trudging along swiftly on my journey to finish the wire. as of five minutes ago, i’ve completed season three. stop judging me, i know it hasn’t even been two weeks (hey…a grizzly bear reference) since i’ve finished season one. either way, let’s run through it.

season two had its ups and downs for me. after having the incredible and sheer brilliance of season one overcasting the mere concept of season two was a task enough to overcome. after my initial disappointment with the lack of interest i was able to share for the sobotka crew on the harbor, i really got into the characters. for what it’s worth, i don’t think sobotka should’ve gone out the way he did, but what’s done is done. in the end, the greeks made great antagonists to the ‘pollacks.’

missteps and disappointments aside, season two was stellar nonetheless. the show maintained suspense, thrill and completely flawless depictions of realism that it’s pretty scary that you forget it’s a tv show. i can’t tell you how many times i’ve been so involved with what’s going on that i forget that jimmy mcnulty isn’t the lovable fuck-up lush of a cop that drives home drunk after a hard shift.

i’ll end the season two jibber-jabber with a quote from frank sobotka:

You know what the trouble is, Brucey? We used to make shit in this country, build shit. Now we just put our hand in the next guy’s pocket.

now season three is a completely different entity, as was expected. my biggest beef with season two was that it needed far more barksdale action than season two let on, and my requests had definitely been fulfilled. the barksdale crew tightened up and just got way quicker, outsmarting the police much more frequently than you’d expect a bunch of belligerent hate-spewing criminals possibly could.

in any sense, i saw more of what i wanted to see, which was more omar and the focus on the streets. however, i couldn’t give a shit less about the politics that was brought in to the show. carcetti (sic) was just downright annoying, as were most of the city’s councilmen and women. it almost seemed like they were put there to distract from what people/viewers actually cared about. i mean, was it me or did the whole politics angle go nowhere? there’s still two seasons, but as of now – i’m left indifferent. glad they got rid of that johnny kid, though. what a chump.

SPOILER ALERT (HIGHLIGHT THIS SPACE IF YOU WANT TO READ) for the record, i don’t think i’ve ever been more pissed at a tv show (i may need to get video footage of past tantrums to confirm this…) than when they let stringer go. he was easily one of the most menacing and calculated villains i’ve ever seen on a show. period. it’s funny how you think about him doing terrible roles in movies like obsessed or being a grumpy manager on the office, but from this point forward, he’s stringer bell.

dude was the man. sorry i rambled on about this show, but i can’t help it. it’s like having a livejournal again.

“You know, Avon, you gotta think about what we got in this game for, man. Huh? Was it the rep? Was it so our names could ring out on some fucking ghetto streetcorner, man? Naw, man. There’s games beyond the fucking game.”

-stringer bell

for anyone who watches: i was kind of aggravated at the fact that they kept the barksdale crew on the backburner while they focused on the docks. why wouldn’t the writers just move season three’s plot up to season two’s place? after finishing three, i find this pretty strange.

-grizzly