Back Burners

The social problems of Hamsterdam emerge, whilst the Major Crimes Unit forces on Stringer.

This is another very strong episode with thought provoking moments and great character work.

The standout aspects of this episode are the immediate consequences to the Hamsterdam initiative. We do not just see the powerful and nightmarish visions of the place during Bubs' night tour, but we also hear that it makes only a small (albeit important) difference to the crime statistics.

My favourite element of this is the varying attitudes of Herc and Carver, which is slightly heavy handed in its social message, but exceptionally good nonetheless. Carver in particular makes a great contribution to the plot and this deepens the character tenfold, laying the foundations for his ongoing development throughout the show.

Now Freamon and Prez are on the case of the disposable burners, there is a certain sense of inevitability that something will eventually come from the detail shown in the scenes involving Bernard and Squeak. These are quite amusing, especially Prez's nerdgasm over the speed-dial function and Squeak's general persona.

As always with The Wire there is an incredible amount of plot slowly unfolding throughout the episode. The most interesting other mention is the portrayal of the past seemingly catching up with one of the most forward thinking characters in Stringer. His scenes are compelling and he ironically is another character who embodies D'Angelo's prison library speech from the episode 'All Prologue'.

Seth Gilliam and Domenick Lombardozzi are on great form, as is Andre Royo, Lance Reddick, Dominic West and Sonja Sohn.