The Wire - All Prologue: The Green Lights of Baltimore

The Wire – All Prologue

Season 2, Episode 6

Directed By: Steve Shill

Written By: David Simon, from a story by Ed Burns and Simon

Read out “The Wire” Project here. Read about the previous episode here, or click here to see the total coverage. Assume spoilers for the episode

            Why does David Simon identify with D’Angelo Barksdale more than any other character? Of all the members The Wire's sprawling cast, it is often D'Angelo who becomes a microphone for Mr. Simon’s themes. Mr. Simon never sold drugs or had a childhood that led him to prison. Sure, he spent a lot of time around drug culture (see: The Corner), but there is something truly unique about why he chooses D’Angelo; the man continues to hold onto the fact that he can escape. McNulty and the cops see that their efforts will have little effort. Stringer and the higher up drug family know they are tied to a certain life and cannot rise above it. And the port men see their livelihoods slowly fading out of existence. But D’Angelo still believes in the possibility of escape.

            But it is an impossibility, nonetheless. The highlight of “All Prologue” is a speech where D’Angelo explains The Great Gatsby to the prison book club. “There are no second acts in America,” someone quotes Fitzgerald, which inspires D’Angelo to explain that as much as we want to escape our past—our crimes, our passions, our family—we are inextricably linked to them. And many characters slowly realize in this episode that they are, in fact, tied to their past.

The Wire - Undertow: Back In the Game

The Wire – Undertow

Season 2, Episode 5

Directed By: Steve Shill

Written By: Ed Burns, from a story by David Simon and Burns

Read out “The Wire” Project here. Read about the previous episode here, or click here to see the total coverage. Assume spoilers for the episode

            After a long break from The Wire (non-cinema issues: moving apartments, overload of work, some other stuff) I was afraid if I could jump back into the show without it losing its magic. It had been over a month, and while I had not forgotten about lonely fighter McNulty, the cautious and adaptive Stringer Bell, and the moral conundrums of Frank Sobotka, I wondered if the show would start to show fatigue, just from being more of the same. But The Wire always finds new ways to not just put its characters in new places, but make us see these characters differently. Not a complete 180 or anything, but to really understand their true convictions.

            But  “Undertow” is one of the most plot heavy episodes of The Wire. Ed Burns and director Steve Shill have no rush of plot, and nothing revelatory or shocking happens. But small nudges reveal these characters as the police attempt to break into the port culture, a self-contained world where everyone protects themselves. When Freamon, Bunk, and Russell present Grand Jury summons to a number of workers, Frank laughs in their face almost manically. He knows these guys are loyal to the end, as long as he’s loyal to them.

The Wire - Collateral Damage: Erasing The Other

The Wire: Collateral Damage

Season Two, Episode Two

Written By: David Simon, from a story by Simon and Ed Burns

Directed By: Ed Bianchi

Read out “The Wire” Project here. Read about the previous episode here, or click here to read the coverage of the series so far. Assume spoilers for the episode.

            One of the major themes in the first season of The Wire was that from a top down perspective, the status quo was always much more important to continue than any social change. This often came with how Lieutenant Daniels was told to handle his detail: “Dope on the table.” Minor arrests at best. The detail was never formed to take down the Barksdale operation, just show the appearance that something was being done to fight the war on drugs without really any fight. Appearances are always better to keep.

            In “Collateral Damage,” the plot heavy second episode that sets into motion a number of major through lines for the season, we really get that theme racing back. It begins right from our opening scene, as Officer Russell works with a group of detectives on the 13 Jane Does found in the cargo. When a forensics officer discovers they suffocated to death, everyone assumes it was an accidental, leaving Russell to herself. No murder, no problem.

The Wire - Ebb Tide: All Aboard

The Wire: Ebb Tide – All Aboard

Season Two, Episode One

Directed By: Ed Bianchi

Written By: David Simon, from a story by Simon and Ed Burns

Read out “The Wire” Project here. Read about the previous episode here, or click here to see the total coverage. Assume spoilers for the episode.

            Despite being considered by a number of television critics as the best show of the decade, The Wire was an infamous no show at the Emmys, especially considering it aired on HBO, which has won a ridiculous number of statuettes since the network started airing original programming. If David Simon’s epic look at Baltimore crime began airing now, in the spirit of morally complex shows like Breaking Bad, Mad Men, and Dexter, it would sure be a lock for many nominations. But what I worry about what would still be lost on the great black actor (Before anyone begins to yell at me for using “black,” Idris Elba is British). The Wire’s first season had a number of black actors performing at levels that rival some of the best film performances of all time. Andre Royo played the crack addict Bubbles with such convincing humility it was sometimes tough to watch because of the authenticity. Mr. Elba, who you wouldn’t know was British unless you’ve seen him in the BBC miniseries Luther, played a reserved and calm leader of a network with quiet understand and fierce will. Larry Gilliard Jr. constantly bended between moral lines by convincing us of his own lack of conviction, and his final sequence in the season one finale broke my heart. Why don’t these performances win Emmys? To get on a high horse for a minute, it’s cause when a voter sees a black man playing a drug dealer or addict, they don’t think it’s a stretch. When a white actor does it for a film, it’s a stretch beyond their ordinary life. Frankly, it’s all bullshit.

            So why have I started my discussion of season two with my praise for black actors? Part is this is it’s a topic I’ve been thinking about for a while and wanted to write on for a few episodes. But also, “Ebb Tide,” the season two opener, clearly takes us out of the world of the drug business and launches us not only into a different type of crime but a different world: the working white class. These guys are a different breed of criminal, though the same qualities we learned from the Barksdale gang—loyalty, family, organization—still apply.

Win Win: Getting Back Up, In the Ring and Life

Win Win

Written and Directed by: Tom McCarthy

Starring: Paul Giamatti, Alex Shaffer, Amy Ryan, Burt Young, Bobby Cannavale, Jeffery Tambor, and Melanie Lynskey

Director of Photography: Oliver Bokelberg, Editor: Tom McArdle, Production Designer: John Paino, Original Music: Lyle Workman

Rated: R for some swearing, a moment of nudity, and a little violence, mostly in the ring.

            Although I’m usually there to watch the movie, sometimes I notice odd things about the crowds I’m watching with. This was the case with Win Win, a new comedy from writer-director Tom McCarthy. While most of the audience was your run-of-the-mill old-to-middle-aged New Yorkers, there were a few kids as well. Not a large amount, but enough that I noticed. That fact might tie right into the sensibility that Mr. McCarthy has created in his films, an indie spirit with a crowd pleasing attitude. While The Station Agent and The Visitor presented complex characters who we truly cherished by the end of the film, Mr. McCarthy has created a protagonist and story so lazy in its obviousness, but succeeds on his ability to tug properly at your heart.

            The film follows the story of Mike Flagerty, played by Paul Giamatti in a role he has perfected—the lazy and neurotic shlub. A lawyer in New Jersey who helps old people, Mike explains his problem as “work, money, everything,” as if it could be really anything. Despite two gorgeous little girls and a wonderful wife (Amy Ryan, the film’s saving grace), Mike is short on cash, and sets up an elaborate legal scheme to be guardian to a rich elderly man (Burt Young) with dementia and put him in a home, collecting a $1500 check each month.