“Do more with less” is the disheartening, belt-tightening advice from the editor of The Baltimore Sun to his senior staff in More With Less, the fabulous first episode of the fifth and final series of The Wire on FX last night.
But it wasn’t just old-school journalists such as city editor Gus Haynes (Clark Johnson) who has worries about the effect of budget cuts on their work. The police are feeling the squeeze, too, as Mayor Tommy Carcetti (Aidan Gillen) prioritises cash for schools over tackling crime.
He says Baltimore is “knee-deep in blood”, but can’t find the money to do anything about it. Police in the ranks fight among themselves over unpaid overtime, senior officers try to help the Mayor save cash by “temporarily suspending” murder investigations, and the drug surveillance team is disbanded.
More With Less was an episode full of empty promises – “When the money starts to flow, I will get you all back” (Daniels to his surveillance team), “Hold the line and we’ll get to a better place” (the Mayor to senior police officers) – and true to the spirit of The Wire, didn’t pull its punches. I can’t wait for next week.
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I thought last night’s episode was brilliant. Loved the first scene with Bunk and the photocopier and really enjoyed all the scenes in the newsroom.
One question, though: Where was Omar?!? Please tell me he’ll be back soon.
Don’t worry, Omar is on his way back. He’ll make a brief appearance at the end of episode three and will be back in earnest in episode four.