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Buzzing Over The WireJeffrey Goldberg and David Plotz take readers' questions about HBO's hit urban drama.


Posted Thursday, March 6, 2008, at 4:59 PM ET

(Continued from page 1)

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Namond's After School Special: I've had the feeling for the entire season that Simon is using the last season to toss some of the disappeared actors a final paycheck. We've had a homeless portworker and a couple of heckling portworkers, Cutty had a couple of scenes, they bring back Randy for a cameo and then Namond, Bunny and the Deacon. Some of this served to complete minor plot points ... the grain pier went condo, Namond is saved while Randy is not ... but mostly it seemed to be superfluous.

David Plotz: I love the way Simon keeps it all connected, and reminds us that it's all one world. The Nick Sobotka (sp) cameo was lovely, and Randy's lone scene was one of the most profound of the season.

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Houston: Season 2's big storyline about the dockworkers always has felt like a weird outlier in The Wire's narrative. Whereas other plotlines were woven into The Wire's main story, they never really have returned to the dockworker story line, other than cameo appearances by Nick, Valchek, The Greek and his henchman, and Beadie in other story lines. Do you think there is much David Simon and the other writers could have done to advance that plot past Season 2?

David Plotz: Most Wire fans treat Season 2 with disdain. I certainly agree that it was the weakest season, but it was valuable in a key way. It aerated the show. Had the show remained close focused on the drug-vs-cops theme of seasons 1 and 3, it would have felt like a smaller show. By putting us outside the world of the corner, it began to give us the whole sweep of the city (and clue us into Simon's notion that everything—from the crate on the dock to the body in the vacant—is connected).

Jeffrey Goldberg: This is uncharacteristic of me, but I'm going to agree with David here. The second season was lumpy and often non-compelling, but it was David Simon's first attempt to make The Wire something more than what we all originally thought it was going to be. I happen to think that the fourth season is the reason we'll remember this show for a long time. The drug trade, by itself, wouldn't sustain this show.

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Towson, Md.: I don't get all the Omar worship. People say "he had a code" and "he never put a gun on a citizen," but come on—the guy is still a murderer engaging in running gunfights up and down the street. His character was interesting and well-acted, but as far as the "Omar was the good guy" thing, give me a break.

David Plotz: True. The Wire is so good at messing with viewers' minds that it had lots of us rooting for homicidal Omar. As a fan, I found that a kind of transference took place: I loved the character so much that I would start to inhabit him, and share his worldview. This happened most with Omar, but increasingly with Clay Davis and Snoop.

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Omar (The Great Beyond):: Why does it take forever (or later) for Emmy voters to recognize David Simon vehicles? Andre Braugher only got an award for Homicide on his way out the door in the last season, and now The Wire is in danger of going 0-for-5? Is it racial? Can't think of any other reason, and I'm a white guy (Omar handle, notwithstanding). P.S. To that end, the Emmys should be as venerable as a Blockbuster award.

David Plotz: The Emmy business is ridiculous. On the other hand, The Wire has suffered from no shortage of public acclaim. When you consider the amount of ink spilled in worshipful prose—a lot of it by me and others at Slate—I don't think you can argue that it is being ignored (especially when you consider just how few people actually watch it.)

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Bada Bing: If Marlo goes to a diner for some onion rings, I'm turning off the TV.

Jeffrey Goldberg: I am totally with you. In fact, I was going to make the very same joke, but you beat me to it.

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Charlotte Amalie, Virgin Islands: Skip the second season? No way, by the end it was awesome. How can you not get worked up when Sobatka walks to his death?

Jeffrey Goldberg: To each his own, I guess. A bad Wire episode is still worth watching. Don't get me wrong here.

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Yorktown Heights, N.Y.: Is it common sentiment that the Season 5 plot seems very artificial? I can't buy that McNulty or anyone with half a brain would take such a huge risk for a reward that wasn't even guaranteed. I'm a huge fan of The Wire, and generally I am satisfied with this season, but I can't get past this element of the plot. And I guess I'd say that I'm a little disappointed in the way Omar went out.

David Plotz: I agree with half your question and disagree with the other half. The Bitey the Bloodthirsty serial killer fraud was infuriating, for the reasons you cite (though I think the show has done a pretty good job unwinding the ridiculous premise in the past few weeks).

I disagree about Omar. His death was painful, in the sense that I will miss him, but I thought it was artistically and thematically brilliant. Having him taken out by psychopathic, tiny Kenard was a stroke of genius. Check out this great Slate guest post by one of our readers about Omar's death.

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Reading, Mass.: Will the secret file on Cedric Daniels past be finally revealed in the finale? What does it contain?

David Plotz: I'm guessing it won't. It's a McGuffin, I think. I think it's Simon's nod to All the King's Men: We are all of us, even the most erect and rectitudinous (not a word) of us, corrupt.

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Upper Mayberry, Md.: I feel you on the scene with Randy—it was truly profound. It showed a good kid who had been hardened by his circumstance, which was created by the police, who will in turn will arrest him in the future because his only likely path is crime.

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Jeffrey Goldberg is a national correspondent for the Atlantic and the author of Prisoners: A Story of Friendship and Terror. David Plotz is Slate's deputy editor and author of The Genius Factory: The Curious History of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank.
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