I’m slightly reluctant to post this recommendation, for the simple reason that most of our readers are in the US, and this is old news (really old news) to them. But I’ll post anyway, for the benefit of those who are not, and, especially, for my fellow Brits. I was watching some show the other night in which Charlie Brooker (yes, “that”:https://crookedtimber.org/2004/10/26/those-dastardly-clintonites/ Charlie Brooker) was talking about American TV, and he recommended “The Wire”:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0306414/ . The fact that David Simon was behind it was enough for me, because “HLOTS”:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106028/ was my favourite cop-show ever, so I started renting the DVDs. The Wire has never been shown in the UK (except on some nearly impossible to get satellite channel) and I guess I can see why: plot and dialogue hard for non-Americans to follow, no concessions to the viewer. But it is absolutely compulsive. Basically, it is a tale of two competing bureaucracies: the Baltimore PD and the Barksdale drug gang. On the whole, you’d say that the drug dealers have the more functional of the two organizations but the focus on the internal politics of each and on their political pathologies will elicit instant recognition from anyone who works in, say, a university. And there are great iconic characters too, such as Omar, the gay stick-up man, who only robs from the dealers and leaves civilians alone. I’ll leave it at that (since I won’t post plot spoilers). If The Wire has never been shown in your country, beg, borrow or steal the discs.
{ 21 comments }
Brendan 10.09.06 at 12:10 pm
I have heard that the Wire is supposed to be great. But I worry that like the Sopranos (and Deadwood) it might labour under the weight of its own self importance. My own personal vote for best American series at the moment is the astonishingly brilliant Shield (which, without having seen it, the Wire would seem to resemble).
Brendan 10.09.06 at 12:13 pm
Sorry to sound like a serial ‘oh and that’s another thing I’ve just remembered’ type commentator but I just wanted to mention that I think the Forest Whitaker/Michael Chiklis ‘duel’ in the last series of the Shield was one of the best things I have ever seen on TV drama. But on the other hand, pretty much everything with Forest Whitaker in it is worth watching.
Sean 10.09.06 at 12:16 pm
The Wire is the best TV show of any description that I’ve ever seen. It blows The Sopranos and (especially) Deadwood out of the water. Far from being self-important (in the manner of Deadwood and its unbearably stylized dialogue), it seems to me to be incredibly naturalistic. Most importantly, it’s fun–rent the DVD’s, watch them, and you just won’t be able to stop.
naiserie 10.09.06 at 12:26 pm
part of why the show is so good, is that it is much more like a novel than a standard television show. every minute detail is important, and the writers do not insult the intelligence of the audience by explicitly stating their intentions or meaning of different segments.
as an avid fan of the wire, i recently watched “the corner”, also written and produced by ed burns and david simon, and i highly recommend it. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0224853/
eweininger 10.09.06 at 12:47 pm
Ah, a thread about a TV show I’ve actually seen.
The Wire isn’t without its cliches or conversely its implausibilities, but the authors do an outstanding job with dialogue. The byzantine plotlines…well, they’re the antithesis of the 1 hour resolutions that drench TV.
That said, the infatuation with the daily lives of of the kids in this season runs the risk of falling off into the kind of sentimentalism the show usually eschews.
Fronts NYC 10.09.06 at 1:29 pm
Don’t worry that the Wire will become bloated and self-important a la “the Sopranos”, its going stronger than ever in a brilliant fourth season.
norbizness 10.09.06 at 1:39 pm
I did just notice that a piece of dialogue between McNulty and Bunk (from Season 1?) comes straight from an exchange he witnessed for his original Homicide book in the late 80s. Something about partners being gentle when they fucked each other.
Chris Bertram 10.09.06 at 1:50 pm
There’s a nice bit of dialogue between Omar and McNulty in season 1. Omar is getting the bus to New York and McNulty asks “why New York?” Omar replies:
There must be something happening there
It’s just too big a town
Which is a line from Steve Earle’s NYC. Earle, of course played recovering-addict Waylon in the same episode.
gerry 10.09.06 at 2:01 pm
One of the most interesting things to British viewers of The Wire is that both Dominic West (McNulty) and Idris Elba (Stringer Bell) are British. The Wire is indeed superb… almost as good as Veronica Mars.
duncan 10.09.06 at 2:07 pm
You don’t read “Open University” (the blog), then? http://www.tnr.com/blog/openuniversity?pid=37468
Alleen 10.09.06 at 2:51 pm
Sorry to say this, but the Wire is AWFUL.
I was a big fan of The Shield and Homicide. So I took a look at the Wire. I occasionally work with city law enforcement and recommended both shows to guys I worked with. I happened to watch the first episode of the Wire with a cop. We turned it off before it ended. Utter crap.
Completely implausible, unprofessional, no-way-in-hell-would-would-even-the-worst-people-we-know behave like this. Only someone with no actual familiarity with judges/DAs/cops/detectives would find this enthralling. I suppose real “spies” feel that way about James Bond. But besides the ridiculousness of the plot, the writing was an embarassment.
We joked that the writers must develop the script in three passes.
1. Write the plot and simple dialog.
2. Convert simple dialog to obfuscated slang and hip smartassery.
3. Insert “fuck”, “fucking”, etc… every 25 words.
Voila! Edgy!
Uh…no, crap actually.
greensmile 10.09.06 at 3:14 pm
Basically, it is a tale of two competing bureaucracies: the Baltimore PD and the Barksdale drug gang. On the whole, you’d say that the drug dealers have the more functional of the two organizations but the focus on the internal politics of each and on their political pathologies will elicit instant recognition from anyone who works in, say, a university.
Ouch! There is a book in there some place. Ivory tower a bit drafty and rat-infested you say?
todd. 10.09.06 at 5:04 pm
I didn’t realize that the source of HLOTS was involved in The Wire. See what you’ve done? Now I’m going to have to Netflix a whole TV series, and I don’t have time for that.
David Sucher 10.09.06 at 5:48 pm
I’ve been enjoying the Wire quite a bit as I watch it on DVD (now in the middle of season 3.)
But one thing which strikes me as implausible is the opennes with which the cops sit in cars in daylight and shoot pictures of street punks selling dope. Even with a telephoto lens, it seems like it makes the cops far too visible to be realistic.
fyreflye 10.09.06 at 7:01 pm
Absolutely the best drama I’ve ever seen on television and one that every careerist cop and bureaucrat will hate passionately. No doubt.
anon 10.09.06 at 7:01 pm
alleen,
Your comments are strange to me for a few reasons:
1) Criticizing _The Wire_ for implausibility while praising _The Shield_ is…weird. Unless you know some very creepy things about the LAPD I don’t. (Beyond the publicly known creepy things, that is).
2) _Homicide_ has its origins in the same work that generated _The Wire_. Not simply the same person, but the actually the same book. The first seasons of both series share similarities (including dialogue), as has been noted elsewhere.
3) Of all the shows you mention, I believe _The Wire_ has the largest staff of ex-policemen (and ex-criminals, for that matter), city beat reporters (crime beat, political beat, etc.), and crime writers known for performing significant local research (like George Pelecanos). You expect implausibility from all fiction, but I would have thought _The Wire_ would get more right than wrong, at least tonally.
None of this is meant to say your opinion is wrong, obviously, but I would be interested to hear more about what you think the difference is between _The Wire_ and the other shows you mention.
Anon
sean 10.10.06 at 9:27 am
alleen, can i assume then that you’ve watched less than one whole episode, or was it just the first episode that you turned off prematurely?
do you really think The Shield is even remotely plausible by your standards?
Monte Davis 10.10.06 at 12:16 pm
I envy you the pleasure of a first viewing, Chris. My consolation is that the series holds up very well on reviewing.
Alleen: I’ll sign on to Anon’s points to you in #16. No experience here in law enforcement, but a fair amount in big-city government and politics, a bit in public schools — and tall those ring so true I’d be really surprised if the rest were as wildly off-base as you assert. I enjoy The Shield, too, but c’mon — it’s thrill candy by comparison.
eweininger: I’m not sure what you mean by “infatuation with the daily lives of the kids” — school, friends and home (if any) are the lives of kids that age, and this is shaping up to be one of the least sentimental treatments of it I’ve ever seen.
MQ 10.10.06 at 6:07 pm
The Shield is pure violence porn, it has no relation to reality. Add up the number of fiendish psychotic sex killers who are supposed to be active in one day, in one precinct, in pretty much every episode and you’ll see what I mean. It’s the TV equivalent of a video game, and has roughly as much artistic depth. Excellent video game though.
The first season of the Wire was brilliant all right. Maybe the best long-form drama ever on TV, although I’d pick the early seasons of the Sopranos over it.
S 10.10.06 at 7:30 pm
Don’t worry that the Wire will become bloated and self-important a la “the Sopranosâ€, its going stronger than ever in a brilliant fourth season.
As brilliant and heart-breaking as ever. I fear for poor Dukie.
Nicanor 10.11.06 at 11:56 pm
If you like ‘The Wire,’ you may also like Matt Zoller Seitz’s the House Next Door, along with his many thoughtfull contributers and commenters.
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