There is a trope in television that send me into little fits of apoplexy. An episode is devoted to a character. I spend that hour thinking about how much I love that character, how television can be really good, how it transforms itself from banality into, well, something a little more. Then the character dies and I feel really sad. I'm a sucker for it every time.
I first noticed it when they shot Tara on Buffy The Vampire Slayer. There's plenty written on that death as well, so I'll leave it there.
The Wire really likes to play me this way. The nexus of the problem is twofold. First, I find the "bad guy" characters on The Wire deeply appealing because they are complete characters, nuanced and complex. I could not shut up about how great Idris Elba was as Stringer Bell and when he died his clearly inevitable death, I was really sad and mad. Idris Elba didn't die. The show ends in six episodes. Still, writing about it even now makes me cranky. The second part of the problem lies in their very identity. They're bad guys. Bad guys die because they're criminals and shoot each other. I really like Snoop for example, who's long term health as a character I have no real confidence in. Ditto Omar. Killing people as a profession is not high on the actuarial tables.
Last night, they did it to me again. Honey and I watch this fabulous episode and I keep talking about how much I've come to like Prop Joe. Could I have seen his death at the end of the episode coming? Sure. Did I? Nope.
"Woe to them that call evil good and good evil." So said Prop Joe last night (on a flower card for a dead man). I've always thought of Bunk Moreland as the character most likely to tell the truth about the totality of what happens in the Baltimore of The Wire. Joe's quote from Isaiah comes as close to the worldview as anything. Marlo's unwillingness to see anything as evil does not bode well for the happiness quotient as the series comes to a close.
I can be suckered in by television on several levels. On Saturday, I watched the Miss America pageant. Yes, indeed, you read that right? Why? Well, I had watched a couple of episodes of Miss America Reality Check and was rooting for Miss Washington, Elyse Umemoto, she of the gay dads and the liberal politics. She came in third to a woman who sang one of the cheesiest rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" I've heard. That's saying something, too because that song will cheese up without much help. Two hours of my life I don't get back, that pageant.
So, David Simon, et. al. didn't need to do much to lure me in. I guess I should also feel grateful that they didn't kill Kima Greggs when they could have in season 1.
Speaking of Sunday night television...if someone wants to kill Jenny Schecter, feel free.
In the meantime, just a little sporks shout-out to Robert Chew as Proposition Joe Stewart.
Sometimes you see it coming. Usually I don't. The good news is that it's just tv and if the writers don't come back soon, I can just watch sports. But then, that doesn't always go like I want it to, either. Ok, never mind, I'll just stop watching.
Or not.
Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are (warble) blue...
13 comments:
Miss America blew. Michigan? Michigan!!?? Yikes. I had called it for Indiana after the first cut, so I was doubly disappointed in my lack of spot-on prescience, too. (Although I was rooting for Washington.)
Killing Prop Joe blew also, although it did make a great deal of internal sense. After all, Marlo is the most sincerely amoral villain to show up on the little screen in quite a while, and Prop Joe was in his way. That's all it should take, right? (Btw, McNulty's nuttiness this season is approaching the same level of amorality for a "good" character . . .)
Something tells me Omar is made of sterner stuff than Prop Joe. I hope so, at any rate.
Sunday night without Jenny would be heaven indeed.
I've been watching way too much basketball but it helps me stay away from shows that really blow.
Bry--you're right, of course, that Prop Joe had to die. Ditto Stringer. McNulty could well be in that line at some point.
Chapin and all other L Word types.. Here's a critical question: Why did Dana have to die when Jenny could have? Hmm?
Yes, Prop had to go but..uuggghhh...that is about as articulate as i can get about it.
Jenny can't die, she's like styro-foam. Destined to live in a land-fill. Forever. Ick.
How did Prop Joe get his reading glasses to point down at a practically 90 degree angle?
Jenny's always registered at pretty much zero with me, even in season one, where I think she was supposed to be our entry character into this crazy lesbo world, but she went subzero too many episodes back for me to count, and I was so hoping that raft would do what Ilene Chaiken can't or won't: Feed Jenny to the sharks. Please. She's not even fun to hate.
I agree with all the comments regarding Jenny, she truly is so obnoxious and over the top that there is no longer any verisimilitude with the character. I have been recording all of this season's episodes of the "Wire," but have yet to get around to watching them.
jenny really should have floated away last season. ah... but we know this ladies - every good night time soap must have a villian!
think of all the great ones (and i mean great in a crappy tv sorta way) Dallas...Knots Landing.. remember those! They had wonderful villians. Hell what about Cruella DeVille, or any one of the wicked witches.
Its all about format.
but i still would be happy if she floated away.
I wish Jenny had floated away too. Teresa hit the nail on the head with Jenny. She's so annoying, it's not even fun to hate her. Of course, I would feel bad now if something happened to Mia Kirshner. I hope she's fine.
Hello, my name is Gary and I'm Miss Washington's Dad, the gay one. (well, my partner is too). Thank you for your comments and your support of our amazing daughter.
Well, here's an idea: howzabout siccing Omar or Snoop on Jenny?
Having never (yet) watched the L Word, I have no idea about Jenny, but she's clearly not worth the celluloid, or rather the pixels (?) she's contained in...
I was sorry to see Prop Joe go, as sorry as I was to see Stringer Bell popped. And chilled by Marlo, as always. Brrrrr.
Oh, and btw, I was really rooting for Miss Washington. I was thrilled and completely in her corner when she went on the record in support of gay marriage, no ifs ands or buts, and threw in her proud heritage of two gay dads.
THAT's totally a Miss America with something to say, the articulateness to say it, and who could have made the tiara mean something to me beyond bikinis and ball gowns.
So: Boo, Michigan.
Didn't Miss America used to be around Labor Day weekend? The pageant doesn't get much press these days -- I'd completely forgotten about its existence.
The "talent" portion has always been my favorite. I can just imagine Judy Garland spinning in her grave.
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