Monday, February 4, 2008

The Patriots are Dead. Long Live the Patriots.

Ahhh, the sweet smell of crushed dreams.

Pungent, isn't it.

Anyway, most of the world is still talking about the Patriots catching an L. I really don't care. I just used them in the title to hopefully draw some folks in.

Because, the Patriots loss wasn't as shocking as something else that happened in tv land yesterday. For the first time in five years, I saw fear on the face of Omar Little.

Wire fans knwo what I'm talking about, you couldn't miss it. Hidden behind a flimsy couch, scurrying from side to side while Marlo's three best henchmen pumped bullets into his cover, Omar stared death in the face. And, for a second, the world's most well-known homo-thug blinked.

That was powerful to me.

I mean, the appeal of Omar is that he never gets shook. He might get a little worried, he might be flustered, shit he might even cry, but Omar lives his life like Bonecrusher's one big hit. Neva scared.

So, to see him fully engulfed in fear, completely and totally aware of his impending death, well, that was a huge moment for me. Not because I was worried he might die, after all, I knew the scene where he blows up the truck in the opening credits hadn't yet happened, so I figured he was getting out alive.

But, I still enjoyed watching him wonder if he was going to get out alive. I enjoyed watching Omar realize that he wasn't the baddest, smartest thing on the streets and I enjoyed watching him regroup and commit a truly desparate act. That made him even more human because who among us has not made a desparate choice in the face of unyielding odds? Who hasn't taken that one scary plunge, because the alternative was so much worse? At that moment, Omar became more real to me than he's ever been.

But, then he had to turn into effing black Superman. Who the eff knew Omar possessed super powers? The writers better have a damn good explanation for his miracle leap, or I am going to be super pissed. I'm betting that he somehow managed to grab on to one of the other balconies, but who knows?

Aside from the improbable and memorable Omar scene, the best scene for me was Dukie's convo with Cutty. That convo totally encapsulated The Wire's basic premise about life on the street. Like TI said, they don't call it "trapping" for nothing.

When Dukie asked how he could get from the world he's in to the larger world where his skills would be appreciated, well, I think ever Wire viewer knew that he was doomed. Unless Bunny Colvin has a hankering to save another kid, Dukie is dead meat.

Anyway, I spent the entire fourth quarter of Super Bowl watching The Wire, so I have no thoughts on Eli's heroics. But in my mind, somebody on defense needed to be the MVP. The Giants' defense won that game, they deserved some recognition.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Someone has a man crush,or is it just a crush, on Omar?

The fear on Omar's face was moving. It was another example of how great HBO original programming truly is. I, too, wonder how Blambo managed to jump from the 5th floor balcony, and simply vanish. More telling than his fear was the fear that Slim Charles showed when he thought his number had been called.

But, even more interesting to me was the fact that (I can't recall his name now, so I'll just call him "that little boy on the corner who punked Naaman")that little boy on the corner who punked Naaman keeps getting his ass whipped, but remains cool because he runs off at the mouth. I mean, why do they keep him around.

Anyway, I'm waiting for the Marlo, Methodman revolt against Prop Joe ... oh, it's coming.

Give Eli his props. The defense had then down by four with two minutes to go. The other Manning came through in the clutch.

Big Man said...

As I told you on the phone, you're a little late on the revolution against Joe. He's dead now.

And Kenard is the funniest character on the show. How is he going to try to punk Dukie, then get bitch slapped and still have so much respect?

What is up with that? I guess they know that Kenards just doesn't care about anything or anyone and if he gets his full size growth he'll be dangerous.




Raving Black Lunatic