Wire: The Complete 2nd Season

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Police crime dramas are a dime a dozen on television these days. In fact, I think they may even outnumber sitcoms. You have your three "CSI"´s, your four "Law & Order"´s, "24", "Without A Trace", "Cold Case" and a few other forgettable ones that seem to be popping into the network line-ups with greater frequency. However--if you don´t already know--the best ones are not shown on any of the top four networks. At this point in time, only two cable channels can proudly proclaim that they offer the most engaging, gritty and realistic crime dramas on television. They are "The Shield" on the FX basic cable channel and of course, HBO´s "The Wire".

"The Wire" is one of the very few HBO series that has yet to be recognized with the usual awards by the entertainment industry but I am pretty sure that will change in the near future. Unlike most procedural television cop dramas, "The Wire" consists of one single continuous story that runs the entire length of the season. Think of the entire season as a book and each episode as one chapter of that book. This format is reminiscent of another acclaimed television courtroom drama from way back in 1995 called "Murder One", which follows a single case for the entire season. The serialized nature of "The Wire", like Fox´s "24", demands full weekly commitments from its audience and for that, we should all be thankful for the release of shows like this on DVD as the series can now be enjoyed at one´s own pace.

The first season of "The Wire" ended on a bittersweet note. The team´s combined efforts, using wire taps, surveillance and undercover work managed to nab the head of the biggest drug ring in West Baltimore, Avon Barksdale (Wood Harris) and shut down most of his operation and cut the drug supply. However, before anyone could pop the champagne cork, Barksdale was later only found guilty on a much lesser drug distribution charge because the prosecution´s star witness, Barksdale´s conflicted nephew D´Angelo (Larry Gilliard, Jr.), changed his mind at the last minute about spilling the beans on the family drug operation. All the other more serious charges were thrown out because of the lack of evidence linking Barksdale to many of the drug-related murders that were known to have been ordered by him. To add on to this setback, the team´s other priority, the pursuit of the Barksdale money contribution trail, which was found to clearly implicate some city officials, politicians and even the upper hierarchy of the police department, was made to simply disappear. In the case of "The Wire", rampant Baltimore city corruption begets police cover-up.

After the cover-up fiasco, the investigative detail headed by Lieutenant Cedric Daniels (Lance Reddick) that was specially formed to go after Barksdale was dissolved and most of its members are now back at their old jobs. Well, some of them anyway. For doing their jobs beyond the call of duty, Daniels and Detective Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West) were "rewarded" by forced transfers to dead-end departments. Daniels, previously an up and coming officer with a bright future, has now been demoted to working literally in the basement by Deputy Commissioner Burrell (Frankie R. Faison), overseeing the evidence room. That was payback for defying Burrell´s order to cease their investigations into Barksdale´s illegal political contributions. As for the unfortunate McNulty, he was bumped down and reassigned to the Baltimore Harbor Police unit by his superior officer, Colonel Rawls (John Doman). Another detective, Kima Greggs (Sonja Sohn), who was critically injured in an undercover sting gone horribly wrong in the previous season, now confines herself to a self-imposed desk job at her life partner´s insistence.

On the flip side, Lester Freamon (Clarke Peters), initially wasting away working in the pawn-shop detail, came into his own during the Barksdale investigation and got promoted to detective, while narcotics officer Ellis Carver (Seth Gilliam) was undeservedly promoted to the rank of Sergeant due to the fact that he was forced to report back to Burrell behind Daniels´ back. Bumbling Detective Roland Pryzbylewski (Jim True-Frost), at first a misfit of royal proportions, later found his true calling under the patient guidance of Freamon, helping to break the case by deciphering the Barksdale gang´s beeper codes. The only reason Pryzbylewski is able to hold on to his job is because he is married to the daughter of Major Valchek (Al Brown), an influential backroom player in the police department.

With members of the Barksdale investigative team now scattered all around, how does Season Two hope to emulate or even surpass the storytelling success of the previous season? How will the original team get back together for another encore? The catalyst for the team´s return to glory, believe it or not, turns out to be Major Valchek, whose feud with Frank Sobotka (Chris Bauer), the secretary-treasurer of the longshoreman´s union of checkers at the Baltimore Marine Terminal cargo docks, over who gets to retrofit a local church´s stained glass window, help spark an investigation into the union´s activities that eventually leads to the uncovering of bigger and more sinister crimes. Puzzled by the union´s ability to pay for a very expensive window for the church even though work at the docks has been declining for years, Valchek vows to get back at Sobotka by digging into the union´s finances. With Deputy Burrell up for promotion to Commissioner, Valchek is able to use his influence in Burrell´s nomination to get the Deputy Commissioner to approve a team to look into Sobotka´s activities at the docks. Several well-written circumstances later, Daniels finds himself back in charge of a new detail to investigate Sobotka. As a pre-condition for him taking the job, Daniels asks for carte blanche in recruiting anyone he desires for his team. Obviously, his handpicked team eventually looks a lot like the last one, made up of the same detectives and officers whom he has grown to trust. When a shipping container filled with thirteen dead Eastern European women turns up on the docks, a simple mandate of investigating Sobotka and the activities at the docks just got more complicated. Whether Sobotka and his men are involved is now up to Daniels and his team to uncover.

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