TV Review: The Wire Season 5 -- Bringing Dickensian Baltimore to a Close

Wendell Pierce as Bunk

Being called the best show on television is a hell of a burden to carry. Season 4 of HBO's drama The Wire won wide acclaim from critics, if not Emmys or Golden Globes noms, and show mastermind David Simon has set up this fifth and final season as a coda for his themes of a dying metropolis and its struggling inhabitants.

He and his team have done a pretty good job, though Season 4 probably still stands so far as the show's high water mark. This is due to a canny balance between the life of the children on the streets and the wheeler dealers in the halls of power that was breathtaking in it's sweep -- failing public schools, crime statistics manipulation, venal machine politicians, backstabbing police politics. This all while creating and maintaining a huge cast of defined realistic characters and scenes of subtle humor and grace that could leave the viewer chortling right after misting up.

The new season, which is about at the halfway mark now, adds the newspaper business to Simon's beat -- the fictional Baltimore Sun standing in for Simon's ex-employer, the uh, Baltimore Sun. Much has been written, especially in Slate's TV Club, about Simon's axe to grind with the Tribune Company -- The Sun's owners. The Slatesters seem to find the journalism subplots to be weak links in the season, and I agree it's hard to get worked up over the slash in newsroom budgets when a character like Bubs, who has spent 4 Seasons in thrall to drugs, is trying so hard to get right.

That being said the various strands are starting to dovetail, as a decimated police force (the mayor -- like Corey Booker in Newark -- was left a surprise deficit by the previous corrupt administration and has had to choose between the cops and the schools) and a bottom-line oriented sensation seeking media organization begin to collude in shady ways.

I find the political stuff mesmerizing -- it's typical of the show that after a heartbreaking season of watching underfunded schools spit these kids out, and a reform-minded if mercenary mayor win election -- Simon asks us to see the consequences of what we so dearly wish for. "Fix the schools!" On The Wire every choice has consequences and repurcussions and in Season 5 this fervent wish on the part of viewers and characters alike means the police have to suffer through a barebones budget and the big case that could bring down drug dealer Marlo Stanfield being put on the back-burner.


Andre Royo as Bubbles. Give this man his Emmy already!

The cast of The Wire is a big part of what makes the show so extraordinary. Dominic West is sort of the known quantity, brought back to prominence this season as in season 1 as lusty boozehound Detective McNulty -- back off the wagon, on the hunt for some strange, and in the midst of a collossal con job. Wendell Pierce as his partner Bunk is scintillating, shifting effortlessly between concern and disgust for McNulty. Lance Reddick, newly added to the cast of Lost, gives Daniels a noble resigned wariness. Clarke Peters brilliant survivor Freamon, Andre Royo as the aforementioned Bubbles who should have been given every television acting award in town by now, Michael K. Williams as Omar -- TV's only gay hold-up man with the power to make a whole city block run for cover. The list goes on...

The bottom line is that I can't wait to see how the rest of the season unfolds, and anyone who appreciates not just good television but great film ought to see every season of this fantastic show. Season 5 won't win any converts, and may not be the place to start (that would be Season 1, fool) but this is the kind of show that you want to put in a time capsule or the Library of Congress. The Dickens comparison has been made quite a lot (Charles, not Kim) to the extant that in one of the newspaper scenes there is a lot of fun poked at the Dickensian reportage expected on the city's schools. Truly though, great television is the closest film comes to the scope of a great novelist, and this will be the fifth in what has been a great set of books.

Here's a key scene from Episode Two -- McNulty staging a murder scene with Bunk looking on:


And a bonus -- Isiah Whitlock Jr. as corrupt politician Clay Davis has become legendary among Wire fanatics for his way with the word "shit". Here's one of his best utterances, from last week's episode.

TV Review: Reaper Harvests Grins

Reaper's Harrison and Labine: Who you gonna call?

TV pilots have become mini movies now, with name directors and expensive special effects. As Variety points out this week, many series television is getting pricier with pilots alone costing as much as $4 million dollars. The CW's new show Reaper, for instance, sports some fancy-shmancy special effects and Kevin Smith as a director. The question, as is often the case these days -- is whether episode 5 will be as much fun to watch as last night's high-concept pilot episode was. Bret Harrison plays Sam, a guy who discovers that his 21st birthday brings the consummation of his parent's deal with the devil for his soul as well as the usual drinking privileges. The superb Ray Wise plays the devil as an unctuous businessman, as ruthless as he is charming. Sam's friends are a guy named Sock (Tyler Labine) who comes straight out of the Kevin Smith/Jay Apatow arrestedly developed male factory, and is none the worse for it, and crushworthy Missy Peregrym who could pass for Hillary Swank's little sister.
It seems that Sam's new job on behalf of Satan (in addition to working at a hilarious Home Depot style hardware superstore) is to collect escaped denizens of Hell and to return them via Hell on earth portals (such as the local DMV). There is a dollop of Buffy The Vampire Slayer here but if the offbeat wry tone is maintained this could work very successfully as a hybrid of that show's buddy demon fighting with the sensibility of My Name is Earl. So far so good, now let's see what the next few episodes bring.

Reaper gets 4 out of 5 pitchforks:

Television Review: HBO's Tell Me You Love Me -- Adult Drama, With the Emphasis on Adult

Tim DeKay examines Ally Walker's ear for hidden coins...

Give HBO credit for taking chances on concepts that would send most TV executives running in the opposite direction -- John From Cincinnati anyone? Tell Me You Love Me is definitely the first show I've seen outside of the scrambled channels that featured testicles, and not just a glimpse! And therein lies the promise and the peril of the show. The copious graphic lovemaking threatens to overshadow the very fine acting and writing as we watch three couples (four if you count therapist Jane Alexander and her husband) grapple with their relationship issues. The excellent cast is toplined by the aforementioned Alexander along with Ally Walker, who plays one half of a sexless married couple with Tim DeKay. Sonya Walger (Penny from Lost -- bad news Desmond!) and husband Adam Scott are trying to conceive -- their storyline is rich with unsaid undercurrents as they lie to their therapist, their families and themselves about what they really feel. Newly engaged couple Luke Farrell Kirby and Michelle Borth are wrestling with the meaning of commitment while using sex to short circuit talk. The issues they deal with are as raw as the sex and for the most part the lovemaking seems to be integrated into the storytelling rather than a reminder to HBO's viewers that they are watching pay television. It will be interesting to see how the show evolves and if they can get past the "Wow is she actually giving him a handjob??" factor. For now this is a solidly watchable show with a great deal of promise. Tell Me You Love Me gets four out of five condoms:

TV/ DVD Review: It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia Shines

Danny DeVito recites lines from Ethan Hawke's poetry to Charlie Day

Basic-Cable channel FX has made a fetish of edgy dramas like The Shield and Rescue Me. Perhaps this has been a detriment to one of the few comedies they've tried, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia . Despite being one of the funniest shows on television it continues to have a profile lower than the average hour of C-Span. Fox Video has just released Seasons 1 and 2 together on DVD and believe me, now is the time to catch up with this hilarious boundary tweaking program. That way you'll be ready for the third season premiere on FX, Thursday September 13 at 10PM.
Like Curb Your Enthusiasm, Seinfeld, and Arrested Development, It's Always... feels like the humor that comes out of a conversation with close friends, when you push a situation beyond what you would want someone else to overhear. This makes sense since the evil geniuses behind It's Always... are three old friends Rob McElhenny, Charlie Day and Glenn Howerton. The three star in, write and produce every show. They are joined in front of the camera by the very talented Kaitlin Olson, who plays Sweet Dee. For Season 2, the show scored a major coup by bringing Danny DeVito aboard to play Howerton and Olson's father. The cast is impeccable, with perfect timing and delivery. Here's a scene from Season 2:



The DVD has some good extras but only includes snippets from the pilot that was reputed to cost less than $400. You do get to see Olson's audition tape and hear some good behind the scenes info. Overall this is a great way to see a great show, and I highly recommend this set.
Five out of five Philly cheesesteaks:

YouTube Clip of the Week : The Party's in Space...

This weeks clip of the week is a compilation of Flight of The Conchords recent string of Bowie dreams. HBO has apparently picked up Conchords for another season of deadpan solipsistic New Zealand style songs and comedy and I can confirm they made the right decision. These Bowie dream sequences remind me of a song from actress/singer/performance artist Ann Magnuson and guitarist/performer/label entrepreneur Kramer's late 80's band Bongwater. Magnuson's lyrics were often based on her dreams and the song "David Bowie Wants Ideas" involves David's Byrne and Bowie mind-raping people for new concepts. More on Bongwater here.

Television -- Couch Potato Musings

Too Young to watch the X-Files...it's scary!

I have not seen the David Duchovny bare boob-fest that is Californication (was BloodSugarSexMagick taken? Will Flea cameo?) on Showtime yet but Nanny fans should know that Fran Drescher's youngest charge Madeline Zima does show up sans top, bra or annoying whiny Queens-accented domestic/stepmom.
Feel dirty yet?

Too young to have David Duchovny's hands on me...he's scary!

If not check out VH-1's latest chapter in B-list celeb-ploitation Scott Baio is 45 and Single. No, for real. I ventured into this one with the same dread reserved for a reality show following the two Coreys or a dating show featuring Brett Michaels but what has actually emerged is a sweet and often very funny portrait of a deeply fucked up guy. Even more so, his crew of buddies (which includes ex-Wonder Years older bro Jason Hervey) are like Entourage fast-forwarded twenty years into the future. Baio is quite likable. Every assignment he is sent on by his life coach (a cuddle party for instance) is punctuated by an explanation to whoever he has to interact with that his life coach thought it would be a good idea, followed by a sheepish, "I know, that sounds so Hollywood..." A big part of exploring why he has commitment issues is to re-connect with a few of the trillions of women he has had some kind of relationship with, and they invariably fillet him. Scott squirms as one woman does a stand-up routine about his cheating ways and another ex describes him as an emotional "black hole".

Joanie may have loved Chachi but Scott Baio loved crotchie

To his credit he really seems to take this in and be disgusted by his own sleaziness. I have to enjoy a guy self-aware enough to know that his Brooklyn accent transforms his life coach's name from "Doc Ally" to "Dark Alley". I really have to enjoy a guy who embraces the implications of that semantic shift. Next week I'll be tackling the new season of Weeds which seems to have started by trying to tie up the impossible Mexican standoff with which they ended season two.