Catching up with The Wire: Season 2

Ain't never gonna be what it was. - Little Big Roy

The Wire's second season makes a point right off to let you know that the same story will not be told, as the setting moves from the dealers on the street to the longshoremen on the docks. David Simon has said part of this reason for this shift is they "were very conscious of the fact that some white viewers may have felt a little bit smug about (the first season's criminals)."

By moving to the docks, they're not only able to show that the drug trade has crossed racial borders in Baltimore, but show some of the mechanisms that allow drugs into our country, along with telling telling the story of the slow death of blue collar work in America. The Barksdale story is still part of the mix -- thankfully, as there's still so much to say on that front -- but it's relegated to the background for the most part.

The story on the docks is actually an international affair, with Polish, Armenian, Israeli, Ukranian and Greek all getting their piece. The character known as "The Greek," it turns out, isn't even Greek, which has me wondering... is Greek a play on his mystery? ("It's all Greek to me.") Or is it more writer George Pelecanos' Greek heritage seeping into the storyline? 'The Greek,' himself, serves as a reminder that last season's Kingpin (Avon Barksdale) isn't really a King -- we were essentially playing checkers with a chess set. 'The Greek' is the highest that we see, and even he isn't a King on the drug trade's chess board. 'The game' is the same, but we're finding there's bigger pieces, and the board is a lot larger than the towers.

To further emphasize the change in scenery, the theme song to The Wire this time is Tom Waits' original version by "Way Down in the Hole," a drastic change from The Blind Boys of Alabama's version used in the first season, with Waits' growl serving as a nice parallel to the more 'blue collar' setting. The music in general shifts in tone as well, and I especially had to chuckle at the use of "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)" in the first episode, with it's iconic opening lyrics: "There's a port, on a western bay / And it serves a hundred ships a day / Lonely sailors, pass the time away..."

Elsewhere, the late Stelios Kazantzidis has a couple key songs featured in the important penultimate episode ("Bad Dreams,") including a rare montage scene set to "Efuge Efuge." Kazantzidi was a hero to the working man in Greece, so he was an appropriate choice. The season ends with Steve Earle's "I Feel Alright," which was so right, not because of Earle's portrayal of Wayne from season one, more due to his lyrics, which wraps up the season nicely:

I'll bring you precious contraband
and ancient tales from distant lands
Of conquerors and concubines, and conjurers from darker times
Betrayal and conspiracy, sacrilege and heresy

Playlist: The Wire - Season 2
1. "Way Down in the Hole" - Tom Waits - Season 2 theme

2. "The Fall" - Blake Leyh - End credits
4. "Wooly Bully" - Sam the Sham & the Pharoahs - Ep 2.01
5. "Sixteen Tons" - The Nighthawks - Ep 2.01
6. "Search and Destroy" - The Stooges - Ep 2.01
7. "I'm Sorry" - Brenda Lee - Ep 2.01
8. "My Sharona (Live)" - The Knack - Ep 2.01
9. "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl" - Looking Glass - Ep 2.01
10."My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" - Waylon Jennings - Ep 2.01
11. "Gimme the Light" - Sean Paul - Ep 2.01
12. "The House That Jack Built" - Aretha Franklin - Ep 2.02
13. "Good-bye to Carolina" - Lyle Lovett - Ep 2.02
14. "The Cisco Kid" - War - Ep 2.03
15. "He Was Really Sayin' Somethin'" - The Velvettes - Ep 2.04
16. "I Promise to Remember" - Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers - Ep 2.04
17. "Ruler of My Heart" - Irma Thomas - Ep 2.04
18. "Magic Carpet Ride" - Steppenwolf - Ep 2.04
19. "Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad" - Tammy Wynette - Ep 2.04
19. "Maybe the Last Time" - James Brown - Ep 2.04
20. "Midnight at the Oasis" - Maria Muldaur - Ep 2.05
21. "Hand That Rocks the Cradle" - Akrobatik - Ep 2.05
22. "Love Child" - Diana Ross & The Supremes - Ep 2.07
23. "Transmetropolitan" - The Pogues - Ep 2.08>
24. "You Beat Me to the Punch" - Mary Wells - Ep 2.09
25. "I Walk the Line" - Johnny Cash - Ep 2.10
26. "Roadrunner" - Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - Ep 2.10
27. "To Psomi tis Xenethias (Bread in a Foreign Land)" - Stelios Kazantzidis - Ep 2.11
28. "Efuge Efuge" - Stelios Kazantzidis - Ep 2.11
29. "Have You Ever Seen the Rain" - Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - Ep 2.12
30. "I Feel Alright" - Steve Earle - Ep 2.12
Compiled with help from Music Supervisor Blake Leyh's Ten Thousand Things, and Mandel Maven's Nest on The Wire

More: Of all the great scenes from season two, I think my favorite is Omar testifying in court in the case against 'Bird'.


Previously: Catching up - Season 1
Next up: Season 3

Nip/Tuck's Nine Circles of Hell

Legend has it that when Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon set out for the famed Fountain of Youth, he was 40 years old and searching to find a cure for his sexual impotence. On this Nip/Tuck, Sean is making a similar journey at age 42, but instead of sailing for Bimini, Sean is diving into that other legendary utopia, Eden (AnnaLynne McCord). Only this one isn't a garden -- in fact it's evil and barely legal.

Another route to the Garden of Eden lies in Dante's The Divine Comedy, where first you have to go through Dante's Inferno, and his outlined nine circles of hell. Aidan with his 'Dante's Infernal party' -- backed by Joan Jett's "Do You Want To Touch Me?" -- serves as a sort of Virgil for Sean's Dante as he shows him through his own version of hell, Hollywood style. Meanwhile the circles of hell seem represented here, if out of order.

The First Circle is the virtuous pagans, which where I party out most of the time, so let's skip it. Second Circle is those overcome by lust -- Sean takes this one on in the opening scene with Eden, done to Lil' Mama's "Lip Gloss." Third Circle is glutton, which could be Dr. Joshua Lee's daughter Wendy, why else make her fat and allude to it a couple times? Fourth Circle is concern for material goods, which is beautifully represented by the scenes of Kimber shoplifting to Jenny Lewis' "Rabbit Fur Coat." Fifth Circle is sloth, and I'm pinning that on Matt in his dealing with Kimber (and maybe Olivia cowering in the face of their burglar).

Now we descend to the lower part of hell, where the Sixth Circle has heretics trapped in a burning tomb. Seeing Matt lit on fire from his botched Meth cooking attempt fits perfectly here, even more so that it's set to Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart." The Seventh Circle houses the violent, and Julia's kidnapper fits in here, especially when you notice the song playing on the radio -- Roy Acuff's "A Sinner's Death (I'm Dying)." The Eighth circle is the fraudulent, and who better to represent that then Eden herself, and "The Moneymaker" by Rilo Kiley (with Jenny Lewis again) makes for a nice theme song for her ("...she wants to overtake you / you know you wanna make her").

Finally we've got the Ninth Circle, and that is reserved for those who betray a special relationship. Christian and Julia fit the bill here, betraying both Sean and Olivia. It remains to be seen if N/T will take us through the Seven Terraces of Purgatory and onward through the Nine Spheres of Heaven -- but you know I'll be looking.

Playlist: Nip/Tuck - Ep507
1. "Lip Gloss" - Lil Mama - Sean and Eden have sex
2. "A Sinner's Death (I'm Dying)" - Roy Acuff - Olivia and Julia are robbed and then carjacked
3. "Not A Pretty Girl" - Ani DiFranco - Christian performs ‘freshening’ surgery on Kimber
4. "Espiritu" - Palmero Nuevo - Sean and Aidan visit with Aidan’s new-age doctor
5. "Rabbit Fur Coat" - Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins - Kimber makes herself up, shoplifts a fur coat, meets with Ram Peters
6. "Do You Wanna Touch Me?" - Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - Sean spots Eden at Aidan's 'Dante’s Infernal' party
7. "The Moneymaker" - Rilo Kiley - Sean plays hard to get with Eden
8. "Total Eclipse Of The Heart" - Bonnie Tyler - Matt tries to cook meth, sets apartment and himself on fire, jumps in hotel pool
Compiled by Avalon at NipTuckforum.com

Previously: Reality Bites (Episode 5.06)