RE: Season 2

I won’t say I wasn’t surprised or a bit disappointed at the changes at first, but just like my first viewing of S01, it just took a bit to get my “sea legs,” so to speak, and now S02 remains one of my favorite seasons, and Frank Sobotka one of my favorite characters/performances in the whole show.

I think it might have played better if they'd left the Barksdale story out of it completely and only picked it up again in 3.

When first watching, seeing a few minutes of them in each episode is just frustrating because it's giving you a taste of the story you wished they were carrying on with full-time.
One repeat viewings, it just distracts from and takes momentum out of the main story with the port. I'd like them to have spent this time showing more of, say, Ziggy's drug deals gone wrong, or Frog's antics, or Frank Sobotka's home life. Or Nick's for that matter.
I get that they ran it that way to give closure on DeAngelo and WeeBay (and Bird!), bring Prop Joe and the East Side in a bit more and so set up S3 and Wood Harris, Idris Elba and Larry Gillard are such great actors that it would be a waste not to use them when they're at your disposal. So I can understand it.

The only other thing that spoils it was the fact that they had to "undo" the end of the first season - I appreciate that they had to get McNulty off the boat and back to real police work somehow, and find some way of having a new detail, but the whole getting-the-band-back-together just seemed quite contrived and overdone at times.

Season 2 was honestly my second favorite season of the show after 4. I've never understood why people think it's one of the weaker seasons.

I've tried sadly but on rewatch I still don't like season 2.

Season 1 and 4 are perfect seasons of television IMO. Season 3 is a really good season of television.

2 and 5 I just don't care for