OUCH! I’ve just been in formed that I’m stupid.
And the bearer of this upsetting information is a TV show. Double ouch!
“Americans [of whom I am one] are a stupid people,” says Det. Edward Norris (played by former Baltimore police commissioner Ed Norris) in the first few minutes of this Sunday’s season premiere of “The Wire” on HBO. “By and large, we pretty much believe whatever we’re told.”
Det. Norris seems awfully certain of this assertion, but he shouldn’t be. Sure, some Americans are gullible, but many others are so cynical that they don’t believe anything.
The detective’s statement was crafted to articulate the central theme of this fifth and final season of “The Wire.”
That storyline has to do with the Baltimore Sun, the city’s real-life newspaper that, in this (hopefully) fictional story, accepts on face value and then publishes a bogus series of stories on a shocking crime that didn’t happen.
The person setting up the newspaper for potential embarrassment (if not total ruination) is a cop, Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West), whose penchant for mischief-making is familiar to all who have enjoyed “The Wire” through four seasons and have eagerly awaited this one.
Fans of the show will not likely be disappointed. This new 10-episode season boasts the same high quality of production that this series has always exhibited.
As always, the cops are pitted against the drug gangs, which are now led principally by the ruthless Marlo Stanfield (Jamie Hector), whose rule is protected by his tag team of cold-blooded killers, Snoop (Felicia Pearson) and Chris (Gbenga Akinnagbe). Snoop is still one of the show’s most electrifying characters, though she’s not out shopping for any nail guns this season as she was in last season’s spectacular opening scene.
This season, the newspaper setting is new, a locale at which the show arrives after previously examining other sectors of Baltimore’s dysfunctional civic life, including cops, politicians and, in the unforgettable fourth season, a school system in free fall.
In this new season, the newspaper is not yet falling as fast as the Baltimore city schools, but the show paints a bleak picture of the Sun. In the show, circulation is eroding as editors and staff cope with new owners who seem to know how to do only two things: Slash expenses (i.e. staff) and suggest dumb ideas for stories.
From my own experience in the Post newsroom, I can tell you that the fictional characters developed for the “Wire” newsroom have the ring of truth. And except for one jackass reporter who believes he’s too good to spend his career working on the last daily paper in Baltimore, the editors and reporters of this fictional Sun are a swell bunch of noble folks, just like all the real newsroom types I have known.
And if you believe that, then Det. Norris may be right.