Unconfirmed Reports

Marlo takes advantage of a lack of police presence, whilst McNulty crosses a serious line of misconduct.

This is an excellent episode with memorable character moments.

There are some shocking scenes in this episode that still have an impact when watching many years after my first viewing.

One homicide committed at Marlo's behest is one of the worst incidents portrayed on The Wire and should compound the audience's distain for the character. It follows a somewhat darkly humorous scene of banter between Chris, Snoop and their 'Boyz N The Hood' wannabe fellow killer O-Dog, and reminds you what callous, evil characters they are. This scene also works well for Michael's long term character arc.

McNulty's cadaver related shenanigans depict the character at his lowest ebb and stretches my willingness to suspend disbelief to the limit. I struggle to accept The Bunk not arresting him on the spot, but I guess years of drinking and whoring together could create misplaced loyalty and a reluctance to take action. It is a major plot within series 5, so you have to go with it as you did Hamsterdam. Dominic West and Wendell Pierce are on top form.

Bubbs has some strong scenes that on first viewing put you on edge about how life is going to turn out for the character. Andre Royo is incredibly good at making you root for this character to have a positive ending.

The production values are top drawer as ever. There are some quite macabre crime scene visuals and harrowing scenes of the devastation caused by gang-related violence.

As always on The Wire, the scene selections made by the editors are perfect. I particularly like the cut from the Baltimore Sun reporters discussing social problems like parenting, to street scenes in Baltimore of mothers' behaving quite aggressively towards their children. Additionally, some of the dialogue involving the Sun reporters debating the merit of more complex news articles feels quite self-referential to the comprehensive way The Wire looks at various contributing factors to Baltimore's social decline.

For me this episode is a 9.5/10, but I round upwards.

Greetings from Lithuania.

"Unconfirmed Reports", a second episode of season 5 was a solid one, despite being slow. But slow in terms of "The Wire" means a calm before the storm. Yet i enjoyed first episodes for its briliant writing, top notch acting and directing. Story of season 5 is shaping out to be another tale about city - that is what The Wire is for me in my opinion. And its a gritty, dirty and fun of pain city.

Overall, i am really looking forward for the last season 5. First two episodes while being slower in storytelling were excellent in pacing. Were its all heading i can only guess.

Scatter shot...that's the best description for this episode. Long, disconnected scenes filled with people spitting speeches and characters doing things that run contrary to everything we've learned about them in the last four seasons. I don't like where this season is going.