The Wire: Time After Time (S3:E1)

“Don’t it always seem to go / That you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone”

            And like that, they’re gone. The Towers, that is, and with it, a new era opens for the Barksdale Organization. Like all seasons of “The Wire,” there is a ton going on here (it would be unfair to characterize Season 2 as just being about “industrial decay,” instead of being about “familial bonds,” or whatever else you could come up with), but this season seems more to be heavily invested in connecting the past with the future, looking at what changes, and what doesn’t, in a city like Baltimore.

            The cold open, by the way, is a thing of beauty, even by “The Wire’s” lofty standards. Bodie and Poot ranting about the good times (Poot, at the old age of 17, reminisces about losing his virginity in the Towers), as Mayor Royce celebrates the collapse of the Towers. Is it a little unbelievable that no one would have heard about this project beforehand? Probably, but it’s worth it for the moment where the applause for The Tower’s destruction is cut short by the dust from the explosion. In a quite literal sense, Mayor Royce chokes on his own words. It’s on point, but it sets up the season like gangbusters.

            As with the show itself, the first few reviews of the season have to do a bit of housekeeping to set up the show’s plot. Something something “the show’s an investment” something “tablesetting.” Therefore, we’re introduced to a few vital players in this episode, too, so it’s important to understand where they’re coming from. We met Bunny Colvin briefly in Season Two, and he spends most of this episode just looking pissed at the inadequacy of the police’s efforts. Once you see where he’s going, the buildup is worth it (I love his storyline, but my impression is that it’s a divisive one), but for now he’s just the old Major who’s got nothing to lose when he retires. Tommy Carcetti (you may know him best as the CIA agent who is the victim of Bane’s violence and shitty one-liners in the opening scene of “The Dark Knight Rises”) is an upstart politician, and a deft one at that, maneuvering Burrell into a PR fiasco over Baltimore’s crime escalation. In essence, this is merely a warning: keep an eye on them. Both are forward-looking leaders who are trying to do right, although their actions could probably not be more dissimilar this season

            The last character, Dennis “Cutty” Wise, is the one who struck me the most on the rewatch of this episode. For a season that largely ignores the events of the past one to return us, functionally, to the status quo of Season One, introducing Cutty into the mix works wonders to keep us off our game. The viewer really is as out of place in Baltimore as Cutty is after 15 years, and his random wandering and nervous nature shows us that, even in the time we spent on the docks (a time that comes up, but rarely, as the show progresses), things have changed. 

            Of course, this isn’t just a show that looks to set up plotlines. It’s establishing its messages, slowly but surely, and I think Daniels collapsed relationship with his wife shows that as well as any. His marriage is no longer the shell it once was: it's now fully gone, at best keeping up appearances. Baltimore is a wreck, too, in almost every way: how it can pick up the pieces and change is now the more important topic of discussion. (Note: I had some trouble with Blogger the last week, so apologies on A. The unfinished nature of this post originally, and B. The lack of updates. I will try to do better as well)

"Don't matter how many times you get burnt, you just keep doin' the same" -- Bodie

Observations and What-Have-You’s

n  New season, new version of “Down in the Hole,” and unfortunately, I think this is the worst one the show would ever do. It’s flashy, which is sort of the point for this political season, but it just sounds…soulless? It’s certainly the most different, but unlike with most of the risks the show takes, playing it safe might have been a better call.

n  Also, I’m reformatting the way I’ll handle epigraphs for the season. I still sort of like the dual epigraph format, but I’m going to try and use song lyrics to open up the reviews, with the episode’s actual epigraph closing out the episode.

n  Herc, Carver, and (shockingly) Omar are finally billed in the opening credits. Although that sounds ridiculous, seeing how many actors are listed as starring explains why it is so difficult.