Beginning with a lightly comic interlude as some of the men on the unit try in vain to move a desk through a door (with not all of them on the same page regarding WHERE the desk is going), 'Old Cases' soon gets down to business. Bodie, one of D'Angelos' henchmen, escapes detention by pretending to be a janitor. Herc and Carver intend to pursue their typical brand of law & order until Herc converses with Bodies' grandmother and experiences a change of heart. And McNulty & Bunk go over an old crime scene (wherein they indulge in 38 liberal doses of F-bombs and F-bomb variations) to see if they can tie it to the usual investigations of the unit.
'Old Cases' has some appealing scenes where we get to see different sides of some of the main characters. For example, we get a sample of Greggs' home life with her partner, and we get to meet McNulty's ex-wife and son. McNulty realizes that he's been under-valuing unit member Detective Freamon, who's one of those very quiet but very efficient types. (It's Freamon who's able to discover D'Angelos' pager number.) This leads to a great scene in which McNulty gets to know his associate a bit better; we learn that Freamon had been unfairly bounced out of homicide and then spent over a dozen years on the pawnshop detail. We also spend a bit more time with the cunning street character Omar Little (the late Michael Kenneth Williams), who'd brazenly ripped off Avon in the previous episode; in another of this episodes' standout moments, Avon gathers his associates to reveal the price that he has put on Omars' head.
This viewer can't say enough good things about this cast or this writing staff; they always hold my attention with their flair for grittiness, their colorful dialogue, and their attention to detail. Great stuff.
Eight out of 10.
'Old Cases' has some appealing scenes where we get to see different sides of some of the main characters. For example, we get a sample of Greggs' home life with her partner, and we get to meet McNulty's ex-wife and son. McNulty realizes that he's been under-valuing unit member Detective Freamon, who's one of those very quiet but very efficient types. (It's Freamon who's able to discover D'Angelos' pager number.) This leads to a great scene in which McNulty gets to know his associate a bit better; we learn that Freamon had been unfairly bounced out of homicide and then spent over a dozen years on the pawnshop detail. We also spend a bit more time with the cunning street character Omar Little (the late Michael Kenneth Williams), who'd brazenly ripped off Avon in the previous episode; in another of this episodes' standout moments, Avon gathers his associates to reveal the price that he has put on Omars' head.
This viewer can't say enough good things about this cast or this writing staff; they always hold my attention with their flair for grittiness, their colorful dialogue, and their attention to detail. Great stuff.
Eight out of 10.