The Wire was a television program broadcast on HBO from 2002 to 2008 (“The Wire” n.d.). It chronicled the lives of about 65 key characters in Baltimore, Maryland . These characters included detectives, sergeants, commissioners and more members of the Baltimore Police Department; political figures such as aldermen, councilmen, and mayors in Baltimore; drug dealers at all levels within multiple large crime organizations, and many others. Due to the expansive story lines involving such a great number of characters, it is difficult to succinctly summarize the show as a whole or even by each season. However, each season had an overarching target: the first highlighted the drug trade; the second, the port system and labor unions; the third, government bureaucracy, inefficiency, and corruption at the city level; the fourth, the failings of the public school system; and the fifth, journalism and print media.
The Wire was created primarily by David Simon, with help from Ed Burns (“The Wire” n.d.). David Simon worked as a reporter at The Baltimore Sun for thirteen years, most of which was spent writing about crime (“David Simon” n.d.). While working for the Sun, Simon befriended Ed Burns, who was a city homicide detective for twenty years in Baltimore, and often used him as a source for leads and information (“Ed Burns” n.d.). After they left their respective day jobs, they created The Wire for HBO, which featured stories and characters from Simon's book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets as well as from Burns' real-life experience in the police department.
As already mentioned, the first season of The Wire deals primarily with the illegal drug trade, however this theme is present in the the majority of the series as a whole. The reason David Simon chose to focus so much on this issue is to showcase for a national audience the futility of the war on drugs (Chadda, Wilson, and Venkatesh 2008). The police in the show spend what amounts to multiple years and multiple million dollars on one specific drug case, and, yet, due to government bureaucracy, politics within the police department, limited resources, and human error, they have a difficult time convicting any of the drug dealers of anything worthwhile. The other issues covered in the subsequent seasons do not take this exact form, but they do generally result in the same conclusion: things need to change. In fact, that was David Simon's intended message of the series: to depict the socioeconomic inequality present in urban areas in hopes that it would spark pushes for reform (Atlas and Dreier 2008).
This is one of the aspects of The Wire that sets it apart from the average, formulaic cop dramas on television, in which an episode centers around one case which is solved within a 60-minute timeframe, allowing for a happy resolution. The Wire is quite bleak in outlook, and its creators viewed the political system as incapable of reform in its current state. Another aspect of The Wire that separates it from not only other cop dramas, but from most television shows in general, is its predominantly African American, highly developed and multi-dimensional cast, which is representative of the 63% African American population of Baltimore (“Baltimore city QuickFacts n.d.). Then again, The Wire is not purely a cop show as it has generally been considered to be. As Simon himself put it, it is a “a political tract masquerading as a cop show” (Atlas and Dreier 2009). He also said that “[The Wire] is really about the American city and how we try to live together” (Tyree 2008).
Due to the credibility of the creators and the extent to which they based content on real-life experience, The Wire is considered by many to be the most realistic cop show of all time (“The Wire” n.d.). Most of the characters in the series were based on actual people and many of those characters maintained the names of their real-life counterparts and, in fact, dozens of those real-life people auditioned to portray themselves in the show, most of which were re-cast as different characters (“The Wire” n.d.). Also contributing to the realism of the show was its brutally gritty depiction of urban life, which commonly had the effect of making the viewer uncomfortable. This, combined with the very minimal use of both non-diegetic music and stylistic flares, as well as the believable vernacular used by the characters, truly set The Wire apart from virtually everything else on television in terms of realism, including so-called “reality” television. The context of The Wire is post-September 11, 2001 is reflected in the police department's relationship with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The police reach out to the FBI in order to help them solve large cases and prosecute most effectively, but the FBI is generally unwilling or unable to help because they are required to focus all of their time on their counter-terrorism efforts.
Another interesting aspect of The Wire that, again, makes it unique, is the moral ambiguity of nearly all of its characters (Atlas and Dreier 2009). Contrary to what is typically portrayed in film and television, there were no absolutely good nor any absolutely evil characters; most of the murderers have more moral fortitude than the drunk-driving cops that are trying to enforce the law upon them; the head of a massive drug dealing organization must payoff a state representative in order to get the license to start a legitimate business. The closest thing to a savior in the show is a character who robs drug dealers and murders people with a sawed-off shotgun. Besides making the show more intriguing, this also conveys a message about differences, primarily in regards to class. While the government officials might make more money than the detectives or the drug dealers, they are on no moral high ground; they are all human beings.
Film and television often depict a clashing of different cultures any time diversity is present. Yet again, The Wire is an exceptional case. Though there is much conflict between people of different races in The Wire, race is hardly ever the basis of those conflicts. The characters in the show are interacting as human beings, not as two different “races” of people, and this reflects the previously mentioned prominence of the equality that humans share.
Also worth noting is the fact that The Wire is considering by many critics to be the greatest television series of all time (Carey 2007; Goodman 2003; Miller and Traister 2007; Shelley 2005; Weisberg 2006; Wilde 2007), and yet it was never received impressive ratings (“The Wire” n.d.). It also was nominated for very few awards and never really won any major awards, perhaps reflecting the interest lacking in Americans to face the unpleasant and unfortunate facts of life.
References
Atlas, J. and Dreier, P. (2008). Is The Wire Too Cynical? [Electronic version]. Dissent, 55, 79-82.
Atlas, J. and Dreier, P. (2009). The Wire – Bush-Era Fable about America's Urban Poor? [Electronic version]. City & Community, 8, 329-340.
“Baltimore city QuickFacts.” (n.d.). U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved from http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/24/24510.html
Carey, K. (2007). A show of honesty. Guardian.co.uk. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/feb/13/thewire
Chaddha, A., Wilson, W. J., and Venkatesh, S. A. (2008). [Electronic version]. Dissent, 55, 83- 86.
“David Simon.” (n.d.). Internet Movie Database. Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0800108/
“Ed Burns.” (n.d.). Internet Movie Database. Retrieved from
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0122654/
Goodman, T. (2003). HBO scores again with a stellar second season of 'The Wire'. SFGate. Retrieved from http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi? f=/c/a/2003/05/30/DD157653.DTL
Miller, L., and Traister, R. (2007). The best TV show of all time. Salon.com Retrieved from http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2007/09/15/best_show
Shelley, J. (2005). Call the cops. Guardian.co.uk. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2005/aug/06/tvandradio.guide2
“The Wire.” (n.d.) Internet Movie Database. Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0122654/
Tyree, J.M. (2008). The Wire: The Complete Fourth Season [Electronic version]. Film Quarterly, 61, 32-38.
Weisberg, J. (2006). The Wire on Fire. Slate. Retrieved from http://www.slate.com/id/2149566/
Wilde, J. (2007). The Wire is unmissable television. Guardian.co.uk. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/tvandradioblog/2007/jul/21/thewireisunmissabletelevis
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