“THE WIRE”

while i’m waiting for  “Dexter”, “Trueblood”, and “Brotherhood ” to resume new season’s, i am rewatching  ” The Wire “, starting  back at season 1. it’s good to be back with McNultty and the gang(no pun intended). the series holds up well under a repeat viewing. a few things stand out for me,mainly the brutal quickness of the violence,and the basic humanity of DeAngelo Barksdale.the first time through,i thought “D” was just another ambitious criminal on the rise, with a family pedigree that virtually guaranteed him a spot at the top ( if he didn’t get killed ).Actually though, when we first meet him, he has literally been taken ” off of the towers “, and  assigned ” down to the pit ‘. this is no Michael Corleone, sent off to college with intentions of  getting him away from the ” family business “. no,he made a mistake ( getting caught ), and is being made to work his way back up by his uncle Avon. “Dee” knows already that there’s no way “out the game ” for him.in the scene where  he tells Wallace to go back to school, we see his hope to at least vicariously know a lifestyle he will never have for himself. when he see’s his underlings playing checkers with chess pieces, we find out that not only is his knowledge of the game at an advanced level,young Barksdale is easily able to explain the essence of the game  to them using  their drug business as an analogy so well they grasp it immediately. and  we get it too: the drug trade,the homicide police,the lawyers and the politicians are all “in the game ” to some degree or another. to paraphrase the creator,David Simon, this is not a show about good vs. evil, it’s a show about how everyone is trapped in the bureaucracy and inadequacy of modern city life.disguised as a crime show. a really good crime show. oh, yeah and Omar. did you think i forgot about Omar Little? our president’s favorite character on his favorite show? more on Omar in a couple weeks when i write about season 2. go beg, buy, borrow, steal or rent  “the wire : season 1!

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