Underneath The Wire
August08, film August 21st, 2008
By Maximiliano Benitez, August 2008
On Aug. 12, HBO will release the DVD of the fifth and final season of The Wire, a fictional television drama about the criminal cases investigated by a unit of the Baltimore police department. Viewers and critics alike often refer to The Wire as “the best television show ever produced.”
That’s because, while the action is deceptively centered on a charming, determined police unit, The Wire is a show about cops like Moby Dick is a book about fishing. In an age of mindless reality television and ripped-from-the-headlines drama, The Wire is a meditation on societies’ interconnectedness in the guise of a cop show. Risking a brand of authenticity rarely seen on television is the excellent creative team and strong storytelling ethic behind The Wire.
When a character on the show gets sentenced to time in prison they will recite this adage, “You only do two days. That’s the day you go in and the day you come out.” By that logic, there are only two episodes on The Wire - the first episode and the last. The Wire is more like a 60-hour-long film than a television show. It is a city teeming with people and stories, a microcosm of modern urban life. Instead of the show’s plot, let’s talk about the people and ideas that make The Wire so special.
“…and all the pieces matter,” – Detective Lester Freamon
The show uses the American metropolis as a lens to examine how the social forces of race, gender and class are at play in the lives of the city’s police, drug dealers, addicts and politicians. In previous seasons, the show’s themes have represented Baltimore’s drug trade, languishing working class, broken public education system and scrambling city hall. None of it is pretty. Like visiting a loved one in prison, The Wire is bittersweet viewing.
What you see and hear on the show is what network television pretends to be delivering with shows like Law and Order and Cops. Since the 1950s, police work has been depicted in countless television shows as the modern, urban battle between good and evil. Many television viewers formed their sense of justice and morality with the aid of shows such as Dragnet, Hill Street Blues and Columbo. The Wire continues in this storytelling tradition but vastly increases the scope and complicates the dichotomy of “good guys versus bad guys.” Often compared to an epic novel, the show investigates the systems of daily life in Baltimore while demonstrating the humanity of each of its characters, from the mayor of the city, to the lowliest hustler.
“it pays to go with the union card every time,” – Ziggy
The co-creators of The Wire, Ed Burns and David Simon, know Baltimore. Burns was a detective in the Baltimore Police Department for 20 years and then a public school teacher. Simon was a crime reporter for the Baltimore Sun. The pair met when Simon authored the book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, about Baltimore’s murder investigation squad. (The book was developed into the comparatively mediocre cop show of the same name). Simon and Burns then co-wrote The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood. That book became a dark HBO miniseries and the seed for The Wire. Simon and Burns write what they know and are the heart of what makes this show so special.
True to its print media beginnings, The Wire uses scripts by literary figures known for their talent in portraying the criminal element. The writers on staff are not only best-selling novelists, but are also behind such films as Mystic River, Clockers and The Color of Money. The show smartly makes use of the experience of several veterans of Spike Lee productions – the cinematographer/director Ernest Dickerson (Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X) and producer Karen L. Thorsen (Summer of Sam, He Got Game). Add to the mix Baltimore Teamsters, and you have a top-flight behind- the-scenes crew.
On screen, the cast of The Wire is the most visible manifestation of a payroll brimming with talent. International and diverse, the cast boasts classically trained actors, including English-born Dominic West as Detective Jimmy Mc Nulty, and Isiah Whitlock Jr. as Senator Clay Davis. Gifted youth actors and characters portrayed by veterans of the Baltimore streets are also vital to the cast. Back when Burns was a police detective, he used wiretaps to lock up Melvin Williams for drug trafficking. After a lengthy prison sentence, Williams now has a recurring role as an eerily street- savvy church deacon on The Wire.
“why you got to go and f#@k with the program?” – FrUit
You wont see any chase scene montages with moody music playing in the background on The Wire. The cops don’t deliver corny one-liners as they slap the cuffs on the bad guy at the end of each episode. The Wire invigorates both its cast and viewers by freeing them from the dumbed-down logic of formulaic television writing. Try watching Law And Order after finishing an episode of The Wire. Comparing the two shows, you will see that The Wire is a show that gives both the cast and the audience what other shows don’t - namely trust.
The genre of police procedural television shows has been turned on its ear because The Wire aims for the kind of honesty that allows actors to thrive and gives viewers something challenging to watch. Like the characters in the series, viewers may end up left with more questions than answers at the end of an episode. Television (and film for that matter) doesn’t often respect the viewer’s patience and insight. The Wire recognizes that plots needn’t be spoon-fed and thus creates a more rewarding experience.
“that all there is to it?” – BUBBLes
The last season of The Wire will bring DVD viewers to the end of the show’s game- changing run with a meditation on the news media’s effect on public perception of politics and crime. But the parables and allegories are far from over. Simon and Burns already have a follow up with Generation Kill, a miniseries about the first 40 days of the invasion of Iraq, currently airing on HBO. Also on the way, a pilot for a dramatic series called Treme, which is about New Orleans musicians and a project about the 1866 Chicago Haymarket Affair, an event which began as a worker’s rally and ended in violence. As with The Wire, we cannot expect these future projects to break any TV ratings records. What we can expect is creative people trying to tell stories that matter on television.
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Underneath The Wire
August08, film August 21st, 2008By Maximiliano Benitez, August 2008
On Aug. 12, HBO will release the DVD of the fifth and final season of The Wire, a fictional television drama about the criminal cases investigated by a unit of the Baltimore police department. Viewers and critics alike often refer to The Wire as “the best television show ever produced.”
That’s because, while the action is deceptively centered on a charming, determined police unit, The Wire is a show about cops like Moby Dick is a book about fishing. In an age of mindless reality television and ripped-from-the-headlines drama, The Wire is a meditation on societies’ interconnectedness in the guise of a cop show. Risking a brand of authenticity rarely seen on television is the excellent creative team and strong storytelling ethic behind The Wire.
When a character on the show gets sentenced to time in prison they will recite this adage, “You only do two days. That’s the day you go in and the day you come out.” By that logic, there are only two episodes on The Wire - the first episode and the last. The Wire is more like a 60-hour-long film than a television show. It is a city teeming with people and stories, a microcosm of modern urban life. Instead of the show’s plot, let’s talk about the people and ideas that make The Wire so special.
“…and all the pieces matter,” – Detective Lester Freamon
The show uses the American metropolis as a lens to examine how the social forces of race, gender and class are at play in the lives of the city’s police, drug dealers, addicts and politicians. In previous seasons, the show’s themes have represented Baltimore’s drug trade, languishing working class, broken public education system and scrambling city hall. None of it is pretty. Like visiting a loved one in prison, The Wire is bittersweet viewing.
What you see and hear on the show is what network television pretends to be delivering with shows like Law and Order and Cops. Since the 1950s, police work has been depicted in countless television shows as the modern, urban battle between good and evil. Many television viewers formed their sense of justice and morality with the aid of shows such as Dragnet, Hill Street Blues and Columbo. The Wire continues in this storytelling tradition but vastly increases the scope and complicates the dichotomy of “good guys versus bad guys.” Often compared to an epic novel, the show investigates the systems of daily life in Baltimore while demonstrating the humanity of each of its characters, from the mayor of the city, to the lowliest hustler.
“it pays to go with the union card every time,” – Ziggy
The co-creators of The Wire, Ed Burns and David Simon, know Baltimore. Burns was a detective in the Baltimore Police Department for 20 years and then a public school teacher. Simon was a crime reporter for the Baltimore Sun. The pair met when Simon authored the book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, about Baltimore’s murder investigation squad. (The book was developed into the comparatively mediocre cop show of the same name). Simon and Burns then co-wrote The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood. That book became a dark HBO miniseries and the seed for The Wire. Simon and Burns write what they know and are the heart of what makes this show so special.
True to its print media beginnings, The Wire uses scripts by literary figures known for their talent in portraying the criminal element. The writers on staff are not only best-selling novelists, but are also behind such films as Mystic River, Clockers and The Color of Money. The show smartly makes use of the experience of several veterans of Spike Lee productions – the cinematographer/director Ernest Dickerson (Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X) and producer Karen L. Thorsen (Summer of Sam, He Got Game). Add to the mix Baltimore Teamsters, and you have a top-flight behind- the-scenes crew.
On screen, the cast of The Wire is the most visible manifestation of a payroll brimming with talent. International and diverse, the cast boasts classically trained actors, including English-born Dominic West as Detective Jimmy Mc Nulty, and Isiah Whitlock Jr. as Senator Clay Davis. Gifted youth actors and characters portrayed by veterans of the Baltimore streets are also vital to the cast. Back when Burns was a police detective, he used wiretaps to lock up Melvin Williams for drug trafficking. After a lengthy prison sentence, Williams now has a recurring role as an eerily street- savvy church deacon on The Wire.
“why you got to go and f#@k with the program?” – FrUit
You wont see any chase scene montages with moody music playing in the background on The Wire. The cops don’t deliver corny one-liners as they slap the cuffs on the bad guy at the end of each episode. The Wire invigorates both its cast and viewers by freeing them from the dumbed-down logic of formulaic television writing. Try watching Law And Order after finishing an episode of The Wire. Comparing the two shows, you will see that The Wire is a show that gives both the cast and the audience what other shows don’t - namely trust.
The genre of police procedural television shows has been turned on its ear because The Wire aims for the kind of honesty that allows actors to thrive and gives viewers something challenging to watch. Like the characters in the series, viewers may end up left with more questions than answers at the end of an episode. Television (and film for that matter) doesn’t often respect the viewer’s patience and insight. The Wire recognizes that plots needn’t be spoon-fed and thus creates a more rewarding experience.
“that all there is to it?” – BUBBLes
The last season of The Wire will bring DVD viewers to the end of the show’s game- changing run with a meditation on the news media’s effect on public perception of politics and crime. But the parables and allegories are far from over. Simon and Burns already have a follow up with Generation Kill, a miniseries about the first 40 days of the invasion of Iraq, currently airing on HBO. Also on the way, a pilot for a dramatic series called Treme, which is about New Orleans musicians and a project about the 1866 Chicago Haymarket Affair, an event which began as a worker’s rally and ended in violence. As with The Wire, we cannot expect these future projects to break any TV ratings records. What we can expect is creative people trying to tell stories that matter on television.
