Like many Johnny Come Lately's to the HBO series The Wire, I've been catching up on it on DVD. And the rumors are true: it really is one of the greatest TV shows ever made. It's easily the greatest TV show about a city -- ever.
That city is Baltimore. It presents the whole complex tableau of cops, criminals, bureaucrats, politicians, lawyers, business people, union workers, journalists -- you name it 0- that make 21st century American cities whir. It also gets at why so many cities are not only crime ridden (drugs, greed, broken families, etc.) but just generally dysfunctional: the people in power benefit from the status quo and those who want to change it are usually shut down (brutally). Careerism and money too often get in the way of doing the right thing. Virtue is punished and venality rewarded. Yes, it's bleak comment on American urban life and policy -- but that doesn't mean it's not fun to watch. Despite being socially conscious, The Wire is massively entertaining and funny. I've never been more riveted by a series.
Most of all, The Wire shows how "law and order" is not a black and white business (racially or morally), how people aren't all good or all bad, how circumstances so often force us to make choices we don't want to make or shouldn't have to make, how the line between right and wrong, ethical and unethical, legal and illegal, is so often very blurry.
I could go on and on about every aspect of the show (the plots, the characters, the performances, the writing) but I couldn't do it justice. It's all perfect. So if you've never seen The Wire, get on Netflix ASAP and order the first season.
Now what does The Wire have to do with NYC? Nothing, sadly. There isn't a show half as good, even a quarter as good, heck even a tenth as good about NYC as "The Wire" is about Baltimore.
What are the big shows about New York? Empty cop procedurals like Law and Order (and it's clones) and CSI: New York or silly shows like Dirty Sexy Money and Lipstick Jungle. The closest NYC ever came to having a "great show" about it was NYPD Blue which managed to start sucking after a couple seasons and was never anywhere near as good as The Wire. Maybe NYC is just too big and too complex for a TV series to it just justice, but I'll hold out hope that maybe one day such a show will come along. Until then, any good New Yorker should watch, enjoy, and celebrate The Wire.
That city is Baltimore. It presents the whole complex tableau of cops, criminals, bureaucrats, politicians, lawyers, business people, union workers, journalists -- you name it 0- that make 21st century American cities whir. It also gets at why so many cities are not only crime ridden (drugs, greed, broken families, etc.) but just generally dysfunctional: the people in power benefit from the status quo and those who want to change it are usually shut down (brutally). Careerism and money too often get in the way of doing the right thing. Virtue is punished and venality rewarded. Yes, it's bleak comment on American urban life and policy -- but that doesn't mean it's not fun to watch. Despite being socially conscious, The Wire is massively entertaining and funny. I've never been more riveted by a series.
Most of all, The Wire shows how "law and order" is not a black and white business (racially or morally), how people aren't all good or all bad, how circumstances so often force us to make choices we don't want to make or shouldn't have to make, how the line between right and wrong, ethical and unethical, legal and illegal, is so often very blurry.
I could go on and on about every aspect of the show (the plots, the characters, the performances, the writing) but I couldn't do it justice. It's all perfect. So if you've never seen The Wire, get on Netflix ASAP and order the first season.
Now what does The Wire have to do with NYC? Nothing, sadly. There isn't a show half as good, even a quarter as good, heck even a tenth as good about NYC as "The Wire" is about Baltimore.
What are the big shows about New York? Empty cop procedurals like Law and Order (and it's clones) and CSI: New York or silly shows like Dirty Sexy Money and Lipstick Jungle. The closest NYC ever came to having a "great show" about it was NYPD Blue which managed to start sucking after a couple seasons and was never anywhere near as good as The Wire. Maybe NYC is just too big and too complex for a TV series to it just justice, but I'll hold out hope that maybe one day such a show will come along. Until then, any good New Yorker should watch, enjoy, and celebrate The Wire.
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