Q: Is the pace slower this year or are we just missing more? [Linda in Florida]A: You're missing more. It's just my opinion, but hey, you asked.
The lives of four young men are being forever transformed right before your eyes, scene by scene. If that isn't drama enough to sustain you and justify the journey, then you're going to have to look elsewhere. We're incapable of doing right by you.
The only suggestion I might make is that you reconsider your expectations. Were you anticipating a story arc that would include or highlight certain elements based on previous seasons? Because the writers of this show have been fairly aggressive in their effort to avoid repeating the same story arcs, or to highlight the same characters in the same ways, or to rely on the same narrative content. If you were expecting a season-four pursuit of Marlo on the same terms as a season-one pursuit of Avon, you were certain to be disappointed.
Particularly because this year, there was an election in Baltimore. And nothing will fuck up good police work more than election-year politics -- a point that we tried to make in great detail. So in that sense, perhaps Freamon and Greggs and Sydnor are as disappointed in the arc as you are. In a very real sense, this year is about just how hard it is to even get the authority to conduct a sustained act of high-end police work in a dysfunctional political culture. The story that the writers pursued was not so much the investigation as it was the vast array of forces that smothered that investigation in its infancy -- resulting in the education and rise of a major trafficker in Marlo Stanfield.
All of that happened in thirteen hours. As well as the election itself. As well as the transformation of four children. As well as a few other things here and there. We feel like we covered a lot of ground and said exactly what we wanted to say. Not so, from your point of view. But perhaps you were judging us by what we said before, rather than what we are saying now.
Or perhaps you're right and we suck. I mean that genuinely as well. If you are watching carefully and giving the show a chance, and it isn't doing it for you, then hey, you are entitled to feel what you feel. Far be it from me, as a wiseass answering questions on the Internet, to take that away from you or from any viewer.
<< Back || Next>>