I keep mentioning the The Wire only to be met with blank stares and the occasional question 'Don't you mean Homicide: Life on the Street or Law and Order: Chesapeake Bay?' I don't.The HBO drama is about to enter its 5th season always being the poor cousin to the Sopranos. The Wire follows the downward career path of Baltimore cop Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West, above), but saying the show is about one character, plot or story-arc is an extreme over-simplification. The Wire requires that the viewer absolutely start at the beginning, understand a number of different accents, and pay very close attention to the relationship between characters. An org chart is initially needed to keep the actors straight.
Why do this? Why would one invest the time needed to enjoy this particular show? Well, the short answer is 'Trust me, it's worth it'.
'The American obsession with police procedural and crime drama usually only allows for villains - in large part, black and brown - who exist as foils, to be pursued and destroyed by cop heroes. We're addressing ourselves to where the 'villains' actually come from, and whether we have any right to regard them as somehow less human than the rest of us.' - Series creator David Simon.
The second season is slightly better than the first; all 12 episodes contain classic scenes written exquisitely:
- The Baltimore Police, the Port Authority, US naturalization and the Coast Guard all arguing about under whose jurisdiction the murders of 13 illegal immigrants fall. Except each doesn’t want the case and use every excuse available to get out of the investigation.
- Greggs and Daniels switching responsibilities to tell each other’s wives they are back on the detail.
- The police surveillance van being stolen, packed in a container, and then having a photograph taken as it travels the globe, Amilie-style, sent back to Major Valchek.
The tragic figure of Frank Sobotka is probably my favourite. Every episode, the pressure he is under builds; Frank is breaking the law but definitely not a villain.
The show receives praise inversely proportional to its popularity. This quote from the New York Times, was posted not in Arts and Leisure, but in Op-ed, the section usually reserved for the War in Iraq and criticism of the Administration :
'If Charles Dickens were alive today, he would watch “The Wire,” unless, that is, he was already writing for it. The pay-cable television series is the closest that moving pictures have come so far to the depth and nuance of the novel.'
Heady stuff. And David Simon clearly does not give a hoot about who watches, goading viewers with these comments:
'My standard for verisimilitude is simple and I came to it when I started to write prose narrative: fuck the average reader. I was always told to write for the average reader in my newspaper life. The average reader, as they meant it, was some suburban white subscriber with two-point-whatever kids and three-point-whatever cars and a dog and a cat and lawn furniture. He knows nothing and he needs everything explained to him right away, so that exposition becomes this incredible, story-killing burden. Fuck him. Fuck him to hell.'
The closest example of TV this good, requiring the viewer to pay rapt attention was probably the BBC production of Smiley's People. As with that min-series, the investment one makes, org chart and all, pays off and The Wire is the best thing currently airing.
Rating: ****
7 comments:
First season of The Wire was, as I posted on my blog awhile back, "OK." We enjoyed it, but thought parts of it were so fascinated with the minutiae of police procedures as to be... well, boring. Obviously some people get into that, and I say, "More power to 'em!" But thinking that that of thing somehow makes it more intelligent is just silly. Give me writing that has me thinking about the characters and situations for days afterward, and I'll take that any day. Like Lost, for example... or many of the comic books of Alan Moore!
On the other hand, at least Tim kept with the mandated -- I mean, agreed upon form of rating!!!
Hmm, I'm a sucker for fiction that has a purpose. Interestingly the Wire , has a HUGE following young black college student.
quoting from a Washington post article:
'The show's mirror to real life has drawn a cult following, particularly among African American college students. The fourth season has piercingly showcased an ongoing failure of schools, police and government agencies to protect vulnerable kids -- four friends in particular from a neighborhood that's low on income and education and loaded with drug-dealing violence and addicted parents.'
and
'The realism, in which the mayor, the police, the teachers and the kids all make brutal choices to get by, is part of what hooked Ricky Quander, 21, Julian's cousin and also a student at Towson. They watched the show together with two other housemates. Ricky said he was disturbed by several elements of the show, including when the character Michael tries to figure out who can help him with his abusive stepfather and ultimately reaches out to arch-dealer Marlo Stanfield rather than a teacher or social worker. Marlo's henchman executes the stepfather, and Michael is beholden to Marlo's gang.'
I'm glad you tried the series out. I MAY send over season 2. It depends if you hurt feelings anymore with vicious comments.
On the other hand, at least Tim kept with the mandated -- I mean, agreed upon form of rating!!!
We should come up a new word:
Tam·date (Tăm'dāt') pronunciation
n.
1. An authoritative command of the Blog leader.
2. A command or an authorization that can be changed on a whim.
3. The process by which said Web log leader narrows down the future husbands list.
tr.v., -dat·ed, -dat·ing, -dates.
'But thinking that that of thing somehow makes it more intelligent is just silly.'
Obviously I disagree. Perhaps going beyond season one is what is needed, when certain characters start showing up again and you have to remember who they are and what they do. For instance, the city councilman from the 1st season becomes a 'rain maker' in the 2nd and 3rd. That is someone who when it rains takes credit for it raining, but when it doesn't rain, takes credit for the sunshine. I know that doesn't make much sense, but as the ending to a fairly profound story arc in season 3, it is up there with Emil Gargunza's plan for immortality.
Well Tim was reviewing a whole season of a show (if I had reviewed a whole season of Weeds I would have used the **** format too). I wasn't requesting that anyone else do that. Pfft, I'll just change it.
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