Product Placement

Up through the last hurrah," --30--".

So, I got distracted for a second during last night's broadcast, and missed what Levy said to Herc before inviting him over for brisket. Was there some sort of implication that Levy knew Herc was going to give up Marlo's celly to the cops? This storyline really intrigues me because there's no way someone as razor sharp as Levy brings Herc into the fold and trusts him not to pull shit like that. I can buy that there was some long-standing plan on his part to manipulate Herc and sink his own clients for personal gain. That makes a lot more sense to me. One of the lessons to be learned after last night: if anyone wears a crown now, it's Mr. Levy, the uptown lawyer.

Anyway, Slate is making a big deal out of Levy's Arby's commercial, asserting moronically that it's somehow "new," even though I saw it like a year ago. By the way, David Plotz, whom David Simon ripped apart a couple of weeks back, is exactly the kind of journalist Simon is trying to savage: ill-informed, self-serving, untrustworthy. One day, I might post about an interesting clash I had with Plotz years ago when I was in high school and he was a self-aggrandizing alum who came back to teach a pretentious course about western philosophy or some shit. Motherfucker was arrogant and ignorant back then too.

Anyway, the Levy commercial got me thinking about what lies in store for all these guys now. Chris as NRA spokesman? Snoop doing something for Craftsman nail guns? Randy schilling for M&M's? Dukie riding atop some Clydesdales for the next Budweiser commercial? You know these guys aren't exactly going to be lighting it up in the otherwise superficial, lilly white world of film and television.

Note, a re-edited version of the Clay Davis commercial for Verizon is above. Enjoy...

The Final Re-Up

A proper post is coming, but in the meantime, please direct your attention to this wonderful interview with David Simon, discussing the show as a whole.
[HT - Heaven and Here]

The King is Dead

Up through Episode 5.8

So I've finally worked my way through the stages of grief and have come to accept Omar's brain splattering on the bullet proof glass at the bodega. Looking back at his killer, Kenard's, trajectory, I can't help but thinking how astonishingly well-telegraphed Kenard's move was. In a world of sociopaths and cynics, Kenard's angel face always stood out. It belied his deep-seated fearlessnes and his inherent understanding of the Darwinian nature of the Game: a lesser kid would've been cowed by Namond--considering his bloodline--but Kenard saw weakness in Wee-Bay's heir; he scammed him and when it was time to get beat down, he took that (at Michael's hands, no less)--though his tears were the tears of a child.

When he saw that Dukie couldn't command respect on the corner, he punked him, he ridiculed him, and took another beating. I suppose it's vintange David Simon: He gave us four kids--Dukie, Michael, Randy, and Namond--and had us watch, obsess, over their every move. But the one kid we thought was just a supporting player, just a hopper like all the hoppers before him, turned out to be the one to make the ultimate power-play.

And what of the victim of that play? Omar was always The Wire's most fantastical character; his existence made no sense. He defied the Darwinian order. But we loved him, so we let Simon slide. He gave us a show committed to urban verisimilitude and we lauded him for it, but at the same time we accepted--we craved--the ridiculous notion that Omar might survive a five-story jump, that he could walk through stash-houses with just a sawed-off in his hand and "Farmer in the Dell" on his lips, that he could limp through B-more in the daylight calling out Marlo's name, that he could do all this and more and live to see another day. During Bird's trial, when asked how he managed to survive in so perilous a living, he said only, "Day at a time, I suppose." And that shrugging, almost disinterested view of his own mortality is what I'm left with now.

Just before his death, Omar walked by a scattering mess of boys, paying no mind to the one who remained. Cold-hearted and clear-eyed, Kenard confirmed in that moment what he had seen before--that Omar was not the legend that Chris, Snoop, Michael, Avon, Stringer and the rest of 'em--us viewers included--had made him out to be: He was just "gimpy as a motherfucker," and he needed to die. How could I have missed that the kid calmly torturing a cat would be the one to do him in? I suppose I just didn't want to see. For Omar to have survived, for the viewers who came to fetishize his bad-assed ways to have their inner, emotional pleas heard, would've been a criminal disservice to the show. That's not to say in that split second before Omar got capped, as the camera framed him through the bullet proof glass, when it became obvious what was about to happen, I didn't scream, "No, please, no!" at my TV. I did. I knew but I didn't want to accept. Omar walked above the Street and above the Law, and, I had hoped, above the Game. We saw him cloaked in darkness and bathed in Caribbean light. We heralded his legend to all who would listen.

I thought Omar was David Simon's greatest gift to us, but really he was just Simon's greatest ruse: he made us believe that magic exists even in West Baltimore and then he punched us in the stomach and he was right to do it because, after all, there is no such thing as magic.

Stepping Up

Up Through: Episode 5.7 "Took"
A great episode overall. I once sat in a courtroom with Billy Murphy - it was back in 2005 and he was wearing a bluetooth earpiece in court. It was strange enough at the time that the judge stopped him mid-sentence to ask what that thing was on his ear. A real pleasure to see a B-more lawyer make one of the best cameos in the whole show.
Clay Davis' trial, while getting low marks for legal realism, gets my highest praise for entertainment. "Promathus" and "Asilius" - classic.

I thought the ending scene with Kima and her son was beautiful, though it was a centimeter from falling into maudlin sentimalism. Also it was the first crane shot ever used in the show if I'm not mistaken. On that same note, I've noticed handheld cameras sprinkled throughout this season, where I believe they were absent in Seasons 1-4. In general, I like handhelds, but I always gave points to The Wire for steering clear of this look-at-the-edgy-look-of-my-edgy-story convention.

The gearing-up scene was shot with handheld cameras, with journos and cops assigned their posts in the quixotic homeless killer search. Fake killer aside, this scene highlighted the unique power of institutions to handle such moments of mass mobilization and coordinated effort. David Simon loves to hate on institutions, but it's hard to imagine that any group of individual agents could operate with the same level of speed, clear delegation and coordination. So maybe Simon is right about the corrosive and counterproductive role of institutions generally, but perhaps there's something to the notion that they're worth keeping around for moments of crisis. Without a chain of command, how would Simon (and libertarians and anarchosyndicalists for that matter) propose communal threats be handled?
I don't think this defeats The Wire's central institutional critique - it just paints a somewhat rosier picture of unique institutional efficacy.

One last thought:
When Marlo killed Prop Joe, he wore a black T-shirt with "Royal Addiction" printed on it.
In "Took," Michael wears a white T-shirt featuring a graphic number 1 wearing a crown and the word "Royal" written on it.
Hmmmmm......

Can't Knock It

Hello, Wirey blogger friends. Humbly, I ask you to let me join your fraternity of all things Game-related. While I can't promise as searing commentary as I have read from you these last couple of days, I will attempt in my own small way to contribute to the discussion.

As for how my invtiation to this group was procured, suffice it to say, I learned a thing or two from our boy Clay Davis: Sheeee-it, it's all about the hustle. More on "Took" (Episode 57) later (I hesitate to go into it now, mainly, because I imagine you guys aren't like me, waiting till the stroke of midnight, remote in hand, each Sunday evening, to watch the show On Demand...)

So Meta

Up through Episode 56, "The Dickensian Aspect".

Couldn't agree more, V, with your/everyone else's recent take on McNulty. Sometimes I still like to think this is some acrobatic feat of character development, where Jimmy's trapeze of likability will swing dangerously low, scraping the 3 rings, only to see him pop back up and quadruple-backflip his way back off of my shit list. Lord knows this show has pulled off greater feats than that.

Sadly, though, watching him rail at the machine, watching him make arguments against people when he, we, and everyone knows that it's the collective and faceless institution holding him down, watching that makes me scratch my head and think: could David Simon actually be consciously parodying himself? Could he be self-aware enough and ironic enough to recognize that Jimmy's misplaced anger at the police command is just like his own rantings and ravings at his editors past? Could he be aware that this season shows Simon to be equally unwilling to acknowledge that it's the system that forced people into compromise, not some politician or police commissioner or Marimow/Whiting newspaper editor?

That's what's so odd to me about this season, and many have written about it, right up to this weekend's Washington City Paper article on same: how did all the insight and wisdom about individuals and how they're compromised by the system fall out of the show's world this season? How did a person as astute and uncompromising as Simon fail to look at his own profession through the magical lens he used for every other one? I almost puked when Whiting comes over after the homeless story first hits, douchebag junior editor at his side, and in unbelievably predictable fashion, drops "Grrreat story, Scott". Post-industrial gods? Shakespeare? Dickens? Bullshit. That shit is elementary school good vs. evil, a place and a device this wonderful show has studiously and miraculously avoided for 4 seasons.

So why? I guess all I can come up with, trying not to settle for the "Simon's just too angry" plotline, is instead almost more incredulous - Simon's just too lazy. In each of the first four seasons, he used a reporter's best skills - go out, talk to people, learn about something you knew nothing about, turn it into something people want to digest - to tell a deeply woven story. The guy, by all accounts, did major field research at the ports, the schools, city hall and on the streets, and using up-to-the-minute details, recrafted it into a eerily (but not annoyingly) realistic piece of fiction. But to tell the story of reporters, it seems he relied less on reportage - finding out what a newsroom feels like in 2008, what role the internet is playing, learning about who's succeeding despite that, etc - and instead crafted a story based on his own history, his own experience, and most disappointingly, his own black-and-white Jimmy McNulty world view of the people supposedly destroying his beloved (former) profession, all the while neglecting to apply either the lessons or the world view of the first four seasons to that thing he holds closest. It feels stale because it's stuff that's been rattling in one guy's head for 20 years. Dare I say, he's pulling a Templeton job on us.

Still, lest I digress to far, let's all take a breath. It's the best show ever. Omar, Bubbles, Michael, Cutty, Freamon, Rawls, Landsman, Norman, Joe, Frank Sobotka, Dukie, the list goes on, etc etc. Pelecanos, Price, Lehane, Burns, etc etc. And David Simon sure as hell is always welcome at my house for dinner - or even better, my girlfriend's house where they make the most delicious of foods.

Swing low, sweet trapeze, and dare me to dream once again. T-minus 4 episodes to go.

What Do Real Thugs Think of The Wire?

The Freakonomics blog has been posting the thoughts of real thugs as they watch Season Five of The Wire. Sudhir Venkatesh, author of Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets, has developed a relationship with Chicago drug gangs as part of his research into the economics of the game. He meets weekly with gang members to watch and discuss the show.
The exchanges are interesting.
Each part tracks that episode of Season Five.
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five

I Said "Good Day" Sir!

Up Through: Episode 5.6 "The Dickensian Angle"
That's it. Whatever shred of goodwill I had towards McNulty has been obliterated. He's too far gone to feel any protagonistic connection, and somehow he's become boring on top of it. That scene of him drunkenly expositing to the statute of George Washington was schmaltzy and unnecessary. And what's the deal with the slick shirts and ties he's been sporting this season? Bushytop got to fall.

Corner Boys

Up Through: Episode 55 "React Quotes"
Well, Vic - you've very adequately summed up a lot of what came out of 55 (Omar the Flying Squirrel, a double-helix of bullshit spun by McNulty and Templeton, the foreshadowed rise of Mr. Bond - an interesting character name, that one), so if I may, I'd love to return for a moment to what, in my opinion is a) the crowning achievement of this show and b) the one storyline most at risk of falling victim to an unsatisfying end: namely, Michael, Dukie, Randy and Namond, and the many-sided prism they give us to view the main character of the show: Baltimore as the post-industrial American City, warts and all.

Now, this may be more of a "keep these thoughts in mind as the show goes forward" post than a "the first 5 episodes have led me to the following conclusions" post, but with a thuggish-looking Randy peeking through in "scenes from the next"this week, maybe this is a good time to pause and check in on our 4 boys Edward Tilghman Middle.

One thing you each heard me say a lot as the season was getting going was my theory that, but for his career as a reporter, it seems likely to me that David Simon would maybe have reversed the focus of Seasons 4 and 5, choosing to explore the news media before turning a final "where did this all come from" eye to the education system. It would have emerged as a very different show, I think, and it's obviously besides the point, but it's to his credit and his detriment that he chose to cap things off with the media, because in my estimation, the 4 boys are the most extraordinary thing television has ever seen (wouldn't be a good Wire post without some superlatives right) - unparalleled character development, acting, physicality, risk-taking, etc.


Ellie already spoke some to Dukie and his (finally) connecting with Cutty to share a sense of imprisonment within the many walls of the hood. An amazing scene, one I'm really eager to watch again - in particular, the way the scene transitions from inside to outside, as if to underscore that it's not only physical walls holding these two in, but much more evasive, if more concrete walls - lack of family, poverty, crime, the growing absence of upward mobility in American culture, etc. I was reassured somewhat when Michael echoed Cutty's sentiments by saying "you've got other skills" (Run, Dukie, to Silicon Valley and throw yourself at their mercy!), but the scene in general brought in so much of what the show tries to communicate, and didn't (thank god) bash you over the head with it.

Michael, as before, remains the more complex and more difficult figure. You want to put him out of your mind - he's gone thug now, he's one of them, he's not the boy I knew, peeing in water balloons and whatnot - but they seem to have made a conscious decision not to let us off that easily. Instead, we're going to get a more realistic view - one that shows that just because he's picked up with Chris and Marlo doesn't mean he's an instant sociopath. He didn't shoot the kid, he's trying to manage a new life not just for himself but for Bug and Dukie, and part of that management has been drawing harsh boundaries around himself - witness his cold treatment of his mother and his chilling look at Cutty as he stops, quite tellingly, before crossing the threshold into the gym. Sad to say, I think we all know where Michael is headed - people pulling back from the game are a needle in a haystack. But it's to the credit of all the producers, writers, etc, that they understand the bond they've created, understand Michael as metaphor for the whole game, and (I hope) they are not going to let us dismiss him as easily as we might be inclined to do out of sheer self-protection. If that ship goes down, we might have to watch it fall apart board-by-board.

Will Randy somehow make up for this? Has group home living toughened him too, bled his soul too? Somehow they'll need to make his story different from Michael's (or Bodie's for that matter), but boy I sure can't figure out how. Ms Anna makes a miraculous recovery and they get the hell out of dodge? Sadly, I think not. And I have to think we get to see Namond again, if only because not doing so would mean no resolution for either him or Bunny. Where will his fifteenth year have taken him?

Not too much new here, but just to say, I'll be keeping my eye on the kids - you can't bring something like that into a narrative and let it fizzle out. As goes Randy, so goes the universe. Gulp.

Keeping it Real

Up Through Episode 55: "React Quotes"
I was sorry to watch this episode solo (I mean I watched it with two people, but one was buying shirts online and the other just started watching a few months ago, so you know what I mean) I agree that it was quite jam-packed, and also that it was pretty freakin awesome. The Clay Davis media campaign and support rally was SO Marion Barry, it really rang true, and Dookie's dilemma is my new favorite narrative metaphor for the entire show. (also maybe a good band name...) How do you get to the rest of the world from here? Sheeeit, I don't know....

The moment that really got me, maybe the best moment ever in the best show ever, was Bubs' face when Waylon told him he was negative. Everyone loves to compare The Wire to Homicide, but for me the deeper connection is to The Corner. The way that show dealt with addiction was real in a way that almost overcame the cruddy production values and lackluster acting. I guess the flaws just made it more real in way - honest in a way that was hard to look at.

Anyway, when Bubs went looking for Waylon in what looked like the same crab joint that featured prominently in the rehab attempts of the main character of The Corner, I knew that shit was about to get REAL. When they had an entire conversation about what Bugs needed to do without saying "AIDS test" I knew that the between-the-lines writing that is one of my favorite parts of The Wire was back in a way that it hasn't been so far this season. The real kicker was that Waylon's reaction to Bubs' inability to deal with the good news was to keep it real and yell at him a little bit. It made me cry it was so real, which is what the whole show is about for me.

So yeah, the exploits of the two bushy-topped prevaricators and Herc's plan to get revenge for the Fuzzy Dunlop debacle (band name #2?) were intriguing for sure, and when Omar jumped out the window I stopped breathing for a minute, and I definitely lost a little sleep wondering if I caught a glimpse of Dookie with a gun during the shoot out, but it's Bubs thats keeping me going right now, and I kind of feel like whatever happens to him will be the real resolution of the show for me. After all, he's the Greek chorus, right? Doesn't that mean he's up there standing in for all of us and doing all that catharsis stuff (isn't there another -arthis too?)In keeping with the Shakespearean theme, he's the Falstaff of this little world - addict, schemer, wise old man. To paraphrase the Bard himself.. "banish Bubs and banish all the world..."

Shame Ain’t Worth As Much As You Think

Up Through: Episode 55 “React Quotes”

To begin - wow wow wow. I may be wrong, but that felt like the most densely packed episode of any show in the history of television. Woe be unto the casual viewer who checks in for the first time on Sunday to see what all the hype is about.

Each of the following plots could have been the central thread of the episode:

-Nerese making moves to become the Prop Joe of the political sphere

-Dukie’s frustration with being out of place and having no outlet (my top prediction for the season - Dukie becomes a blogger!)

-The domestic situation of one James McNulty

-Clay Davis circling the wagons, in style of course (I wager that ep 55 featured the longest “Sheeeeeeet” by at least 3/4ths of a second)

-Ingenious Freamon setting up the old bait and switch because nobody understands how wiretaps work

-Daniels eating crap from the mayor and then rolling it on down the hill

-Herc doing right by Carver

But no, the heart of ep 55 was McNulty and Templeton, squared off in The Sun’s newsroom, each feeding off the other's bullshit and then realizing they're being fed bullshit but can't call it out without showing their cards, destabilizing both of them. Jimmy, there's more than one of your kind out there. There’s a touch of the Cold War in that situation, and no small amount of Infernal Affairs (sorry, The Departed).

I thought of Templeton as a less charming McNulty (they even look alike), but hell if I saw this one coming. What I wouldn’t give to see the live MRI of Templeton’s brain at the moment Jimmy says the killer also mentioned the number 12. What an amazing set of calculations he has to be making. Scott’s invented killer was so obviously cobbled from 1990s movies (especially Seven), that there’s no way he can believe the call to McNulty was genuine - it’s too much of a coincidence. When both sides wield their institutional golden fleeces - confidential sources for the journos and ongoing investigations for Bushytop - McNulty and Templeton know the truth will not out for some time, so the paranoia will start to ratchet. To Wong Foo Thanks For Everything Judith Miller!

Hm, let me think, what else did we learn this episode?

Michael is becoming Chris.

Chris’ loyalty to Marlo has a breaking point.

Snoop aims for the head.

Royce is working his way through the facial hair varietals - goatee, clean shaven, mustachioed.

McNulty likes the Ramones and one of his sons has their haircut without knowing it.

Bond will become a bigger character.

For some reason, Chris thinks it’s a better plan to bait and wait for Omar’s assault than to creep up and shoot him as he reconnoiters.

The only time Michael and Dukie get to experience nature is when they train for killing.

Bubs wants physical suffering to cleanse his soul - very medieval if you ask me.

The old imitate-a-racial-stereotype-to-confirm-a-target’s-phone-number-trick isn’t solely licensed to Carver.

When Freamon says “thh-ree” he sounds like the owl from the old Tootsie Pop ads.

The Wire was originally a show about a wiretap investigation to stop crime. It’s now about an unauthorized and extralegal wiretap run with the cover of a fake and useless wiretap ordered by the court to investigate a fake criminal. It’s like the Iran-Contra deal, but the hostages are leprechauns.

I figure that weird signal at the end was some sort of data package, like an image of Zorba, sent by Marlo’s phone. Stanfield’s reaction when Vondas shows him the communication method points to this or something like it. Maybe it was encrypted.

Did we learn anything else?

Oh right, OMAR CAN FLY.

Your thoughts on this episode?

Stupid Moves Thus Far

Up Through: Episode 54

With Prop Joe's end justly taking the air out of the room as far as commentary goes, (Slate discussion here, another good post here) I wanted to note a few mistakes that seem to set up a few more major falls.

Levy

What is he thinking, letting Herc stay in the room as Marlo and Joe pop by? Even if he hadn't vetted Herc's prior police investigations, it's a dumb move to have your freshly exed-cop acting as a pseudo-receptionist for such a specialized clientele. Levy knows that Herc still keeps up with his old friends - this one blows my mind for stupidity.
Prediction: Herc steals files and breaks Levy after Marlo baits him once more.

Marlo

Too much too fast. I think that the po-po detail coming off let Marlo's id and ambition explode outward, heedless of timing and strategy. Marlo's big mistake is combining his takeover of the co-op package with baiting Omar to come a-callin'. Those are two wars that didn't have to coincide. He could have sat on the Butchie tip for a while, or waited until the takeover was done before trying to smoke out Ay-yo. Marlo sees the throne and has no patience for putting anything on the back burner. He can't find peace as the king without eliminating anyone who's ever crossed him. That said, I love this storyline, and the line "I wasn't meant to play the son" should've been Shakespeare's.

Prediction: Omar wreaks substantially more havoc (bye-bye Snoop in ep 55 or 56) on Marlo's crew with information passed along by Marlo's former co-op partners, especially Mr. "Got mo' fierce" himself, Slim Charles.

McNulty

You might view this whole season as one big mistake by 'ol Bushytop, but if we take his dubious mission as gospel, he's going about it in a highly-traceable way. For a man that's about to launch a sadistic serial killer into the minds of the city and its public servants, McNulty is being needlessly careless, acting in ways that one might remember as "hey, wasn't that kinda funny?" once McNulty is on the front page scaring the crap out of Bawlmore. No smoking guns of course, and Bunk, Lester and Lester's old partner are each positioned to bring the axe down were they to decide to do so, so McNulty might not be brought low by such sloppiness. Still, he's in full rapscallion mode, where perhaps a stealthy and tight-lipped approach might serve him better in his new serial-killer-inventing and corpse-defiling hobby.
Prediction: I think McNulty gets put-in by a busted Templeton (who will presumably jump on the serial killer story - the irony of a fabricating reporter writing sensational real news about a fabricated killer is delicious), but prior to getting locked up, he drunkenly sidles up to Marlo late at night and talks trash. Night, Jimmy.

Am I wrong in thinking there were a higher number of ill-advised moves by savvy characters this episode?

Boxed In By One's Insides

I think a fair bit of ink has been spilled on the subject of the possibility of escape and happiness for the characters of The Wire. Will McNulty make peace with the establishment and settle down at a homicide desk? Will Bubs get clean and forgive himself? Will Michael survive?
This post is about the internal bonds that hold many of the characters in place. I've identified five character perspectives that occur in almost all The Wire's worlds. One of the hallmarks of the show is that you can't choose which perspective to have, no matter your surroundings or which perspective would objectively lead to the best outcome. These perspectives tend to be hard-wired rather than chosen and the interaction among these viewpoints drives the perpetual churning in each institution.

The Visionaries
Characters who see the failings of their institution and want to change things
(McNulty, Stringer, Judge Phelan, Cutty, Carcetti, Sobotka, Prez (Season 4), D'Angelo, Bunny Colvin)



"There you go. Giving a fuck when it ain't your turn to give a fuck."













The Operators
They see the dynamics of the system and make moves to maximize their own gain
(Bubs, Avon, Rawls, Levy, Rhonda, Burrell, Carcetti, Marlo, Brianna, Prop Joe, Valchek, Marla Daniels, Mayor Royce, Nicki Sobotka, The Greek, Butchie, Delonda, Templeton, Naresse, Norman, Clay Davis, Kenard, Whiting)

"I wasn't meant to play the son."














The Soldiers
Characters who just are
(Herc, Carver, The Bunk, Wee-Bey, Kima, Omar, Bodie, Poot, Landsman, The Old Detectives in Season 1, Snoop, Slim Charles, Chris Partlow, Sham, Sydnor, Ziggy Sobotka, Beadie, Alma)

"...less they some smart-ass pawns."











The Tortured Bystanders
Characters who see the fall coming but don't have the will to mount up
(Daniels, Freamon, D'Angelo, Shardene, Carver, Cheryl, Fletcher, Waylon, Gus)

"It all matters."








The Victims
Not so much a perspective as an outcome, these characters drive the churning of their institutions by inspiring the visionaries and bystanders to take action in some form
(William Gant, Wallace, D'Angelo, Johnny, Snot Boogie, Brandon, Ziggy, Sharrod, Twigg, Security Guard)

"This is me, yo, right here."

The best characters on the show are those that straddle and shift among the perspectives - those that have it all inside them and have real choices to make.

Bubs is illustrative of this - he's an operator by day, bystander and sometimes victim by night.

Carver as well - we've witnessed his transformation from goonish soldier to impotent observer of Randy's descent to a Colvin-esque sergeant who wants to draw a line in the sand, no matter the consequences.

Without cataloging the other characters that have progressed through several perspectives, I think I can safely say that the role of Michael is genius. In just over a year, he goes through each type.

Michael's backstory is that of the victim, with strong suggestions that he had been sexually abused by his stepfather as a child. He is familiar with the impotent bystander position, as he is powerless to save Randy from the snitch beatings or stop Cutty from being shot for trying to reach out to him. He's clearly an efficient soldier if he can win Chris Partlow's mentorship, and his operator tendencies are on display in small measure throughout the show. Busting Kenard was a small manifestation of all that Michael understands about his world - he plays his cards close, though it's hard to doubt that the boy knows how to play the game.

What Season Five has brought us is Michael's burgeoning vision of a life lived by a code. He balks at killing for Marlo over a rumored dis, and when he reaches a moral threshold, he turns back rather than kill a child.

Michael's moral development is the most dangerous thing that could happen to him. But the boy is smart, the boy is tough, and he has a large array of perspectives to draw from in escaping the nets cast round him. Life, however, is cyclical on The Wire, and Michael might not be able to dodge another turn at playing the victim.

One Side Loses More Slowly

Welcome to Taking Notes On A Criminal Conspiracy, a blog devoted, like so many before, to HBO's The Wire.

Realizing that we are late to the game, this blog will jump right into the meat of Season 5, tying threads and themes to earlier events. It will also serve as a clearing house for the best Wire resources that we happen to find on the web.

The best Wire-blog out there, in this writer's opinion, is Heaven and Here. We'll try to contribute to the discussion in that spirit.