George Washington Carver

I totally agree with you. The scope moving from effect to cause allows Simon to touch on many of the issues regarding to the drug trade/justice departments. Do you think that "The War On Drugs" may have been the motif in deciding where to move the series?

Do you ever think of who might be polar-corresponding characters? Is there a term for that? The obvious match up is Herc & Carver with Bodie & Poot. Each pair looks at the game from the bottom up and don't put themselves to scheming or climbing. Both a pair of bald soldiers do the dirty work for the men above. Not always understanding the means, but tirelessly providing it.

Man, fucking McNulty. Cj told me that she didn't find McNulty entirely believable, nd I kind of see what she means. He is staggeringly self-absorbed to a point where it comes off as forced. Like in season 3 when can't tolerate them coming of Stringer Bell, even after more than a year of dead ends and dead wires. The character just seems too extreme to be real.

I think just a look a Daniels would tie in to the thought of effect to cause well.
I'm going to have come back at you with at why though.

Some key new terminology I am going to have to look in to:
Gash Hound. As in Tommy "The Gash Hound" Carcetti.
Dress to the Left. I heard Rhonda say that to Daniels while he was flirting with her in her office and I needed to find out what it meant.
Dress Left For Success


There is also a scene where Bunk get stuck worker the case to find Dozer's lost service weapon and he is in the office talking to..Jay I think. The only lead he has is that someone named peanut had bought it on the street. So he is looking through a list of Peanuts and Jay is jeering him about finding it and he's all "What do I look like George Washington Carver or some shit?"
I laughed out loud.

WTf Slam Piece?

The Movement of the Seasons

On the topic of Levy being the real villian: I think you're probably on to something. I'd have to watch the series again (which I will), but it seems to me that the the show moves from bottom to top, or from outside in, or perhaps from effect to cause. That is, season 1, the drug trade, is one of the effects of the politicing corruption in the goverment, all boiling down to greed at much higher levels than the top drug dealers. We move from the street to the docks to the cops, and then to the politicians who, with alot of noise, fail to change anything. And then, finally, in season 5, we get the real problem, the law, the government, the politicians, and the way public perception limits in every way the only tools that are at the police' and the education systems' disposal to find a solution to the problems the whole series was examining. I think David Simon did an admirable job of following the problem up, not resting full blame on anyone, but doing a great job in showing how everyone is complicit, to some degree or another, and how this prevents any one agency from really solving anything. It would be very interesting to re-watch this series with a focus on the way Simon structures the plot, with special attention to the content of each season, what each agency can and cannot accomplish, and particularly to try to extract a reason for the order in which he chose to deliver each season, ie. drugs, docks, cops, politics, press/education/government.

So I've been ruminating and...

Oh man.
I gotta say, S2E6, Omar testifying on Birds court case, probably my favorite scene in the whole series. Fucking Stringer Bell gets his mouth soured, Bird flips his lid and the gawking face of Levy to Omar's riposte hallmarks Mr.Little's repertoire.
Levy is the true villain in Baltimore. A distinguished and respected member of the court who uses that notoriety to save the guilty from their punishments? Comparatively, Stringer Bell is just a business man in a ruthless industry, and Avon, a politician. They came into the game through birthright and inevitable see their ends in it. I believe their characters to be products of their environment; they're archetypes to a timeless system of order. Levy aspired to his position and knowingly defected to aid the people that the institution's he upheld where contrived to oppose.
I suppose if the war on drug was a real war, he'd be a profiteer.

CJ wants you to know that she doesn't like Stringer. I'd tried to attest to his rational fears and stunning manly virtues, but she can't see past him callin' the hit and then sleepin' wit' the man's woman.

Almost done....

So I'm almost finished the series, and then (hopefully) Liza and I will sync our viewing schedules with yours. What epi are you on now? Did you see my comment on your last post. I just noticed a rad connect: In episode one of season 5, Gus explains the term "evacuated" to Alma, how one can't evecuate people, only places. Then, in the second last episode, McNulty explains the same thing to another detective on a homeless murder. Makes me wonder how much I'm missing.