The fallout from the Barksdale case has hit everyone differently some coming off well, others not so well. McNulty is on a boat; Kima is behind a desk; Daniels is in a basement; Stringer Bell is running the Barksdale empire while Avon is doing his time in jail. Meanwhile, on the docks, Frank Sobotka uses money to buy him influence in an attempt to convince the local council to invest in the docks and create more jobs for the longshoremen. When McNulty pulls a Jane Doe out of the water it brings him into conflict yet again with Rawls by showing she was dumped within his jurisdiction. Meanwhile a container bound for "The Greek" is misplaced by Sobotka's son Ziggy which is only a minor problem until officer Beatrice Russell locates it and thinks it suspicious enough to justify opening, only to find its cargo of young women dead in a hidden compartment to the rear. With this in the background, Major Valchek finds himself slighted by Sobotka and decides to take his personal revenge by demanding a team be set up to look into Sobotka's operations and money.
It was only a few days after I finished season 5 of 24 that I started to watch season 2 of The Wire and the contrast immediately made me think. In a way most shows, once they have found a formula and structure that works and gets the audience, they stick right with it. So I was surprised to find that The Wire seemed to take a major step away from the first series with such force. Set in the world of drug dealing on the street, season 1 had established characters and locations that the audience had bought into, but with season 2 we immediately find ourselves on the docks with no real connection to where we were. I found this a little annoying for part of the first episode because I am used to picking up where I left off with a TV show and did feel like it had just dropped previous threads. To a certain degree it had and Barksdale's empire is initially not the focal point that it was, which will bother some viewers. However this is not a different series at all and instead it is yet another intertwined thread in a TV show that had already shown in season 1 that it can easily cope with multiple stories and characters that all operate roughly within the same narrative. By the halfway point of season 2, we are back in common ground but I respected the way that there didn't seem to be any rush to get there in regards the strict location of the characters.
Where the series hasn't changed or varied is in the central themes and the depth of the stories within the main story. Like before there is no glamorisation of the cops in the show. Few if any are out to do the "right thing" but are just out to do what they do; Herc and Carver are seen putting themselves on the line for the job but then also skimming wherever they can; meanwhile a can full of dead women doesn't spark any "moral outrage" but does trigger bartering over responsibility and politics that lasts for the rest of the season. It is intelligent and respectful to the audience in this way and I found it much more convincing. McNulty is probably the best example of this as his best police work in the first few episodes are entirely driven by nothing more than spite.
He continues to be a fine character generally as he continues to try and upset those above him in the misunderstanding that he is "winning" however he is the equivalent of a baby throwing a fit a lot of noise but ultimately no lasting effect. Indeed he is not that different from any of the other characters nobody really has any power here aside from a handful of characters and, rather than using this power to do anything, they spend most of their time protecting their backs. The similarities between the powerless McNulty and the powerful Valchek are good as both are petty men with the power being the only difference. Yes, we are indeed a world away from the cops in CSI and L&O here although I'm not suggesting that The Wire has "corrupt" cops because that it is not what this is about, instead these are neither good nor bad cops and often their performances are nothing to do with how they conduct themselves. The cast take to this really well and continue to turn in the performances that the material deserves and, even with the large number of characters meaning some very limited screen time, few of them sink into cliché. I don't even want to single any of them out for praise simply because they are roundly strong with only the very occasional performance that I found grating (Ransone's Ziggy was just a bit much to take).
Overall a very strong series. I can understand why it lost some viewers who were looking for season 2 to continue what had gone before in all regards but that wouldn't have been as good as this. Rich with characters, plot threads and substance, the narrative is patient and respectful to its audience. It won't provide the light entertainment "quick fix" and heavy style that your CSI's will but then it never tries to or wants to, instead delivering something much more rewarding and engaging.
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