The Wire, Season 5, episode 1

As with any T.V. show that's great, there's always the fear that its critical success is time-limited (see Simpsons, the). So it was a relief to see the first episode of the fifth season and love it. For a show about drugs, I guess it's appropriate for the first new episode in a year to feel like a head rush.

I thought that the opening scene was hilarious. As I recall from the Criminal Procedure class I took fifteen years ago, the deception that the cops practiced while questioning the suspect was perfectly kosher (which a former criminal defender appellant attorney confirmed for me.)

The scene where Carver addresses a room full of cops irate at not getting overtime, even under the tough-on-crime mayoralty of Carcetti, reminded me of the book "Blue Blood" by Edward Conlon, an account of life as a cop in the Bronx. Conlon disputed the notion that cops like Giuliani, citing similar kinds of workplace grievances. Of course, the budget problems facing a city like Baltimore seem tragically chronic, the bigger picture that leads to the suspension of the Major Crimes Unit.

The suspension of the Major Crimes Unit plot point felt slightly tired; hasn't there been some incarnation of this about three times in the series already? It plays into a larger theme of the show, the inertia of institutions that restricts talented individuals. While that's largely explored in the context of the Police Department, it's often echoed in the other facets of the show (like the cops and drug dealers in season three getting chewed out by their superiors for getting unsatisfactory results).

Of course, the institution the show gets into with this new season is the Baltimore Sun, which has all of the ingredients familiar to Wire viewers; talented underlings seeking to do their jobs but stymied by bureaucratic imperatives; bosses who are alternately clueless and venal; minor victories for the former that ultimately don't change the big picture. It's sort of predictable, particularly when Jimmy McNulty and the Sun reporter express identical sentiments about the institutions they work for. I didn't mind it though; I've drunk enough of the David Simon/Ed Burns kool-aid to dig in and see where it leads.

Two more minor notes: I was amused by the scene where Carcetti asks the U.S. Attorney for assistance in solving the murder committed by Marlo's crew. The U.S. Attorney will only do it if he can get a piece of the apparent prosecution of Clay Davis (about time!), which Carcetti calls out as motivated by partisanship. I saw an echo of the U.S. Attorney-firing scandal, where the Bush Justice Department seemed to be motivated by a desire to manufacture corruption charges against Democratic politicians.

I was also amused to see Herc working as a private investigator for the oily defense lawyer who once represented the Barksdale crew. That might seem to contradict his -- ahem -- perspective on his prior job, but Herc was always kind of a fuck-up and probably landed at the only place he could go. A lot of former prosecutors become defense attorneys, and the investigators they hire tend to be former cops.

So where's Omar? Prez? Namond? Valchek? Will they crowd the cast of thousands that the Wire has become? Any glimpses of Avon in jail forthcoming?