TV: The Wire (S3) (9/10)

Why did I watch it?
Season three of David Simon's Baltimore epic The Wire is the first season I haven't seen yet and I just completed re-watching the first two seasons to get back into the swing of things.

What's it all about?
Season three's central theme focuses on Baltimore's political machine, as the season's narrative follows the street level consequences of the incumbent Mayor's decision to increase the pressure on acting Police Commissioner Burrell to reduce crime statistics, all in the name of re-election  Meanwhile Lieutenant Daniels' Major Crime Unit continues to investigate the Barksdale organisation as Avon wages war against new dealer Marlo and Stringer struggles to legitimise the organisation through property development.

The Good:

• The usual high quality, thoughtful, uber realistic writing
• The penultimate episode Middle Ground
• Rawls and Burrells' reaction at the ComStat meeting when Major Colvin's reveals his Hamsterdam tactics
• Some big revelations and one of my most loved characters gets bumped off
• Avon's thug mentality versus Stringer's 'bodies are bad for business' policy

The Bad:

• Slower than usual this time around - the least enjoyable season so far for me but hey it's still The Wire.
• The political flavour of the season, with time dedicated to Councilman Carcetti, Mayor Royce etc. is less savoury than the homicide, street crime and drug trafficking angles of previous seasons.

Who gets got?

Favourite line:

'I had him and he doesn't even know it' - Jimmy McNulty

Stand-out moment:

Stringer revealing all to Avon and the fisticuffs that followed

What my wife would say: #When you walk through the garden.....#

What the world thinks:

Metacritic - 98/100

Twitter -

The Wire. Season 3, episode 11. Absolute genius. Holy balls perfection.
— Moon Zappa (@MoonZappa) May 25, 2013

TV: Treme (S3) (8/10)

Why did I watch it?
Regular readers of this blog will know of my deep affinity for anything David Simon related and yes that includes Treme. I've watched the show from it's beginnings so the third season was a must.

What's it all about?
The show returns to New Orleans for a third time, this time two years on from Hurricane Katrina and it simply carries on from where it left off with the ensemble cast of characters all continuing to rebuild in their lives as New Orleans begins to find it's feet following the storm.

Should you watch it?
I love Treme, I love it's wide array of characters, I love it's pacing and deliberate story telling and I love the way it's greatest character of all is New Orleans itself, its story told through it's culture of music, celebrations and food.

The third season is no different. The quality of story telling and acting is phenomenal. Melissa Leo, Wendell Pierce, Clarke Peters, Khandi Alexander, David Morse and Jon Seda, the list of experienced polished performers could go on. Simon is dedicated to all of his characters and provides each one a meaningful story-arc that runs the length of the season, all linked in some way with either Katrina-related drama or the city and it's history as a whole. 

People are bound to have their preferences and wish to see more of some than others but there is someone for everyone watching. My personal favourites are Toni Bernette (Leo), this time aggressively going after the NOPD, Antoine Baptiste (Pierce), becoming a dedicated school band teacher (the same can't be said for his dedication to his marriage) and Terry Colson (Morse), the cop being alienated for trying to clean house from within the NOPD. Added to the cast for this season is investigative reporter L.P. Everett (Chris Coy) who works with Toni to uncover more shady police work that went down following Katrina. Also, this time around Antoine's girlfriend Desiree (Phyllis Montana LeBlanc) gets a bigger piece of the action investigating the city's unscrupulous renovation and demolition policies.

'In every crisis, an opportunity" - Nelson Hidalgo

While not always being integral to the show's narrative, the music set pieces are welcome insertions to each episode and have introduced me to a whole genre of music I previously had no appreciation for (I checked out Fats Domino's version of Blueberry hill after Davis paid him a visit in Careless Love). On the crime side, I don't think the story lines live up to the standard set by Simon on The Wire but this is a different show, with different priorities.

Now renewed for a further five episode fourth season, the final episode of season three was, at the time, perhaps the final ever episode and Simon and co. closed with a brilliant finale. Typical for a Simon show finale, the episode contained a musical montage covering the majority of the cast, however for probably the first time in the show's history the narrative brought almost all of the characters together in a single place during this. Magic. Also, the story appeared to come to a natural conclusion for each of the characters. Granted there was not always a complete resolution, an example being Janette's realisation that she has signed away control of her dream, but you could certainly appreciate this being an end. Thankfully however it isn't!

TV: The Wire (S2) (9/10)

Why did I watch it?
Continuing with my re-watch of the first two seasons before moving on to new territory with the rest of the show.

What's it all about?
For those not in the know, The Wire is set in Baltimore and each season focuses on a different area of life in the city. Season two sees the action move from West Baltimore's towers and low rises to it's port, where an international smuggling ring exploit the hardship of the local stevedores to smuggle girls, uncut drugs and electricals into Baltimore. What starts as a pissing contest between fellow Poles, Major Valchek and stevedore union chief Frank Sobotka, and the discovery of a body in the water near the port ends up as another detail for Lieutenant Daniels and gang.

Should you watch it?
Equally as brilliant as the first season once the pieces fall into place, the season's focus shifts up the drug chain from dealers to suppliers through the smugglers but as with most things in David Simon's Baltimore, everything is connected and it turns out that the smugglers (and by connection the union) supply Proposition Joe who cuts a deal with Stringer. This link ensures that the likes of Stringer, Avon, D'Angelo and Omar still feature, although less prominently than the first season, replaced with the characters of the stevedore union.

Central to the season is Frank Sobotka, excellently played by Chris Bauer, who finds himself torn between looking out for his union  and future generations of the traditionally local workforce and doing the right thing and setting the right example to his son and nephew. He is truly horrified at the discovery of thirteen dead girls inside a can on his dock but can't bring himself to break his connection to 'The Greek'.

Stan v Frank

What really struck me about the story's beginning was the initial infighting between jurisdictions and departments, led by Homicide Major Rawls, over the ownership of the thirteen Jane Does, something I can well believe after reading David Simon's book, Homicide - A Year on the Killing Streets. This kind of gritty, self serving, inhumane approach to homicides really cannot be found anywhere else but The Wire. Also, as with the first season, season two's ending is far from the fairytale ending to be expected in most films or TV shows. 

The penultimate episode, Bad Dreams, finishes with one of the best set of scenes I think I have ever seen on a TV screen. Played out over an fitting Greek song 'Efige Efige' (translated to 'He Left'), the montage displays the fortunes of Frank swinging 180 degrees through a series of events elsewhere at precisely the wrong time. A masterpiece.

TV: The Wire (S1) (10/10)

Why did I watch it?
I usually only review films or shows I've not seen before but in the case of The Wire I had to make an exception. I've already seen the first two seasons and having bought the box-set sometime ago, it was time to go back to the start and enjoy it all over again.

What's it all about?
For those not in the know, The Wire is set in Baltimore and each season focuses on a different area of life in the city. The first season revolves around a hastily put together police detail tasked with investigating the little known Barksdale drug empire. Led by Lieutenant Daniels (Lance Reddick) and the dedicated Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West), the detail are under pressure to make a minimal amount of low level charges quickly, however work is slow and painstaking difficult and the detail fight their superiors for more time to build a case using electronic surveillance.

Should you watch it?
The great thing about The Wire is....well, everything. The scope of the show is immense, the characters range from judges, DAs, police chiefs and detectives on one side to those encompassing the whole structure of Anton Barksdale's gang, from right hand men and enforcers to low level dealers. Each is involved in the story as it plays out slowly piece by piece. The line between good and bad is blurred at best, the police force is riddled with incompetence and those only concerned with self-preservation while the dealers are a well-organised mixture of cold-blooded killers and morally conflicted teens who know no other way of life. Not to mention Omar (Michael K. Williams), the gay stick-up man who terrorises local drug stash houses.

Who's listening?

The Wire is the ultimate definition of a slow-burner but with hour long episodes the plot begins to unravel soon enough and rewards are plenty for those patient during the initial episodes. Fans of David Simon's other works like Treme will have no problem adapting to the pace.

Did I mention that the acting, script and music are also top notch? Best line..."If you come at the king, you best not miss".

I am a huge fan of both The Soprano's and The Shield, and the first season of The Wire comes very close if not better than the best moments of these two. It deserves all the credit it receives and more.