So season 3 of The Wire! The first season of this police & gang crime drama focused on the
drugs at a street level, the second took us to the Baltimore ports to focus on the blue collar
working class dockworkers – this season takes us back to the streets, take us back to the likes of
Stringer and Barksdale organisation, only this time with the scope expanded to include the city’s
political scene, the bureaucracy and politics at a city government level. We’re back to the gang
listening to wiretaps, the actual gangs and their street corners, but also the ladder-climbing and
scheming professional men and women in suits whose algorithms, budgets and forecasts have direct
implications on those at the street level. Now, just to summarise my thoughts. Season
1 is regarded by some as a bit of a slog to get through, a necessary task so that the characters
are established. I don’t quite agree with that – though I can see how some might find season
1 dry and maybe even boring, with it seemingly being aimless for about 6 episodes until the case
slowly creeps up on you, but all in all I found it wonderful and really enjoyable.
Season 2 is supposed to be the weird one, as it’s focus is on something ostensibly so far removed
from the drugs and streets that it at times feels like a different show. Some people love it,
soe hate it, I thought it was as equally good as the first, though I would pick
season 1 if I had to choose between the two. Season 3 is where it’s supposed to get really
good, and I concur, because after finishing the third season my thoughts summed up into one phrase
is that I thought it was quite simply brilliant. It was firing on all cylinders, it worked on
every level – there were so many characters, so many plot threads and overlapping stories,
so many competing ideologies and motivations, and yet it felt so tight, so well put together, and
some things happened – one thing in particular, which was so shocking, and it did not go at all
how I thought it was gonna go down . The season is so great - a simple line of dialogue that carries
an ocean’s weight of meaning, a glance from a character that reveals something poignant.
All these little things, so easy to miss, as I mentioned in my review of the last season,
and it’s amplified here. This must be such a great show to re-watch, in part due to those
little details that are so easy to miss – like when they show Rawls at a gay bar. Imagine if the
police Majors found out about that – but if you looked away from your screen just for 2 seconds,
you would have missed it and it’s literally never bought up again in the season.
There’s something about this season, something about the way it just starts at 100mph and just
keeps going, no need to introduce characters because we pretty much know them all by now,
no need to get us to get used to the format because we’re used to it my now. If I could
put it into words, I would say that, essentially, season 3 of The Wire feels like this is where the
story actually starts, this is the beginning of the show. Season 1 was a prequel series,
season 2 was like a spin off – a kind of, the-gang-goes-down-to-the-docks kinda thing,
and here is we’re kick off immediately and don’t atop until the end of the season. It’s like,
take Rawls – that’s an entertaining character, his job in the season is basically to grill his
subordinates with zingers and one-liners. But if you’re thinking “hmm, I’m interested in this
character, I wanna see him before this, when he was working his way up” that’s when you go to
season 1. I’m not saying start with the third season obviously, it’s just that’s the kind of
vibe I get, because the third season can just do so many things because elements of The Wire,
including characterisation, have already been established in the earlier seasons.
It’s like Stringer running things while Avon is in jail, Avon having this violent reputation. If
you wanna see that rep in action, you go to season 1. Or this thing that happens with Major Colvin,
a very interesting plot where he comes up with the maverick, unorthodox and illegal idea,
after becoming jaded and frustrated at the drug scene, of basically moving all the drug dealers
in his district to an empty part of town, and telling them that as long as there is no violence,
they can sell all the drugs they want so long as they stay in the designated territories.
We see how this goes down, and we see the reaction of the media and Colvin’s superiors when they find
out. It’s essentially a live-action projection from the showrunners on what might happen if we
legalise drugs and control the trade. In similar fashion, season 3 of The Wire has even more to say
about things going on in the world than the previous two seasons, as if given a vote of
confidence by the performance of the earlier seasons. Symbolism and allegories to Bush’s
war on terror and the illegal and disastrous invasion of Iraq have aged like fine wine,
some of the metaphors are so on the nose that there’s even a scene of Rawls instigating a mass
arrest with Ride of the Valkyries booming on a loudspeaker, in a direct homage to Apocalypse Now,
another project where American imperialism and the military industrial war complex.
There really isn’t anything to complain bout with season 3 of The Wire. If I wanted to nit-pick,
I could say that I think an upgraded camera was used for this season, which did produce
some weird shots, like this one where it almost looks like the characters are standing in front
of a green screen. And maybe, if you pushed me to find something I didn’t like, I could say that,
though he was essential overall, Councilman Tommy Carcetti and his push to become mayor was hardly
the most interesting story around. Also, I know he isn’t exactly supposed to be a saint, but Carcetti
is shown to have a moral compass, but I failed to connect with him. Maybe it’s because of the actor,
or maybe it’s because I subconsciously knew I was watching the guy who played Littlefinger in
Game of Thrones, who also did a lot of political ladder-climbing, only he was a lot more slimy,
and some of that may have rubbed of Carcetti. You just can’t really tell where this guy actually
stands on things, whether he’s in it for himself or genuinely wants to make change for the better,
it makes for a slightly frustrating character, though ultimately, I know that’s the point.
The more I see of The Wire the more mature it feels, in a way that it doesn’t compel you to
keep on watching it. It doesn’t usually adopt many tricks of the trade, like ending episodes
on a cliff-hanger or heavy scenes of exposition just to make sure you’re keeping up. It’s almost
like The Wire says, ‘oh you don’t wanna watch anymore? You think this is boring,
and not going anywhere? Well, there’s the door’. Now in terms of story and characters,
there is a heap of stuff going on, so I’m not going to go through all of it,
there’ll be room in the future for analysis videos and stuff like that, but in terms of just talking
about a few interesting things here and there – I really liked this character of Dennis “Cutty”
Wise, an enforcer who’s released from prison after a 14 year stretch.
The guy they got to play him did a great job – there’s something about his eyes, something
about the way he moves, he’s lumbering, almost oafish, but he simultaneously looks dangerous,
you can imagine him switching and just going into psycho serial killer mode. But his story is a very
wholesome one, easy going in general, with him turning away from the life and wanting to open
a boxing gym for kids. As a former football coach for youths, soccer for you Americans, I found it
hilariously easy to relate to Cutty’s issues, like having to jump through an insane amount
of hoops just to open a facility, and unruly, undisciplined inner city kids who need to be
reached on an inner level before they can develop. Stringer Bell, who has of course been running
the Barksdale crew while Avon is locked up, essentially becomes Charlie Luciano,
by co-operating with other drug gangs, including Proposition Joe,
who form together a kind of commission where they can talk out their differences and come to
agreements. Sharing is the name of the game, for the betterment of everyone’s business – there’s
just one gang leader, Marlo, who refuses to play ball and remains a thorn in the side of Stringer.
Things get even more complicated when Avon is eventually released from prison mid-way through
the season, and re-directs the Barksdale crew to a more gung-ho, guns blazing way of doing things,
much to the frustration of Stringer, who may or may not be tempted to get Avon out of the picture,
one way or another. Stringer is also making ground in the legitimate world, with things
like real estate, but like Michael Corleone before him, comes to find the legitimate world is just as
crooked as the underworld. The dynamic between him and Avon is a joy to watch, as is the re-emergence
of Omar on a quest for revenge and even Brother Mouzone, who for some reason I found really
entertaining here, a lot more than in season 2. You know the first 2 seasons of The Wire gave us a
lot of build up. There were minor payoffs here and there, but ultimately, it felt like the series was
holding its cards close to its chest, a bit like Boardwalk Empire, a show where it kinda felt like
it was building to something, but because the show was cut short, what it was building to never quite
came, so you were left with blue balls. Here, with season 3, it’s just payoff after payoff,
with many of the things that were building up from previous seasons exploding into glorious fruition.
You hear so much about The Wire, how people compare it to The Sopranos for being the
greatest American crime show ever made, and it’s only really NOW, that I see how that comparison
can be legitimate, and at the same time, I’ve come to realise why people say you can’t have the 3rd
season of the wire without the first two. Season 3 of the The Wire is magnificent
television, so entertaining, deep, rich and layered. Everything feels so interconnected,
all the characters, no matter how minor, feel fleshed out and real.