Season 2 is good but you just end up loving the characters of 1 so much that it’s jarring to leave them for a while. But then you get used to them switching up the focus each season. 4 is my favorite.
5 is pretty much the consensus worst season and the only season that isn’t great imo. It took a while for season 2 to be appreciated the way that it is now
Probably the biggest flaw in Season 2 is how long it takes to get the unit back together. It is a lot of plot to get back to the meat of the show.
Yeah the reason 5 is the worst is mainly because Simon's other collaborators were off working on other projects so it was pure unfiltered David Simon. Season 5 is what Simon's output looks like when he doesn't have Ed Burns telling him his ideas are bad Also I think after 4 I think they thought for sure they were getting canceled so they didn't have much time to plan season 5 out. Which also why the other writers were doing other stuff.
It's so hard to reconcile Simon's very basic Democratic Party political beliefs on Twitter and other platforms with what the show presents. It really feels like two different people.
Finished my re-watch last night. Still so good, I think I liked it more on this watch. Season 5 is definitely the weakest, the whole serial killer thing with McNulty is a little too cutesy for this show, and while there was some good stuff with the newspaper, it didn't get integrated into the grander scheme as well as the other framing devices in previous seasons. Omar is still one of the best characters of all time. Grabbed a copy of All the Pieces Matter and excited to start that soon. Also started The Shield last night, which I always heard was a good counterpoint to The Wire. Tonally a little different than I thought, at least from the first episode, kinda cheesy, but I'm definitely in.
The character Gus in season 5 is so obviously Simon's avatar and representation of how he views himself and it's not even the tiniest bit subtle.
I just DM'd my friend who loves The Wire and she said " he was the perfect buff salamander " and I am sorry that had me rolling
Daniels was low key one of the best characters in the show. Probably the only character that stuck to his guns and had morals. And Lance Reddick was perfect in the role. This sucks. RIP
Just one of those actors that, whatever they were in, as soon as they were on the screen you knew you were in good hands.
I have 5 episodes left. The whiplash of going from how good season 4 is and how head-scratching some of season 5 is…
The reason for this is in season 5 most of Simon's collaborators in the writer's room left to work on other projects. Ed Burns who was the real big reason why the first 4 seasons of The Wire was so good left to work on Generation Kill. They thought season 4 was to going to be the last, so when it got renewed it caught them off guard and Simon had to do it pretty much alone. Season 5 was what David Simon completely unfiltered looks like..which is not that great. I would say though even though season 5 is bleh they stick the landing at the very end.