The Wire

I spent much of yesterday finally catching up on The Wire. And I had 10 episodes to watch!

It's a great show. It has what I love - great writing, about 86 characters, intersecting storylines, all set against the brutal and realistic backdrop of inner city Baltimore.

The main plots involve: 1) a white Mayor-elect, 2) the city school system, and 3) a new lead drug dealer who has a crew (1 guy and a hilarious girl) who "disappear" bodies by putting them into vacant rowhouses and then nailing the plywood doors into place so no one goes in. Homicide can't figure out why murders have decreased - but it's just because they haven't found the bodies. Once they do, there are going to be like 80 bodies found! I hope that happens by the end of the season - only 3 episodes left.

The school scenes are tragic. I hate that there are a handful of good kids (including one who snitched to the cops about a murder), because you just know that won't end well for the good kids. I fully expect the sad kid -- who has to shower at the school because his junkie mother had the water shut off, and who has to rely on free clothes and food from teachers because his mother sells stuff he brings home -- to die. But let's hope not. Then there's the kid who is only slinging drugs on the corner because his bitch mother made him do it. Whore.

The show is a bit depressing, but it's so well done. There are somehow moments of levity. I laugh whenever I see the tiny 12-year-old car thief behind the wheel of a huge-ass SUV. Kids these days!