Difficult protagonists

[vee_fic]

By coincidence, I am group-watching season 2 of The Wire and the short-series detective show Luther at the same time. (No spoilers beyond season 2, please.) Both of them star Idris Elba, of course, ten years apart and in different countries with different accents, and while Luther is a fairly conventional difficult-protagonist-detective show in the

Comments

[vivwiley]

all discerning deliberation and pitiless inquiry

I like this description of Stringer quite a bit. Although I think his weakness would be that he'd over-think things a bit.

I'm a huge fan of the Wire, probably at least in part because I lived in Baltimore for several years, but also because I like the characters and the intertwining story lines. I own all five seasons, if you wish to go beyond S2. Although there might be a slight delay in getting them to you, as seasons 4-5 are out on loan right now (I got 3/4 of the Diversity Fellows hooked on the series).

[vee_fic]

I think we're covered. We're also ridiculously slow, no more than 1 episode per week, and heavily counterbalanced with some kind of fluff-of-the-week. Which also gives us the time to debate things as they go along; we're currently brains-deep in how Frank Sbotka could have done things differently (if he could have), and what degree of guilt applies to his behavior pre can-of-dead-girls and post. Because, like, up till the can was opened, he could plead ignorance, truthfully or half-truthfully or untruthfully; but every act after that discovery is done in full and obvious knowledge of the crimes in which he is implicating himself.

Similarly, everything Stringer has done till recently has been justifiable to his higher-ups in the Barksdale organization; but the day Brianna or Avon finds out about D'Angelo is bound to be disastrous. I have been assured in the vaguest terms that the confrontation will be Shakespearean.