Why all “The Wire” coverage on a HBO TV show that’s not a movie and has arguably muted connections to music?
Cause we can and cause we’re really sad to see this very excellent show go (start buying the DVDs now if you missed it, you’ll thank us later). Ok, let’s do this.
What Might Have Been – The Missing Storylines and Missing Side Players
So Simon has been pretty vociferous about how he told the story exactly how he wanted to tell it. “If I needed 12 [episodes] halfway through this season, I could have gotten it [from HBO],” he told the New Jersey Star-Ledger.
That said, some have asked what storylines would they have expanded or delved into had they more time to work with? And some asked if Avon Barksdale made an appearance in season 5, why didn’t players like Ziggy, Brother Mouzone and Horseface?
The potential expanded storylines first. Simon did acknowlege that they could have delved deeper into the idiot cop turned sensitive teacher Roland “Prez” Pryzbylewski and the reformed thug turned teddy bear boxing coach Dennis “Cutty” Wise, but said their characters had reached a level of redemption and didn’t need to be messed with. And he brings up the valid point of returning characters, just to write and return then is a little pointless.
“With another half-hour, I probably could have managed to run Cutty’s story through,” he told the Onion AV Club. “Part of that was, ‘Should we run a Cutty story, or has he reached that point of redemption that is appropriate for the character[?]…And is Prez at the place he should be?” We decided we’d said what we needed to about those characters.’
He expanded these thoughts to the Star Ledger.
“Certain storylines that were branches on the three that couldn’t be serviced in 10, like Prez and Cutty would have had storylines. The main storylines would have had no more or no less work done on them. We said what we wanted to say on them. We would have had more time to service characters who at that point had become peripheral but were favorites of the writers. But at the same time, we talked about it, the writers, and we realized Prez has reached his stasis, as has Cutty. What redemption there has been for them has been achieved, and that’s where we want to leave them anyway.
Ok, what about Randy Wagstaff, the young public school kid from a broken home? Last time we saw him, his worst nightmare had come to fruition: he was trapped and relegated to a group home and what about the revelation that Cheese was his father?
“[That story line] would not have added to the overall theme or to either of those characterizations of Cheese or Randy,” Simon told the Ledger. “It would not have resolved in any unique way that would have revealed anything more about the character than we otherwise revealed. It would have just been more story and more scenes.”
Ok, what about Season two and three players like the aforementioned Ziggy, Brother Mouzone, and Horseface? No cameos for them ala Serge and Avon? They weren’t neccesary says Mr. Simon.
“I didn’t think those [Avon, Serge, The Greek, Namond] cameos were gratuitous,” he again told the Ledger. “I thought they were each saying something about this world going on and where people end. We weren’t putting them in to reprise moments but to advance moments. If we had a character we couldn’t advance in any credible way — like, for example, there was no point in advancing Ziggy. With Randy, there were open questions about what it meant to be in that group home. In a single scene, you could put the coda on that story. I’m not sure you need a coda on Ziggy. The end of season two with him in that prison uniform in that line of guys was the coda.
“Who didn’t come back? Mouzone didn’t need a coda, he was a force of nature. If we needed it, if it added it to the film, we banged the last nail in, and if we didn’t need it, we didn’t pick up the hammer.”
There you go, every character was there to either serve the story and if they didn’t, they didn’t really need to be seen. No gratuitous sentimental cameos unless needed.
