What's Alan Watching?: The Wire, season 1, episode 1: "The Target" (Newbies edition):
The first season of 'The Wire' is the story of two men on opposite sides of the drug war -- McNulty with the cops, D'Angelo Barksdale with the dope slingers -- and what happens when each one starts to notice did McNulty just start to notice? D'Angelo I guess is just starting ~ to take exception, find himself at odds with that his bosses and co-workers are following a rigid set of rules. and I d n know that D'Angelo was central.
McNulty needles his partner, Bunk Moreland, for taking a Homicide call when it was someone else's turn in the rotation and, therefore, "giving a f_ when it ain't your turn to give a f_." The entire series, essentially, is about people who decide to give a f_ when it isn't their turn. hmm. is it? Simon re how it's about the American city, its institutions, how everyone beholden to & compromised by institutions. if it's about caring "when it's not your turn" then it's about the extent to which not compromised right? bucking the turn.

The opening scene, McNulty asks: If they knew Snot would rob the pot every time out, why did they keep letting him play? And the witness, confused by the very premise which is what? that could exclude someone bcs know from past experience not going to follow the rules of the question, lays out the basic message of the series: "Got to. This America, man."
The America of "The Wire" is broken in a fundamental probably irreparable way. It is an interconnected network of ossified institutions, all of them so committed to perpetuating their own business-as-usual approach, that they keep letting their own equivalents of Snot Boogie into the game. hrrm. I don't have a clear sense of what this opening scene suggest or evokes, to me, but it's not that. it's not a metaphor for a broken system where unbrokenness would be to exclude Snot Boogie from the game. it's more upbeat then that, this of-course inclusion of him because 'This America.' being excluded from much of whatever America is, and taking America to mean that can't exclude one another. am I wrong? maybe.

16 comments (on this 'newbie' post)
-Could the series start any better than the cold open with McNulty talking with the witness about Snot Boogie? The story of Snot Boogie doesn't relate to the overall arc what arc?, but "this is America, man" speaks to the ambitions of the show. This is about modern America, and the ways in which it is set in its ways, many of which are f*&^ed up.
-I've been intrigued by this series ever since I heard Slate's David Plotz refer to season four as "television perfection"cool season4 is the one I want to invest in and I was pleased by the potential the first episode seemed to have. Having heard that the series was complex and had a large cast, I made a special effort to pay attention to who was who, although I admit to not recognizing the murder victim and meekly appreciated the flashback. me too. not good w faces. I might try your suggestion and cram a few more into a marathon, because I definitely look forward to growing accustomed to this show's cast and style.

veteran post with 42 comments
-As for the pilot first scene and foreshadowing, this really sums up the whole 5 seasons:
Doesn't seem fair.
Life just be that way I guess.
-re: the typewriters: I sort of had the sense that, despite the year being nominally 2002, the first season was really illustrating Baltimore in the 80's when the drug trade was starting to get really violent. Another thing to note about the first season is that you seldom see anyone using a cell phone---even the cops use pagers and pay phones. My sense is that the five seasons of the show spanned about 20 years of Baltimore city history, and compressing that into the 6 or so years that it took place over was more metaphorical (and practical, to have the same characters throughout) than anything else.
-Question: I have just finished season 4 am rather impatiently waiting for Season 5 to come out on DVD. Is anything going to be ruined for me reading these "veteran" versions?
Alan Sepinwall said... Yes.