YMMV / The Wire S 01 E 10 The Cost

• Growing the Beard: The first nine episodes are perfectly serviceable police drama. You start to get invested in the story and wondering how the detail is gonna put the Barksdale crew behind bars... and then this happens. In a single scene, the show's Just for Fun/HSQ shoots into the stratosphere and you realize that while you weren't looking, the characters slowly snuck up on you and made you care for them. It's impossible not to be addicted after that point.
• One-Scene Wonder: Definitely the judge that has to oversee McNulty and Elena’s case. She only gets a few seconds of screen-time and uses all of them to establish herself as a cool, very dry-witted Reasonable Authority Figure.

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