No doubt … in Baltimore!

By Restless [Originally on goofyblog 4.25.07]

When they’re released on dvd, I’ve made it a habit to rent a season or more of any television series that get good reviews or I get good word-of-mouth on. That’s mostly HBO or Showtime because of the higher quality and lower censorship. Complex plots and real characters from unfamiliar worlds adds to the mix for me.

I started with Sex & the City, the first say 4 seasons of which were witty, interesting and provocative. Then, over to the Sopranos, at least 4 seasons of exciting east coast brutality. Queer as Folk was next, recommended by Wes, but by the end of its first year, I had become allergic to one or two of the leads.

I came late to all 3 shows, so catching up was sweet. I love good acting and good stories, reality shows bore the shit out of me.

I tried Six Feel Under, but the theme repelled me and the characters weren’t intriguing enough to reverse that. People say I didn’t give them much of a chance. Mos’ def.

Then, that shocking transformation of the Western, Deadwood: the first season, was released. Plotting the story totally within the city limits of a lawless town in the Territories, urbanized it. The last dvd in the series has a documentary on the research the filmmakers went through to justify all the cussing the prospectors, whores, gamblers, fugitives, drunks and thieves do in every episode. Really outstanding.

About this time, I did try watching the first season of 24 from Fox. I got through it, but found it full of padding (what seemed like hundreds of the same worried, rushed looks from lead actor Kiefer Sutherland). Not really the actor’s fault I guess, just not enough story there to be interesting. And, I’m obviously not a terror-head.

Since I never got into The L-Word from Showtime, I went through almost a year’s drought (broken only by the next to final season of The Sopranos) waiting for Rome to drop. Which it did last month. I was full on expecting a Roman Deadwood, but got instead a rather lame re-hash of the end of the republic, Ceasar/Anthony/Cleopatra and the gang, and a cast of 100s, starring every out of work London actor, age 8 to 90, they could find. A surprising disappointment.

It was then I decided to heed all of the great reviews and rent The Wire. These reviews were getting more excited and exclamatory at the start of the show’s fourth season, when by then a show has usually jumped the shark (a metaphor popularized by Jon Hein — on his web site — describing the moment when a show is judged to have passed its peak.)

It took me about 4 episodes to get into the characters, not tough sledding, more like tasting whiskey for the first time – an acquired taste. But once acquired, the show became more complex and interesting than any of the shows I’ve seen, rivaled only by the first seasons of The Sopranos and Deadwood.

Who woulda thought that half-corrupt cops attempting to stop a gang of violent crack dealers would be so good? And in Baltimore, yet! It is said character follows plot. That maxim is proved elegantly in The Wire. The suspense built into every aspect of the story anchors the great ensemble of character actors, all of whom show their character’s innate humanity in every action, allowing you to see the gray reality in a black and white world. It pulls you in effortlessly.

For several scenes, I had to turn on the English subtitles to understand the black slang being slung. That just made it more real and more interesting though.

My favorite player of the series is Omar (pictured above), the dark, ex-con with the scarred face who makes a living prowling the ghetto with his shotgun, looking for crack dealers to rob. Openly gay, menacing and dangerous, yet intelligent and patient, he turns the first season into an enlightening, enticing entertainment.

I’m now partway through Season 2 and they’ve added Baltimore shipyard workers and dead Slavic illegal immigrant sex workers to the story! And Omar’s back from New York City exile. What next? I can’t wait! You have to check it out!