0:09 You know what, Jimmy? I'm going to go
0:10 back to the beginning and work every one
0:13 of them again. Back to square one.
0:15 >> If you're a fan of this channel, then
0:18 you know that I love The Wire. I did a
0:21 4-hour long retrospective of the entire
0:23 series, covering every aspect of the
0:26 show, including plot recaps, character
0:28 and theme analysis, and a ton of
0:31 behind-the-scenes details. I believe it
0:33 is the best analysis video of The Wire
0:36 on YouTube, and it's the project that I
0:38 am the most proud of on this channel.
0:40 The video took over a year of my life to
0:43 complete and research included not only
0:45 three different watches of the series,
0:47 but also reading three different books
0:49 and listening to dozens of interviews
0:52 and podcasts. As you can imagine, after
0:54 all that work, I was ready to be done
0:56 with The Wire for a while. As much as
0:58 you love something, after putting in
1:00 that much time and energy into the
1:03 series, I needed a break. I've watched
1:05 episodes here and there, but I haven't
1:07 sat down and watched the series straight
1:10 through since that project. However,
1:12 recently I had a baby, which has been
1:14 both an incredibly meaningful and
1:17 incredibly tiring experience. There's a
1:19 lot of work that goes into taking care
1:21 of a baby, but there's also a lot of
1:23 downtime as well. I decided to use that
1:26 time to rewatch the show. Some of you
1:27 might remember that I did the same thing
1:30 with The Sopranos, revisiting the show
1:32 after a long time and seeing what's
1:34 changed for me. You could say that I
1:37 came at the series with soft eyes.
1:39 >> You got soft eyes, you can see the whole
1:43 thing. You got hard eyes, you stand at
1:46 the same tree missing the forest.
1:48 >> Well, I'm happy to report that The Wire
1:51 is still as amazing as I remembered it.
1:52 It's interesting starting at the first
1:54 episode again with the knowledge of the
1:57 entire series. The show is known for its
1:59 slow start with very little excitement
2:01 in the beginning compared to how most
2:03 other television shows try and hook you
2:05 from the start. However, because I knew
2:08 how good the show gets as it goes on,
2:10 even these early episodes felt really
2:12 engaging because I knew what they were
2:14 setting up. In particular, I was looking
2:17 forward to episode 11, The Hunt. This is
2:19 one of the most exciting episodes of the
2:21 series, right up there with middle
2:24 ground and final grades for me. The
2:26 aftermath of Ka's shooting is tense and
2:28 full of great character moments, like
2:31 when RS comforts Magnoli despite hating
2:34 him. It's moments like these that make
2:36 The Wire such a rich series. And this
2:38 episode is worth all of the setup that
2:40 came before it.
2:41 >> Believe it or not, everything isn't
2:43 about you.
2:45 And the [ __ ] saying this, he
2:48 hates your guts, McNote. So, you know,
2:50 if it was on you,
2:52 >> I'd be the son of a [ __ ] to say so.
2:54 >> Season 2 was another interesting
2:56 experience. The season is controversial
2:58 with some fans hating the season for the
3:00 changes it made from the previous one,
3:03 and some fans loving it for that exact
3:05 same reason. I was somewhere between
3:08 these two on my first watch. I
3:09 appreciated what the season was going
3:12 for with its themes of industrial decay
3:14 in a death of the working class, but
3:15 still felt that they could have executed
3:17 it in a way that felt more satisfying
3:20 and cohesive to the last season.
3:22 However, I have to say that I enjoyed
3:24 this season much more than I thought I
3:26 would this time around. I always liked
3:29 Frank Sabotka's storyline, but watching
3:31 it again just made me appreciate how
3:33 great he is as a character. And
3:35 surprisingly, I also really enjoyed
3:38 Ziggy storyline this season as well.
3:40 Ziggy is like AJ from The Sopranos in
3:43 that he's annoying and easily hatable on
3:46 your first watch. But like AJ, I'm able
3:48 to sympathize with him more and more the
3:50 more that I watch the show. He's a
3:52 tragic character, and the way that the
3:55 show makes you feel for this Malaka just
3:57 shows you how good the writing really is.
3:58 is.
4:05 got tired of being a punchline to every joke.
4:07 joke.
4:08 >> However, I noticed something during this
4:12 rewatch. After he's caught, Sergey rats
4:14 on the Greeks. He tells them about their
4:17 operation and men and even takes him to
4:19 the hotel where the Greek is staying.
4:21 And the police just miss him before he
4:24 manages to get on a plane and escape. I
4:26 don't understand then how Sergey is in a
4:28 position to make an intro to Vondas from
4:31 Marlo given that he's a rat. Even if the
4:33 Greeks don't go out of their way to kill
4:35 Sergey in prison, there's no way that
4:37 they would still be in contact with him
4:39 or take his recommendation for a
4:42 meeting. I read some head cannon that
4:44 Sergey's cooperation with the police was
4:47 part of the Greek's plan. Sort of like
4:48 how they cooperate with the FBI's
4:51 counterterrorism team in exchange for
4:53 protection. The idea is that he didn't
4:55 give them anything that could be used to
4:57 actually hurt the Greeks. However, I
4:59 don't think that's the case. Sergey
5:01 looked genuinely surprised when the
5:03 police knew about the murder, and it
5:05 seemed like it was a panicked response
5:08 rather than a premeditated one. No, I
5:10 think they just needed a way for Marlo
5:11 to get with the Greeks, and they just
5:13 used Sergey and ignored this
5:16 contradiction with the story. It's a
5:18 small thing, but it is part of the
5:20 overall problems with season 5, which
5:22 we'll get into later.
5:25 >> The details, Miss Gutieros, Baltimore
5:28 son, God still resides in the details.
5:30 >> I also noticed something interesting in
5:33 season 3. In Mission Accomplished,
5:35 Bubbles meets a young kid on the street
5:37 who he decides to mentor like Johnny. I
5:39 always just assumed that this was
5:41 Sherrod, but it's actually a different
5:44 person. The actor that plays Sherrod
5:46 actually does appear in the episode All
5:48 Due Respect. So either Bubbles started
5:51 mentoring this kid and then somehow
5:53 switched to Sherrod or they recast the
5:57 role of Sherrod starting in season 4. No
5:58 idea what happened to the original
6:00 actor, but it's an interesting detail
6:02 that I missed the first time around.
6:05 Season 4 of The Wire is still my
6:07 favorite of the show and possibly my
6:10 favorite season in all of television. I
6:12 love the new cast that they introduced,
6:15 particularly the kids. It's so rare for
6:17 a show to have child actors who are
6:20 actually good, but The Wire makes these
6:22 kids so likable. It's absolutely
6:24 heartbreaking what happens to them. And
6:26 the way that they use the kids storyline
6:29 to show us how other characters became
6:32 who they are is a stroke of genius.
6:34 >> [ __ ] I'll take any [ __ ] money
6:35 if he giving it away. Now,
6:37 >> I'll take any motherfucker's money if he
6:39 giving it away. This is also the first
6:41 time I noticed something about the intro
6:44 sequence. The Wire is one of the only
6:46 shows that I don't skip the intro. I
6:49 love the theme song, particularly season
6:51 1's version by the Blind Boys of
6:53 Alabama, but I also like the other
6:55 versions as well. And as I was watching
6:57 all of the intros of each season, I
7:00 noticed how the sequence deemphasizes
7:02 faces. We almost never see people's
7:05 faces in the intro, instead focusing on
7:08 objects or shots of the city. This of
7:10 course fits the themes of The Wire
7:12 focusing on the city as a whole rather
7:14 than individual characters. Again, this
7:16 is something that I knew on some level,
7:18 but this is the first time that I was
7:20 really able to internalize what the
7:23 intro was trying to do. However, now we
7:25 get into season 5, and this is where I
7:27 start to have problems with the series.
7:30 I've said before that season 5 is the
7:32 weakest season of the show, and in some
7:34 ways is a disappointing ending for the
7:37 series. There are a lot of reasons for
7:39 this decline, particularly the fact that
7:41 the season only has 10 episodes compared
7:45 to the usual 12 or 13. I just realized
7:47 as well that the theme of cutting costs
7:49 and doing more with less that the
7:51 newsrooms and police departments go
7:53 through is what the show was going
7:56 through in real life as well. HBO was
7:58 essentially the newspaper owner
8:00 demanding more views while at the same
8:02 time refusing to give them the resources
8:04 they needed. It's an interesting meta
8:07 commentary about the politics of media
8:09 production. And I wonder how much of
8:11 that was a reflection of the real life
8:14 situations of the show. How come there's
8:16 cuts in the newsroom when a company's
8:17 still profitable? There's nobody that
8:19 feels worse about this than I do.
8:21 >> However, even setting aside production
8:24 issues, season 5 still has problems,
8:27 namely the newsroom characters. I don't
8:28 want to rehash everything that I had to
8:30 say in the retrospective, but watching
8:33 the season again just reinforced how
8:36 weak these characters are. Like, I
8:38 challenge any of you to tell me without
8:40 looking it up the names of any of the
8:42 characters on screen right now. They're
8:44 just so bland and forgettable, which is
8:46 not just a result of them being minor
8:49 characters. I bet many of you could name
8:50 minor characters from the other
8:53 organizations despite having just as
8:55 little screen time. It's just that these
8:57 journalists are not given any sort of
8:59 interesting characterization. The
9:01 journalists also don't really connect
9:03 with the rest of the series. They're
9:06 mostly in their own bubble this season.
9:08 Aside from Gus, there aren't many
9:10 connections that these characters have
9:11 with other characters from other organizations.
9:13 organizations.
9:15 And it didn't have to be this way. Do
9:16 you remember the journalist who
9:19 discovered Hamsterdam in season 3?
9:21 Despite being a Baltimore Sun
9:23 journalist, he doesn't appear in season
9:26 5. If they had used him again, it would
9:27 have made this season feel more
9:30 connected to the previous ones.
9:33 >> [ __ ] me. I [ __ ] had this story all to
9:35 myself a week ago.
9:37 >> Also, did you know that Cheryl, Kima's
9:40 ex-girlfriend, is a journalist? Yeah,
9:41 that's something I learned during this
9:44 rewatch. She works at a news station,
9:47 and it's referenced in season 5 as well.
9:49 She should have had a much bigger role
9:51 given the journalism theme this season.
9:54 Again, using an established character
9:55 would have gone a long way in making
9:58 season 5 feel more connected to the rest
10:00 of the series, not to mention give us
10:02 some much needed characterization to
10:04 what up until this point has been a very
10:06 weak character. >> Weak.
10:06 >> Weak. >> Yeah,
10:08 >> Yeah,
10:09 >> very weak.
10:11 >> And now I have to talk about another
10:13 problem that I noticed with the show.
10:14 Some of you are probably going to get
10:17 mad at me for saying this, but The Wire
10:19 doesn't handle its female characters
10:21 particularly well. It's funny. I'm
10:23 working on my Madmen retrospective at
10:26 the same time as this video, and it's
10:27 crazy how much better the women on that
10:30 show are written compared to The Wire.
10:33 Sure, Ka is a strong character with a
10:35 great arc, but other than that, there
10:37 aren't really any women with actual
10:39 character development. Pearlman is a
10:41 prominent character throughout the show,
10:44 but she isn't really given a storyline.
10:46 Rather, her main thing is being the
10:48 unit's bicycle and being continually
10:50 disappointed that the men she sleeps
10:53 with don't want to settle down with her.
10:54 >> I've been pretty honest with you. My
10:55 wife wants to put it back together
10:59 again. I've got to go for it, right?
11:05 >> I just don't want to disappoint her
11:09 anymore. And right now I'm more help
11:11 showing up at some chicken dinner in my
11:13 wedding ring and dress blues than being
11:15 the not even divorced yet husband with
11:17 the white woman on his own. And this is
11:20 a common trope with the wire. The women
11:22 are usually either sex objects like
11:25 Pearlman or Teresa, bad mothers like
11:28 Briana or Danda, or they're the nagging
11:31 wife. Seriously, Cheryl, Elena, and
11:34 Dette all fit this trope. The show even
11:36 introduces a new female cop, Beady
11:39 Russell, but then reduces her back down
11:41 to being the wife who just stays at home
11:43 and gets cheated on so that McNelte can
11:45 learn his lesson about what's really
11:47 important in life.
11:50 >> Family. That's it. Family. And if you're
11:52 lucky, one or two friends who are the
11:55 same as family.
11:56 That's all the best of us get.
11:59 Everything else is just
12:01 >> This doesn't ruin The Wire or anything,
12:04 but it is something that I noticed. No
12:06 show is perfect, and even The Wire has
12:08 elements that could have been handled
12:10 better. But overall, this rewatch just
12:13 made me appreciate the show even more.
12:15 Even after digging as deep into the show
12:17 as I did for my retrospective, there is
12:19 still more that the show has to offer
12:22 me. I even got some ideas for new wire
12:24 videos in the future. Like they say,
12:26 it's all in the game.
12:30 All in the game, yo.
12:33 All in the game.
12:35 >> I hope you all enjoyed this video. Let
12:37 me know your thoughts in the comments
12:39 and stay tuned for more Wire content
12:45 We're building something here,
12:48 detective. All the watches matter. Matt
12:52 Joyce, Uncle Mike, Sam Cedarland, Celery
12:55 Man, Cheshire, Brandon Taylor, James
