David Kronke was appointed Mayor of Television after a bloodless coup in 2000. Since then, he has improved infrastructure, championed greater educational opportunities and fought for reforms that have utterly erased corruption and incompetence from the television industry. Since Mr. Kronke has ascended to power, Television is a far better place. Down to “The Wire”
With only three episodes of “The Wire” left, it’s not too late to jump in and catch up.
Well, actually, it is. That train left the station a couple of seasons ago. But for those keeping track, the show pays off handsomely.
Sunday’s episode was written by crime novelist Dennis Lehane (who developed the story with series creator David Simon): Thanks to McNulty’s (Dominic West) fictitious serial killer, Baltimore’s finest are being carte blanche – the city has even arranged for rental cars to replace those stranded in the city garage awaiting repairs. The downside: One cop jokes, “Bad news, gentlemen: We’re actually going to have to catch this motherf@(&er.”
The Feds create a psychological profile for McNulty’s killer, and it describes McNulty to a T: His job frustrations; his dissatisfaction in general; his being a functioning alcoholic and how it fuels his actions. After hearing it, Greggs (Sonja Sohn) asks him, “So, what do you think?” He deadpans, “They’re in the ballpark.”
Meanwhile, McNulty’s relationship with Beadie (Amy Ryan, Oscar nominee for “Gone Baby Gone”) inches closer to dissolution, inspiring this exchange:
McNulty: Bunk once told me I’m no good for people. Everyone around me, he said.
Greggs: Was he drunk?
McNulty: Yeah, but still.
And Freamon (Clarke Peters) is closing in on Stanfield (Jamie Hector), as the mystery behind the images of the clocks sent to his lieutenants’ cell phones is unlocked.
Meanwhile, over at the Baltimore Sun, Gus (Clark Johnson) remains wary of Templeton’s (Tom McCarthy) “reporting.” Templeton, however, is being groomed for a Pulitzer thanks to his fiction about the homeless, and is growing more defiant and defensive.
McNulty grows a belated conscience and starts confessing his fake crime spree despite the fact that it could bury him even deeper. As Bunk will soon tell him, his zealous actions have resulted in something “like a war – easy to get in, hell to get out.”
Next week (George Pelecanos wrote the teleplay), Baltimore police arrest half the city. A few things blow up in a few faces. And the final episode (written by Simon) wraps things up about as tidily as “The Wire” can ever find resolution.
Kind of pointless at this late date to go on and on about the show’s stringent, plangent intelligence, layered and absorbing plotting, nuanced characterizations, lived-in performances and other nouns that are preceded by laudatory adjectives. Fans have been doing that for five years now, without an appreciable uptick in viewership. But if ever a cop show deserved to be sent off with a good, old-fashioned Irish wake, it’s “The Wire.”
- “The Wire:” 9 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Sunday, 11 p.m. Wednesday, 10 p.m. Thursday and 8 p.m. Feb. 29, HBO.