Hesitant to post this as I'm sure it seems excessive if not obsessive, but hey-ho. I'll mention again the show became a writing learning tool - bypass if desired:
S1E2
Having laid out so much of the shape of the two organisations and introduced so many characters in an almost bewildering first hour, the second builds on the first by underlining the two organisational structures, adds flesh to key characters and depth to the networks of interconnecting relationships.
The Detail itself is not unconventional; we have the washed up, the young hotheads, the honest, by-the-book plodders, the dark horses, the able; the slow, gunslinger gait of the lean Daniels reminds us of Lee Van Cleef as he’s assessing his not-so-magnificent band of misfits in a dusty Mexican town. They begin to weigh up each other as well; the looks around the basement, the awkward humour. The ensemble could be planning to dig their way out of a German prisoner of war camp or plot a Vegas diamond hoist.
The problem presented is how organisation A discovers all it can about organisation B when organisation B wants to remain anonymous. The answer offered in this hour is initiative; McNulty tags along, or maybe co-opts, his erstwhile co-worker’s murder investigation (after he’s been assigned to the Barksdale Detail) to shake a few Low Rise cages, and Greggs drags her (now re-assigned ) former Narcotics meatheads onto the rooftops to begin putting names to faces at the High Rises – both locations being the offices of org B.
From a storytelling perspective, the knitting together is neat; the Barksdale crew at the High Rise is told something is going down at the Low Rises, Greggs follows them and finds her new co-worker (McNulty) stirring the pot, Stringer Bell eyeballs McNulty as D’Angelo is cuffed. Against McNulty’s wishes Daniels levers Greggs into the interview room, she tell McNulty she saw him today “in the canyon”. Later the two visit Daniel’s office together with D’Angelo’s letter – the arrest and letter are the storytelling device by which McNulty and Greggs learn about each other.
Elsewhere in Daniels’ merry band initiative seems less apparent. The car burning scene at the High Rise sets a generic base level for the three erstwhile meatheads but its Daniel’s we learn the most about. Their character development will have to wait.
On that specific issue, the mid-hierarchy employee D’Angelo is the development focus in relation to organisation B. The McNuggets conversation tells us something about him and the seemingly intelligent Wallace, the staircase conversation tells us more about him and his uncle and the interview room conversation tells us even more about him and the Detail.
We now know most about McNulty and D’Angelo Barksdale. Without realising it we know both of their domestic situations (should D’Angelo move in with his girlfriend and baby?), we already know their work environments and key friendships. We know they drink, a little of how the operate, how their co-workers view them – these are the players assigned to draw us in.
We don’t really think too much about early parallels because, at this point, it’s a cops and robber procedural and we’re not working for it yet; would Prez still be in his organisation without his father-in-laws benevolence, would D’Angelo be in his without his uncle? Why would a newly elected Judge be putting himself about so much, why would Daniels’ wife be advising her husband in such terms? Who told the press of the link between Gant’s death and the Barksdale trial, and why?
The person who tells us “the game is rigged” is Daniels’ wife, but no one has yet told us all the pieces matter.
We get the first sight of the pin board. Greggs is leading the plot development. McNulty likes the work.
