No Mandyville for The Wire

I've written before about how impressive The Wire is. But having just finished watching the fourth season, I've gone into whole new realms of appreciation. The obvious thing to write about here is how every season builds up to a captivating finale, but the really impressive thing is how every season builds on the last. Literally nothing is forgotten. No character or plot thread ever goes to Mandyville. It's like one 60-hour long episode. Every season actually deals with different situations and investigations, but it always feels like a progression of the same story. I occasionally find myself rewinding a scene just to watch it again. Not because I didn't understand it, but because it's that good.

The fourth season looks at children's place in Baltimore. The four boys - Dukie, Namond, Randy and Michael - all find adopted fathers - Prez, Colvin, Carver, Chris. It is the success of these fathers to look after the boys that contributes to the 'Final Grades' of the last episode. Some boys have the ability to be gangsters and murderers, other's don't. Others are just lovably pathetic. The portrayal of the school is also disturbingly realistic. It seems that Maths class is the same in Baltimore as it is in Wales (just with more knifing). Outside the 'ordered' classroom the streets are being ruled by a cold new drug king, who's doing away with the old code and making his own rules. It's the inability of some of the 'old' gangsters to adjust to the new climate that makes up another interesting thread.

Which brings me a statement that I find a bit troubling. Something that changes what I've always believed. I might regret this. I might have nightmares about it. But here it is: The West Wing is the best television ever. But so is The Wire.

Who's afraid of episode five?

Yesterday I wrote that I was going to re-shoot parts of episode five to get it 'right'. But now, the night before shooting, I have decided to rewrite the entire episode. It is now completely different. No more silly sitcom episode. No more narrative hole. The new episode five keeps the story flowing with a nice dollop of mild drama and jokes about death. The night before shooting the script I sat down and wrote it off the top of my head. This is not advisable. There's a nice creative urgency about it though. Every other episode was written about three months earlier. This one is barely a few hours old. I'm confident that is has everything that the 'wrong' five was missing. It will work this time.

This brings the number of ditched episodes to two. Two whole episodes that weren't good enough. They sit in the corner and cry. To add to their problems, I'm pretty sure they're cursed. They both feature one of my favourite bits of dialogue, something that I've been trying to fit into an episode since we started. It goes like this:

"Complacency killed the cat."
"Wasn't that curiosity?"
"Well the cat's dead. Just think about that."

I don't trust cats. Cats don't like me. This is their revenge. Cursing anything I put this dialogue into. Which includes this post. And the new episode five.

The problem with episode 5

Episode five is meant to be here by now. It really is. But after watching it, and watching it again, we have decided that it isn't good enough. Yet. Certain things have to be re-shot. Certain things have to be re-written. It turns out the easy 'comedy' episode is one of the hardest to get right. Without any drama we're relying on these jokes to keep the show going, and without the right pace and the right delivery, there's no point in showing it to anybody. Have I dug myself into a narrative hole here? Am I delaying the story by five minutes for no good reason? Only reshoots will tell.

Some things to consider for episode five:

• Is Dylan actually insane? Rewrites suggest he's not.
• Why is Wash eating so many custard creams?
• Why does nobody care about Gareth?
• Can there be comedy in a boiler room?
• How many lines can I plagiarise from The West Wing?

It will all come together. And then on to episode six. Which is considerably more beautiful.

Jónsi's getting louder

With most of Sigur Rós busy with babies and sleeping, there won't be any new album this year. Jónsi has decided to take this time to release songs that he has 'collected over the years'. His upcoming solo album looks to be the polar opposite to the quiet ambience of last year's Jónsi & Alex album. This is energetic and 'ecstatic' music, pounding and joyous. Interestingly, he originally intended the project to be an acoustic album but was convinced to go 'out of his comfort zone' and write something louder. After hearing an acoustic version of the song 'Go Do' on a radio podcast, and then hearing the album version, I'm slightly concerned that these songs have been needlessly converted into 'big' versions. The acoustic version is nice, the album track a little bit too 'dancey'. I shouldn't worry though. The other track I've heard, 'Boy Lilikoi', is great. Full of all the vibrancy that you'd expect.

And now he's singing in English (not for long hopefully) it's easy to get an insight into what the album is actually about. I'll quote a reviewer who's actually heard the whole thing - 'If there's a theme to be found in the lyrics of Go, it must be that life is fleeting and is here to be enjoyed...It is soulful, fun, naïve and sad in its own fantastical world; if only life really were this good. This is a record that will make you believe it could be.' (musicOMH). I can't argue with that. No complaints at all. The album is released in April. I expect, because these Icelandic people never let me down, that it'll be wonderful.

There's something in the boiler room

Most of how to be god episode five is all filmed up. I tried to write this as 'the sitcom episode'. Unlike the others this is a real-time episode that's filmed entirely inside the house. It's inspired by the best episodes of Frasier, where someone is running around trying to hold everything together. Obviously it's still five minutes long, but it has a single focus. There aren't four plot threads going on at once.

There's not even any drama. Death isn't mentioned and nobody gets punched. But unfortunately for these characters this is also the last episode before everything goes downhill. The last one where they're all happy. Which is a shame. I'm hoping that the comedy won't disappear entirely in the later episodes, but I might struggle to fit in the jokes. If you've watched the first four, you're probably thinking that they aren't happy at all. They are. They just don't ever show it. A lot of the show is based around the characters not saying what they're really thinking until it's (probably) too late.

Episode five is also called the 'what's in the boiler room?' episode.Could be anything really. It's making sounds. It's good to use obscure rooms in the house. Especially if they're warm and you can lock your cast in there.