You might be interested in the series of “What Real Thugs Think of The Wire,” featuring gangsters watching the show: episode one, two, three, and four of this season.
Episode #53: “Not For Attribution”
“They’re dead where it doesn’t count.” – Fletcher
Stanfield turns to “Proposition Joe” Stewart for help cleaning and laundering money while Stewart remains unaware that Stanfield is trying to usurp his connection to The Greeks. Stanfield also places a bounty on information leading him to Omar Little. Cheese gives Stanfield the whereabout’s of Omar’s advisor Butchie. Chris Partlow and Snoop torture and kill Butchie to lure Omar from retirement. Stanislaus Valchek leaks unmodified statistics from the police department to Carcetti and tells him that commissioner Ervin Burrell is falsifying the numbers giving Carcetti the political ammunition he needs to fire Burrell. Carcetti leaks a story heralding Cedric Daniels as a potential replacement. Daniels is worried that Burrell will reveal his shady past after Templeton invents a quote implicating Daniels in Burrell’s departure. McNulty continues to work on his serial killer plan despite warnings from his partner Bunk Moreland. Bunk enlists Freamon to talk to McNulty but is dumbfounded when Freamon offers to help with the plan.
Deceased:
Butchie
Episode #54: “Transitions”
“Buyer’s market out there.” – Templeton
Freamon and McNulty draw more attention to their fake serial killer by sensationalizing the murders. McNulty’s compulsive behaviour jeopardizes his relationship with Beadie Russell. Campbell learns of Daniels’ history but convinces Burrell to leave quietly with the promise of a comfortable replacement position. Sergeant Ellis Carver puts his principles first in the Western District and his former partner Herc is shamed by his integrity. Stanfield convinces The Greeks to consider him an insurance policy and continues to assimilate Stewart’s contacts including Maurice Levy. Omar returns to Baltimore and quickly learns that Stanfield was responsible for Butchie’s death. Stewart prepares to leave town fearing reprisal from Omar but is once again betrayed by Cheese and murdered by Partlow as Stanfield watches.
New Character:
Officer Oscar Requer
Deceased:
Hungry Man
Proposition Joe
After the discussion in class today I was thinking about storytelling, and the more of this season we watch the more I see the importance of the theme of storytelling, especially at a kind of meta level. Think about McNulty drinking and whoring, and Omar, the lone ranger seeking revenge, and Bubbles attempting to get clean in his sister’s basement, and suggestions of dirt on Daniels… we’ve seen this before. All of this. All in season one. The Wire knows how to keep characters involved, and has mastered shout outs (homeless Johnny Fifty was great). But this is just a blatant repeat of several story lines. I doubt Simons and Burns just ran out of content and thought, hey, well, it’s been a while since season one, people have probably forgotten about that, lets just use it again… so why are they reusing these story lines? Why tell these stories again?
I think there are a number of reasons. Firstly, the show is big on circular narratives and repetition in general, the first and last episode of season one are a clear example of this, but it occurs all the time. Repetition in dialogue (buyers market out there), repetition of setting (railroads, vacants), repetition of motifs (chess), and now repetition of plot lines. This use of repetition and looping story lines adds to The Wire’s structural, greek tragedy, pessimism; everyone is doomed and the doom is doomed to continue endlessly. The circling and repeating also works well with The Wire’s chipper view on institutions. The problem is the system and apparently we can’t change the system. If you look at season four’s credit sequence there are repeated shots of ‘circular objects’, which are almost always spinning. The system is moving, churning out stats, but like a roundabout, or old car tire, it’s not really getting anywhere.
I also think the repeat of plot lines also allows the show to indulge in self criticism, after four seasons, what have the makers of the show learnt about story telling? And how are they going to do it differently?
After reading “What Real Thugs Think About The Wire” I found it a bit alarming that I had virtually the same reactions to what was happening in the various episodes as all the gangsters that were participating in this study (or whatever you call it). What resonated most with me was that all the gangster had a soft spot for Butchie. They explained that they all had their own “Butchie” that saved their lives during one time or another. They also acknowledge that it is a very realistic portrayal of the function of what someone like Butchie does, they own a small business and serve as their bank or a safe place to be when there is a bounty on their head or various other protective functions. And just like the gangsters I was so happy to see Omar back, especially when it is time for someone like Omar to go after Marlo. He needs to get got. It is also really important to me for Snoop and Chris to get what is coming. As the gangsters mentioned I want Omar to go at the whole crew really hard for their general cruelty but especially for Butchie’s murder. And I don’t know if I should be ashamed to admit this but it is not even that I want them to die but I want them to get a taste of their own medicine, it is odd almost to have such feelings of hatred towards these characters but 22 bodies and counting I guess elicits these kinds of feelings.
I have to agree with Antionette about Marlo, Chris and Snoop. I was somewhat sympathetic to Chris and Snoop until they tortured Butchie, who is possibly my favorite minor character. Not only have I started to like them less and less this season and want them to get what is coming to them, I have a feeling that with Omar back in town it might finally happen. Despite the fact that Omar always gets his mark, I have learned through four seasons not to count on anything.
I had talked a little bit about this before and I think it parallels a little about what Geoff is getting at in a character’s likability. One of the brilliant (of which there are many) aspects of this show is the way in which the storytelling causes us to sympathize with or even like certain characters leading us into feeling comfortable with them and then causing us to reconsider a total about face. A lot of times in class I’ve noticed Professor Mittell and others say stuff like “we are supposed to like ______,” which I find really intriguing because it implies a really incredible character arc when all of a sudden we don’t. An example from earlier seasons that comes to mind is Kima, who turns from the very likeable, charming and caring detective into the stereotype of the cheating, lazy policeman that she works with. I’m not necessarily saying that she is terrible, just that a character’s likeability goes through ebbs and flows.
Recently this has been happening with me with a number of characters. In addition to Snoop and Chris, I’ve really started to dislike McNulty and Lester. I understand McNulty’s quest to bring morality back to the way that police work is done in Baltimore (“it’s not about the numbers, its about the bodies”) but how can someone pretend to fight for a moral cause by being immoral. The show is definitely throwing the idea of falsifying information in our face and testing us to see how explicitly we react and in the case of McNulty and Lester, I think what they are doing is despicable. Of course, it’s hard to paint the issue so black and white. What Bunny was doing in Hamsterdam, to a degree, was falsifying (or hiding) certain information with a “greater good” cause in mind. But like we see through the eyes of Bubbles, Hamsterdam truly is hell.
I think the moral questions that McNulty and Lester’s behavior raises are an amazing way of enhancing the show’s storytelling. There is no good and bad on the wire (although by now the show may have its first true villain in the form of Marlo). Instead we are left with characters who are truly human beings, that mirror both the good and the bad of human nature. The realism of this show, and particularly in the way it tells the story of each character is the fact it constantly is challenging our attitudes towards each character. In these last few episodes I will not be surprised if these changes occur in rapid succession.
I truly enjoyed seeing Michael, his brother and Dookie in an environment outside of B-more. Aside from a few cursory scenes in the first few episodes of season 4, we never get a chance to watch these kids just ‘be kids.’ It seems fitting that Simon and Burns would wait until a season whose premise is essentially ‘falsehood’ to take these characters off of the street. I what I thought was an amazing juxtaposition, Michael and Dookie found themselves working some game on two suburban white teenagers who thought it was cool to be from the ghetto. These girls would have an interesting story to tell their classmates between lessons in their orderly county classrooms. They might even become a little more popular because of it. Carccetti in four years…