Comments on: the wire season two: i can’t believe they killed SPOILER http://fireandforget.net/2009/05/12/the-wire-season-two-i-cant-believe-they-killed-spoiler/ films, music, comics - the important stuff Wed, 10 Mar 2010 06:19:12 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.1 By: Chris Beaumont http://fireandforget.net/2009/05/12/the-wire-season-two-i-cant-believe-they-killed-spoiler/#comment-3894 Chris Beaumont Wed, 27 May 2009 13:11:00 +0000 http://fireandforget.net/2009/05/12/the-wire-season-two-i-cant-believe-they-killed-spoiler/#comment-3894 While I feel your pain, it's cause is rooted in the fact that you're hanging onto the conventions of regular TV that The Wire spunks all over. Lesser TV is too afraid to kill off it's star characters when the narrative demands it. D'Angelo and Stringer had to go, surely; the former far too nice, too intelligent and kind, to survive, while Stringer too evil and Machiavellian to not have his deviousness catch up with him. It's lamentable to see them go, but it's right and poetic too, and helps to give the show it's authenticity. Other shows would stretch as much air time out of them as they could, until it becomes impossible to care too much what happens. While it's choc full of highly developed character arcs and wonderful performances that bring them thrillingly to life, the show isn't about them. Well, it is about them, of course, but it's about more than them, and to focus on them is to underplay the other narratives that really make the show great, in my opinion. The Wire is about holding a mirror up to American society, it's about the death of the American working class, about the numbers game that's killing policing and schooling, it's about the political machine that ensures nobody is responsible. It's leading characters are the justice system, the police department, the schools, the streets, and the political machinery that infests it all. In the light of all that, this or that character's life or death become a mere device in the painting of the bigger picture. Having said all that, I was gutted when D'Angelo was killed too! Frankie Sebotka also, though that was a little more inevitable. While I feel your pain, it’s cause is rooted in the fact that you’re hanging onto the conventions of regular TV that The Wire spunks all over. Lesser TV is too afraid to kill off it’s star characters when the narrative demands it. D’Angelo and Stringer had to go, surely; the former far too nice, too intelligent and kind, to survive, while Stringer too evil and Machiavellian to not have his deviousness catch up with him.

It’s lamentable to see them go, but it’s right and poetic too, and helps to give the show it’s authenticity. Other shows would stretch as much air time out of them as they could, until it becomes impossible to care too much what happens.

While it’s choc full of highly developed character arcs and wonderful performances that bring them thrillingly to life, the show isn’t about them. Well, it is about them, of course, but it’s about more than them, and to focus on them is to underplay the other narratives that really make the show great, in my opinion.

The Wire is about holding a mirror up to American society, it’s about the death of the American working class, about the numbers game that’s killing policing and schooling, it’s about the political machine that ensures nobody is responsible. It’s leading characters are the justice system, the police department, the schools, the streets, and the political machinery that infests it all.

In the light of all that, this or that character’s life or death become a mere device in the painting of the bigger picture.

Having said all that, I was gutted when D’Angelo was killed too! Frankie Sebotka also, though that was a little more inevitable.

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