What's Alan Watching?: The Wire, Season 1, Episode 2, "The Detail" (Newbies edition)
"It ain't about right. It's about money," D insists, one of several series-defining statements in this episode. Another of those comes during the extraordinary interrogation scene at Homicide.
(That scene's the first indication that Larry Gilliard Jr. as D'Angelo Barksdale is going to do something really special here. y he's good In typical Hollywood fashion, nobody in the business noticed, and his post-show profile is just as low as it was before. It's sad how excited I got when I saw him in a small role in a screener for next week's episode of "Fear Itself.")
McNulty has already explained to the Pit crew that all he cares about are the bodies, not the drugs, and right before he and Bunk try guilting D'Angelo with the tale of Gant's (fictional) orphaned children, McNulty asks D'Angelo a very simple question:

"Why can't you sell the shit and walk the fuck away? Everything else in this country gets sold without shooting people behind it." behind it.

but is that true, everything else gets sold without shooting! oil, say.
Det.Charlie Crews ('Life'): Is that right. Is *that* right.

-I've watched the first two episodes and I thought it funny how you said The Wire teaches you how to watch it cause my reaction after the pilot was one of indifference. right. rdh: not ~compelling. I didn't get the hype or your bold proclamation that it's "the best drama in TV history." ***
Your analysis, however, provided much more insight than I caught at first glance. I enjoyed the second episode, but again your analysis helps me to fill in the blanks.
--As I said last week, you really want to get through four or five episodes of season one before you can really appreciate how it's working. It's a slow build, but totally worth it.

-As you noted last week, it's young Wallace and not D'Angelo that knows that Alexander Hamilton wasn't a president, but D'Angelo knows more about how the world works, which to me seems yet another shade of gray on this very gray show: just when we have Wallace pegged as the "smart kid" of the bunch, he gets one-upped by D. This show makes it impossible to fit its characters into neat categories, as is already evident in just the first two episodes, and I love it for that.

-I love what Reddick is doing with Daniels; his intensity is mesmerizing.
The one person I'd like to see more of is Stringer. Idris Elba is an extremely compelling screen presence and so far it appears that Stringer's Avon's consigliere [mmm: konsiʎˈʎɛːɾe - the Italian term for an adviser or counsellor, fr Latin consilium, 'advice'] just because Elba sucks all the oxygen from the room when he's in it. wait, that's *why* he's number two (not in charge)? bcs his presence is so compelling? didn't leave out a word, eg it appears _odd_ that Stringer is Avon's consigliere?

***
az- Wheelchair Assassin's review of The Wire - The Complete First Season
The Wire is doubtless the most challenging and important show I've ever seen, leaving even other classics like The Shield and The Sopranos in its dust, and this first season remains its defining document. We watch a single case, built almost entirely on electronic surveillance (hence the title) come together piece by piece from the ground up, with the emotional stakes and social relevance being ratcheted up consistently along the way, right up until a harrowing conclusion that takes up the last two episodes. All thirteen of these episdoes are filled with amazingly detailed and complex storytelling, sharp characterization, and endless insights into the nature of modern crime and punishment--and they're mighty exciting to watch, to boot. is it?
For many, The Wire will probably be so lifelike and believable that it doesn't even function as entertainment. what do I want from entertainment? not: not-lifelike. but, maybe I want Dostoevsky more than Tolstoy, fox more than hedgehog, inside-the-mind more than all-the-world. maybe not finding this compelling bcs not getting in the minds of the characters. it's people in relation to the city, to the institutions, not esp re in solitude or intimacy, is that accurate? however subtle re character, it's not from within, not about interiority. that's not the subject. In that sense, the show's greatest strength is also its (only) weakness, as there's nothing remotely sensationalistic or cliched about it, no reliance on overdirected action scenes, contrived cliffhanger endings, or improbable plot twists. but that's not what I'm wanting, is it. I want to get caught up *in* characters. I like esp D'Angelo & Wallace (sure, they are esp conflicted, so get some interiority there), and find Avon & Stringer & McNulty & Daniels interesting but am not ~ involved. is that life-like, to keep at a distance?
anyway I'm impressed with show, its intentions & realization. but not enthralled. think that may have been true wrt War & Peace, also.
Although there isn't really a main character per se, Dominic West is sort of a first among equals ok y as Jimmy McNulty, the self-righteous, insubordinate, irresponsible detective who turns the case into a personal crusade to prove his superior intelligence and frequently succeeds. For all his flaws, Jimmy's a man's man, the kind of guy you can't help but like, especially since he really is smarter than pretty much everyone else around him. After West, the biggest impression among the wire team is probably made by Lance Reddick as Cedric Daniels, the almost impossibly intense, glaring leader whose initially suspect dedication steadily grows over the course of the season. Backing them is a whole crew of memorable characters, from the odd-couple pairing of loutish white detective Herc (Domenick Lombardozzi) and his smooth black partner Carver (Seth Gilliam); to Jimmy's trash-talking, cigar-chomping partner Bunk Moreland (Wendell Pierce); to paternal, wisdom-dispensing ex-homicide detective Lester Freamon (Clarke Peters); and of course abrasive, venal Major Bill Rawls (John Doman), who manages to save his best vitriol for Jimmy.