Few teasers are as efficient as the one that opens the sixth episode of The Wire: a bloodied body on a windshield in an underdeveloped neighborhood. It's a brutal reminder of how casual and realistic the violence can get in a series like this, without ever being glorified or anything: it's just the way it is in real life.
The body is that of Brandon, Omar's boyfriend, and the murder affects everyone in different ways: Avon is pleased, and asks Stringer to give some extra cash to the boys who spotted Brandon the previous night and made it easier to kill him; D'Angelo's friend Wallace, who indirectly helped with the hit, feels bad about what happened and just can't get over it; the cops predict the war between Omar and Barksdale's crew will get worse, and they're right, since Omar reconsiders his "no snitching" policy and identifies one of Avon's men, Bird, as the killer Bunk is looking for. It's not just good news, though: upon learning Barksdale's people are linked to at least three murders, Rawls demands that warrants for Avon's arrest be issued immediately, not caring about the fact that this will nullify all the work done so far.
As has been the case with previous episodes, the most interesting person to watch is Omar, whose interaction with the equally layered and human McNulty constitutes some of the finest dialogue ever heard on TV (the writers' first-hand experience with law enforcement and street life is fundamental here). This chapter is also instrumental in showing how real police work differs from what we see on Law & Order or CSI, at least in some cases: as the Rawls/Daniels dispute proves, cooperation between units isn't a given - some people are in it just for the improvement of statistics. And as the silently tragic final scene shows, the outcome won't be as obvious as that of most cop serials.
The body is that of Brandon, Omar's boyfriend, and the murder affects everyone in different ways: Avon is pleased, and asks Stringer to give some extra cash to the boys who spotted Brandon the previous night and made it easier to kill him; D'Angelo's friend Wallace, who indirectly helped with the hit, feels bad about what happened and just can't get over it; the cops predict the war between Omar and Barksdale's crew will get worse, and they're right, since Omar reconsiders his "no snitching" policy and identifies one of Avon's men, Bird, as the killer Bunk is looking for. It's not just good news, though: upon learning Barksdale's people are linked to at least three murders, Rawls demands that warrants for Avon's arrest be issued immediately, not caring about the fact that this will nullify all the work done so far.
As has been the case with previous episodes, the most interesting person to watch is Omar, whose interaction with the equally layered and human McNulty constitutes some of the finest dialogue ever heard on TV (the writers' first-hand experience with law enforcement and street life is fundamental here). This chapter is also instrumental in showing how real police work differs from what we see on Law & Order or CSI, at least in some cases: as the Rawls/Daniels dispute proves, cooperation between units isn't a given - some people are in it just for the improvement of statistics. And as the silently tragic final scene shows, the outcome won't be as obvious as that of most cop serials.