More with Less

"**More with Less**"
"More with Less"
The Wire episode
Episode no.	Season 5; Episode 1
Directed by	Joe Chappelle
Story by	David Simon; Ed Burns
Teleplay by	David Simon
Original air date	January 6, 2008
Running time	58 minutes
Episode chronology
← Previous; "Final Grades"	Next →; "Unconfirmed Reports"
	List of episodes

"More with Less" is the first episode of the fifth season of the HBO original series The Wire. The episode was written by David Simon from a story by David Simon & Ed Burns and was directed by Joe Chappelle. It originally aired on January 6, 2008.

Plot

The bigger the lie, the more they believe.
— Bunk, in More with Less

Mayor Tommy Carcetti's plan to rejuvenate the Baltimore Police Department has been halted by funding cuts necessitated by the city's education deficit. Carcetti and Council President Nerese Campbell meet with a Republican U.S. Attorney who promises to lend a dozen FBI agents to the BPD in exchange for the city allowing the investigation into the corrupt State Senator Clay Davis to be made a federal case. Carcetti fears that the U.S. Attorney will use the case to discredit the Democrats, while Campbell sees State's Attorney Rupert Bond's case against Davis as a means of eventually running for mayor. Carcetti's cuts cause the Major Crimes Unit (MCU) to shut down, effectively ending the investigation into the vacant murders. Detectives Lester Freamon and Leander Sydnor take over the Davis investigation.

Colonel Cedric Daniels is outraged that City Hall is prioritizing Davis over 22 murders. Detective Jimmy McNulty, having already fallen back into his old habits of alcoholism and infidelity while working in the MCU, is despondent upon his return to Homicide. In the Western District, Sergeant Ellis Carver struggles to keep up morale following pay cuts. Herc is now working as an investigator for defense attorney Maurice Levy. Marlo Stanfield intimidates other drug dealers into buying his product and causes unrest in the New Day Co-Op. He gets Chris Partlow to find Sergei Malatov as a connection to the Co-Ops' suppliers. Partlow visits the courthouse, where he unwittingly approaches Daniels, Bond, and Rhonda Pearlman to ask for directions. Michael Lee is acting as an enforcer under Partlow, while his friend and cohabitant Duquan "Dukie" Weems runs their drug dealing crew. Dukie has not gained the respect of the crew, and Michael suggests paying him for looking after his younger brother Bug instead.

The Baltimore Sun also faces budget cuts, but editor Augustus "Gus" Haynes remains principled and efficient. The Sun breaks a story about Campbell's relocation of drug dealer Ricardo "Fat-Face Rick" Hendrix's strip club out of a redeveloping neighborhood at a considerable cost to the city budget, linking the plan to campaign contributions from Hendrix and Campbell's associates. Ambitious reporter Scott Templeton remains dissatisfied while his colleague Alma Gutierrez, who got a choice quote from Hendrix for the story, is happy with her work. Bubbles lives in his sister's basement and no longer uses drugs, but leaves each evening that his sister is assigned to night shift, as she does not trust him enough to leave him alone in her house. He works as a rush hour distributor for the Sun to commuters. He sells a copy to Campbell, who is outraged by the Hendrix story.^[1]^[2]

Production

Lee Everett Cox and David Costabile's names are misspelled in the credits as Lee Evertt Cox and David Costible, respectively.

Uncredited appearances

Mike D. Anderson as Ghost
Keenon Brice as Bug
Darrell Britt-Gibson as O-Dog
Chris Clanton as Savino Bratton
Thuliso Dingwall as Kenard

First appearances

Gus Haynes - a veteran of The Baltimore Sun and city desk editor^[3]
Scott Templeton - reporter^[4]
Alma Gutierrez - reporter^[5]
James Whiting - the paper's Executive Editor^[6]
Thomas Klebanow - the paper's Managing Editor^[7]
Steven Luxenberg - the paper's Metro Desk Editor^[8]
Tim Phelps - the paper's State Desk Editor^[9]
Rebecca Corbett - the paper's Regional Affairs Editor^[10]
Jay Spry - veteran rewrite man^[11]
Roger Twigg - long-serving reporter^[12]
Mike Fletcher - young general assignments reporter^[13]
Det. Christeson - new member of the homicide unit who has McNulty's old desk

References

^ Joe Chappelle (director); David Simon (story and teleplay), Ed Burns (story) (January 6, 2008). "More with Less". The Wire. Season 5. Episode 1. HBO.
^ "The Wire episode guide - episode 51 More with Less". HBO. 2008. Retrieved January 22, 2008.
^ "Character profile - City Editor Augustus "Gus" Haynes". HBO. 2008. Retrieved January 7, 2008.
^ "Character profile - Scott Templeton". HBO. 2008. Retrieved January 7, 2008.
^ "Character profile - Alma Gutierrez". HBO. 2008. Retrieved January 7, 2008.
^ "Character profile - Executive Editor James Whiting". HBO. 2008. Retrieved January 7, 2008.
^ "Character profile - Managing Editor Thomas Klebanow". HBO. 2008. Retrieved January 7, 2008.
^ "Character profile - Steven Luxenberg". HBO. 2008. Retrieved January 7, 2008.
^ "Character profile - State Editor Tim Phelps". HBO. 2008. Retrieved January 7, 2008.
^ "Character profile - Rebecca Corbett". HBO. 2008. Retrieved December 4, 2015.
^ "Character profile - Rewrite man Jay Spry". HBO. 2008. Retrieved January 7, 2008.
^ "Character profile - Roger Twigg". HBO. 2008. Retrieved January 7, 2008.
^ "Character profile - Mike Fletcher". HBO. 2008. Retrieved January 7, 2008.

External links

"More with Less" at HBO.com
"More with Less" at IMDb

[The_Wire_E51-1] Joe Chappelle (director); David Simon (story and teleplay), Ed Burns (story) (January 6, 2008). "More with Less". The Wire. Season 5. Episode 1. HBO.

[The_Wire_EG51-2] "The Wire episode guide - episode 51 More with Less". HBO. 2008. Retrieved January 22, 2008.

[Haynes_profile-3] "Character profile - City Editor Augustus "Gus" Haynes". HBO. 2008. Retrieved January 7, 2008.

[Templeton_profile-4] "Character profile - Scott Templeton". HBO. 2008. Retrieved January 7, 2008.

[Gutierrez_profile-5] "Character profile - Alma Gutierrez". HBO. 2008. Retrieved January 7, 2008.

[Whiting_profile-6] "Character profile - Executive Editor James Whiting". HBO. 2008. Retrieved January 7, 2008.

[Klebanow_profile-7] "Character profile - Managing Editor Thomas Klebanow". HBO. 2008. Retrieved January 7, 2008.

[Luxenberg_profile-8] "Character profile - Steven Luxenberg". HBO. 2008. Retrieved January 7, 2008.

[Phelps_profile-9] "Character profile - State Editor Tim Phelps". HBO. 2008. Retrieved January 7, 2008.

[Corbett_profile-10] "Character profile - Rebecca Corbett". HBO. 2008. Retrieved December 4, 2015.

[Spry_profile-11] "Character profile - Rewrite man Jay Spry". HBO. 2008. Retrieved January 7, 2008.

[Twigg_profile-12] "Character profile - Roger Twigg". HBO. 2008. Retrieved January 7, 2008.

[Fletch_profile-13] "Character profile - Mike Fletcher". HBO. 2008. Retrieved January 7, 2008.

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v t e The Wire episodes
Season 1	"The Target" "The Detail" "The Buys" "Old Cases" "The Pager" "The Wire" "One Arrest" "Lessons" "Game Day" "The Cost" "The Hunt" "Cleaning Up" "Sentencing"
Season 2	"Ebb Tide" "Collateral Damage" "Hot Shots" "Hard Cases" "Undertow" "All Prologue" "Backwash" "Duck and Cover" "Stray Rounds" "Storm Warnings" "Bad Dreams" "Port in a Storm"
Season 3	"Time After Time" "All Due Respect" "Dead Soldiers" "Hamsterdam" "Straight and True" "Homecoming" "Back Burners" "Moral Midgetry" "Slapstick" "Reformation" "Middle Ground" "Mission Accomplished"
Season 4	"Boys of Summer" "Soft Eyes" "Home Rooms" "Refugees" "Alliances" "Margin of Error" "Unto Others" "Corner Boys" "Know Your Place" "Misgivings" "A New Day" "That's Got His Own" "Final Grades"
Season 5	"More with Less" "Unconfirmed Reports" "Not for Attribution" "Transitions" "React Quotes" "The Dickensian Aspect" "Took" "Clarifications" "Late Editions" "-30-"