C'est La Vie Y Adios
the end of the wire marks the end of this tv reality
2008-03-10
By DeAngelo Starnes

You climb to the mountaintop.  You stand there overlooking the landscape below.  You breathe in air fresh and free from exhaust fumes, fast food odors, and poverty. You’re sweating pride full of many weeks’ worth of hard work and training.  Sweat that helped you dodge the many times you could’ve fallen to serious injury or death.  After taking in another breath of satisfaction, you close your eyes, tilt your head back, and exhale, “Yeah.”  Then someone leans into your ear to tell you the mountain ain’t one made from God’s earth but man-made garbage landfill.

Kinda cheapens the thrill, doesn’t it? 

Remember the intro to ABC’s Wide World of Sports?  “The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.”  How about experiencing the same contrasting feelings at once?  That’s a long fall off a high cliff.

Example?  Check the Super Bowl.  During the lead-up, we’re told both teams are glorious, full of gladiators.  Players are high - not on weed but from that lofty pedestal everyone’s excitement and anticipation placed them on.  But the team that loses the game?  Can you spell depression?  Self-doubt kicks in.  Questions like “Was I really that good?” or “Did I get lucky?” permeate the brain. 

A bit of advice: leave that puritanical guilt alone. It ain’t you.  It’s the imposition of the “Strive for perfection we will never achieve” religious philosophy that grips you.  Mathematics and science always bring me back.  Either it is or it ain’t. You climbed the mountain.  Who cares what it was made of?  It was a mountain.

I heard a lot of rap saying that this season’s “Wire” was its weakest.  I don’t feel that way.  I thought it was just as strong as the others.  It was different certainly because it didn’t rely as much on black thuggery to power its episodes.  However, I thought the political and social content may have been its strongest during its run.  As I’ve alluded to in past essays, the metaphors to what’s happening in society today were quite powerful.  And there were a couple of times when its timing with headlines was Orwellian. 

As far as finales go, I thought it was quite good (specifics follow in the recap).  I liked it better than “The Sopranos” finale.  In fact, as entertaining as I often found “The Sopranos” to be, I always thought it was overrated.  Like “OZ,” “The Sopranos” lost its way after peaking during its second season.  The finale of “The Wire” reminded me of the finale of “Six Feet Under” in that it showed you the destination of its main characters.  Kind of a “thank you” for loyal viewership. 

Speaking of “The Wire” characters’ destinations, I had a lot of discussions predicting how the show would end.  I can happily say I didn’t get one prediction correct.  That’s good writing on Simon’s part.  You can’t predict Life.  For a show that prided itself on mirroring Life, mission accomplished.
Recap:

- Opening: Talk about feeling the agony after the thrill, Carcetti was speechless after they told him there really wasn’t a serial killer of the homeless.  When you go from a cliff to the ground, you might be without words.  Or you start shouting and tearing s**t up.  Reminds me of the Richard Pryor routine from “That Nigga’s Crazy.”  Remember when he talked about how you just got paid, got dressed up, and are out on a date with someone you really dig.  Thrill of victory, right?  Then the agony of defeat when the police pull you over.  “Get out the car.  There was a robbery and the nigga looks just you!  Put your hands up, pull your pants down, and spread your cheeks!”  What do you do when your police commissioner tells you that the homeless serial killer was concocted after you’ve been in the media pledging to find that killer? 

- Bubs really cleaned himself up.  Remember how we first got introduced to him?  He was a lovable dirty street-life drug addict.  To me, he seemed to be more of an irritant.  Upon reflection, his character always had a good heart.  But again, addiction’s a bitch and can drive us to the bottom of our natural character.  However, I really loved how the writers used his character to show us there is a way to surmount those low moments.  The slow painful grind to triumph is often more gratifying and permanent than the quick hit.  I think it may have been just as important to the writers to display the Bubs’ character arc to that moment as any accomplishment they’ve achieved during the entire series.  If you read Simon and Burns’ side commentary in The Corner, you might understand why.

Something that stood out to me from this episode was when Bubs consulted his sponsor about the newspaper article that’s about him.  Bubs said the bad about his life didn’t bother him.  But, as his sponsor asked, “Scared of someone calling you good?”  That resonated because when you do dirt for so long, dirt becomes your identity.  Being called “good” sounds foreign.  Which unmasks fear of success that unmasks insecurity that only a world of addiction masked.  You become so mired in the agony of defeat that the thrill of victory is no thrill at all.  And then you become imprisoned by your own guilt from being mired in the agony, which is your fault.  Because it’s up to you to free yourself.  I believe that was the essence of the Kafka quote his sponsor shared (how many shows you know quote Kafka?).

- Just as the writers made a statement of triumph with Bubs, they made a statement of tragedy with Dookie.  It appears from his appearance and hustle of Pryzbylewski that he’s entered the world Bubs just left.

- Speaking of Pryzbylewski, how much did his character grow over the years?  I wanted to whup his ass that first season.  Then resented how he helped Lester crack the Barksdale code.  But he turned out to have a lot of heart and true love for the population he previously abused.

- A lot of people seemed to be baffled by the newspaper string.  May have thought that it was Simon’s personal vendetta.  If it was a vendetta, it was a vendetta well worth pursuing.  I’m with Simon on his anger.  The media is an information gate-keeper.  That role entails some responsibility.  Like Gus said, the media is about reporting the story, not manufacturing it.  Idealistically, we trust the media because it is the line we depend on to keep us aware of what’s going on in the world.  There’s supposed to be a level of trust there.  But nowadays, we have to read between the lines to get at the truth.  The more accurate accounting of what’s happening, outside of Democracy Now! and C-Span, are shows that satirize what we see on television and read in the newspaper.  What does that say about us?  As much as the media is the problem, so are we.  We don’t demand that we don’t get lied to.  We sit back and take in the crap that we call news without tearing some s**t up.  But we love America’s Idol and similar ilk or eck.  Shows like that ain’t real.  That’s escapism.  We need to climb the mountain if we are going to get better as a society.

- I enjoyed Clark Johnson this season.  He was a welcome addition to the cast.  I’ve always liked his work, be it as an actor or director.  On “Homicide,” he was the first actor to bring the true brother aspect to television. 

- Simon did a Hitchcock-type cameo.

- Marlo tried to do the Stringer Bell businessman transition before he returned to Avon street-thugism.

- Loved the goodbye to McNulty and Lester in the bar.  I have to admit McNulty gained cool points with the way he handled the post-Marlo world.  It was gratifying to see him return to the crickets.

- Daniels’ show of balls was admirable.  At the risk of wrath, Simon had similar balls in casting Lance Reddick in such a prominent role cuz he’s a praying mantis-looking m-f.  Played the hell outta the role over the years though.

- Speaking of casting, Simon deserves a shout-out.  Great f**king casting.  I don’t think the show would’ve been as compelling if it went the way “NYPD Blue,” casting pretty people.  The realism came off because of the realistic actors.  I can’t think of a misstep with the casting.

- Parting shot: The cycle continues.  Marlo tried to be refined but couldn’t do it Avon.  Leander as the new McNulty.  Michael as the new Omar (that sexual abuse coming to fore?).

-  Lotta deal-making in order to sustain the thrill of victory in order to avoid the agony of defeat.  Is that the ultimate point?

“The Wire” was exceptional television.  I wish I would’ve had an end-of-The Wire party.  However, I don’t like long goodbyes.  As Cheese said, “Ain’t no nostalgia to this s**t here.”

Don’t freeze me out.  I’ll be back in this space with  a new column called “Critical Examination” next week.

DeAngelo Starnes is a freelance writer and attorney who resides with his wife and son in Denver, CO. He welcomes direct constructive feedback at  deangelo_starnes@hotmail.com.