At yet, at the same time, it's kind of one of the best I've received. Merci!

I'm kind of in between on this one, but my one observation is my agreement that the McCoys needed more attention early in the season. There was a moment where Joe was listening to the other parent next to him, who was attacking JD, and where it felt like he was having to choose between defending or attacking his son. That was a moment of really intriguing self-reflection, but it felt like a thinly drawn moment of uncertainty before a 10m plunge into the depths of melodrama. They did better work with Matt's father, to draw into your parallel, if only because he had a justifiable reason for his behaviour: Joe McCoy is just a jerk, and a violent one for all intensive purposes, and that's a sign that the show has had to resort to villainy shorthand after spending so much time saying goodbye, perhaps justifiably, to Smash and Street.

Darren, I think you've hit the nail on the head on a number of the important purposes of the story - you rightly acknowledge that many of the things that make it less accessible are in fact those things which make it more integral, an important distinction in the broader thematics of the series.

The one thing I will, however, take issue with is this idea that the second season is the least generic; in fact, I'd argue it is the most generic. This is not because of its setting, which as you've pointed out feels the most different from what we've seen, but rather that Simon was unwilling to pair that setting with a "mystery" that wouldn't feel out of place on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. The "Bodies in the Crate" never ascend to being a symbol for anything larger: they are a convenient point of escalation that bring to light the corruption on the dock and discuss the ethics of the supply side of the drug trade.

Yes, the story eventually becomes about how good, working Americans are turning to crime in order to subsidize their efforts; in a way, albeit in a far more believable fashion, what Sobotka does on the docks is quite comparable to what McNulty does on the streets in Season Five, committing crimes to be able to support work that will improve the lives of the people of Baltimore. But I don't feel like the bodies were ever part of that: it wasn't that I disliked the storyline, as it certainly gave us some more of McNulty's meddling detective work and kept him involved in the stories, but the actual mystery itself never went anywhere.

Where the Wire's second season felt inconsequential was that it felt like we only observing, and not inhabiting. The Bodies in the Crate were as much a contrived reason to look into Frank Sobotka as was Volchek's request for a detail, a fact which is admittedly part of the show's message in regards to why police work gets done but, nonetheless, also demonstrates how the season's impact was lost by comparison. And while I will agree that what we saw amongst the workers was not normal by television standards, and would present a barrier to some audience members, I also think that the entry point being SO generic an event didn't help matters.

Another concern is, as you mention, the lack of impact of Frank Sobotka's tragic death on characters that we continued to follow throughout the seasons. While we might have taken something away from it, as it relates to the plight of the American working class and the struggles facing them in a new economy, I felt like the characters we followed from the first season didn't: the interaction with Sobotka and his men was limited, and it never felt like the stories that followed truly dealt with what that season meant (and they have plenty of opportunities with the Carcetti storyline).

I have to wonder whether we might have seen more of this in Simon's original plan, which was to shoot a miniseries of the mayoral race as opposed to cramming it into the first 2/3 of Season 4. Perhaps in that setting we would have seen the dock workers re-enter the focus, to see Simon connect the dots between the financial woes hurting the city and the ripple effect of their decisions on the working class. As it is, he kind of left it up to his viewers, which is not uncommon or unwarranted with a show this intelligent, but which nonetheless raises the questions, as you note, of how the second season could have asserted itself more within the grand narrative.

In other words, thank you for the comments, Darren - this dialogue = awesome.

Myles

I think you're being a bit harsh on Season Five (which got shortchanged on our discussion, but in my view bought itself the aforementioned storyline with its central thesis), but I will agree on the rest of your points, Bobby.

Although, to clarify, the Wire was nominated for two Emmys, writing nods in Both Season 3 and 5.

I didn't actually butt into the conversation with it, but we did discuss in the chat that it wasn't Michael who shot Bodie. Yet another reason to take part in the chat!

I've had this pilot for an enormously long time. If things get slow enough during the exam period, I'll considering watching beyond the rather cliche first five minutes I struggled through back then.

Myles here, Mavi, and know that it's on my life plan to do list. Maybe in the new year!

While I totally concur with the genius of this particular strategy, ABC not owning the show would serve as a potential speed bump.

But, let's ignore that and focus on how awesome this two-hour block would be.