Man on The Wire

In a recent post about watching the final episode of The West Wing, Gone West (Wing), I stated that I didn’t agree with many pundits opinion that it was the greatest TV show ever.   In the comments section of the post I was asked what is the greatest show on the television, and despite the inherent arrogance in answering such a subjective question with any conviction, only one programme sprang to mind: The Wire.

It struck me that if I had written a post about something that I considered  not to be the best, then I had no justification for not writing a post about something that I do think is the best.  It’s not as though I hadn’t thought about writing about The Wire previous to that, it’s just that when something has been so universally praised, how do you find something new to say about it?  Well, as I type this sentence, I’m not sure that I do have something new to say, or even have a unique angle in which to say something old, but I’ve started, so I’ll finish.

Inevitably, as for the majority of highly acclaimed programmes made in this decade, The Wire was made by HBO in the States, and it ran between between 2002 and 2008.  It’s five seasons ran for 60 episodes, and, in that time, creators David Simon and Ed Burns blessed us with a masterpiece.  So, what is it about?

It’s not so easy to describe The Wire.  If you had to try (which I do), you’d start by saying that it was a cop show set in Baltimore, which follows a police detail’s attempts to bring down the city’s endemic drugs trade.  If you were to leave the description there, anyone who had seen the show would recognise it, but would also be screaming, ‘Yes! But it’s so much more!!’  And it is SO much more.

The first thing that separates it from the norm is that it spends as much time inhabiting the world of the drug dealers as it does of that of the cops.  We see life on the streets from the bottom up, from the desperate users, to the street level muscle, to the ruthless bosses.  And in all that time, each character is treated as a real three-dimensional person, with no easy depictions of clear cut evil.  On the flip side to this, the police are equally human, each carrying their own distinctive, and real, flaws.  The characterisation in this show is second to none, but more of that later.

Season one focuses on ‘the detail’, and its building of a case against Avon Barksdale’s drugs empire.  Each subsequent season then introduces a new theme, and a new set of characters, which are explored in addition to those already established.  What other show has the nerve to introduce so many characters?  I’m struggling to find an exact figure on it, but there could well be 40 distinct ‘main’ characters over the 60 episodes, and you’re sure to remember every one of them.  In season two we are introduced to the city’s downtrodden dock workers, exploring the lengths that the unions will go to for their men.  Season three delves in to the machinations down at City Hall, and shows the deal making and back stabbing of local politics.  Season four follows the lives of four teenagers and their attempts to negotiate the over-stretched schools system.  Finally, season five gives us an insight in to the world of the press, and their analogous relationship to the police (it also features an outrageous plot line that I won’t say any more about).

What’s even more impressive is that each season can be seen as a distinct story, with each episode merely a chunk of that overall plot.  It is extremely brave to do away with cliffhangers and the tricks of episodic TV, but it really pays off.  The Wire is the only show that has made me angry when an episode ends, so desperate was I to see the next.  How do they do that without a cliffhanger?

I’ve not mentioned individual characters yet, nor the performances that helped create them.  Well, the acting is uniformly excellent, and with so many actors to choose from, it would be churlish to pick any one out.  I’m loath to pick out any favourite characters, as to anyone who hasn’t watched it, it would be meaningless, and to anyone who has seen it, then you have your own list (I’m guessing most of those lists have Omar on them).

Maybe the final thing I should mention is that it is a show that doesn’t compromise and it doesn’t pander to the casual viewer.  Street language and police jargon are not explained, and you have to pick them up as you go along.  The plot is slowly teased out as the season progresses, and there are no happy endings or easy answers.  It almost makes watching it sound like a chore, but it in fact just makes the experience all the more rewarding.

My personal involvement with The Wire started when I watched a review on Charlie Brooker’s excellent BBC4 show, Screenwipe, in which he gave his strongest possible recommendation (I’ve just watched that review on Youtube, and it makes me want to go and watch The Wire even more), but since I’m not a big fan of buying DVD box sets, I instead regularly checked its UK home, FX, in case of repeats.  In 2007 I got lucky as that’s what happened, and the repeats were immediately preceded by a Charlie Brooker special, Tapping The Wire.  In it, he interviewed cast and crew, and travelled to Baltimore to talk to some of the locals.  He also talked to some celebrity fans, who, to a man (and I think they were all men), said that The Wire was the best TV show ever.  Now, whenever I hear that something goes off in my brain that says, ‘they’re wrong, it’s DEFINITELY not the best show ever’, and so it was with a bit of awkward trepidation that I approached the first episode.  At the end of the series opener, my unfounded fears were allayed, and by episode 3 or 4 I was hooked.  FX then showed the full 60 episodes weekly, and it was a glorious year in my television watching life.

FX are currently repeating The Wire again weekly, presumably to compete with BBC2′s recent acquisition of terrestrial rights, and I am once again watching.  We’re currently at the start of season three, and I’m enjoying each episode as much as the first time.  The deeply complex nature of the show makes multiple viewings not only enjoyable, but maybe essential.

I’m quite happy to admit that I didn’t find anything new to say about The Wire, but I didn’t really expect to.  I also expect I’ve missed out some obvious aspect of the show that is better than other TV shows, but, with so much on offer, things are going to fall through the cracks.  I could have saved myself a lot of time by summing the show up like this; what’s so good about The Wire?

Everything.