You are content writer.
You have to add headings with html tags <h2> or <h3> for any of paragraphs in original text.
The Wire's third season, first episode (US)
This episode is titled "Time After Time," and it displays a lot of rage, as do most of the other events in the drama, but this wrath is wrapped up in a really finely-crafted performance. It is based on the difficulty of attempting to impart reforms on both sides of the drug war, as well as how decisions made in faraway centers of power influence ordinary people on the ground.
Following the destruction of the Franklin Terrace apartment towers
The Barksdale drug cartel seeks a new location west of Baltimore. McNulty plans on making a case against Stringer by setting him up with a wiretap on a drug loop run by his friend, Prop. Joe. Daniels’ wife’s political ambitions cause the city hall to derail his promotion. Bodie, Poot, and Slim Charles suggest that they should acquire a new territory without caring the cost and decide to use force if need be. This doesn’t please Stinger as he claims that as long as the product is good customers will trickle in.
Caroline Massey has had wiretaps on some Proposition Joe’s crew members
And hasn’t found anything to make a case. The soon to retire Maj in the Western District has Colvin becoming more and more disillusioned on his people and the scenes on the streets, this includes Carver and Herc. In another plot, Dennis “Cutty” gets released from incarceration after serving a fourteen-year sentence and finds himself out of the contemporary drug business. Elsewhere, Thomas Carcetti, an ambitious councilman tries to curry favour himself with the acting commissioner. The title was given to the episode, Time After Time denotes the recurring process of introducing reform, transformation and return to the existing state of affairs. “Don't matter how many times you get burnt; you just keep doing the same. – Bodie” Bodie here refers to Poot’s behavior with women that recurs all through and also depicts the season’s reform theme by explaining the entrenched behavior. McNulty also alludes to this some minutes into the episode the moment he examines the files for the initial investigation involving Barksdale and the port case. He tells another detective that if one doesn’t look at what they’ve done before, then they are bound to repeat the same thing over and over.
Politics in the Previous Seasons
Politics was a looming specter in the previous seasons, and we see this world introduced in the fight over drugs but by those in the drug business. The first impression we get of Carcetti is one involving him being a venomous political animal, well like any other. “Time After Time” leaves us in suspense, will Carcetti wrestle moral decisions or will he be stuck in a constant campaign mode pretending to care about the plight of the poor in the city?
Law and Justice
We see the interim leader of one of the controlling drug organizations in the city, Stringer Bell, meeting with one of his lieutenants. The remarkable thing is that the meeting is steered by Rules of Order devised by Robert. He addresses the attending dealers and refuses to let anyone of them speak if their hands are not raised, or they have not been “recognized by the chair” (Kraniauskas, & John 2009). The meeting goes on in the conference room of one the hotels, The Executive Inn, and helps establish cooperation between Baltimore’s drug organization, the rival cartel. Scenes like this one are prevalent in the drama, and they seem to examine the connection of law and justice. Stringer uses due course and formally organized structures to reveal the fauna of the law, how it’s morally ambiguous and demonstrates how laws can be utilized for various purposes; one can design them to serve any purpose, whether it’s just or not.
The Question of Justice
The episode argues that the fact that a community is controlled by the law does not mean it is a just community. Stinger orders members of his organization to murder stick-up man Omar when he is escorting his grandmother in the morning to church. The callousness of this command trouble Stringer’s Colleagues and his partner, Barksdale von, mostly since it contradicts an established embargo in criminals’ land contrary to violence on the sabbath day. This controversy shows the likelihood of real, substantive justice that exists among and within crime crews.
The quest for a universal justice system
This episode leaves me wondering on how we could implement a universal justice system at all political heights. It’s shown that individually, every societal group has its form of fairness. The drug dealers in this drama have their set of rules and the police too. This seems to beg the question, is one type of justice in any way practical regarding the political setup in the world today? “The war on drugs has played a significant role in the creation of a body of rights depraved people – people who no longer entirely belong, but who are, amongst” us” (Anderson 2009).
Expanding the Series
In the second season, “The Wire” moves from projects on the docks. This step seems to be a jarring detour and a bold statement to some (that the crime drama is more than the typical fight between police and drug dealers) to others. This episode as earlier explained puts both Lester and Jimmy back hunting for Stringer but puts it in the clear that it is not a retreat to safer territories but a continued expansion of the series. The MCU’s chase against the Barksdale crew is given a broader picture by The Wire more than what we saw in the first season. The perspective depicted in here is one of a more conventional police district in Baltimore. We are shown maneuvers that involve Burell, Rawls and City Hall that (for the moment) have little to do with what Lieutenant Daniels wants to do. Cutty shows what we see as the contemporary drug business game from an angle of a man out of the game for fourteen years; it makes him look like a dinosaur to the younglings who rip him off.
Political Maneuvering
In a meeting between Burrell, the mayor and his chief of staff, Coleman Parker in regards to Carcetti’s actions of filling the room with the press. Parker has speculations that Carcetti aims at running for the mayoral seat this is because his district just started getting funds and representation in the political arena, but his ambitions exceed the district’s needs. The mayor grins at the idea and claims that his chair and his town can’t be taken away from him, “If the man came off any whiter, he'd be see-through.\" Politics play out as Royce claims the African American majority in the town would have his back and Carcetti would have lost on the basis of his race. Carcetti plays out a crime card claiming that there has been a rise in crime rates under the current administration. Royce has a negotiation with the people from his district who feel he would reduce the crime rates by five percent keeping murders under 275.
Police Work and Justice
The police department is struggling to meet the arbitrary murder limit city hall has set. The Wire has grave concerns on institutions and how they present themselves, frequently at the expense of attaining their goals legitimately. This episode shows the opposite of the thought we have that cops ought to trust their instincts and that they have to adhere the government and constitution. “Time After Time” clearly demonstrates that these instincts are at times self-protective or misguided and that the right type of limits could play a crucial role in police work.
A Disillusioned Officer
Colvin – who has been a police officer for almost 30 years – becomes disillusioned by the way police work seems infertile. In a previous episode, he claims the city worse than he found it, he sees himself as a failure who has lived a desolate life. This situation leads Colvin to come up with a revolutionary response to the growing drug problem in the city. He goes behind his superiors backs and systematically brings the drug dealers together in the western district. He tells them they can operate in this area provided there is no violence and dealings on populated corners. In the second episode, this deteriorates to a nightmare. Colvin here is seen as a victim of the screwed-up system (Anderson 2009). He has tried everything, but drugs, crime, and injustice persist. This isn’t his fault, and he could only find one way out that turns into a disaster.
Questioning Just Means and Just Goals
One would note that these criminal vows to regulations and morally accepted codes are accompanied by an explicit disregard of the guidelines on the chunk of the law enforcement agency. We can characterize this in a question of whether we can use unjust means to achieve just goals or not. Just as Brooks argues, characters in the show are often challenged to do wrong for the right motives (Brooks 2009). This is depicted by the constant use of physical violence by the police during interrogations to intimidate suspects. In this first episode, it is troubling to see a young teenage boy threatened and beaten all for hiding from the police. That session is tough for one to wrap their heads in.
The Business of Drug Dealers
Stringer address to the troops on hostility over turf other than sharing profits “like businessmen, make the profit, and later for that gangster bullshit.” We see Burns and Simon using a central figure to lecture the other characters on how the State should work. Poot and Bodie seem obstinate and ignorant enough that there would be a funny scene even if etiquette running gag were there, (Sheamus 2009). The Wire shows matchless direct perspectives and does it without haughtiness or pandering. For instance, the worldview of cops is much shaped by their interactions with the least wanted in the society. “Time After Time” breaks through the smooth exterior of any department of police and shows the various characters in the blue family.
A Dysfunctional State
This is a scenario in a state where the authorities that exist do not appear to think stuff completely. A State where the base warriors on both sides of the law, Poot or Herc, are trained by a shattered system in which they do things only in the wrong way. A State where the rate of crime is too high to extents that if the murder rates were held at a pathetic high rate of 275, Royce and Burrell claim they would view it as a PR campaign. A State too far gone that a corner boy would try selling drugs to a uniformed head of police, and only see the man for what he is after Colvin wears the hat. If anyone wanted to implement real reforms to this dysfunctional, cracked State would need quite the stubborn optimism and a whole load of patience. (Williams, Linda 2010) The beautiful thing about The Wire though is the way everyone lets the show come into a little political screed.
The Larger Community
The wire achieves a feat one where it draws us deep into the lives of particular characters and at the same time draws back and shows the roles the characters take in the larger community. This particular systematic focus does not work against the viewer empathy on the individuals. In this episode, we see the Mayor – who elsewhere would be considered as a bureaucrat, one ruthless and clueless - having opposition from Tom Carcetti. Here the mayor is brought out as readily replaceable and institutionally constrained. (Sodano 2008) claims that the wire’s business is telling the truth that would not be bearable even if it could be interested in bearing these facts. “Time After Time,” is an episode that has a dazzling literary accomplishment that brings out a society clearly regarding the war on drugs, crime and how the police and politicians handle and reap from it.
References
Kraniauskas, & John. (2009). Elasticity of demand: reflections on The Wire. Radical Philosophy.
Anderson, Angela. (2009). No Such Thing as Good and Evil: The Wire and thehumanization of the object of risk in the age of biopolitics.
Brooks, Ryan. (2009). The Narrative Production of “Real Police.” In Tiffany Potter & C.W. Marshall (Eds.), The Wire: Urban Decay and American Television (pp. 64-77).New York, NY: Continuum
Sodano, Todd. (2008). Inside HBO‟s America: A Case Study of The Wire [Syllabus].Retrieved from http://img.slate.com/media/4/CaseStudyWire.pdf
Williams, Linda. (2010). What‟s So Great about The Wire? [Syllabus]. Retrieved fromhttp://www.slate.com/id/2245788/sidebar/2245787/.
Sheehan, Helena & Sweeney, Sheamus. (2009). The Wire and the world: narrative andmetanarrative. Jump Cut, 15. Retrieved from http://www.ejumpcut.org
