I'm on my current long overdue rewatch (must be my 4th or 5th), and I'm absolutely loving it. It's such a wonderful show, right from the start you could sense there was something special going on (though it does take a couple of episodes to get going).
I'm currently into season 3, and there's a couple of things about season 2 I wanna say. I know there is a long standing debate about this season, with a lot of viewers not particularly liking it upon first watch, and then realising when re-watching that it's actually pretty good. One of its issues is that it changes the scenery completely from season 1, you're thrust into the docks with no forward notice and the cast you got used to in season 1 is still around, but in a less omnipresent way, and you're getting used to an entire new crew, basically. It's jarring, when you see it for the first time. But when you've seen the entire series, and you understand what David Simon was aiming to do, it's quintessential The Wire and it makes perfect sense. In his idea of presenting an X-ray of a city, with all the stratas of power and all the layers of society, going to the docks was an obvious choice. It was also quite bold to have such a U-turn early on in the show.
It's of course a great season, for the reasons stated above, and for the fact it has some good plot elements - tying into season 1, Stringer leveraging Avon's incarceration to pivot their business and make efforts to go legit is interesting (it's about the only interesting plot point from the projects side of the story, however). The Greeks/docks storyline is very good, and well executed. It's got some great characters, Nicky is endearing, Spiros/The Greek are great, a lot of the docks supporting cast feels genuine, and of course Frank Sobotka is one of the greatest characters of the show. The complexity of the guy, struggling for his people and having to reconcile dishonest behaviour with his principles, is a very classic tragic figure, but it works super well. I would just say that in my current more mild-mannered affectations, I do find him a bit too prone to launch into an intense, passionate monologue.
Dolores: Do you want a coffee Frank?
Frank (looks away, in disbelief, raspy voice): A coffee? Do I want a coffee? Did the dockers back in 1953 have coffee when they were busting their backs unloading those shipments down at the docks? Do the guys down at IBS local 47 get to have coffee when they come in after waking up at dawn, hoping to get their cards punched for an honest day's work? Do I want a fecking coffee Dolores? No I don't want a coffee. I want fair and decent work for my guys and dignity for the working man in America. We used to make shit in this country. Now we drink coffee. Also something about draining the canal.
I mean it's fine, it works overall, but it's also a litte bit one-note. Still a great character though and a reason why I do love that season.
Buuuuut...
There's also a lot of issues with the season. And not "oh it's a different storyline, this is weird, this doesn't feel like The Wire" issues. Proper issues:
- editing is all over the place; it clearly hadn't yet come to grasps with having so many different characters to follow (it handles it a lot better in the following seasons), and there are a lot of really weird useless shots of various characters that bring nothing to the story; McNulty is particularly useless in this season;
- the projects storyline is overall really boring, as is the Avon/D'Angelo prison one;
- in general, the story meanders a bit, and apart from the docks storyline which is quite tight, seems unfocused and for some parts unresolved;
- Ziggy is a really shit, caricatural character; I don't know where this rehabilitation of Ziggy that seems to occur now and then comes from, he is genuinely really poorly written, and anything he brings to the story could've been done in a more subtle, intelligent way; the actor was fine, but there's so many really shit Ziggy moments;
- Brother Mouzone is introduced in this season, and the less said about his character, the better; in a show so grounded in realism, with an almost naturalistic approach, a cartoon cut-out character like his just sticks out like a sore thumb; not quite sure what was going through the writers' minds when they conjured him up, because it could've been very easy to get the same results of that storyline with "impressive, ominous muscle from outta town" without going doing the caricature route.
Some of these are more minor details, some are a little more problematic, but I definitely feel that the overall discourse of season 2 is sometimes distorted because the initial dislike for it is due to elements that make sense afterwards, and people reevaluate it with that in mind - which is great. But it often ignores some actual, real issues in storytelling and editing, that make it a little weird to watch, even after a few times. I'll see after rewatching the whole thing, but I'd probably rank it as one of the "worst" seasons, after season 5 (though being the second worst season of The Wire still makes you much better than most shows).
) was good too as I recall.
