TV at the moment

Frank has mentioned to me about how nowadays, instead of steadily getting better as in ye olden times, most TV shows peak during their first season or even their pilot, and then just get steadily worse. The season premieres of both 24 and Alias reminded me of this, although Smallville is certainly a candidate (at least according to Frank; I've never seen an episode of that show that I've liked), and Lost continues to disapoint rather than thrill me. Arrested Development, while certainly still funny, has yet to achieve the brilliance of season 1, and Emory has also vocally expressed concerns about the quality of the upcoming season of Deadwood, considering how goddamn awesome its first season was.

For some time I thought The Wire would fall into this category, since its first season, in my mind, was a perfect, glittering jewel, brilliant in its execution, with an ending so fitting and inevitable that when a second season was announced I was full of both anticipation and dread. Dread that what was to come could not possibly match what came before, and anticipation because it was the fucking Wire, man, and even if it was worse that season one, it would still be better than 99% of all television, ever.

In the end, I was right. The second season of The Wire was disjointed and unfocused, having to devote a good chunk of time to reuniting our heroes in a plausible manner. (Like I said, the ending of season 1 was pitch-perfect, including scattering the protagonists to the four winds.) A few characters were left adrift (I’m thinking of Herc and Carver, here), showing up regularly without any discernible purpose. Other characters started to veer into cartoonishness. While McNulty getting drunk, crashing his car, entering a restaurant to nurse his wounds and then banging his waitress is amusing, it’s a far cry from the gritty realism of season 1. A few of the new characters were engaging, Frank Sobotka and the female officer who joins Team Wire in particular, but the Greek proved a faceless and unengaging villain. One might argue that the real villain of the season was, as David Simon put it, "the death of work," but while that looks good on paper, it doesn’t make great television. Meanwhile, the show still continued to focus on drug kingpin and season 1 villain Avon Barksdale, stuck in prison, and his leuteniant Stringer Bell, attempting to hold his empire together on the outside. What was really frustrating was that their side plotline had no payoff by season’s end, instead coming to a head (beautifully, might I add) in season 3. Barksdale and Stringer’s plot seemed like a distraction amidst the union corruption and Slavic villains. Despite my gripes, it was still a damn good season when compared to most television.

Of course, once Season 3 got underway, all was forgiven. And now that season 3 has concluded, with an ending that Emory described as "nihilistic," but I would call more "pessimistic" and "misanthropic" (all is right for most of our heroes, but the world is still pretty fucked), I'm glad they kept going, because season 3 is the best Wire season yet, which firmly places it in the top five season of television ever. Entertainment Weekly is largely embarassing (my mom keeps renewing my subscription and I keep forgetting to tell her not to bother), but they're totally right in naming The Wire the number one show of the year.

You know what else doesn't suck? Veronica Mars. I mean, it's not relentlessly brilliant, but it's a good time. And it's steadily improving, too. And I love Kristen Bell. LOVE HER.