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 - Sentencing: Land of the Free

The Wire: Sentencing

Season One, Episode Thirteen (Season Finale)

Directed By: Tim Van Patten

Written By: David 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.

            At the end of season one of David Simon’s extraordinary drama The Wire, I’m reminded of our opening scene: a story about a man who kept getting dealt into a craps game, even though everyone knew he would steal the money. “This is America, man,” the witness told McNulty. Everyone has to have a stake, and at the end of the day, the same wheels keep on turning.

            “Sentencing” may not actually be as dark and depressing as I suspected after watching “Cleaning Up,” but in finding the balance between resolution and dissolution, Mr. Simon, along with his co-writer Ed Burns, have found something more profound: life goes on, and the institutions of America are built on that premise. Would be better to do nothing? To keep the status quo? McNulty asks himself that question as he watches a portion of the Barksdale crew walk behind bars for minimal sentences. We’re not sure, and neither is he.

The Wire - Cleaning Up: The Big Sleep

The Wire: Cleaning Up

Season One, Episode Twelve

Directed By: Clement Virgo

Written By: George Pelecanos, from a story by David 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.

            David Simon’s The Wire is not really a show that comments on itself or the genre of cop shows, but there is one particularly fine meta moment in “Cleaning Up.” The pieces aren't set up, but the order is made to arrest Avon Barksdale without the needed evidence to convict him. McNulty and Daniels drive up to the club with SWAT, and we see inside that Avon and Stringer are sitting in an empty office, calmly watching the take down on security televisions. “I didn’t expect this to be so anticlimactic,” McNulty mutters to himself. 

            It’s very on the nose, but for this heartbreaking and devastating episode before the season finale, it couldn’t be more perfect notice. This isn’t a show where the heroes are going to walk away feeling good about themselves, and the bad guys will receive justice. This isn't even a show where "good" or "bad" make much sense. This is a show where everything comes at a balance, and things goes on in temperament. “Cleaning Up” is the first Wire script written by George Pelecanos, who before writing his first of many episodes, was a DC boiled fiction writer. This episode feels very indebted to film noir, especially a shot after McNulty and Daniels take Avon. McNulty stands in a doorway, covered half in shadow. He is like Dave Bannion of The Big Heat or the Phillip Marlowe of the Raymond Chandler novels, a detective who must persevere, even when the possibilities for real change are impossible.

The Wire - The Cost: Showtime

The Wire: The Cost

Season One, Episode Ten

Directed By: Brad Anderson

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.

            When shows like The Sopranos and later The Wire came along, it’s easy to forget they really attempted to do something that was seen as insane in the television world: tell stories. Now I don’t want to say that shows from beforehand didn’t attempt to do that—Buffy the Vampire Slayer had an intricate cast of characters and a complex plot, and of course Twin Peaks really changed everything and then some—but it was HBO that really pioneered the idea that television could tell stories like cinema, and not waste a minute. There’s no place for “drug dealer of the week” on The Wire, and I’d be surprised if we ever get a bottle episode.

            And in “The Cost,” we really get the ball rolling on the numerous plot developments this season. I’m not sure whether David Simon knew he was going onto four more seasons, or for that matter one, so much of this episode is set up for the final three hours. But what an intense hour it is! “The Cost” opens in perfect bliss, and ends in total ugliness and shock. Much of the tone of this thrill ride comes from director Brad Anderson, a no name in 2002 who has gone on to make some great thrillers like The Machinist and Transsiberian.

The Wire - Lessons: The Ties That Bind

The Wire: Lessons

Season One, Episode Eight

Directed By: Gloria Muzio

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.

As the title suggests, many people are learning lessons or giving lessons in this eight episode of the first season of The Wire. But why those lessons can be given or taken is often more interesting, and the real heart of this episode is about bonds, both familial and fraternal, and how those shape our ideas of the world. The opening functions as both a comic piece and a frightening warning for McNulty. While at a market wit his kids, he sees Stringer Bell, and has his kids follow him. The boys are masterwork detectives already, getting the license plate number of Bell’s car. But McNulty loses his boys in the process, and I’m sure this is not the last time he will realize he has put his children in danger.

But family can also be metaphorical. Despite the setback on the phones, the crew is able to pick up the trail and arrest a driver coming out of the towers with $20,000 in drug money. Excited about their arrest, Greggs and McNulty celebrate, until Daniels realizes the driver also works for an influential state senator. The upper echelons tell Daniels they are finished, but then Judge Phalen, citing his superiority as a judge, keeps it going. He mockingly tells McNulty, “Who’s your daddy now?”

The Wire - One Arrest: Baby Steps

The Wire: One Arrest

Season One, Episode Seven

Directed By: Joe Chapelle

Written By: Rafael Alvarez, from a story by David 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.

            Earlier in The Wire, we learned how the drug war is very similar to a chess match, in the way certain pieces can be correlated to the different positions in the drug business. In “One Arrest,” we return to that metaphor, but now instead we see strategy. As a fan of chess (though hardly a master), you learn quickly that there are no small decisions. Every move you do, no matter how small, is serving a grand strategy. If a move looks so simple and so easy, the better—your opponent will read it as nothing, and then be astonished later when the secret is revealed.

            “One Arrest” is all about this the application of this strategy—we see a series of small plot developments, all in order to serve a larger purpose. The episode is written by Rafael Alvarez, the first time either the creator David Simon or his writing partner Ed Burns have not been at the forefront (they do take the story credit however). However, you wouldn’t notice any change unless you read the credits. Mr. Alvarez, who wrote crime for the Baltimore Sun for twenty years and then wrote for Mr. Simon on Homicide: Life on the Streets, is obviously right up the alley with these guys, and as Sidney Lumet would say, works because everyone is making the same show.

The Wire - The Wire: Past Due

The Wire: The Wire

Season One, Episode Six

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.

            One of the most striking things in “The Wire,” the sixth episode of David Simon’s The Wire, is its ability to emphasize characters who usually have no role in our sympathies. Yes we indetify with former addict Bubbles because he’s in the end a good guy, but what about the street thugs who we don’t even know their names. Well director Ed Bianchi gives us a very curious introduction to Wallace, one of D’Angelo’s thugs. Using a few behind the head tracking shots that are in no doubt influenced by the Dardenne brothers, we see Wallace as he wakes up in his trash home, awakens his five younger siblings, gives them their lunch, and sends them off to school. Why is this kid selling drugs? There’s your answer. However, as patriarchal as Wallace must act as home, he’s not ready to see the image of Brandon, shot, stabbed, burned, strangled, and tortured, a result of his call last night.

            The theme of “The Wire” is not so much the simplistic “actions have consequences,” but a more nuanced idea that every debt has to be paid eventually. D’Angelo, having slept with a stripper, makes chit chat with her in the morning, as she asks about his other girlfriend. “She wants clothes, a credit card with her name on it,” he replies, and then says “Pussy is never free.” D’Angelo is realizing that everything he wants comes with a hidden cost, and all the characters get that tonight.

The Wire - The Pager: Out of Sight

The Wire: The Pager

Season One, Episode Five

Directed By: Clark Johnson

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.

            I’ve been recently reading Sidney Lumet’s great book Making Movies, all about his pragmatic insight into what a director does. Mr. Lumet was a true artist and a list of his films—12 Angry Men, Serpico, Prince of the City—shows a lot of the precedents in both tone and theme for David Simon and The Wire. But one philosophy stuck with me: Mr. Lumet always believes in coming in under budget, and not just wasting money for the sake of art. He understands his contract to his investors, and part of his creativity comes from such limits.

            The last scene in “The Pager,” directed by Clark Johnson (his third episode) and written by Ed Burns (his first) is a pitch-perfect example of a great scene that may have been limited by budget, but works better because of it. As retaliation for Omar’s rampage on the Barksdale crew, Avon orders a hit on his fellow gang members, and near the end of the episode, a couple of young workers spot Omar’s lover at a pizza joint. Instead of a big chase and murder sequence, all we see are phone calls, being traced through pagers that the police have tapped. All we see are the phone calls and the numbers being written down, but Mr. Johnson knows how to quicken the pace of this, while showing nothing that is inherently cinematic, and not even using music, just the sounds of dial tones, button pressing, and data being processed. When we hear the last phone call, “it’s done,” it’s a brutal end. This sequence—the best in The Wire so far—matches the best of Spielberg and Lumet, and proves you don’t have to show your cards to lay down a cool hand.

The Wire - The Target: Kafka Comes to Baltimore

The Wire: The Target

Season One, Episode One

Directed By: Clark Johnson

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

Read out “The Wire” Project here. Assume spoilers for the episode.

            Or a series that I assumed about the dark and dangerous world of crime along the streets of one of the most destructive cities in the United States, the first episode of The Wire, “The Target,” opens with a humorous parable. Jimmy McNulty, played by Dominic West, listens to the tale of a kid shot for stealing money from a craps game named Snot. Snot would steal the money every week at the end of the game, but was never shot. When asked why he would be allowed each week despite this, the witness tells him, “[You] got to. This is America, man.”

            On one level, a line like this is a deeply profound parable about the twisted nature of the American dream. But on another, this is a ridiculous and hilarious story not far from the works of Franz Kafka and Joseph Heller. The fact that Jimmy repeats the line to his partner as a joke shows that Simon, acting as writer for this pilot episode, knows that the trap he’s laid for us can also be seen as humorous from the right angle.

            Much of “The Target” is about setting up the dangerous world that the characters of The Wire inhabit—where drugs and weapons are as common as water—but it’s also setting up what I believe will be the Kafkaesque nature of the Baltimore streets. Everything is a circle on end, where the choice is either drown oneself in sorrow, or simply laugh.

           
     Consider the impetus for the season, a court case that Jimmy sits in on where D’Angelo (Larry Gillard Jr.) is being accused for murder. The two eye witnesses are lined up, but in walks Stringer Bell, an agent for a powerful crime organization, who simply sits in the back with a fine suit and a leather notebook. The eyewitnesses shut up, and Bell is on his merry way. This is a classic set up and payoff, and its only when Jimmy tries to break the system that everything goes to hell.

            Jimmy explains to the judge that this is one of ten unsolved murders related to Avon Barksdale, the leader of the crime organization. Instead of getting a pat on the back, everyone in his unit is furious—Major Rawls chastises him for making this a case, point two middle fingers at him the entire time. Again, we have a scene built on dark pathos—speaking truthfully, even within the Baltimore Homicide squad, is a one way ticket to hell—but played essentially for laughs.

            On the other side of the street, we also get to follow D’Angelo, who has to pay for his crime, but not through jail time (The other maxim established in this episode, every action has a consequence). D’Angelo is moved from working the towers to the low-rise projects. The visual look is one of absurd fear: it is daylight and children play around, but the addicts in the corners and junk thrown around make it a place of uncomfortable tension. Director Clark Johnson (he’ll direct the next episode, and one more this season), seems very much rehearsed in the style of Sidney Lumet. His camera is never flashy, but it captures details about the streets that hit the realism that Simon is aiding for. It’s also interesting to see a show shot in classic Academy ratio (4:3), so most shows now are shot in widescreen (1.68:1). The environments are more claustrophobic, though the shots not as expressive. It'll be curious to see other directors take on this material. For a pilot, you set the standards, and Johnson lays things out plainly, the way you should in a pilot.

            The last thing I want to point out about this pilot episode is its context in the wake of September 11^th. Jimmy visits a friend in the FBI, who has installed a live feed camera, along with two audio devices, to record a drug operation. This is the kind of supreme work that Jimmy needs, but as his friend reveals, it’s the last drug case in Baltimore—all the other funds are being diverted toward the new War on Terror. While this is a true statement, Simon frames it in this again ironic way; the best force out there to do the job is sent away on another mission. As one character refers to it later, he says not to call the drug war by the lingo; “Wars end.”

            There are a number of other characters that Simon sets up in this opening 60 minutes—many who I didn’t exactly get the names of other characters, or exactly their positions—and boldly, he doesn’t make lay out the details all at first. This is a show that is built on complex relationships between people, places, and words that will slowly reveal themselves. Not all of it will make exact since. But there was never an explanation to why Gregory woke up as a beetle. Sometimes the most painful things are the funniest too.