It's a quiet day on the project street corners and Omar makes a proposition.
Game Day is a very strong character-driven episode that sets up the plot nicely to develop and expand.
Themes relating to the 'game' and its players are ever present throughout The Wire and we see plenty relating to it in this episode. Aside from the literal game that is a central part of the plot we have a number of scenes involving players on all sides.
We have a great introduction to 'Proposition' Joe, who is an excellent character, brilliantly played by Robert F Chew, and this helps expand the scope of the narrative to include Baltimore's east side players.
Omar has scenes that are compelling and humorous. One is particularly suspenseful and had me on edge many years ago during my first viewing. Michael K Williams as always is on great form as a character who continues to play by his own rules.
There are a number of scenes involving Avon in this episode that for me have quite iconic imagery of the character. The visual storytelling is incredibly good as we see the 'king' in full flight. Wood Harris not only looks the part but he makes the character feel like real person, along with the writers of course.
The police detail gets closer than previously to their target and the differing attitudes and strategies are written so well into characters like Daniels, McNulty, Freamon, Herc and Carver. We are shown a physical pursuit, the start of a complicated paper trail, plus some effective witness manipulation.
It all makes for another intriguing episode and is probably the first one that made me want to immediately see what comes next.
