The sun is shining, the weekend’s almost here… time, we feel, to spread a little link-love to the website of that fine organ The Word, where publishing legend and all-round good egg David Hepworth has put a call out for suggestions for Premier League players who look like characters from The Wire.
We’re pitching in with Sven Goran Erikkson as Baltimore Sun big cheese James Whiting and Chris Kamara as Carcetti’s aide Norman Wilson, but freel free to join in on the fun and chip in here.
We had the rare sight of Mayor Tommy Carcetti lost for words after being told that Baltimore’s homeless serial killer was a fabrication. At least his advisor could see the funny side. ‘I wish I was still on the newspaper so I could write on this f****** mess. It’s too good.’
In typical Wire style, though, once everybody had taken in the facts, they quickly found a way to cover their backs. ‘The Mayor’s up there figuring how to hide the dirt,’ explained police boss Daniels, and hide the dirt is what they do.
McNulty and Freamon can’t work out why they haven’t been arrested for their scheme, but the reason is that it’s in the interest of the powers-that-be to hush it up and deal with it through ‘the back channels’.
-30- is a superb ending to the series, with the writers showing the real politics that goes on beneath the surface. Whether it’s the Mayor’s office, the police department, the newspaper office, or on the streets, everybody is looking out for themselves. So we see reporter Scott Templeton receiving his Pulitzer Prize (despite being told about the fabrication by McNulty); we see Mayor Carcetti re-elected; Rawls getting his promotion to Superintendent and Daniels to commissioner; and drugs baron Marlo released on condition he gives up his trade.
Perhaps the most disturbing misuse of power shown in The Wire is The Baltimore Sun’s decision to back Templeton’s dodgy reporting, despite the concerns of his news editor Gus Haynes. After all, if a newspaper isn’t going to keep an honest eye on those in power – the Mayor, the police – then who is? Perhaps The Wire offers us some hope in the integrity of Haynes. As he tells his editor: ‘Maybe you’ll win a Pulitzer with this stuff, maybe you’ll have to give it back…’
We saw the sad demise of Omar, everybody’s favourite ’stick-up boy’, in last night’s episode of The Wire. In true series-style his death was understated. One minute he was swaggering around the streets like a character from a Wild West movie, the next he was laying dead after being shot in the head by a juvenile in a grocery store. In the words of McNulty, ‘he caught one in a Korean joint’.
Omar’s death may have taken some of the heat off his nemesis, Marlo, but McNulty is still on his case, diverting funds from his fictional serial killer hunt to carry out more surveillance work.
You had to admire McNulty’s front as he answered questions from the police and Mayor on his serial killer, but I’m pretty sure his scam is close to being exposed. He’s told too many people what he’s up to, and too many of them disagree with what he’s doing. McNulty himself is beginning to get nervous.
This was my favourite episode of the run, with plenty of humour to go with the drama. After the FBI profiler gave a detailed breakdown on the character of the fictitious serial killer, McNulty laughably told Greggs that he was ‘in the ballpark’.
The newsroom scenes were great, too, with Gus Haynes finally tiring of Scott Templeton’s great but dodgy quotes from unnamed sources. Templeton has been asked to provide clarification; surely it will be McNulty’s turn next?
We got a rare bit of comedy in this week’s episode of The Wire, Took, as McNulty freaked out Baltimore Sun reporter Scott Templeton by calling him and taking on the role of his made-up serial killer. ‘He said he wanted to bite me,’ a worried Templeton tells the staff on the paper.
McNulty’s antics don’t seem so funny, however, when Greggs reports back that the family of the latest ‘victim’ are distressed to hear how he died. The Wire is great at revealing the true cost behind all the politics and posturing.
McNulty took centre stage in this episode. As the police get extra money to try to find the serial killer, his fellow detectives turn to him to divert the cash into their own cases. ‘Ain’t you the king of diamonds,’ says Bunk, who’s angry that valuable police time is being spent chasing a fictitious killer.
While McNulty is getting what he wants, this is surely going to end badly for him. He’s worried when he hear that the FBI are trying to work out the voice of the ‘killer’ who called Templeton. ‘This is bigger than I ever thought it would be,’ he tells his accomplice Freamon.
I loved the clip that showed the police and newsroom gearing up to waste their time and money on the killer. The camera flitted between the two, and the message was the same. ‘We need to be on the street, reactive,’ Daniels tells his cops. ‘We need to be on the street, eye level,’ Haynes tells his newsroom.
They’ve now got the resources they’ve craved, but none of it is going to be used to do anything positive for their city.
‘He (the Mayor) wants us to solve the murders, he just doesn’t want the cost. Don’t look so shocked, you’re running with the big dogs now.’
Police chief Rawls reminds Daniels of political realities after the Mayor tells the press he’s determined to see McNulty’s fictitious serial killer brought to book.
This series of The Wire has been strong on the effects of budget cuts on a city and its institutions – the police, the newspaper, the schools… and last night’s episode, The Dickensian Aspect, followed the same theme.
McNulty continues to distort real police work by continuing his campaign for more funds by inventing a serial killer; the forensics lab has messed up the evidence because it employed a temp who didn’t really know how things worked; and The Baltimore Sun has switched its emphasis from a real story about schools to McNulty’s fictitious serial killer.
Meanwhile, as a backdrop to a city where institutions aren’t working properly, we find Marlo and Omar trying to settle scores with guns.
It’s an episode where you can chew over the politics of a city and how and why things work and don’t work, but it also offers the disturbing, yet entertaining, duel between an ice-cool Marlo and emotional Omar.
Jimmy McNulty was on the road to self-destruction in React Quotes, the latest episode of season five of The Wire.
His boozing and constant comings and goings are causing problems on the domestic front, and his serial killer fabrication is surely leading to disaster. Gus Haynes, city editor of The Baltimore Sun, may have had his doubts – ‘Ten minutes ago I would have said this is all bullshit’ – but he’s all ears in the editor’s office as McNulty reveals more information about his ‘killer’.
What’s been so great about The Wire is its realism. I’ve always felt it’s tried to get to the heart of its subject matter, that it’s not interested in stereotypes or neat, well-rounded endings. However, the McNulty storyline is where, like the sozzled detective himself, it’s started to go off the rails. Would McNulty really risk his career, not for personal gain, but to increase the police budget so that they can go after the drug gangs? It seems to me as likely as Marlo showing mercy to a rival.
Still, the pay-off is that the writers can examine how the newsroom deals with McNulty’s made-up tale. Will the cutbacks that have seen experienced journalists leave affect the paper’s handling of the story? Will principled old-hand Gus Haynes be able to keep the overly-ambitious reporter Scott Templeton in check?
There were still some great moments in this episode. Watching Omar and Donnie patiently waiting in a car listening to love songs on the radio before going on the rampage was brilliant. This mix of the simple pleasures of life with the madness to come was like watching a scene from a Coen Brothers movie.
FX have very kindly posted footage of Charlie Brooker’s fantastic interview with David Simon, co-creator of the one and only The Wire, where he ponders what early man’s storytelling might have been like punctuated by adverts, why Barack Obama lists the show in his top 10, and gives some hints as to what inspired the show.
Marlo’s ruthlessness in dealing with Proposition Joe was the standout image of Transitions, episode four of season five of The Wire on FX.
There were no hints of doubt or regret from Marlo as he calmed Joe before the hit. ‘Close your eyes. It won’t hurt none.’
It’s not only the gangster world that’s dealing with transitions. Ervin Burrell, the police commissioner, is being forced out of office by the Mayor, and Roger Twigg, the old-school reporter on The Baltimore Sun with years of experience and a great contacts book, is on his way out.
There are so many great strands to The Wire, but it’s the political in-fighting that’s grabbing my attention at the moment. I loved it when city editor Gus Haynes put his own newsroom spin on the Mayor’s tribute to the departing Burrell. ‘It took a while but I finally put his ass out to pasture.’
‘Do More with Less’ is the constant refrain of the bosses on The Baltimore Sun in Not for Attribution, the third episode of the fifth series of The Wire on FX.
As experienced journalists prepare to clear their desks as victims of the newspaper’s budget cuts, ambitious young reporter Scott Templeton (Tom McCarthy) is ready to do more with less – by making up a quote in an effort to impress.
But it’s not only at the paper that standards are slipping. Despite warnings from Bunk, McNulty is upping his efforts to convince the press that there’s a serial killer at work as he tries to get more money for the police budget so that he can go after serious cases like Marlo.
If that’s not enough to be thinking about, Omar’s on his way back – and he’s got a lot on his mind. Where’s it all going to end?
For those in power, it was all about short-term gains rather than long-term solutions in Unconfirmed Reports, episode two of the fifth series of The Wire on FX last night.
Executive Editor of The Baltimore Sun, James C Whiting III (Sam Freed), wanted the paper to look at the “Dickensian lives” of the children in the city. Gus Haynes (Clark Johnson), the news editor who is trying to maintain high standards, thought they should tackle the real issues, but was told by his boss that they’re going “to limit the scope and not get bogged down in detail”.
Meanwhile, ambitious young reporter Scott Templeton (Tom McCarthy) seems keen not to let the facts get in the way of a good story when he’s sent to write a feature at a sports game.
And as for Mayor Tommy Carcetti (the excellent Aidan Gillen), the budget cutbacks might mean the police aren’t meeting their targets, but the news that the schools are doing well is a vote-winner that he can run for election on.
Yep, everything superficial is holding sway in the corridors of power. Whatever it takes to get your newspaper noticed, to move up the career ladder and get a job on a more prestigious paper, or to get the voters to elect you.
