BIG news for Wire fans who watched the episode on On Demand last night. For the protection of those who haven’t seen it yet (the show airs on HBO Sunday), this week’s blog is again written in invisible ink. To read about “Corrections,” highlight the text between the arrows. -- >
O, Omar.
I knew it was coming, but had trouble accepting that the life of my favorite character of all time had ended, and so abruptly. So I went to bed imagining Omar’s after-life. Neither Heaven nor Hell would have a soul akin to his and it’s hard to imagine either admitting him.
The stick-up man who stole from drug dealers and murdered only those staking their lives in the game has throughout all five seasons remained what David Simon has called a “perversely moral” character. He cleared the Baltimore streets, Western style, merely by approaching them. His scar gave him the mark of a survivor, and the fact that he was the only central character never to swear on the show gave him an intense aura of invulnerability. The fact that he was openly gay made him somehow just a little more awesome.
His charm and wit on the witness stand in Season Two was enough to earn him, as far as I’m concerned, a ticket to a beach-side town in the hereafter where the streets are paved with Honey Nut.
But the place this lover of mythology belongs is Mount Olympus, where he could take a place among the gods and demigods who combine awesome power with dubiously human ethics. There was doubtless something heroic in Omar’s ability to stand outside of things, measure them up, and maneuver within them, with seeming invincibility, to make the world slightly more just. And even while he laid out dead at the crime scene, Omar’s vengeance has a little life in it yet, as the note he carried tipped the cops to Marlo’s scheme.
In other developments: Dookie can’t find work; the psychological profile of the “serial killer” fits McNulty to a tee; Bunk gets DNA evidence to nab Chris on a murder charge; McNulty confesses to Beady and Kima and it looks like Greggs seems like she might not let it slide, and Gus is finally getting confirmation that Scott is full of it. -- >
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Monday, February 11, 2008
Test run Wire 7
Keeping up with (On) Demand, we wanted to give “The Wire” addicts the early re-up. But we wouldn’t want to spoil anything for the traditionalist Sunday viewers, so we’re writing this one in invisible ink. To read on, use your mouse to highlight the text in between the arrows. “Everybody gets took every once in a while,” observes Gus, the unerring editor, in the episode entitled, “Took,” in which everybody gets took indeed—save only a few of the takers.
McNulty hoodwinks the judge, Clay Davis swindles the jury.
Omar’s flushing the stash and burning the cash.
And the conspirators in the bogus serial killings scheme are getting everything they want, even wishing that their red ball weren’t so red.
The Wire’s fifth season peaked last night, with parallel story lines that showed the cops, the politicos and the fourth estate each deploying for a full-on tilt at McNulty’s windmill.
“Let me be unequivocal,” comes the voice from the mayor, “this man will be brought to justice.”
This is short-term political gold, but not a good bet, I’d suspect, for the gubernatorial race.
Turning on the tap for the cops means education cutbacks down the road— so either way, Carcetti’s forced to choose between prevention and treatment for the wounds of a city that needs both.
McNulty’s got to be feeling guilty, but he’s not feeling as guilty as we’d want him to be.
He and Omar both seem to have lost their moral compasses—they’re both pursuing justice, in a sense, but they’re acting like the ends justify the means; they don’t.
And finally, Scott Templeton’s poop is finally starting to stink.
What will everybody do when they realize they’ve been taken?
I can’t wait to see how the last three episodes play out—but I’ll make a few guesses, even though you might laugh at me later for being wrong.
1. Mike Lee, that cutie played by Staten Island’s own Tristan Wilds, has played a subtle role over the past few episodes, but I think there’s a tempest brewing there. He’s playing a Hamlet-ish role this season. Bear with me on this—it’s not only because the villain in his life was his second-father figure, but he’s also been plagued by his inability to pull the trigger on the triple homicide. Now Bunk is saying he lacks physicality and Omar is calling him sweet pea. This little man has something to prove. To be or not to be, you know what I’m sayin’? I think he’s going to go after Omar.
2. Omar, my favorite character of all time, will die.
3. Scott Templeton will win some awards before the truth comes out. Then he’ll get fired, but he’ll write a book about the ordeal. Gus will get fired too, unfairly. Gus will go to work for television.
4. Dookie will not find his way to the real world.
5. McNulty and Freamon go to jail and Marlo will go free. The irony.
HOW DO YOU THINK THE LAST CARDS WILL FALL? Send us your comments.
McNulty hoodwinks the judge, Clay Davis swindles the jury.
Omar’s flushing the stash and burning the cash.
And the conspirators in the bogus serial killings scheme are getting everything they want, even wishing that their red ball weren’t so red.
The Wire’s fifth season peaked last night, with parallel story lines that showed the cops, the politicos and the fourth estate each deploying for a full-on tilt at McNulty’s windmill.
“Let me be unequivocal,” comes the voice from the mayor, “this man will be brought to justice.”
This is short-term political gold, but not a good bet, I’d suspect, for the gubernatorial race.
Turning on the tap for the cops means education cutbacks down the road— so either way, Carcetti’s forced to choose between prevention and treatment for the wounds of a city that needs both.
McNulty’s got to be feeling guilty, but he’s not feeling as guilty as we’d want him to be.
He and Omar both seem to have lost their moral compasses—they’re both pursuing justice, in a sense, but they’re acting like the ends justify the means; they don’t.
And finally, Scott Templeton’s poop is finally starting to stink.
What will everybody do when they realize they’ve been taken?
I can’t wait to see how the last three episodes play out—but I’ll make a few guesses, even though you might laugh at me later for being wrong.
1. Mike Lee, that cutie played by Staten Island’s own Tristan Wilds, has played a subtle role over the past few episodes, but I think there’s a tempest brewing there. He’s playing a Hamlet-ish role this season. Bear with me on this—it’s not only because the villain in his life was his second-father figure, but he’s also been plagued by his inability to pull the trigger on the triple homicide. Now Bunk is saying he lacks physicality and Omar is calling him sweet pea. This little man has something to prove. To be or not to be, you know what I’m sayin’? I think he’s going to go after Omar.
2. Omar, my favorite character of all time, will die.
3. Scott Templeton will win some awards before the truth comes out. Then he’ll get fired, but he’ll write a book about the ordeal. Gus will get fired too, unfairly. Gus will go to work for television.
4. Dookie will not find his way to the real world.
5. McNulty and Freamon go to jail and Marlo will go free. The irony.
HOW DO YOU THINK THE LAST CARDS WILL FALL? Send us your comments.
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