Separation Anxiety

Congratulations on entering the blogosphere. Hooray for the Wire!
Hooray for blogs about the Wire!

The first episode of season 5 was not among my favorite episodes (which is not to say I didn't enjoy watching it - any episode of The Wire is good TV). It caught us up on the past year, introduced some new plots and new characters and it did it well. Just not in an outstanding way. One of my favorite season openers of all time is the first episode the season 2 of the Sopranos. The scene with Frank Sinatra's "It Was A Very Good Year" playing is just fantastic!

Unfortunately, I think some of my opinions this season will be clouded by my sense of the approaching END. It is this feeling that is biasing me against the newspaper subplot. I know I will probably eat my words like I have in past seasons, but at the beginning of a new season,
what I selfishly want is just more of the characters I know and love. Especially given that this is the last season, I am even more jealous of the time the old tried and true characters get. That being said I too will reserve judgment on the new characters and get right to the old.

You were right about Marlo and his crew. Confidence seems to flow in their veins. They make the Barksdales seem like a kindergarten crew. We know so little about Mr. Marlo. Where did he come from? How did he rise up to his place when we first met him. I thought it just like Marlo to use the word spyglass just because it was so unexpected. He is always mysterious. I am eager to see what trouble he is looking to cause in the co-op. It is clear that Marlo is not happy being one kingpin among many in Baltimore. He wants to be the kingpin. As for the Cheese-Marlo exchange, I read nothing but hatred from Cheese. My impression of Cheese is that his brain is not what got him where he is (his blood is probably THE thing). A smarter man might sense the trend in the street and think about making a switch, (although loyalty is important there as well) but not Cheese.

I loved your observations about the parallels and themes of the episode. One I noticed (and really it is nothing new but it sort of struck me this time) was the idea a hierarchy and the rules that go along with that hierarchy. You see these hierarchies in the street, in the police, in city hall, and now in the newspaper room. We see the consequences for rule breakers are different depending on the environment. Rule breakers in the drug crews don't live too long. Carcetti is a rule breaker (he is a white mayor in Baltimore). McNulty is one of the biggest rule breakers of all time. The list goes on - Herc, Omar, Namond...

That is all for now! Looking forward to the next episode! Thank god the writers strike happened after this season was already shot!