Way down in the hole

In anticipation of season 4 starting in the fall, I started re-watching season 2 of The Wire last night. I haven't seen most of these episodes since they originally aired, and since I found my intitial feelings on this season to be ones of disappointment, I'm eager to see what I think of them now.

I just watched the first two episodes, and they're just stellar. I love, LOVE, how the entire investigation springs from the pettiness of two different characters: one we like (McNulty sticking Rawls with the bodies) and one we don't (Valchek wanting to stick Sobotka over their dueling stained-glass windows). Of course McNulty initially just wants to piss off Rawls, but once the addtional 13 girls show up he decides the case can't be handed to the port authority so he goes to great lengths to prove that the girls must have died in Baltimore city proper, so that his old homicide division will pick up the case. I love that stuff, the little details of it all. Then there's that great moment when Bunk and Freemon wind up stuck with the case and they head down to talk to Officer Russell, who found the bodies.

RUSSELL: You from homicide? You must know Jimmy McNulty.
BUNK: Yeah. He's dead to us.

What a great show.

I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of this season, particularly knowing that the Barksdale plot pays off in season 3. On an initial viewing it just looked like the show was refusing to abandon its characters. Always nice to know the show-runners have a plan. I'm still a bit nervous about how good season 4 will be, but the quality of season 3 does a lot to assuage my fears.