I Don't Care for the Fuck Scene | The Wire S1E4 | Dudes Daily
I haven't seen The Wire, and to my knowledge I've never heard of "the fuck scene," where McNulty and Bunk investigate a murder scene speaking strictly in f-bombs. But living in the world The Wire made, I immediately knew the scene would be famous enough to show up in a Google search for "the wire fuck scene," that it would be extremely well-liked, and to suspect that it would have some connection to the original Homicide book.
The Google search did indeed take me to an oral history confirming all three points, and at least one impassioned defense of the scene as the pinnacle of TV storytelling. Reading through that effusive praise, I felt the echo of forums/blog writing of yesteryear, and I can't help but cringe at it. I like that the scene shows the whole investigation visually, but it also feels overzealous to hold this up as the ultimate ideal versus just quite good filmmaking. The oral history talks about the dudes cracking up every time the cameras cut, and in the end that comes through too strongly for me - the scene is so damn satisfied in its own little gimmick.
A particular highlight of this episode is the continued unfolding of Lester Freamon's character - his dialogue with McNulty is easily the best writing in the show so far.