Wednesday, August 29, 2012

SHE LOOKS AT ME LIKE I'M SOME STUPID FUCK PLAYING SOME STUPID GAME FOR STUPID PENNY-ANTE STAKES:  In this week's Wire episode, "Reformation," everyone's realizing the game they've been playing just may be at its end. Bunny knows that Hamsterdam has reached its limits; Stringer cannot reconcile the business ends of the New Day Co-Op with the street-level desires of his boss, nor is he receiving the benefits from the inside game with Sen. Davis that he had hoped; McNulty's realizing that street-level policing may just be a pebble compared to the oceans of power above him. And if that isn't enough, Brother Mouzone is on the warpath, and, yes, Omar comin'.

And yet there's hope. Cool Lester Smooth pulls off what seems to be the gambit of all gambits by getting Bernard and Squeak to buy pre-bugged burners from him directly (aided by Rhonda's own manipulation of Judge Phelan); Cutty may just get a few hoppers to listen to him; Carver just may have been influenced by Bunny's lecture (and, yeah, that was a bit too lecture-y) to become better police.

Oh, yeah. Hi, Rawls!  Good to see you. Two more episodes to go.

10 comments:

  1. This was the episode where Rawls showed up... somewhere unexpected, right? Such a great, random moment. I like how even the camera did a double take.

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  2. Jordan12:00 PM

    I think that's what he's getting at.  I love that it was just a thing that happens, nothing more than that.  

    And at this point in the series, knowing what you know, if there are two more episodes to go, shouldn't it say "and, yes, Pelecanos comin'"?

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  3. isaac_spaceman1:00 PM

    It puts a lot of Rawls's earlier bluster in a sad context. 

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  4. Watts1:41 PM

    If I may go all feminist film critic for a moment, I LOVED the way they shot the scene of Rhonda manipulating Judge Phelan by recrossing her legs.  By putting the camera behind her, they allowed the character to exploit her sexuality, without requiring the audience to participating in exploting the actress's.  So, hats off to director Christine Moore.

    I also loved the look on Daniels's face after Rhonda did that - I rewound it twice to enjoy his reaction.

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  5. Watts1:42 PM

    And speaking of reaction shots, Kima's wry amusement at McNulty complaining about being treated like a piece of meat matched my own.

    Also: C'mere, McNulty, I'll respect you for your mind.

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  6. Marsha7:38 PM

    I missed it, saw it in Alan's review, and had to go back. I, too, love the lack of comment on it.

    Pelecanos comin' indeed. I'm worried for the characters I've come to love - Bunny and Cutty, watch your back.

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  7. Marsha7:42 PM

    I lvoed that scene, but didn't really take it as McNulty complaining about being a piece of meat. Yes, he wants a relationship and she wants a booty call, but what he really hates is that she thinks he is so far beneath her....and he kind of agrees. He knows his flaws, but it seems like this is the first time he's truly understood that there's a whole world out there that he can't join, even if he wants to. This is not someone that he can blow off before she gets too involved - she has too little regard for him as a person to get involved in the first place. He's not meat, he's just worthless. That's hard for him. (And damn, that speech was well acted.)

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  8. Marsha7:46 PM

    So many things I loved about this episode - absolutely everything about the hat (and as a woman who wear hats, let me say that that was a fabulous hat), absolutely everything about the gay bar, watching Lester and Caroline work over Bernard, the entire scene with Bunny and the higher-ups, where Rawls shows just how much smarter he is than everyone else...

    But what is really intriguing me here is the Avon-Stringer dynamic. I'm not sure how much I ahve to say about it until I see how it plays out, but seeing Stringer be trapped by the Game as much as any of those kids is really jarring. The performances are amazing, as are the scripts, and I'm finding that utterly fascinating. (It's also interesting how much I love the performance from Brianna, while I hated the same actress on The West Wing. Writing, man. Writing.)

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  9. Watts8:12 PM

    I thought the speech worked on two levels, the one you've discussed (different worlds) but, I guess by "meat" I meant "sex object."  Which is pretty clear from the line, "Like I'm just a breathing machine for my fucking dick."

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  10. isaac_spaceman6:52 PM

    What I remember most about that "breathing machine" line was how heroically Dominic West was struggling to speak in something passable as an American, if not Baltimorean, accent.  His accent was never quite all there, but when he was trying to act put out, it kind of cracked me up.  I just rewatched Band of Brothers (again) and the guy who played Harry Welsh does this too -- don't know how I ever missed how not-American West and Lt. Welsh were. 

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