2008-02-27 22:20:16

HYNES KEEPS THE WIRE FIRES BURNING, OR OMAR R.I.P.

Filed under: James Hynes, Television, The Wire
Posted by: John

Under normal circumstances, I would have written a euology for the passing of one of the greatest characters in the history of American television, Omar of The Wire. Given the time, I would have focused more on the means of Omar’s death rather than the fact, which seemed a given this season. The man was hobbling around the streets of Baltimore, begging to get wacked.

No, it was how he died that made the difference and reminded me of the glories of the show even in its weakest, least credible season. Series creator David Simon could have used Omar to turn the most viscerally compelling strand of the show into a simple revenge melodrama. He didn’t, of course. True to the sense of Greek tragedy that he often cites as the guiding aesthetic of his work, he gives us a death that is completely inevitable and totally surprising.

As it happens, it robbed this viewer of a more basic sense of dramatic satisfaction. I will miss the hell out of the character.

But that’s all in the game, as Simon’s characters like to say. Still, I’m writing because I’d love to know what Jim Hynes over at the Cultwriter Institute for David Simon Studies has to say on the subject. He’s been posting on the show lately, but nothing on Omar. Could he be in mourning?

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