I finished The Wire recently.
Holy shit, I love this show! I've gotta say, I think it's better written than any of the other shows out there. That's probably the effect of it being the most recent show I've watched, but I feel like I'll still love it a while from now.
Season 3 was my favourite. I loved the whole dynamic between Stringer and Avon. How Stringer was electing to be too passive, and too infatuated with the idea of professional, while being completely ignorant to the importance of establishing your real estate. And Avon, who acts like he's Stringer's bestest bud, but passively resents him for being so... passive while he was canned. I just love how he exploded on Stringer when he asked Slim Charles to hit Clay Davis. He doesn't lift a finger towards Marlo while he's in the joint, because he's such a professional businessman, and now he wants to do
this? I especially loved their final interaction scene, when they're having such an intimate buddy-moment reminiscing on the balcony, after Stringer already informed on Avon to Major Colvin, and Avon already agreed to give up Bell to Brother Mouzone. The greatest part about it was, I feel like they were actually being genuine in their love for each other. Until that phrase "it's just business" comes up, which is such a consistent symbol of enmity between them.
Colvin helped make it my favourite season as well. Well, Colvin and Carver. I love how, even though the entire city turns against him, Carver is keen enough to hold his respect for him. I especially loved the speech Colvin gave him near the end, explaining what real policing is. Carver had one of the greatest character developments, and that speech was probably the biggest turning point in transforming his mentality from thinking that policing is mainly about busting heads. That was one of my favourite speeches, and Colvin is one of my favourite characters.
I loved Dennis "Cutty" Wise. Despite the fact that he's a bit of a male chauvinist, he's still one of the morally upstanding, and good characters. He had these three little scenes that made its own separate story, and I loved it - him getting ripped off by Fruit, one of Marlo's slingers whom he asks to sell his "gift" product for. He and Slim attacking Marlo's people, and him having a clear shot at Fruit but refusing to kill him, letting him run away. Finally, near the end of the season, a tense and wordless exchange of looks between him and Fruit, while he's trying to get kids back into his gym.
Anyway, that's just the third season, which I love the most, but I love all the seasons. Maybe I'm least fond of 5, but that has mostly to do with the fact that it was only ten episodes, and it seemed a bit rushed at times. I have no problem with the far fetched plots. The two resoundingly far fetched plots in the show were probably Hamsterdam and the Homeless Killer, and I loved them both. To me, it's fine if a plot is a little unrealistic, as long as people's behaviour in those situations are pulled off well, and I feel that they were.
My favourite characters are Cutty, Bubbles, and Frank Sobotka. I probably don't have to justify Bubbles (and I already did Cutty). I know Frank is a bit of a strange choice, as he only had the one season. But he owned that season. Well, he and his nephew Nick seemed to own that season, but he shone in my eyes. He's introduced in such a way that you think he's just a criminal doing some dirt, but you get to know him intimately, and his intentions. You even think, yourself, that his acts don't justify his noble intentions, and that might turn you off him, but he starts coming to terms with this very idea himself. Especially when he sees where his influence drove his son and nephew. He's one character whose grief I probably shared more vividly than with most other characters, especially since he himself was realizing that so much of his situation was his own fault. To me, personally, the end of the second last episode of that season, when he's walking towards the Greek and you know they're going to kill him, was the most gut wrenching scene in the show.
McNutty, my mainest man! I bring this up because I can see that he's an easy character to hate. He gets so blindly invested in his convictions that he often fails to see the entire scope of the situation. However, while his passion is often misguided, I find it endearing. That small part of me that says "yeah, stick it to the man!" certainly appreciates a lot of his scenes. Particularly the one where he's berating Ronda after their discussion with Levy, going into one of my favoured speeches about how shit doesn't get done because "everybody has a future, and everybody remains friends" (I'm paraphrasing). We all know that in Season 4, when Lester stirred shit up with the subpoenas, and they brought in the unit-killer to give them that speech about how Major Crimes will be all about street rips, and they were too "wise" to argue, they all wished McNulty was there to raise hell against him. Like it or not, McNulty is the main character. Well, I guess that's debatable. He's the main character in the same way that Fiddler can be regarded the main character of the Malazan series. He appeared in both the first and last scene, and is very much in the foreground throughout.
Well, I have a million other ways I can sing my praises for the show, but I think I'll end my book of a (necro) post here.
This post has been edited by Agraba: 17 April 2012 - 11:31 PM