Monday, March 10, 2008

The Wire Series Finale

Sorry folks, but I have to do just one more The Wire post and then I think I'll be done. If you want to know my thoughts on the series finale, the series in general, or anything else re: The Wire that comes to my mind, read below. If not, well I'll see you later on in the week with some different content, I promise. And FYI there will be plenty of SPOILERS after the jump so be warned. And, if you are planning on maybe getting into the show from the beginning, feel free to read this. Sure you'll know the very end but there is plenty of great stuff in between. What's more you might even see something that makes you want to devote some time to the show. I hope so at least. Enough of the foreplay...


Part 1: How My Predictions Look? (they look good, girl)

If you recall, in one of my past Wire posts a while back I made a bunch of predictions. Check 'em out. Not too bad I think.

Cheese is going down hard right?...best scene of the finale by far. I literally got up off my couch cheering when Slim Charles straight up popped him. "That's for Joe." Awesome.

Somehow, some way I think Brother Mouzzone shows up and helps Omar bring down Marlo...part of me is surprised that we heard nothing of Mouzzone after Stringer but the other part of me realizes that he was ultimately Avon's guy in New York AND that once Avon, the only remaining West Baltimore player loyal to New York got locked up and the package started coming exclusively from Prop Joe and The Greeks therefore shutting out completely New York and Mouzzone that there would really be no reason for him to come back unless he wanted to consummate his relationship with Omar. Holy crap that was a long sentence. Sorry.

I think Slim Charles will ultimately play a part in Marlo's downfall. You can definitely see dissension in the ranks there...so maybe it did not go down exactly like this, but Slim still did make himself the de facto new boss by offing Cheese, Marlo's "chosen" successor. Of course this is ironic because Slim never really seemed to want to be a part of the upper crust of the trade. He seemed happiest driving Stringer and acting as muscle. Do you remember how goofy he was at the beginning of Season 3?

Are Lester's actions this season supposed to answer the question from the first season of what he did to get himself stuck in the pawn shop unit for nine years...this was not really a prediction but I think the answer to that question is most definitely "yes".

Daniels "past" which has been brought up off and on since season 1 finally comes back to nail him...um yep, that's pretty much what happened. Honestly when his wife came into his office to tell him to keep his mouth shut to save HER career I was tempted to send a text message to other RBB The Wire enthusiast, Matt Burke reading, "Daniels' wife is a CUNT!".

McNulty and Lester both get royally fucked..not really honestly. Both got about as light a punishment as they could. The ironic thing being of course that everything they did was a result of their desire to get Marlo (and Chris too I guess) behind bars but it is now positioned that if Marlo goes to jail, so do they because of all the illegal methods they employed to ultimately take down Marlo.

Bunk catches Chris via the DNA evidence from the beat down on Michael's daddy...100% correct here bitches. You had to see the writing on the wall though and I hardly call this a prediction. It was nice to see in the closing montage Chris and his kindred spirit and soul mate Wee Bey chatting in the prison yard. Between those two I think they are serving about 187 consecutive life sentences. Chris actually grew on me a bit this season, but for whatever reason I always liked Wee Bay (killing the hooker excluded). He had to be the most charismatic muscle-man that any of the crews ever had. Oh, and that scene from Season 1 with him bringing D'Angelo to his house to teach him how to feed the fish when D thinks he is going to kill him is absolutely classic.

Snoop gets lit up hard by Omar or Omar fucks her thinking that she is a he...well it was Michael and not Omar that got Snoop but I am proud that I predicted her demise. Plenty has already been written about the brilliance of the "You look good girl" scene so I won't add to it. I will say though that even if it was foreshadowed in that episode that Michael would become the next Omar (the part where he stakes her out from afar for a few hours on the corner) I still don't buy it. Michael always seemed much more Stringer Bell to me than Omar. Michael always seemed smarter than the people around him much like Stringer and when Omar was not out exacting revenge he was robbing people for the fun of it and because he could. Michael seemed to me more like the type that would kill Marlo and then seek out Slim Charles or another more level-headed boss and align with them for the challenge and demands of running the show. I saw the Stringer Bell CEO gene in him - and that is why Marlo and Chris initially tapped him - not the Omar Little stick-up boy gene.

Slim Charles reaches out to Omar...didn't happen and it turns out it was not needed. I still think it would have been awesome though.

Cheese gets ruthlessly murdered...already been covered. Damn Method Man, you really must be a pretty good actor because you made me HATE your character like nobody else on that show.

Michael gets killed in crossfire leaving Dukie to care for Bug...almost. I am still not prepared to talk about Dukie injecting himself in the stables with the junkman. That just sucked. You kind of knew that it was going to end up like that but I wish they could have thrown us a bone and had things work out OK for the kid. Dukie was definitely the character I - and I think a lot of other people - had the most emotionally invested in.

Prez reappears and does something clutch...unfortunately not. Unless you consider giving Dukie $200 to buy drugs as "clutch". Still, I don't fault Prez. He had to take the chance even if he knew in his heart of hearts exactly where that cash was going. I'm getting upset just writing this so time to move on to the next item.

Marlo employs the Greeks' muscle to attack Omar...I don't think Kenard was under the employ of Spiros and friends. I could be wrong.

Chris rolls on both Marlo and the Greeks and they are both taken down before Omar can get to Marlo...Chris stood tall and took the years and heat for Marlo. And obviously the last part never really came close to fruition.

Still, I think I did pretty well.

OK, moving on...

Part 2: Straggling Thoughts...

I buy Kima as the new McNulty. They've been insinuating that all season. The tell-tale sign was Bunk giving her a hard time for taking a call when it was not her turn in the rotation at the end of the episode.

Or is Sydnor the new McNulty? After all, this whole thing started with McNulty going to the judge to complain about the city's apathetic attitude towards the drug trade.
Of all the characters, I love that two of the great supporting ones - Bunk and Landsman - stayed more or less the same from beginning to end. Landsman's comic relief was always much appreciated.

I don't know about you but when Cedric was in the court and gave JUDGE Ronnie Pearlman the, "I'm going to go home and fuck you with my massive cock" look I felt both dirty and uncomfortable.

Up until this season I was a huge Lester guy. Honestly, when he tried to turn all the shit that he was in onto City Hall and the DA's office I wanted to slap him. I'm really surprised how relatively composed Pearlman stayed. At least with McNulty he knew the score the whole time and that he was deep into some shady business of which some consequences may arise from.

In Season 1 Bill Rawls was as much of a bad guy as anybody but at the end you almost felt bad for the guy because he was such a pushover and would do anything to keep floating and keep getting paid. Somehow they made him into a pathetic character. Is that why they showed him in the gay bar in Season 3? Did they want us thinking that all of his insecurities about his sexuality were the reason why he was afraid to ever take a real stand against anything? Did he think that somebody might out him or did he just feel that his macho cop facade was the best cover he could give for his homosexuality?

Was Valchek becoming commissioner supposed to be comic relief or a not so subtle way of saying that the system is so messed up that a joker like that could become commissioner because he is such a stooly. I know the answer to that as they answered it in the episode, but you still had to chuckle seeing him take over the reigns.

Finally, I thought the scene where Marlo took to the street in his suit and tie and fought off the two corner boys who tried to pop him was just brilliant. It was like for all that time he felt as if he was ruling from afar - which he basically was - and he took that one moment as vindication that he really was street and really was tough. Again, I thought it was brilliant. The most ruthless drug kingpin in Baltimore finally felt vindicated and like a man of the streets after power had been wrested from him because he fought off a couple of corner boys and got cut by a knife.

THOUGHTS??? I'd love to get a discussion rolling.

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