Susan Hated Literature

Creator: David Simon
Dir.s: Edward Bianchi, Elodie Keene, Steve Shill, Thomas J. Wright, Daniel Attias, Timothy Van Patten, Rob Bailey, Ernest R. Dickerson, Robert F. Colesberry
Writ.s: David Simon, Ed Burns, Joy Kecken, Rafael Ã?lvarez, George P. Pelecanos

• Dominic West … Det. Jimmy McNulty
• Sonja Sohn … Det. Kima Greggs
• Domenick Lombardozzi … Det. Herc Hauk
• Lance Reddick … Lt. Cedric Daniels
• Seth Gilliam … Sgt. Ellis Carver
• John Doman … Deputy Commissioner Rawls
• Idris Elba … Stringer Bell
• Michael K. Williams … Omar Little
• Andre Royo … Bubbles
• Chris Bauer … Frank Sobotka
• Paul Ben-Victor … Vondas Vondopoulos
• James Ransone … Ziggy Sobotka
• Pablo Schreiber … Nick Sobotka

The first season of The Wire dealt with drug dealers run by the Barksdale family. At the end the detail got reassigned with McNulty working for the marine unit. While out he comes across a floater. And later the bodies of 13 more women are found in a container in the city port. At first there is considerable debate over who has to take these cases; there is even doubt over whether it is murder. But eventually McNulty works out exactly where the deaths must have happened, and the it is his old homicide colleagues who must take the case. Spite and revenge really do get results.

But no body has any evidence to go on, everyone thinks that these 14 young women will go down as 14 unsolved murders ruining the departments statistics, but then Major Valchek has a run in with local union man Frank Sobotka over stained glass windows for the local church. And, deciding that he is flashing too much cash for a port-worker Valchek puts a detail on Sobotka. And this is the start of this season’s case.

For those of who wondering what is going on down the Pit, and with the rest of the Barksdales, don’t worry, they have a sub-plot all of their own. Bubbles and Omar too.

As I’ve said before, I do love this show, and if anything think that season 2 is better than season 1. Or maybe I’m just more in the headspace of a show like this. Because you have to watch every episode, you have to pay attention, this isn’t mindless fun. But it is excellent tv.

The acting is fantastic, the characters are authentic, and while you might not like them, you can certainly appreciate them. It has bad guys and good guys, but the bad guys can do good things and the good guys often do bad things.

This Guardian journalist is so wrong; The Wire is not the preserve of middle-aged white blokes. And it isn’t misogynistic. Is it violent? Yes, but so is life. And to be honest, quite a bit of the violence happens off screen, that doesn’t make it any less real, it actually makes it feel more honest. There are a lot of murderers, those who kill for business, for money, to secure their spot on the corner, but there are also those who act on impulse and only then realise what they’ve done Show Spoilers ▼

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And what season 2 does brilliantly is show how poverty creates crime, or at the very least allows crime to flourish. Maybe I should blame it all on capitalism? it shows what drugs can do to a community, and the damage that the “war on drugs” can do too.

I think that my favourite character of this season may be Nick Sobotka. He isn’t anything special, just a dock worker trying to keep his cousin Ziggy out of trouble, trying to make enough money a place for him, his girlfriend and his daughter, and slowly becoming a part of the criminal world. But there are very few characters in this show that you don’t feel something for. One or two are “bad to the bone” but they all have a humanity to them.

I just wish there had been more than 12 episodes in this season. I’m off to buy season 3.

IMDb | HBO | Wikipedia | TWOP on Season 1 | Itsamadblog2 | Japadamus | The Salt-box | Lidarose

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