The Wire: Predictions

Three days to go before the series finale of The Wire and a co-worker (the one who loaned me Seasons 1-3 on DVD) challenges me to come up with at least three predictions. Come Monday we'll see who got what right. I'm no Dennis Lehane, so here are my predictions guesses.

The Red Ribbon Serial Killer
Greggs spills all to Daniels. Recall Season 1, when Prez blinded a kid in one eye during a misguided visit to the Projects, Daniels coached him, Herc, and Carver on what to say to IID. Daniels would also know what to do in this situation. McNulty plants evidence that would allow the Baltimore PD to conclude that the Red Ribbon killer is no longer a threat. Daniels informs Carcetti that McNulty is responsible for the successful $16M drug bust. He brokers a deal so that McNulty will be forced into a quiet retirement. McNulty gets drunk one last time and hangs himself. Following tradition, there's a wake for McNulty in the Irish bar.

The Sun
Fletcher finishes a lengthy, compelling piece on Bubbles. Gus arranges to have it run in a three-part series on the front pages of the Sun. Meanwhile, the London reporter goes through Templeton's bylined stories with fresh eyes. He confirms what Gus suspects: that quotes and characters were fabricated. But Templeton's stories on the homeless are nominated for a Pulitzer. Gus presents the tape recording of the Iraq vet to Whiting who, at this point, doesn't care. Gus quits on the spot. As he leaves the newsroom, he glares at Templeton. Klebanow, the managing editor, kills the story on Bubbles as a favor to Whiting.

Vendettas
Levy deduces that Herc fed Marlo's cell number to the police. He shares this theory with Marlo who orders a hit on Herc. Michael is given the responsibility. Michael's told that if he kills Herc, Marlo will not avenge Snoop's murder. Herc is gunned down.

Miscellaneous
Carcetti becomes more and more skilled at politicking and secures his destiny as the next governor of Maryland... Marla bitterly watches the ceremony where her ex-husband Daniels is named Police Commissioner with Rhonnie at his side... Chris Partlow cuts a deal and confesses about the vacant housing murders. Bunk gets the credit for closing these cases... Rawls gets a boyfriend...

In a world where Burrell can get a higher-paying job and Clay Davis can get acquitted, somehow Levy will get a new and wealthier drug dealer client to represent and The Greek will find another drug boss to buy his imports...

My wildest guess that I don't want to see:
Rhonnie prosecutes the case against Marlo, Monk, Cheese, et al with Judge Phelan presiding. The "source of information" isn't enough and the case is thrown out. In little time, Marlo is back on the streets and the drug trade continues.

The Wire: Nice little moments

The payoff watching five seasons of The Wire isn't solely in seeing this Sunday's anticipated series finale. The payoffs were aplenty and they came in those nice little moments sprinkled throughout the show.

Some of my favorites:

• Det. Jimmy McNulty puts on his best British accent to go undercover and bust a white slavery ring. For me the best part was not seeing McNulty get it on with two Eastern European call girls, but seeing Dominic West turn off his American accent and use his own natural English accent.

• Two words: Fuzzy Dunlop.
  
• Back in Season 1, when we all thought Lester Freamon was a dork who made doll furniture, back before we realized how cool he was, there was this one scene when he brings Shardene back to the basement office and closes the door from the envious eyes of the other police.
• Bunk drunkenly explaining that he tried to burn his clothes because he'd slept with a woman who was not his wife and he was trying to get rid of all the trace evidence.
• Pearlman and Daniels having a cozy moment in their bed at the end of the day. Both of them sitting up and reading, talking and laughing. I was skeptical when the storyline of the two as lovers was introduced. I couldn't see the chemistry, couldn't get the attraction. But over time, as with many other storylines in The Wire, the arc worked.

• Stringer Bell holding a meeting with his drug crew and enforcing Robert's Rules of Orders. Poot pisses off Stringer, who charges from behind a podium to yell into Poot's face, while someone else says, "He had the floor!" Probably my favorite scene of all.
• The first time New Hamsterdam came to life. Colvin first had the dealers go there, but there were no customers. So then the customers were routed to New Hamsterdam!
• The ever changing names of the drugs depending on current events or time of year. A couple of memorable ones for me were "WMD" and "Mistletoe" (the latter during Christmas).
• Any shot of the outdoor sign of a hotel that said, "Welcome New Day Co-op."
• Bodie spitting as excellently as a Major League Baseball player.

• Omar going out in his pajamas to buy Honey Nut Cheerios. He pauses to light a cigarette and someone from a second story window drops their stash to him and it lands near his feet. My second favorite scene of all.
• Freamon telling Daniels they can arrest Marlo Stanfield and Bunk has DNA tying Chris Partlow to one of the vacant murders. Daniels's face trying to comprehend all the information he's receiving. I shed a tear of joy.
• A glimpse of Rawls at a gay bar.
• Cutty's womanizing explained away at least twice with the phrasing, "I was locked up for a looooong time..."
• Speaking of Cutty, how he asked Avon Barksdale for money to open a boxing gym for youths. Barksdale asked how much he needed. When Cutty hesitantly said, "Ten thousand dollars," Barksdale laughed and upped it to 15.
• Clay Davis's "Sheeeeeeeeeee-it."

The list goes on...

The Wire: What happens to McNulty?

When McNulty hatched his plan to fabricate a serial killer in Baltimore on The Wire, I nearly lost faith in the critically acclaimed HBO series. The plot was so far-fetched, so absurd, so bizarre that it didn't appear to belong in The Wire universe.

The Wire creator David Simon has said that the McNulty's Red Ribbon plot is no more implausible than Colvin's New Hamsterdam scheme from Season 4. I'm sorry, Mr. Simon, you're brilliant for creating the best TV series I've ever watched, but I don't agree. The New Hamsterdam storyline was meaningful and provocative; it's the stuff of a national debate if only more people actually watched this show.

But now that McNulty has accomplished what he and Freamon had hoped for, and now that Greggs is ratting them out to Daniels, what will happen to McNulty?

Some of my wild McNulty theories:
a. He's killed in an angry mob, his body torn limb from limb.
b. He's threatened with jail (and beatings and rape, etc.) and must cooperate with the police and the mayor. Some already dead homeless guy is pinned as the killer, ending the investigation, and Carcetti and the brass can claim all the glory for saving Baltimore. McNulty goes quietly into a forced retirement.
c. He's executed by the mayor's office and his body is staged as a suicide complete with a planted note confessing that he's the Red Ribbon Killer.

David Simon and George Pelecanos are professional storytellers. They have only one more episode to wrap everything up, particularly this McNulty mess. I certainly hope they don't let me down.

Getting down to The Wire

This TV blog wouldn't be complete without some posts about the acclaimed police drama, HBO's The Wire, the best show on television.

Yes, though I'm the Project Runway correspondent for Juls, I also spend an hour each week watching The Wire, David Simon's analysis of the crumbling of the American city by taking an unflinching yet empathetic look at Baltimore institutions -- its police, working class, politicians, drug trade, school system, and media.

Correction, I watched an hour of The Wire each week only for the last four weeks. I'm a latecomer to Wire fandom and I spent most of January 2008 catching up with the show. I watched about four to five episodes (about half a series) per sitting till I was in sync with HBO's schedule of the current season, its fifth and last.

The biggest buzz on The Wire this week is the anticipation of the series finale this Sunday, March 9. HBO usually releases the new episode a week in advance by making it available to Comcast On Demand customers on Mondays.

But not with the series finale.

Episode #60 of The Wire will be withheld from Comcast On Demand. The audience has to watch it - gasp! - the old-fashioned way, by tuning in to the broadcast. You know, the way television has worked since its inception in the 20th century.

I guess too many people complained about spoilers coming from gloating Comcast On Demand subscribers.

I watched the penultimate episode again tonight. (Again, I say, because I saw it On Demand last Monday of course.) I'm all worked up and I can barely wait till next Sunday when we all get to see how it ends.