The Wire (TV Series) The Detail (2002) User Reviews

1x02

[formotog · 8/10 · 4 August 2020]

A very good follow up to the pilot. The pacing was a bit slower but I still found myself gripped throughout. I don't have much else to compliment this episode that I haven't already complimented the pilot on, so it does look like this show is going to be consistently high quality. The dialogue especially is still brilliant, and you have to pay attention and catch everything being said because there's a lot to follow. The show is dealing with a lot of tough subject matter and from what I've seen so far, it's giving it the respect it deserves

Low 8

You cannot lose if you do not play.

[Hey_Sweden · 8/10 · 21 March 2022]

Lt. Daniels (a typically excellent Lance Reddick) puts together his "Barksdale detail", but unfortunately has to deal with the fact that some of the men sent to this unit are much less than exemplary as law officers. McNulty (Dominic West) once again ends up in big trouble when news of a witness' death reaches the press, and his boss (John Doman) assumes he's responsible. McNulty and his partner Bunk (Wendell Pierce) bring in D'Angelo (Lawrence Gilliard, Jr.) for questioning, believing he must have had something to do with the witness' death. And three of the detectives make the fateful decision to flex a little muscle, and Lt. Daniels is forced once again to deal with an untenable situation.

These characters prove to be continuously interesting to watch, and the cast does some great work as usual. Reddick has an undeniable quietly authoritative presence, and Sonja Sohn (a.k.a. Detective Greggs) shows great poise on camera; it's a shame that these two haven't become bigger stars by now. Gilliard is likewise impressive, especially in the key interrogation scene where we see that D'Angelo *is* reachable and *does* have a heart. And yet, he is savvy enough to write a letter apologizing to the dead mans' family without really implicating himself. Later, we realize in an amusing moment how well McNulty and Bunk were manipulating him. It's quite easy to dislike the chronically unreliable loser, Detective Pryzbylewski (Jim True-Frost), so it will be worth sticking with this scenario to see if he *will* be held accountable for his actions. Daniels has a nice, quiet moment with his wife (Maria Broom) late in the episode where they assess his situation.

With shows like this, 'The Sopranos', and 'Deadwood' (to name but a few), HBO proved that they were making some of the best TV series of the last few decades.

Eight out of 10.

Set in Motion

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 2 September 2021]

When the witness that accused the drug dealer D'Angelo Barksdale in court for committing the murder is found dead, Det. McNulty leaks the information to Judge Phelan that releases the information to the press. Lt. Daniels sets his worthless team in motion while trying to get better detectives for the investigation. Meanwhile Det. McNulty and his partner Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland bring D'Angelo Barksdale to the Police Department to press him to be whistle blower and disclose the murderer in his organization that killed the witness.

"The Detail" is a great sequel of "The Wire". Lt. Daniels is feeling how difficult will be the investigation with a worthless team of detectives, but he is in a very difficult situation to resign his position. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "The Detail"

"You cannot lose if you don't play"

[MaxBorg89 · 10/10 · 24 November 2008]

The Wire's staggering attention to detail is even more obvious here than it was in the pilot episode: the series is merely two hours old, and the narrative hasn't really moved forward yet. What matters here is the little things that lead to the storyline's progression.

Picking up exactly where The Target ended, we get another glimpse of the man who was killed for testifying against D'Angelo Barksdale. The case is given to Jimmy McNulty's Homicide partner Bunk, but McNulty suggests the newly appointed detail led by Lieutenant Daniels help him out, since it's most likely Avon Barksdale who sanctioned the hit. Because of this, D'Angelo is arrested and forced into believing it's his fault, so that the cops can study his reaction (needless to say the kid's lawyer puts a stop to all that in no time). Meanwhile, Daniels questions his role in the operation, to which his wife responds: "You cannot lose if you don't play", and Kima (Sonja Sohn), Herc (Domenick Lombardozzi) and Carver (Seth Gilliam) start taking pictures of drug buyers in the street in order to build the foundations of their case.

The slow pace is essential in adding layers of meaning to the story and getting to know the characters a little better, hence the scenes where the cops assigned to the detail complain about office space and indirectly blame McNulty for putting them in that situation (he reacts with his trademark line: "What the f*ck did I do?") or the moment when D'Angelo and his friends have a Seinfeldian discussion about Chicken McNuggets: these people aren't types, they're fully formed human beings, and therefore we must be given the opportunity to see every aspect of their personalities. As such, it will be much more rewarding when the pay-off comes (assuming it does).

Great episode

[schroederagustavo · 10/10 · 27 February 2019]

The needle starts to move a little bit. The greatest thing about this episode is how they manage to make every character feel like a real person. In this episode, we get some of the best written dialogue I have ever heard on a TV show. There's an entire conversation revolving around chicken mcnuggets, and it just adds that much to make every charcter feel more real. These guys feel like real people, not like characters in a TV show. I liked how it also shows that the lines between good and bad aren't always so well defined.

Just Like Law & Order -- Only Brilliant, Electrifying, and Totally Addictive!

[Dan1863Sickles · 10/10 · 3 June 2015]

I only bought Season 1 of THE WIRE because my local TARGET had the DVD package on sale for $13.00. I never watched this show when it was on the air, though I often heard good things about it.

Well, the pilot episode was okay, but not that great. This episode is the one that really electrified me. In particular, the sequence where the stupid, corrupt, racist cops go down to the housing projects at 2 AM and begin randomly taunting the ghetto population, in effect "daring" them to come out and fight.

The thing that makes this scene so explosive is that it's never quite what you expect. First you figure the stupid cops will find drugs on the first two guys they search. But they don't. Then, when the really vicious white cop hits the black kid with his pistol, you think he'll get in trouble. But he doesn't. Instead the people in the building start throwing things out the windows at the cops. And little by little, the feeling of the situation changes, from cop show drama to something much more disturbing. It almost feels like live footage from Iraq or Afghanistan, where Americans, knowing nothing of the local culture, count on their guns and badges to make them feared. And the locals, instead of being intimidated, slowly turn the tables as the momentum shifts and the invaders become the victims.

You can't even watch this show without having all kinds of disturbing connections form in your mind. I won't do the usual thing, and break down all the great actors in the cast, I will just say that all of them are amazing. Except maybe Dominic West as Jimmy McNulty, the maverick cop. He's a little too James T. Kirk for me. But other than that, the cast is as amazing as the writing is explosive and realistic.

I sure wish Season 2 was on sale at TARGET, but now I'm probably going to get held up at AMAZON instead!

It ain't about right, it's about money

[snoozejonc · 10/10 · 20 March 2022]

The crew of detectives come together and begin work on 'The Detail'.

This is an excellent episode that sets up the coming narrative and has some great character moments.

We get a bit deeper into the personalities of the main characters here, particularly the police officers who are portrayed as a diverse and flawed and group. They feel realistic and as far away from the usual Hollywood depiction of cops as it gets.

Cedric Daniels dominates the episode as an important character, shown with a tremendous amount of pressure coming from all directions. He is written and performed in an incredibly authentic way. Seemingly an honourable person with strong values, but not above compromising when put in a difficult situation. Ground level command positions are often the most difficult jobs in organisations, with very little thanks from anyone and this character embodies it. There is a great exchange of dialogue between Daniels and his wife that puts his role into perspective in a quite philosophical way and at the same time hints at her ambition.

There are some cleverly written parallels between characters, with D'Angelo and McNulty both going against the grain on their respective sides of the game. They even pout in the same childlike way when they don't like what they hear from authority figures.

My favourite scene involves D'Angelo enlightening his fellow dealers about the chicken McNugget. This is an awesome exchange of dialogue that is fabulously written and nicely performed.

The general dialogue throughout the episode is as strong as ever. Plus the humour is good, with Bunk and McNulty, Rawls, Herc and Carver all on top form with some great material.

As ever with 'The Wire' it shows the command structures within organisations for what they are and this for me is the best aspect of most episodes. The scenes of the fallout from something that Judge Phelan gets involved in are so recognisable in real life.

Visually it is full of cinematic storytelling. The orange couch, the basement office, McNulty's apartment, Daniels' stately home are all beautifully captured. The strongest sequence from this perspective for me though is the boozed up visit to the tower block that goes wrong.

For me it's a 9.5/10 but I round upwards.

Witness in City Drug Slay Case Murdered

[RainDogJr · 10/10 · 25 April 2009]

In my IMDb comment of the first episode of "The Wire", "The Target", I didn't mention some important characters that made their first appearance in that first episode but I do mentioned the character Bubbles but not what we found near the end of that episode that was that Bubbles was going to be a fundamental character in the Avon Barksdale case since Bubbles knows Narcotics Detective Kima Greggs (Sonja Sohn), one of the main and certainly important characters that I'm mentioning until now, who is the best detective of Lieutenant Daniels and who together with McNulty is a primary investigator for the Barksdale case. This one is an awesome hour of "The Wire", the detail is introduced, first looks to the targets, McNulty's first visit to D'Angelo and certainly some more things (including the great and praised "Chicken Nugget part" – "Now you think Ronald McDonald gonna go down to the basement and say, "Hey Mr. Nugget you the bomb. We sellin' chicken faster than you can tear the bone out. So I'm gonna write my clowney ass name on this fat-ass check for you." S***. Man, the nig** who invented them things? Still working in the basement for regular wage, thinking of some s*** to make the fries taste better or some s*** like that. Believe". "Still got the idea though"), all to make of this a truly memorable part of "The Wire".

The message was send during the previous episode and here we have the witness situation. The witness that did saw the murderer present in the court during D'Angelo's trial was murdered and is Bunk's case but of course can be a case of interest for Daniels and company. McNulty does the obvious move of going with Judge Phelan after seeing that a witness was murdered so we have certainly a judge asking about one of his witness being murdered and what the Deputy, the Major and Daniels have in mind which is: you can't do this public, f*** McNulty but let him play his cards.

As I wrote, we have the introduction to the detail; the Deputy wants everything simple so when Daniels asks for people he gets incompetent drunks otherwise a good police work would be ordered and no more keeping things simple. Here Roland "Prez" Pryzbylewski (Jim True-Frost) is introduced and he stands out for whatever but for being a good normal Detective. Of course Prez is one of the reasons to have a p*ssed off Daniels (the new work place is also one of those reasons - the screams and the "Y'all from Purchasing?" put a smile in everybody but Daniels and Greggs) and when McNulty is there hearing a really p*ssed off Daniels he bring to the talk the fact that Daniels got only incompetent people, for once Daniels will be good with McNulty, after all both really want to do the case. Greggs is more like McNulty, she is great, doing good work, she knows that this case needs, as McNulty says to Daniels at one point, "informants, long-term surveillance…and a wiretap", she acts just like McNulty after Daniels is like "no grandstanding, no red balls, like I said we get it and out".

As for Avon and company, well D'Angelo and Mr. S*** had the visit of McNulty and Bunk. Since the previous episode we know that D'Angelo had nothing to do with the dead witness, certainly Avon never imagine that D'Angelo was going to write a letter, as McNulty and Bunk indicated, to the kids of the dead witness (the kids were courtesy of McNulty and Bunk) saying that he is sorry for the dead of their father. That is a superb moment, D'Angelo feeling guilt, just feeling for the dead man to end doing what will provoke anger to his lawyer Maurice Levy (Michael Kostroff) and of course to Avon. To end this comment I want to mention the Herc (Domenick Lombardozzi), Carver (Seth Gilliam) and Prez situation: these 3 detectives, especially the first two can't stand what the case needs that is research and stuff, they just want to act, they will "get in and out", to let know the mother f****** who they are. This just shows how things must not be done; magnificent episode.

D'Angelo is being interrogated

[gedikreverdi · 19 November 2021]

Jimmy, Bunk and Kima are doing their best and the others are useless. They start to work from a rundown basement as a team. D'Angelo is sorry for the witness that got killed. Bubble the addict whose friend got beaten up for fake money helps the team. The three idiot wanted to scare the ones in the terrace and wounded a kid.

2

[00Yasser · 8/10 · 2 May 2021]

Now the case is public the police should send a better men to make a move in the right path and put more money to have a good active squad; the scene of writing a letter to the victim sons is telling us that even the criminals has a bit of feelings; the concept of not turning in your people even if they were wrong is too arguable in my opinion at least.

Very realistic

[851222 · 8/10 · 9 October 2023]

Greetings from Lithuania.

Second episode of Wire in season 1 very involving and super realistic. And this is what enjoyed the most when watching this legendary show for the first time now in 2023. Very realistic setting, characters that feels real and dialogs that sound authentic. All of this is set on streets which gives sense of reality. And after two episodes I think I'm hooked and will continue to watch it. Acting is also excellent in here and already I saw many familiar faces who will get recognition later like Idris Elba.

Overall, first two episodes set up characters, time and place and i'm in.