The Wire virgin’s diary – The rise of Marlo Stanfield

(Season 4, Episodes 1-4)

Well, I’ve dived into season four and things are starting to take shape.

Early in the season, some of the questions I was left with at the end of season three have been answered. The Barksdale organization looks as though it is pretty much finished, with Marlo’s crew only growing stronger. The other lingering question that I had was about the fate of Prez. With Roland moving on to a new career as a teacher, it will be interesting to see if the system chews him up and spits him out or if he can make a real go of it. It’s certainly off to rough start.

“Boys of Summer”

Politics seem to be becoming much more prevalent in the show this season. Not only is the viewer spending a lot more time with Tommy Carcetti, but politics are trickling their way down into the police department. With Lester trying to issue subpoenas on all the crooked politicians that the major crimes division uncovered through the Barksdale investigation, the politics are rearing their ugly head.

This episode also spent a lot of time introducing the middle school students that I assume will play a big part in this season.

“Soft Eyes”

The big reveal this episode was that Namond is the son of Wee-Bey. It’s interesting to see how the family of a big time drug dealer lives. It must be frightening to be a kid in the city, though, even if you are rich. I can’t imagine sitting out on the stoop and having a drug dealer come by and offer me 200 dollars just to buy some publicity. Very creepy.

The subpoenas hit the street in this episode and the all hell broke loose, as was expected. I certainly hope that that snake Clay Davis gets what’s coming to him before the end of the series. Speaking of hell breaking loose, it was a fun moment to see Carcetti completely pwn Royce in the debates.

“Home Rooms”

It turns out seeing the mayor doing very inappropriate things in his office can be very helpful to your career. This whole storyline with Herc walking in on Royce has been very entertaining, particularly the conversation between Herc and Valcheck from the previous episode. This week’s episode saw Herc get his promotion to sergeant.

It was great, if not a little weird, seeing Jimmy all domestic with Beadie. The funniest part had to be that Beadie’s kids only refer to Jimmy as “McNulty.” Jimmy certainly appears to be taken a backseat role on the show.

“Refugees”

Man, this middle school is rough. I don’t think I would be able to survive there as a student or a teacher. I’m curious about how Colvin’s story is going to play out. I wasn’t really expecting to see him this season, but I’m glad they found a way to keep him around.

It looks like the major crimes unit won’t be playing a big role moving forward, but I’m glad that Kima and Lester landed on their feet in the homicide department. It was a little sad seeing the wire taps all getting shut down though.

That Prop Joe is a smart dude, but I think he may have started something pretty stupid by conning Omar into ripping off a bunch of money from Marlo. This smells a lot like the plot that Stringer set up with Omar and Mouzone. I think we all remember how that turned out.

At this point, I’m eager to see how long it will take for all those bodies hidden in the derelict buildings to be discovered. Then the real fun will start.

Clacked by Bob Degon
on Feb 12, 2009 @ 11:00 EST5EDT