Defending the Indefensible: The Wire, Season 5

I've been toying with creating this thread for a couple weeks now. Fuck it.

This is pretty widely acknowledged as "the" flawed season of the series, but it'd be fun to talk about what works and what's memorable. I have a few ideas but the most prominent is probably everything having to do with Clay Davis - the "confessional" bar scenes with Lester, the flipping out over being dragged into court, all the race card playing bullshit to rally community support....

Isiah Whitlock, Jr. was KILLING IT that season.

what ANOTHER thread about this stupid show

last two episodes are great, iirc. it's been a while.

(you're a stupid show!)

I think I watched the first four in a binge - three, then most of four leaked together, so I wonder if my memory of the fifth season is tainted by seeing it week to week. I feel like The Wire, more than any other show, benefits from binging.

this is the best series of the wire and one of these days i will get around to watching it

i havent watched it in forever but i reckon if you just cut out all the dumb mcnulty/newspaper shit the rest of that season is ok

but then the season would be like 2 eps long so idk

^^
pretty much

this season is great tbh aside from the paper-villain newspaper editors - how bleak it is, omar's final act, bubbles's recovery, the ugly fallout from the budget fuckups, the death of carcetti's idealism, wendell pierce's performance in particular, etc. etc.

plausibility complaints about season 5 have always made my head spin for so many reasons: 1. this is at end of day a television drama, albeit an oft-realistic one, so like...sure it's implausible but how is that a serious problem? c'mon y'all. 2. hamsterdam is just as implausible as a (redacted) serial (redacted) and no one got mad at that. 3. the writers go to p extreme lengths to lay out the process of every aspect of mcnulty's fakery, which severely undercuts how absurd the idea is on its face.

ultimately, since the way this show wraps up is so effective & true to what have been its narrative & thematic through-lines all along - that governmental institutions are inherently fucked and individuals can transcend that and cause positive changes regardless but often don't, while the institutions themselves lumber on - it being somewhat lesser than the other seasons on an episode-to-episode basis is not that big a deal to me. but i know that's kinda a minority opinion

bubbles recovery is all-time

GOAT just for Reg E. Cathey

there are good things about this season but they were all earned in previous seasons