John Munch strikes again!
So who saw this past Sunday’s episode of The Wire? If you did, then you probably saw the quick little cameo by Richard Belzer as a bar patron near the end of the episode. After I watched it, one question came to mind: was he playing John Munch? According to this NPR article, he was. However, the basis for the logic was subtle and only a serious TV buff would have picked up on it. Not even I caught it and I’m a huge Wire and Homicide fan.
At one point during his conversation with the bartender (as Clark Johnson’s character Gus Haynes walked by) Munch mentioned that he owned a bar once. Now if you recall, in the later seasons of Homicide, Munch did own a bar. Here’s where it gets interesting though. Do you remember who he owned the bar with? Detective Meldrick Lewis… played by Clark Johnson. Crazy, huh?
Anyway, here’s the real point of this post. With this appearance on The Wire, Belzer has now played Munch on eight different programs. That’s insane! The only other characters to come close to that are Norm and Cliff (George Wendt and John Ratzenberger) from Cheers with seven distinct appearances each. Read on for more…
Where else have you seen John Munch? Here’s the list:
- Homicide: Life on the Street
- The X-Files
- Law & Order
- Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
- Law & Order: Trial by Jury
- The Beat
- Arrested Development
- The Wire
I think what surprises me the most is that he’s never guested on Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Or for that matter, an episode of The Simpsons. Regardless, it’s still pretty impressive.
UPDATE: Make that ten different series. According to this USA Today post dated 8/5/07, Belzer has played Munch on The Simpsons as well as Sesame Street. Hilarious. [Thanks to Nate for the tip!]
The Wire: The Dickensian Aspect
(S05E06) “If you have a problem with this, I understand completely.” - Freamon
I thought the theme of this season was supposed to be newspapers and the media? Maybe it’s just me, but more than any other season of The Wire, this one seems to be focusing the least on its stated theme. Other than the steady story of Scott “worst journalist ever” Templeton, we really don’t see The Sun as much as I’d like. I love Gus Haynes. He’s a great character and I hope that the final four episodes take a little more time to dig deeper into his role.
That being said, I realize this is the final season and I’m hugely appreciative that any and all plots (new and old) are being addressed. Most shows don’t take the time to wrap everything up properly. Remember the final season of Alias? What a mess. I just think things could be a bit more evenly balanced.
Take this episode — homeless overload! (OK, I’m done, you can breathe. That’s the first and probably only time I’ll ever complain about The Wire. This show has earned my trust a hundred times over and then some.)
I think the best way to describe this episode is that things are starting to get messy. Cause and effect. Push and pull. One thing gains some forward movement only to send something else backwards. More directly, Lester and Jimmy are in a world of shit. Unless something drastic happens, I don’t see this ending well. The fact that Templeton has altered the scenario only complicates matters.
When the whole “fake serial killer” idea took root, both Jimmy and Lester oversimplified what would be required to achieve their goal of nailing Marlo. In theory, it all seemed much simpler. But now that the case has become a true red-ball (despite the fact that no money and only one more detective has been thrown at it), it’s becoming harder and harder for Jimmy to juke the case based on Lester’s needs. He can’t even get near a fresh homeless body without a swarm of other cops at the scene before him. I’ll come back this…
Moving on, let’s talk about Marlo and Omar. This has become the opposite of a chess game. It went from being a calculated and carefully executed ballet and now it’s just madness. Omar is blowing money up! Chris is pissed. Snoop is pissed. Marlo is pissed. And Omar has a busted ankle. How great was is that he hid in a janitor’s closet right near the balcony he jumped from? It never occurred to anyone that he was probably hurt and didn’t get far? Obviously not since Snoop searched every hospital in the city. Even Marlo confessed that it must have been some “Spiderman shit.” Marlo is smart though, offering up a huge bounty and blaming Omar for the deaths of Hungry Man and Prop Joe. Even though nobody believes him (especially Fat Face Rick), who cares? Find Omar, get money. Everyone in the co-op is going to need extra cash anyway since Marlo has doubled the price on the package. What’s the saying? Marlo isn’t a businessman; he’s a business, man.
On to my weekly rant about how much I hate Scott Templeton. This week, he wasn’t that bad. He actually listened to advice from Whiting and Gus, followed through with his plan to spend a night among Baltimore’s homeless, and then took the time to interview(!) a real live person. An ex-marine to be exact. And you know what happened? It was a great article that even Gus said felt “real.” So it just goes to show that if Scott wasn’t so uppity and full of himself and just did his job, he’s not half bad at it. All that came crashing down fast though when Fletcher brought Gus some questionable news about one of Scott’s recent articles on a mother who died of seafood poisoning. The sister of the deceased told Scott a scholarship fund had been started for her nieces and nephews, but any money that came in (as a direct result of Scott’s article) fed the sister’s gambling addiction instead. Gus asked Scott to look into it. He never did and instead fed Gus some crap about the whole situation. I’m sure we haven’t heard the last of that.
Next up I want to talk about Bond, because I have some theories on him. First off, I think my prediction about Clay walking in court is starting to play out. Bond told Rhonda that he personally wants to be the one to try Clay. (Based on that and even though he’s never said anything, Bond clearly wants to run for mayor in the next election.) Here’s the thing though and Rhonda was quick to point this out. This is a huge landmark case and Bond hasn’t tried anything in a long time. This probably isn’t the right opportunity to get back on the horse. I’m calling it again: Bond is going to make a fool of himself. Couple in the loose charity fraud charges and recall that he’s not bringing up anything regarding the loan falsification charges (or else the case would have to go federal) and I see no way that Clay Davis loses.
My other theory about Bond? I’m wondering if he’s the leak. It’s not too far-fetched, so hear me out. Obviously his eyes bugged out when Rhonda showed him the manila folder stuffed with Xeroxed sealed indictment forms that Holley found in Prop Joe’s desk drawer. Who wouldn’t be surprised? So here’s my argument. First off, I know this show serves story first and character second, but for this thread to play out properly… we need a shock. Who else have we met that can deliver that? Possibly Judge Phelan and that could be why he was so leery of going against The Sun when Jimmy wanted to tap Scott’s cell phone. If Phelan is the leak, he wouldn’t want anyone digging up dirt on him. I still think it may be Bond though. It’s not unimaginable to think that Bond knew Prop Joe from years ago. Joe knew Burrell from school after all. Maybe it’s an old connection. That being said, it would explain why he was fine with letting the row house murders get shelved as long as he could still take on Clay. He wants out of the DA seat and into the mayor’s chair. Clay Davis gets him there. Marlo Stanfield doesn’t. If Bond gets busted now, he’s replaced. If he gets busted and he’s mayor, he isn’t going anywhere and he’ll have a lot more leverage to manipulate until his term is over. So there you go, I know it’s a little loose… just a theory.
Let’s talk Bunk. He’s the only one really doing his job, following up leads on Michael’s dead step-father and Lex. He even went to talk to Randy at the group home. Great scene, huh? A year living there and that kid has changed. He went from timid to cop hating bully. I suppose you can’t really blame him though, even though his entire predicament is only Herc’s fault. Between Randy keeping his mouth shut and the complete ineptitude of the Baltimore Police Department Crime Lab (22 murders mislabeled!), it doesn’t look like Bunk’s getting anywhere.
OK, back to Jimmy and Lester. They’re not seeing eye to eye and Jimmy even called Lester a “supervisor’s nightmare.” The guy does have a lot of demands. Either way, the discovery that Marlo is using the phone to send pictures is going to require some fresh probable cause in Jimmy’s case. But he can’t get near a body now. So instead, he kidnapped a homeless guy, snapped some photos of him on an unmarked cell phone, then drove him to a shelter in Richmond, Virgina, and gave the shelter attendant fake ID on “Larry.” Now he can send the photos to Scott, claiming to be the killer. Since he can’t alter any real bodies, Jimmy can just make people disappear. Done deal. Remember what I said earlier? This is getting messy. It feels sloppy. Won’t someone recognize Larry at the shelter when his photo hits the news? This is a national story now! The unfortunate thing is that Marlo is going to require more and more manpower and that means more and more from Jimmy’s twisted mind. The well hasn’t run dry yet, but it will.
More thoughts…
- Listening to Whiting blabber on and on about “Dickensian aspect” this and “Dickensian aspect” that is hilarious. I honestly don’t think he fully understands what the phrase means or refers to, but he seems to find a way to inject it into everything he says. You need a bit more than some homeless interviews to fully encapsulate the meaning of “Dickensian.” But hey, what do I know? Whiting has a stay-at-home wife who volunteers a few times a week at the local public school! (He seems to think that makes him smarter though…)
- How great was it when Rawls handed off to Daniels during the press conference? You could see on Rawls’ face what he was thinking: “Let’s throw the new guy to the dogs.” Then Daniels got up there and handled himself better than Rawls ever has. And Carcetti noticed.
- Absolute favorite scene of the season thus far? When Tommy was introducing the New Westport condominium project with that sleazeball Krawczyk by his side. The whole time, I was sitting there thinking, “Man, this would be a great opportunity for Nicky Sobotka to show up and raise some hell.” Thirty seconds later? Sobotka! Cursing out the mayor for “tearing down the port of Baltimore and selling it to yuppie assholes.” Season two is still my favorite Wire season and if you recall, it was hard enough back then for a stevedore to maintain steady work. Think of how bad Nick will have it when that whole portion of the port is swallowed by Carcetti’s “legacy.”
- Jimmy talking to Larry (the homeless guy) in the car on the way to Virgina was hilarious. As if he expected crazy Larry to start having a normal conversation with him.
- I’m not quite sure why, but it seemed awfully appropriate that Scott’s TV appearance was on Nancy Grace.
- Heineken beer bottles. One man’s drink (Lester) is another man’s fake gun (Omar).
If last week was the tip of the iceberg, we’re definitely sliding down the side of it now. What started out as something small in Jimmy’s eyes has become larger than he could have ever imagined. The ironic thing is that no one really seems to care. National news coverage? Yes. More money from the department? No. My one final question? Say this works. Say Lester gets what he needs and can nail Marlo. Then what? Can he really attribute all this to an informant? It seems highly likely that what he and Jimmy have done will be uncovered. Even if Marlo goes to jail, are Jimmy and Lester willing to go with him?
The Wire: React Quotes
(S05E05) “Just ’cause they’re in the street doesn’t mean that they lack opinions.” - Haynes
I hate Scott Templeton. Or should I say M. Scott Templeton? Did you see that on the newspaper article he co-wrote with Alma? He added a pointless first initial to his name! Nowhere in his bio on The Wire website does it say anything about a first name that starts with M. This very well could be a pointless detail, but on this show those types of things rarely occur. It’s just another reason that Templeton is a giant ass. He’s really no better a man than McNulty when you consider what he’s doing. The difference is that Scott has this air of arrogance about him, as if he feels as though he’s meant for great things. Yeah right. He’s lazy and has no work ethic whatsoever. And he wonders why Gus continually passes him over and gives him tons of grunt work. Imagine how Gus will look at him when the truth does come out. That being said, I loved how this episode played out. One bullshitter versus another. That always leads to a good story.
It’s probably one of the best scenes in the five season run of this show. Scott lies. McNulty’s eyes bulge. Then McNulty lies. Scott’s eyes bulge. They both know (or at least think) the other guy is full of it (sort of… I’ll get to that) but can’t say a thing about it. It was brilliant watching the two of them react, realizing that their lies are growing into something far bigger than imagined. Obviously, neither of them got a call from the “serial killer” but only they know that individually.
Here’s where it gets interesting though. McNulty knows without a doubt that Scott is lying. On the other hand, Scott doesn’t know for sure that McNulty is lying. Everyone except Bunk, McNulty, and Lester think this “serial killer” is real. When McNulty said he got a call too, Scott was worried that the “real killer” would discredit his “fake killer.” (Honestly, typing this up right now is comical. I feel the need to put parentheses around everything I write because nothing is “real” here.)
So Scott spins his story, McNulty confirms all of it and voila - Jimmy spins it into the wire-tap that he and Lester need. You didn’t think the final season of The Wire would go without one of those, did you? Anyway, I’ll come back to this. More to talk about first.
Let’s start with Dukie. He’s got smarts, just not street smarts. Remember how addicted he was to the computer in Prez’s classroom? While I took great pleasure in seeing Dukie beat tiny Kenard into the sidewalk, seeing Spider take out Dukie was hard to watch. He’s a nice kid and clearly has a bright future if he plays his cards right. I’m not sure what to think though. First he makes the effort to train a little with Cutty and get some life advice (Sidebar: The moment when Cutty and Michael locked eyes was great. Michael could never trust Cutty personally, but by bringing Dukie to him, it was definitely a sign of respect and Cutty recognized that.) and the next day he was getting gun lessons from Michael. I really don’t know what sort of outcome is in store for Dukie yet. I’d like to think that he’ll actually get out, but I’m not sure he’s strong enough to make such a commitment.
My one worry for Dukie? Omar knows who Michael is now. He knows he rolls with Chris and Snoop and I hope he doesn’t go after Michael’s corner when Dukie is around. That’d be a shame. Speaking of Omar…umm, what the hell?!? He jumped off a third or fourth floor balcony during that ambush/shoot-out. This show is about as real as it gets, but c’mon…Omar probably should have been plastered on the sidewalk after a jump like that. Unless his black duster turns into wings or something, I don’t see how he lands that and walks away. He better have some broken bones in next week’s episode.
Moving on to Clay Davis. Maybe it’s a stupid question to ask, but is there anyone he wasn’t in bed with? Those two scenes where first Nerese and then Royce each told Clay to buck up and take the hit were great because it just shows you how connected he is in Baltimore’s political scene. He opens his mouth and plenty of others will go down with him. I think the one thing I found troubling was Clay’s radio appearance and the subsequent rally. I suppose it’s unavoidable, but I hated the way all the people at the rally were depicted as being so naïve. Read the papers, watch the news–Clay is not a good guy. But politics can be just like a religion and supporters can quickly become rabid in their beliefs to the point that even the most blatant evidence won’t sway their opinions. Honestly, I think it would have been just as realistic to see only two or three people show up at the rally as Royce says the same things to Clay: take the hit, or you’re done in this city…and everyone knows it.
I also wanted to mention the appearances by Elena and Beadie. Two really great moments. Elena tried to set Jimmy straight, telling him to not screw things up with Beadie. How often do you actually hear a woman tell her ex-husband that she likes his girlfriend? That’s got to count for something. At the same time, you have Beadie going to Bunk asking if Jimmy will ever change. It put Bunk in an odd position and you could tell he hated himself for using Jimmy’s “serial killer” as an excuse, but at least Beadie saw through it. I’d like that think that if she does go through with kicking Jimmy out, it will make a difference. But now that he and Lester have their wire-tap, I don’t think anything is going to slow him down. Even if it means the end of Jimmy and Beadie.
So, about that wire-tap. How exactly does it work this time? Jimmy filed it based on the pay-phone call that Scott “received.” However, he made sure The Sun didn’t report where the call came from. Jimmy plans on keeping that secret. Why? Because he filed the tap clearance using Marlo’s cell phone number as the number that came in. (Herc has officially redeemed himself by snagging that # from Levy’s Rolodex.) So while homicide is monitoring a dead line leading to nowhere, Lester is actually up on a wire at the Major Crimes office.
So all of this warrants an obvious question that was born in the first few minutes of this episode: knowing what he knows, why the hell would Marlo ever use a cell phone? Vondas gave it it to him and there was obviously something about it that convinced Marlo it was safe. We found out at the end. After Lester flipped on the wire-tap, a call came through almost immediately. The problem? Static. Buzz. Sounded like a dial-up modem. So the phone has some kind of jamming device built into it. So now what? Coincidentally, this relates directly to what I wondered about last week. Lester is officially involved in this whole mess now since he’s maintaining an illegal wire-tap. He and Jimmy are screwed if they can’t fix this.
More thoughts…
- I loved when Zorzi gave Rhonda hell at the Bond press conference for not calling The Sun about Clay’s perp walk.
- Seeing Chris say good-bye to his girlfriend and then play with her daughter and some dolls was just weird. Who could ever love that guy?
- Bubbles isn’t HIV . That’s great! I’m looking forward to the moment when he stops punishing himself for Sherrod.
- I loved the scene when Lester went to Cedric for money to take down Marlo with the new phone number and a fresh wire-tap. Cedric had just returned from eating his first “bowl of shit” from Mayor Carcetti and when he said “no,” Lester gave him a look that said, “you’re part of the problem now.”
- Scott made up a homeless family of four! He’d kill his own mother if it got him on the front page.
- I think the funniest part of the episode was when Jay was looking at a lingerie ad instead of porn and Bunk asked what it was. Jay’s response? “Change of pace. They look good with clothes on too.”
- Saddest line of the episode definitely goes to Beadie: “I don’t like givin’ up.”
- Actually, now that I’m thinking about it, you know what was funnier than Jay’s line? When Scott asked where he was going to find homeless people. Gus: “Not at home I imagine.” Priceless.
- Now that the “serial killer” has turned into a true red ball, there’s going to be a lot more eyes on it and I really don’t think Jimmy considered that. The idea is for everything to go unnoticed until they have what they need for Marlo.
- Even though Lester plans to attribute anything he gets from the wire-tap to an informant in court, I still don’t see how he can’t get caught. Sooner or later, someone has to realize how he got from A to Z, right?
Well, we’re at the half-way point of the season and I will say this definitely felt like a peak because it’s all downhill from here. Jimmy and Lester have gotten what they wanted, so it can only unravel from here. Omar has presumably had enough since he went over the edge (literally) and I wonder if he’ll just start gunning for only Marlo. Dukie’s relations with the rest of the corner boys are only going to get worse unless he makes a change. And Clay Davis is getting ready for his day in court. In the meantime, one great thing to look forward to is the return of Randy next week. Looks like Bunk is back up on the Lex murder. In the words of Omar, “Indeed.”
Amy Winehouse Blasts Divorce Rumors
Amy Winehouse Blasts Divorce Rumors
As recently as this morning, Amy Winehouse has completely blasted rumors that she’s splitting up with her incarcerated hubby Blake Fielder-Civil. And after the fight that she had with her father, she was eager to speak to whoever would listen.
The “Rehab” singer had just finished a foul-mouthed screaming match with her father Mitch when she stepped outside to get some fresh air. And she proceeded to set the record straight about rumors that she had fallen for her manager’s assistant Alex Haynes.
A paparazzo on the scene told press, “Her father arrives, goes into her house and gives her a massive bollocking. You could just hear screaming and shouting inside. He was telling her, ‘You’ve got to f**king pull yourself together.’ We just heard swearing and shouting.”
He continued, “I ended up having a 10-minute conversation with her on the doorstep. She insisted she is not divorcing Blake. She’s totally in love with him. I said, ‘How are things?’ She said, ‘It’s beautiful. The summer’s come and I can’t wait to get my Blake back.’”
“She said to me, ‘You’ve seen us together - and you know how much we’re in love with each other. We’re gonna be together forever. Can you tell the people at the papers to stop writing lies after lies after lies. We’re not splitting up, I don’t have a new boyfriend, I’m totally in love with Blake and I’ll be going to court with him every single day to support him throughout his case. I couldn’t be happier.’”