Friends and family alike may groan at the sight of this blog post, should they read it. Because, of The Wire, I just won't shut up. There's a reason of course, which is that The Wire is the best television programme of all time. It is better than anything put out anywhere in the world and while challengers to its throne continue to emerge in this golden age of television, Breaking Bad, Mad Men and Deadwood coming closest, it remains the King. And as Omar would tell you, "you come at the King, you best not miss."
The Wire was an HBO television series, which ran five seasons beginning 2002 and was set in contempory Baltimore, Maryland (Bodymore, Murderland). Trying to sum up its epic scope now would be doing it a giant diservice, but for the purposes of this review I'll try anyway. An engrossing, slow burning, novel on film; The Wire is about the exploration of the death of the American Empire. About how institutions are flawed, failed concepts and how people are mere cogs within unfeeling, unsympathetic systems, be they governments, organised crime, unions, corporations, the media or the educational system. At first, The Wire focussed on the ongoing drug war between the Baltimore Police Department and the various drug gangs working the streets of Baltimore, slinging product and dropping bodies.
As it went on, however, it expanded its focus, to include the dock workers (season 2), city hall (season 3), the public school system (season 4) and the city newspaper (season 5). The cast was incredibly expansive, involving (at the end of its run), over 40 regular or recurring characters, all of whom were pretty terrific in my humble opinion. Also of note, probably 60 to 70% of the cast was black, which is very unusual and brave for an American tv show.
The authenticity of the show was also unparalleled. David Simon, the show's creator was a former Baltimore Sun journalist and his writing partner, Ed Burns was a BPD Homicide detective. The two collaborated on Simon's seminal and fantastic book Homicide; a year on the killing streets which in turn, inspired the tv series Homicide; life on the streets, which was a sort of Wire beta test.
If you start watching the Wire, you first must pass through a sort of trial by fire. Simon makes almost no concessions to his audience, believing you to be as smart as he is (which you (and I) almost certainly, aren't). You will be thrown in without as much as a word of warning. You will not be spoon fed or hand held on who everyone is, what their roles are, who they work for, what their position is or what their motivation is. As well as this headscratcher, you will be thrown specific police terminology and street slang from urban, black America, which, as a white, middle class British man, is like watching a Hong Kong film without subtitles.
But do not fear, just watch the first three episodes in a row and you should make it through to the other side, unscathed and enlightened.
The Wire is, at it's heart, a Greek tragedy. It most often deals with how institutions let people down, swallow them up, use them and spit them out when they're done. Each and every person is a small, tiny, forgettable part in a larger mechanism (except Omar, more on him later). And each institution, be it Police, school, prison, newspaper, drug gang, has its own unique, but ultimately parallel power structure. All of these forces are routinely pissed on by the only individuals with true power, the politicians and police brass sitting at the top of the food chain. Except their priorities are yet more power, wealth and covering their arses. It is an old story.
It is an angry show, one which challenges, but does not pretend to have anything close to answers. Simon may be one of the great chroniclers of his age, but he also understands that it will take more profound events and minds than even his own to solve the problems facing our so called civilisation.
What's beautiful about the show, is that in spite of its healthy and very much overwhelming nihilism, it is a show of humour and humanity. It showcases true presences who try to move beyond their trappings and enact real difference, although they are still trapped by their situation.
Within the police, it takes true courage (and pig headed stupidity) to even attempt to bring real cases to the court house. Men like series lead Jimmy McNulty ("What the fuck did I do!?"), Lester Freamon ("All the pieces matter."), Kima Greggs ("You motherfuckers kill me. Fighting the drug war, one brutality case at a time.") and Cedric Daniels ("Bend too far and you're already broken.") who routinely work within the Major Crimes Unit to do real police work. Then there's Stringer Bell ("Until then we are going to handle this like businessmen , make the profit and later for that gangster bullshit."), a drug dealer and crime boss, who is a murderer and blight on society, but with other visionaries like Proposition Joe ("...proposition then."), a reformer looking to revolutionise the drugs trade with co-ops and an end to street violence.
One of the Wire's finest moments came with Season 4's school story. The following of four boys through one fateful summer, as they each loose their innocence to the murder, drugs and poverty around them. And of course, I cannot forget the streets. I cannot forget Bubbles ("Ain't no shame in holding on to grief . . . as long as you make room for other things too."), a junkie, homeless, waste of a man, who holds more charisma and dignity than half of the politicians and police brass combined. A man who's ascent up a flight of stairs was one of television's greatest inspirational moments.
And lastly, to Omar ("I got the shotgun. You got the briefcase. It's all in the game though, right?" "Oh, indeed."), the stick up man. Which is to say, a man who robs drug dealers for their dope and cash. An extraordinarily dangerous profession by any stretch of the imagination. Omar Little is a legend, the only character to refrain from profanity, to stick stringently to his code (for the most part), to acquire a mythical, wild west status, to be a practising homosexual. Most importantly, unlike every single other character in the Wire, Omar is bound to no institution, no hierarchy, no narcotic, no rules. He is a free.
And of course I've left out an epic assortment of other characters, but there's only so much time in the day.
The Wire is profound, seminal, challenging and socially conscious. It asks the right questions, pushes the right buttons, forces the issues. It is character driven, superbly acted, written and directed. It is genuine, hard and nihilistic, while being damned funny (The "fuck" crime scene being paramount). It changed the way I look at television drama, what I expect from TV, and raised the bar for all to follow.
And finally, about the real Baltimore, Maryland. The crushing poverty and despair at the heart of the series is as close to a documentary as fiction gets. Such a realistic portrayal has never before been seen in crime drama. The Wire was filmed in Baltimore. It used local residents and relied on real life events to inspire its story lines and the lives of its characters. In short, you must see this series, it is simply, fucking brilliant.
"All in the game, yo."
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