YOU CAN'T TRIPLE-STAMP A DOUBLE STAMP!

Happy holidays y'all if that's your thaaaaaaang.

Dropping this link before I forget.

A great interview with David Simon, here, discussing mostly The Wire and its context.

Every dope fiend I ever met knew what he was supposed to do when he woke up in the morning in just the same way that anybody with any other profession ever does. He was supposed to get $10 in a world that didn’t want to give him shit. He was supposed to get high and he needed $10 at the end of the day at a minimum....And that guy had no existential crisis.

DEAR D'ANGELO

IF YOU ARE STILL LOOKING FOR WALLACE, I BELIEVE YOU WILL FIND HIM IN EAST DILLON, TEXAS, GETTING YELLED AT BY A WELL-MEANING WHITE GUY WHO WILL SHAPE HIM INTO SOME KIND A MAN.

ANON

I think season five of The Wire is suffering for being only ten episodes. It really needs more space to breathe, to recover its identity as a many-layered, textured work. As narrative strands are being woven to a final, hopefully satisfying and suitable conclusion, every scene is forced to be an Important Conversation between plot-important characters.

What I really regret is seeing less of the minor players, especially on the drug side. I miss Bodie a lot, actually. The major players on the drug side of things (Marlo, Prop Joe, Omar) also carry most of the scenes, so characters like Wallace and the Chris and Snoop show are sidelined, as is the whole theme of minor players being crushed by the system. Plus, because they're new everyone in the newsroom is so reduceable to a cartoonish type. Also, I need more information on the Rawls gay thing. You don't have many episodes left, people! Also, my god am I feeling the McNulty hate this season.

Which is not to say it's bad, just that it disfavourably compares to the previous seasons. And of course, the first half of a season always needs to be reviewed in light of the end. It's still very enjoyable and powerful tv. And that conversation between Carver and Herc at the end of 5.04 was breathtaking.