Dominic West by Nicole Rivelli/HBO
The Wire's beloved man-child Det. Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West) has always been a lovable troublemaker — mouthing off to superiors, drinking on the job, hookin' up with Russian prostitutes while working undercover… you know, the usual boyish shenanigans. But last night's episode "The Dickensian Aspect" proves that this season, McNulty has lost his McMarbles — not to mention his moral integrity. Season 5's phony serial-killer storyline is inane and totally improbable, but most of all, it's morally reprehensible and it's destroying one of TV's best-written characters.
This last point was driven home for me most clearly as I watched McNulty abandon a childlike, mentally ill homeless man in a lonely shelter hours from Baltimore. McNulty paused for only the briefest moment of hesitation before getting into his car and driving off, leaving that helpless man with no way to get back and no way for his family to trace him. Jimmy's always been a bit self-centered, sure, but this season his behavior is downright cruel. His silent, unexplained abandonment of the beloved Beadie (played by the brilliant Amy Ryan, who now finds herself stuck in a cardboard "wife" role). His harsh, pornographic sex scene with a barfly floozy in a parking lot, when he disgustingly flashed his badge mid-act at a passing police car. His self-righteous arguments with Bunk over his bonkers plan to curry police funding from the city budgeters. And now the escalation of this impossible-to-buy fake-serial-killer bill of sales. McNulty's become a mere cog in the wheels of his own elaborate insanity.
Sure, the serial-killer storyline is a convenient way to tie the goings-on in the police department with this season's thematic focus on the dirty doings at the Baltimore Sun. But it's clear that show creator and former Sun reporter David Simon is using this season to settle some old scores regarding the press' tendency to buy any story, no matter how bogus, in order to sell papers. And here's the thing about score-settling: It backfires if it looks bitter and maniacal. Also, unlike past Wire seasons that examined various aspects of Baltimore culture — like the dockworkers or the schoolteachers — the edit desk at the Sun isn't populated with a single likable or even distinctive character, making every Sun scene look gray and gloomy. So between the sunless Sun and McNulty's inexplicably brutish lunacy, I can't help but worry — is this stupid storyline destroying the final season of my favorite show on television? Is McNulty's fake killer fraying The Wire?
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