Whoah! What a New Year's treat. I just saw the first episode of the new, final Season 5 of The Wire on HBO's On Demand!And I loved it!
Here are some of the reasons why ...
It's great to hear Steve Earle's rendition of "Down in the Hole". Clear and smooth as a whistle. You can hear it here, if you don't believe me ... And here are more of my thoughts about the now-five versions of this great title song...
And the storyline this season looks fine, too. This television season - 2007-2008 - may be remembered as one of the great years for newspapers on television. Journeyman featured a time traveler working out of a newspaper in San Francisco (and I sure hope it continues), and The Wire's finale season will look at the workings of a newspaper in Baltimore.
Meldrick from Homicide: Life on the Street - aka Clark Johnson - looks to be playing the main newspaper part, and that's good news. Johnson's a fine actor. And I'm in favor of all possible, deepening connections between Homicide and The Wire, two now-classic Baltimore cop and crime shows. (My favorite, until now, was Callie Thorne (Laura Ballard on Homicide -> Elena McNulty on The Wire). Hey, McNulty, you were crazy to let that fall apart, and I still hope the two of you get together somehow at the end of this season...
And speaking of McNulty - Dominic West is better than ever in that role, and gives The Wire something else in common with Journeyman: both have Brits playing Americans. West is incredible in his American accent - you can't hear a trace of his UK. (Kevin McKidd as Dan Vassar on Journeyman is almost as good...)
Lots of other good stuff in the season premier. Michael (Tristan Wilds) has really grown into his role. He's on his way to becoming a leader - with all the good and bad that that entails - including looking out for Dukie (Jermain Crawford). Herc (Domenick Lombardozzi) is working for the drug-lawyer Levy (Michael Kostroff). And Marlo's power - starting with the ice-cool Marlo (Jamie Hector) himself, and his deadly-duo muscle Snoop (Felicia Pearson) and Chris (Gbenga Akinnagbe) - is looking more chilling than ever...
But, hey, I promised not to give too much away ...
So, suffice to say, don't miss this premier next week. Or, if you have HBO On-Demand, don't miss it right now ...
"When you walk through the garden...."
4-minute podcast of this Wire review
See also Looking Back At The Wire and Episode 3: McNulty and Marlo ... 4. One Down ... 5. Media Chasing Their Own Tales and Tails ... 6. Superman Omar and Tall Stories ... 7. King of Diamonds ... 8. Two Down ... 9. Cold, Killer Sweetheart ... 10. The Wire Bows out Gracefully
The Plot to Save Socrates
"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News
"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book
more about The Plot to Save Socrates...
Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!
10 comments:
Journeyman!!! Keep It Alive!
OMG I didn't relize it was on demand I am going to try and catch it tonight but the new 2 hour law and order is on. You know I'm a sucker for these cop shows. Hope you had a wonderful New Year (sorry I'm late but haven't been on the comp.)I know you must be enjoying Iowa now. Lots to watch professor
:) Dawn - ha - yeah, I'm lovin' Iowa! You know me well. Best politics in my lifetime!
And I missed Law and Order tonight - let me know how it was, I'll try to catch it somewhere (my wife wanted to watch it, too, and we both forgot it was two hours...)
New Year's was good - I hope yours was, too.
anon - you said it!
Journeyman! Journeyman! Journeyman! Can you tell that I'm nuts about that show. I'm so disappointed that such a brilliant show could even be considered for cancellation. NBC please be patient!
McNulty isn't the only brit on the show. Idris Elba is also from the U.K. Indeed McNulty's accent is on point thought, and I know nothing about Journeyman unfortunately.
Absolutely about Idris - check out my Looking Back on the Wire - http://paullevinson.blogspot.com/2007/03/looking-back-at-wire-with-spoilers.html
Stringer was the best character on the show - which is saying a lot, since there are lot of great characters on The Wire.
McNulty's "What the fuck was I chasing..." when he goes to Stringer's apartment after his death is also my favorite line in the series.
Idris wrote me a note last year - after he read my blog post about him - I posted his note at http://lightonlightthrough.com - it's about halfway down the page, in the righthand column... you'll also find a podcast there, in which I play Idris' "Johnny Was"...
You can see Journeyman on nbc.com - very different from The Wire, but a superb show, also...'
I am sorry if this is off topic for this post but this definately needs to be said!
Journeyman is one of the new shows of the fall season. Journeyman in most people's oppinion was by far the best show of the season and it only got better as time went on. Journeyman was a show that put you on the edge of your seat from day on leaving you wondering what just happened and what is going to happen next. Journeyman is a show that kept you in your seat, making you not want to leave for fear of missing something.
So to all of you on this post if you have never watched journeyman please go to the journeyman page at nbc.com and watch full episodes. Please watch all of the episodes. but some people believe that the 1st few episodes were not great so if you are one of these people please at least watch emily and blowback with are a two parter and then keep watching from then.
If you have seen Journeyman and you love it as much as the rest of us, then please join the fight to save the show. i am posting a link from the nbc message boards called "The Twelve Days of Journeyman" which gives you different things you can do to save the show. so please check it out and do what you can! Lets save this show please!!!
http://boards.nbc.com/nbc/index.php?showtopic=767619
No need to apologize, jacks - Infinite Regress is a place to discuss all kinds of great tv!
Happy New Year Paul. After catching up with Season 3 and 4 of the Wire over the last couple months, I'd have to call The Wire one of the best television shows I've ever witnessed and was thrilled with opening chapter of Season 5. Strangely, the first place I saw Idris Elba was not The Wire, but the British modern vampire miniseries Ultraviolet. A truly talented actor - his finale in S3 was truly stunning. Callie Thorne's pretty good on Rescue Me as well. And you can add Aiden Gillen as Carcetti to your list of British actors playing Americans. How that show juggles such a large, incredible cast is beyond me...
Happy New Year, Mike - good point about Aiden Gillan as Carcetti!
Post a Comment