Paid by the Hour, Paid by the Job
The Wire, Season Five (2008)
rating: 5 out of 5 cravats
on VHS from ELO
Two nights ago, Elizabeth and I watched "Pangs," the Buffy episode where the vengeance spirit of a bereaved Indian tribe manifests itself as a black bear in Giles' living room and wreaks havoc on Thanksgiving. It's hard to see something so silly and still try to argue that a show like The Wire is historic television, in part because the further TV like Buffy strays from reality, the less I feel that The Wire needs to approximate "real life" to be good. And if we aren't arguing a vision of The Wire as nothing less than the modern American city - and why should we, when it's not? - then can't we forgive the contrivances of the final season for all the things the final five episodes do so well?
Dateline: Sapsville
The truth is, there are lots of plotlines and dei ex machinis in seasons 1-4 that look ridiculous in hindsight (Sobotka sunk by an anonymous FBI agent on the inside? Come on!). But if The Wire can't be more than a well-plotted fiction, it is never, in the end, less than a king stripping some gangster of his gun. Enough five-out-of-five moments and you can field yourself a team. Clay Davis can play. Slim Charles can play. The newsroom stays benched for the season.
rating: 5 out of 5 cravats
on VHS from ELO
Two nights ago, Elizabeth and I watched "Pangs," the Buffy episode where the vengeance spirit of a bereaved Indian tribe manifests itself as a black bear in Giles' living room and wreaks havoc on Thanksgiving. It's hard to see something so silly and still try to argue that a show like The Wire is historic television, in part because the further TV like Buffy strays from reality, the less I feel that The Wire needs to approximate "real life" to be good. And if we aren't arguing a vision of The Wire as nothing less than the modern American city - and why should we, when it's not? - then can't we forgive the contrivances of the final season for all the things the final five episodes do so well?
Dateline: Sapsville
The truth is, there are lots of plotlines and dei ex machinis in seasons 1-4 that look ridiculous in hindsight (Sobotka sunk by an anonymous FBI agent on the inside? Come on!). But if The Wire can't be more than a well-plotted fiction, it is never, in the end, less than a king stripping some gangster of his gun. Enough five-out-of-five moments and you can field yourself a team. Clay Davis can play. Slim Charles can play. The newsroom stays benched for the season.
posted by NPK at 9:01 AM
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