous paragraph I stumbled upon the beauty of this show. Of all the people that come across the screen, and the cast is huge, the one I dislike most is the lying reporter who isn’t hurting anyone but middle to upper class white guys like himself. The characters I love are Omar and Snoop, Bubs, McNulty, and even Marlo. All of them are seriously flawed, but I would be very sad if any of them left the show. When Scott Templeton leaves I will dance a jig here in this space.

Overall this week’s was a very strong episode, and with Omar’s impending havoc wreaking next week, this guy is pumped for the escalation of this season. And on we go to his wisdom. There is a scene in an abandoned house where he is plotting Marlo’s death and saying that he wouldn’t go directly at him. Instead he’ll kill the people close to Marlo because, “If you hurt enough of them, that snake’s goan’ stick his head above that hole.” Omar better get another role after The Wire, he is incredibly nuanced.

This week gave the woman and me our fourth o-fer of the season. The producers picked the aforementioned Templeton and his thought that it's a “buyer’s market out there.” Very boring. Instead, in honor of his death, we’ll substitute Prop Joe’s declaration that he is taking himself out of the lineup due to Omar’s impending return “out of respect for that man’s skillset.” He should have been looking elsewhere though, and concerning himself with the distinct skills possessed by Marlo.

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