Tuesday, January 15, 2008

S5, Episode Two

"This ain't Aruba, Bitch" -The Bunk

When exactly did Bunk become The Bunk? He's moving up in the world.

It's good to see that this season is going to be taking a more indepth look into Bubbles' struggle with recovery and his relationship with his sponsor, Waylon, played by Steve Earle. Waylon was first introduced in season one when Bubbles hears him speak at an NA meeting he is forced to attend as a condition of his parole. They talk in a couple episodes and it is clear they have a mutual understanding even though Waylon is clean and Bubbles is not. Then he reappears in the season finale of season four, setting up the dynamic to come in this season. David Simons mini-series "The Corner", like The Wire, dealt with the Baltimore drug trade but it revolved more around the users and hoppers, with police and major traffickers barely registering as minor characters. It is also based on a real-life Baltimore family (whom director Charles S. Dutton interviews at the end of the final episode) and their struggles with drug addiction. Fran's brother Scoogie has been clean for some time and Blue and Fran makes attempts to get clean throughout the course of the series but there's very little information about the process of seeking to recover from drug addiction. I am interested to see how Bubbles recovery is portrayed during the rest of this season.

And ofcourse the other side of Bubbles' recovery from heroin addiction is Jimmie McNulty's descent back into alcoholism and the disastrous effects it threatens to have on everyone around him. The one positive thing you could say about a low-bottom dope friend like Bubbles is he is so withdrawn from and marginalized by society that his addiction has minimal effects on anyone but himself. The same is not true of McNulty and I suspect it will become more evident as the season goes on that high-functioning addicts/alcoholics manage to bring more people down with them because they are still an active member of their community. I found it very realistic that while McNulty was sober, Bunk and others seemed to resent his abstinence and now that he is drinking again they have quickly realized that they were better off when he was sober.

I'm glad to see Marlo and Omar will be getting back in the mix soon. Omar is one of the few characters on the show who almost always comes out on top so I'm not too concerned for his safety, even with Chris and Snoop gunning for him.

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