January 13, 2008

‘The Wire’ Returns

That’s right, the best show on television has returned for its fifth and (sadly) final season. Also returning this week: Medium, which ranks at the top of the network shows in terms of quality, and USA’s Monk and Psych. Neither of these two will win any awards (well, other than Tony Shalhoub winning best actor…every single year), but they’re pretty entertaining. Hey, what happened to all the other shows?

Medium (NBC) — This show can do “realistically disturbing” like nothing else on TV. It’s rare for anyone to make images as innocuous as dancing feet, Run DMC, and a smiling kid bobbing his head to the beat into something skin-crawling and nauseating. Kudos, Medium, for giving me more nightmares than your main character.

As far as our noble band of misfits are concerned, we got at least a minor check-in with all of them: Scanlon has become Officer Friendly, Devalos has gone on vacation, Joe’s still out of work, and Allison has to call 1-800 tip lines to deliver her premonitions. I feared that, with last season’s “shit hits the fan” three-parter, the show would back itself into a My Name Is Earl-esque corner, but if this episode is any indication, that won’t happen. I don’t say any kind of “we’re getting the band back together”-type storyline in the show’s future, but I think the group can still crime solve in their new vocations.

Did anyone else get a little confused by the Sound of Music subplot? At the risk of unleashing my inner musical nerd, I have to point out that the “Going on 17” song Arielle auditioned with was…not Maria’s song. “My Favorite Things,” sung by the world’s oldest high school sophomore, is Maria’s song, so at least they got that right. Since I automatically assume executive producer Kelsey Grammer is exactly like Frasier Crane, this slip-up surprised me. Frasier would know better! Anyway…I only bring up the subplot not because of my confusion at misassigned songs, but because—what the hell was going on with that montage at the end? I hate it when TV shows try to get arty, especially when they try to get arty and I don’t know what the hell is happening (I’m looking at you, House). Feel free to e-mail me so I can take credit for it in next week’s column and not appear to be such a fool.

Oh yeah, and when did Elvin turn into a dick? That’s right, Geoffrey Owens has apparently been hanging around NBC so long since The Cosby Show ended that they’ve finally put him to work in brief cameos on this, Las Vegas, and Journeyman. He played Joe’s unemployment counselor.

Monk (USA) — I found this premiere enjoyable, especially Howie Mandel’s fun guest appearance (hey, remember when he was a moderately amusing actor-comedian?) as an overly friendly cult leader. The idea of Monk getting duped into joining a cult is a pretty good one, and although the mystery was a bit obvious (as usual, though the mystery elements improved significantly in several episodes last season), Monk is a mystery show where the mystery doesn’t matter.

It’s hard to say much more about this show than “it’s funny,” with varying degrees depending on how amusing Monk’s antics are in a given week, but I will level this minor criticism at the episode: I think they’ve gone to the “Trudy makes everything better” well a few too many times. The one thing that snaps Monk out of his obsession is Dr. Kroger reminding him of Trudy and wondering what she’d think of him—and boom, he’s all better. They’ve used the same device a several times to good effect, but it’s become too much of a crutch, which cheapens the sentiment of Monk’s undying love for Trudy.

Psych (USA) — Now that they’re finally letting Gus come into his own more, he’s revealing himself to be as insane (or more) than Shawn. Would anyone have imagined Gus as the type of guy to get trashed and marry somebody? Me neither, but they made it seem plausible thanks to that goofy flashback and the idea of Kerry Washington as a woman who makes Gus do unendingly stupid things. For Kerry Washington, who wouldn’t?

All of this supported a reasonably interesting whodunit, first casting suspicion on Washington’s character, then Shawn realizing she has no knowledge of anything—it’s all her mystery fiancé, a notorious con artist looking to swindle her wealthy family’s collection of rare and expensive wines. The episode maintained its usual hyperkinetic, ’80s-pop-culture-obsessed pace. I’m happy to see it back.

The Wire (HBO) — In a show as densely packed as this one, it’s surprising to think they can wrap the entire thing up in a satisfying way, all the while introducing new characters and (according to rumor and innuendo that I’ve picked up while trying desperately to remain spoiler free) resolving long-thought-dead storylines involving the Sobotkas and Barksdales—and doing all of this in 10 episodes instead of the usual 13. And the 10-episode order is supposedly David Simon’s idea, not HBO’s. Considering the way they’ve been promoting this show—for the first time ever, it seems—now that cash cows like The Sopranos and Sex and the City are dead, I think it’s fair to assume Simon is telling the truth. After four years of brilliant storytelling, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.

So in the opener, Baltimore is grimmer than ever: it’s a year after Carcetti decision to royally fuck the police to save the schools (and his political career), and he’s both whining for more cutbacks and whining because the police department’s stats don’t look better. I used to sort of like Carcetti, and I appreciate The Wire for giving nuance and dimension to his character, because ever since last season’s finale, I’ve hated him. I probably wouldn’t hate him nearly as much if they hadn’t shown us everything leading up to his decision in last season’s finale. I wonder how his wife feels, after telling him generically that she thinks he’ll “do what’s right.” Oh well, at least we still have Norman laying it out (paraphrased): “I think when the governor threw $55 million on the table, you should’ve taken that and run… you’re just the weak-ass mayor of a broke-ass city.”

As a result of these cutbacks, the police department has resorted to paying overtime and court hours with vouchers. In a final act of shitting all over the BPD, Carcetti approves shutting down Major Crimes—no more looking into Marlo Stanfield, no more investigation of the 22 bodies pulled out of row houses last season. The best Carcetti could offer was two men to stay on Clay Davis, and that’s only because he pissed off a fed offering police funding in exchange for taking the Davis case federal. My prediction? That whole thing will become a clusterfuck that will end with Davis getting off scot-free.

Oh, and Marlo’s crew is checking up on Sergei. Looks like he was serious when he said he wanted to find out more about the Greeks. I hope this is the avenue through which the Sobotkas and Barksdale are returning.

Perhaps the disgusting masterstroke of this episode was the reveal that Herc has gone from fucking up the BPD to investigating on behalf of Levy, the weasel who repped the Barksdales (and I think he reps the co-op, as well). He also reps Naresse Campbell, the City Councilwoman whose role went from “shrill adversary to Carcetti” to “horrible criminal” in this episode. This subplot was also our avenue into the new characters, the staff at the Baltimore Sun. All the promos have suggested this will be David Simon eviscerating his former stomping grounds just as he and Ed Burns destroyed the police department, city and state politics, the school system, and the docks. Granted, there’s a shitload to attack involving the media, especially a print media struggling to compete in a digital world, but for now the significance of these characters remains unclear. We had an introduction to those who appear to be key players, watched them get a juicy story, and didn’t see much else.

What did I leave out? Bubs is clean and bored as shit, apparently. Randy Wagstaff and Namond Brice are MIA (not to mention Prez and Bunny Colvin), but we saw a brief glimpse at Michael and Dukie and their ultra-depressing lifestyle. Michael seems typically sociopathic, but I’m concerned about Dukie. He looks a little suicidal. I have to say, while it’d be nice to check in on Randy, I’ll be happier if we don’t see Namond or Bunny. I like to think things are going to be okay now, for both of them, and I know if they bring them back, nothing will be okay for either of them. Ever.

D. B. Bates is a film critic and television viewer who has often shouted at fictional characters who probably wouldn’t listen to him even if they could hear him and existed in reality. Interested in explaining to D. B. the many ways he got it wrong? E-mail him.

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