Boys of Summer (The Wire)

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"Boys of Summer"
The Wire episode
Episode no.Season 4
Episode 1
Directed byJoe Chappelle
Story byDavid Simon
Ed Burns
Teleplay byDavid Simon
Original air dateSeptember 10, 2006 (2006-09-10)
Running time58 minutes
Episode chronology
โ† Previous
"Mission Accomplished" 		Next โ†’
"Soft Eyes"
List of episodes

"Boys of Summer" is the first episode of the fourth season of the HBO original series The Wire. Written by David Simon from a story by David Simon & Ed Burns, and directed by Joe Chappelle, it originally aired on September 10, 2006.

Plot

quicklime
and plastic sheets and nail the vacant building closed before leaving.

Thomas "Herc" Hauk joins Mayor Clarence Royce's security detail. Royce's chief of staff, Coleman Parker, reports that Carcetti and Anthony Gray's campaigns are asking for two separate debates. In contrast to Carcetti, Royce has a speaking engagement with a healthy attendance at a harbor redevelopment site. Carcetti's engagement with the community initially makes him energized, but he sours upon hearing about his low poll numbers and assumes he has already lost. Later, an officer recognizes a drunk Carcetti sitting on a park bench at Federal Hill Park
.

Duquan "Dukie" Weems scares off the birds, which leads to Michael having to break up a fight between Dukie and Namond. That night, Lex shoots Fruit dead as he leaves a club. When Dukie is beaten up by children in the terraces, the boys plan to pelt them with water balloons filled with urine. The plan goes sour when Namond bursts a balloon on himself and his friends flee. Michael is caught and beaten. Later, Namond buys ice cream for his friends. Randy returns home and is scolded by his foster mother for breaking curfew
.

Detectives

Anthony Colicchio
he is angrily rebuked. Carver reminds Colicchio that if they come down hard on everyone, they'll have no one to get information from when something serious happens.

McNulty is called to meet with Major

Roland "Prez" Pryzbylewski
arrives at an inner city school as a trainee math teacher, and is immediately hired by the principal when he mentions being a former police officer. Prez attends a seminar on student motivation that seems to be as inept as the terrorism lecture in the Western. Prez later takes in his unkempt classroom, but seems excited at the prospect of teaching.

Marlo meets with his lieutenants to discuss how to retaliate for Fruit's murder, and settles for killing Lex. While Randy is selling refreshments to Bodie's crew, Little Kevin asks Randy to tell Lex that Patrice wants to meet him behind the playground that night. When Lex arrives, he finds Snoop and Partlow lying in wait. Bunk and Carver are unable to find Lex on his usual corner. Little Kevin gives Randy cash for following his instructions and reveals that Lex is dead. Snoop and Partlow board up another vacant house after leaving Lex's body there.[1][2]

Production

Simon has commented that the influx of novice child actors led to an unruly behavior at the beginning of filming, but they became a closely knit group of professional young actors by the close of the series.[3]

Non-fiction elements

During the counter-terrorism briefing, Carver jokes that terrorists "got jacked by Apex's crew." Apex was a real stick-up man in Baltimore in the 1990s whom Ed Burns met, and was one of several inspirations for Omar Little.[4]

Title reference

The title refers to the children of West Baltimore on summer break. "The Boys of Summer" is also the title of a song by Don Henley and book by Roger Kahn, named from the poem 'I see the boys of summer' by Dylan Thomas. Both of those works illustrate a remembrance of glory days past and innocence lost. Thus the title sets the stage for the fourth season.

Epigraph

Lambs to the slaughter here.

โ€” Marcia Donnelly

Assistant principal Donnelly makes this comment when Prez applies to be a teacher. This also can be applied to the group's (Michael, Namond, Duquan, and Randy) innocence before the events of the season begin to unfold, as well as Carcetti's inexperience heading into his campaign for election as mayor of Baltimore. The epigraph also ties into the sinister activities of Marlo's enforcers efficiently executing undesirables over pleas.

Music

The song playing in the background while Randy is selling candy to Little Kevin is "Survival of the Fittest" by Mobb Deep.

Credits

Starring cast

Although credited,

Chad Coleman, John Doman, Frankie Faison, Andre Royo, Michael K. Williams and Robert Wisdom
do not appear in this episode.

Guest stars

  1. Duquan "Dukie" Weems
  2. Maestro Harrell as Randy Wagstaff
  3. Julito McCullum as Namond Brice
  4. Tristan Wilds as Michael Lee
  5. Gbenga Akinnagbe as Chris Partlow
  6. Assistant Principal Marcia Donnelly
  7. Henri Edmonds as School lecturer
  8. Principal Claudell Withers
  9. Christopher Mann as Councilman Anthony Gray
  10. Megan Anderson as Jen Carcetti
  11. Brandy Burre as Theresa D'Agostino
  12. Sam Coppola as "Young Tony" - Former Mayor
  13. Joilet F. Harris as Officer Caroline Massey
  14. Brandon Fobbs as Fruit
  15. Anwan Glover as Slim Charles
  16. Norman Jackson as Curtis "Lex" Anderson
  17. Cleo Reginald Pizana as Chief of Staff Coleman Parker
  18. Tyrell Baker as Little Kevin
  19. Donut
  20. Snoop
  21. Karen Vicks as Gerry
  22. Cynthia Webb-Manly as Teacher #2
  23. Benjamin Busch as Officer Anthony Colicchio
  24. Jay Landsman as Lieutenant Dennis Mello
  25. Ed Norris as Detective Ed Norris
  26. Jason Parker as Officer Reggie Leddett
  27. Michael Salconi as Officer Michael Santangelo
  28. Tyreeka Freamon as School Receptionist
  29. Thomas C. Hessenauer as Teacher #1
  30. Paul L. Nolan as Hardware store employee
  31. Jim Rood as Southern District Patrol Officer
  32. Gene Terinoni as Lieutenant Jimmy Asher

Uncredited appearances

Thomas Hessenauer has a cameo in this episode as a dissenting school teacher; he is also the assistant to executive producer Nina Kostroff Noble.

First appearances

  • Namond Brice: Middle school child who works as a runner for Bodie Broadus. He is the son of infamous Barksdale drug enforcer Wee-Bey Brice.
  • Michael Lee: Middle school child who takes a leadership role amongst his peers.
  • "Cheese" Wagstaff
    .
  • Duquan "Dukie" Weems
    : Impoverished middle school child whose mother is a drug addict; often bullied by his peers.
  • Norman Wilson
    : Tommy Carcetti's new deputy campaign manager.
  • Gerry: Senior Carcetti campaign staffer.
  • Lieutenant Asher: Commander of the major case unit. Asher is a retiring Lieutenant who provides no interference with the cases being conducted under the lead of Lester Freamon.
  • Lieutenant Hoskins: Commander of mayor Royce's security detail.
  • Monk: A lieutenant in the Stanfield Organization.
  • Lex, Little Kevin and Reesy: Drug dealers in Bodie's crew.
  • Donut
    : Middle school child who is friends with Namond, Michael and Randy.
  • Claudell Withers
    : Edward Tilghman middle school's principal who handles most of the school's external problems.
  • Marcia Donnelly
    : Edward Tilghman middle school's assistant principal who handles most of the school's internal problems.
  • Nerese Campbell: Baltimore City Council President on Mayor Clarence Royce's election ticket.

Reception

Ratings

The episode drew an average of 1.5 million viewers.[5] Coverage considered this as low compared to other HBO series like Deadwood and The Sopranos, but felt that including repeats of the episode and video-on-demand viewers would enhance the figure.[5] Despite the low figures HBO commissioned a fifth season of the show two days after the episode aired.[5]

Critical response

An Entertainment Weekly critic named the opening scene of the episode as the first of his "five reasons to live" for the week.[6] A second critic picked out the parallels between the police briefing and the teachers seminar as a key element of the episode tying the institution of the school and the police department together. He also saw the scenes as significant in demonstrating how far removed the bureaucracies of modern lives are from reality.[7]

References

  1. ^ "Episode guide - episode 38 boys of summer". HBO. 2004. Retrieved 2006-08-09.
  2. The Wire
    . Season 4. Episode 01. HBO.
  3. ^ Margaret Talbot (2007). "Stealing Life". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2007-10-14.
  4. ISBN 0-7434-9732-5
    .
  5. ^
    John M. Higgins (12 September 2006). "HBO Renews The Wire"
    . Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
  6. ^ Ken Tucker (2006). "5 Reasons to Live". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2006-09-26.
  7. ^ Michael Endelman (2006). ""Wire" education". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2006-09-26.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Boys_of_Summer_(The_Wire)&oldid=1219412311"