I finished watching it yesterday. I have some thoughts about the politics of it but to be honest I don’t have a leg to stand on because I know nothing about how majority black cities in America work.
On the non-political side, I really enjoyed the first two seasons. Season 2 in particular was the best one for me. Post that there was too much focus on politicking for my taste and I just wanted to it be over with. That Carcetti guy reminded me of Buttigieg and I found him really annoying. I knew he was gonna be a rat faced turncoat the moment I saw him. But I appreciated the focus on school aged male children even though it was depressing.
The ending was a bit disappointing for me because it essentially said nothing ever changes. The sobriety of it makes sense to me but it feels reductionist because it denies anyone the chance to make a tiny improvement and disregards qualitative changes.
Interested in hearing what you all think about it.
I’m not going to make excuses for it because I don’t like it either tbh, but I think i get what they were going for. When Mcnulty was on the beat he was able to focus on the then and there and feel like he was making a difference, and so he was much happier [I know that’s definitely copaganda of a sort but I dont feel like talking about it rn], but when he’s working as a detective, he’s constantly struggling, and even when he succeeds in actually arresting suspects, he never feels like he’s making a difference and that everything is pointless, ergo the booze and removed.
I think this mightve been similar to the direction the show was going for at the end of season 4 when he goes back to detective work, but I think it would’ve been better if that was more of a general struggle he was having and dealing with rather than just “ope, he’s back to his usual stuff again.”