Why You Might Not Like The Wire
Mar. 29th, 2009 05:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mrissaOne of Timprov's birthday presents this year was the complete series DVDs for The Wire. We've now watched all but the last episode of the first season, and I'm looking forward to the other four seasons. I really like it. I think it's done extremely well, and I think what it's doing well is worth doing. It also understands some things about writing for TV that I have seen done much worse elsewhere--for example, there are visual touchstones that carry ideas through the season (possibly through the show--couldn't tell you yet) without hammering points home in dialog. There have been moments of absolutely perfect character revelation, and moments of growth when a character becomes more than he or she was before. It's a show with ongoing rather than episodic plot, and it looks to me like at least some of that will continue into later seasons, but there's also enough resolution to it to be satisfying. I love Kima. I love Freamon. I love Wallace. I love Prez, and I thought I was going to hate him. I'm pretty fond of Bubs and Jay and Bunk. Love Omar, and I thought I was going to hate him, too.
And this show: sometimes I have to flinch and look away, because it won't. And that's the problem. I really like this, but I'm not at all sure who else would like it with me. It's got very explicit violence, sex, and drug use. It has people treating each other badly all over the place. Institutional corruption is not universal but pretty bad. It's absolutely full of profanity, vulgarity, and racially charged language. The writers of this show understand that dialog is characterization (among other things), and so when you have a character like Omar who doesn't say a word that would turn a hair on my grandmother's head, you know something about Omar other than that the network wouldn't let him talk differently, because it's HBO, so of course the network would. But I can see why a person wouldn't necessarily want to have their 2-year-old wander out of bed for a glass of water and hear the dialog on this show to repeat later. I can see why a person wouldn't want to immerse themselves in it. The hope that is in this show so far is measured and weighed very carefully. You get to like the teenage drug dealer characters living in the projects. You get to like the heroin addicts. The show gives you hope for them: two of the cops have been revealed to have come from similar circumstances, and there is a former heroin addict character who is mentoring others through NA. But the hope there is not that one of the teenagers--one of the high school dropouts with little opportunity for self-education, children of indifferent or alcoholic or dead parents, steeped in drug culture from their earliest days--will become a legal multimillionaire with a stable family and a long, happy, untroubled life. When you have hope for Bubbles, it's that he will not OD, that he will find a roof over his head, that he will not lose too many of the people that he loves, that he will find little quiet bits of a decent life. That he will manage to get some crab cakes from the place D'Angelo's mom gets them, because those are apparently quite good. When you have hope for McNulty, it's that he'll get his weekends with his kids without interruption from his job or his ex-wife, that he'll manage to put away one or two of the really nasty criminals, that he will get to continue being a cop, that he won't lose too many of the people he loves.
And I can see why a person would want more hope than that in their casual entertainment.
But on the other hand, there is that hope. And there is that idea that the good things in your life that last take a lot of work, and that doing good work and being good to people is worthwhile, and that nobody ever promised that worthwhile and easy would be the same. There is the idea that people can surprise you for the better, whether it's a supposedly hardened criminal or a supposedly idiotic screwup kid. The characters in The Wire don't have a lot of positive expectations for their lives. But they do have moments of grace.
If you have the chance to try The Wire and decide that you'd like to try it, you should know: the second episode is better than the first. The third episode is better than the second. It builds on stuff it's doing from there, but if you don't want to watch it after three episodes, you probably don't want to watch it. It's harsh, and the fact that most of it is not gratuitous is exactly what makes it harder to deal with. But the people who make this show: they know what they're doing. Really they do.
And this show: sometimes I have to flinch and look away, because it won't. And that's the problem. I really like this, but I'm not at all sure who else would like it with me. It's got very explicit violence, sex, and drug use. It has people treating each other badly all over the place. Institutional corruption is not universal but pretty bad. It's absolutely full of profanity, vulgarity, and racially charged language. The writers of this show understand that dialog is characterization (among other things), and so when you have a character like Omar who doesn't say a word that would turn a hair on my grandmother's head, you know something about Omar other than that the network wouldn't let him talk differently, because it's HBO, so of course the network would. But I can see why a person wouldn't necessarily want to have their 2-year-old wander out of bed for a glass of water and hear the dialog on this show to repeat later. I can see why a person wouldn't want to immerse themselves in it. The hope that is in this show so far is measured and weighed very carefully. You get to like the teenage drug dealer characters living in the projects. You get to like the heroin addicts. The show gives you hope for them: two of the cops have been revealed to have come from similar circumstances, and there is a former heroin addict character who is mentoring others through NA. But the hope there is not that one of the teenagers--one of the high school dropouts with little opportunity for self-education, children of indifferent or alcoholic or dead parents, steeped in drug culture from their earliest days--will become a legal multimillionaire with a stable family and a long, happy, untroubled life. When you have hope for Bubbles, it's that he will not OD, that he will find a roof over his head, that he will not lose too many of the people that he loves, that he will find little quiet bits of a decent life. That he will manage to get some crab cakes from the place D'Angelo's mom gets them, because those are apparently quite good. When you have hope for McNulty, it's that he'll get his weekends with his kids without interruption from his job or his ex-wife, that he'll manage to put away one or two of the really nasty criminals, that he will get to continue being a cop, that he won't lose too many of the people he loves.
And I can see why a person would want more hope than that in their casual entertainment.
But on the other hand, there is that hope. And there is that idea that the good things in your life that last take a lot of work, and that doing good work and being good to people is worthwhile, and that nobody ever promised that worthwhile and easy would be the same. There is the idea that people can surprise you for the better, whether it's a supposedly hardened criminal or a supposedly idiotic screwup kid. The characters in The Wire don't have a lot of positive expectations for their lives. But they do have moments of grace.
If you have the chance to try The Wire and decide that you'd like to try it, you should know: the second episode is better than the first. The third episode is better than the second. It builds on stuff it's doing from there, but if you don't want to watch it after three episodes, you probably don't want to watch it. It's harsh, and the fact that most of it is not gratuitous is exactly what makes it harder to deal with. But the people who make this show: they know what they're doing. Really they do.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-30 05:57 pm (UTC)It is a difficult show to recommend to people because of its nature. During the final season of the show this past year, it got a lot more attention than it had during previous seasons-- it all reached critical mass. Critics had been raving about the show all along, but the final season was cause for a lot more discussion and it finally pushed a lot more people over the edge into giving it a shot on DVD.
I know lots of people who shied away because they heard one too many people say "best show evar" and refuse to believe the hype. I also know folks who tried the show but bounced off of it after one or two or three or four episodes. There are some people I know who wouldn't be able to handle the show or just wouldn't like it.
I always feel obligated to explain that it is harsh and not fun in a lot of ways. And also that each season is like a novel so the first episodes really are about setting up characters and putting them in place and to some people who are used to a different sort of TV show (or any other show), it can seem like not a whole lot is happening. Some find it hard to keep track of so many characters, too. (As with Homicide, I always have to point out that there is humor in the series-- it's dark humor, but there is funny stuff there too.)
If you and/or Timprov ever want to talk about the show more (in person or via email or whatever), Kevin and I are both big fans who love talking about it.
The Wire is the first show created by David Simon. He's a former journalist who wrote the award-winning nonfiction book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets which recounts the year he spent with a Homicide division in Baltimore. He later co-authored The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner City Neighborhood with Edward Burns which is about a year he spent on a single drug corner in Baltimore; Edward Burns went on to work on The Wire as a producer and writer.
The TV series Homicide: Life on the Street was based on Simon's first book; Simon later ended up working on the show as a writer and producer and that's where he learned about TV. The Corner was made into an award-winning miniseries for HBO. And then Simon created The Wire.
His next project was Generation Kill which was a series for HBO based on a nonfiction book about US soldiers in the middle east. Just went the one season, I guess it's more of a miniseries. Simon's written a pilot with Eric Overmyer (one of my fave writers for TV and theater) and has cast Wendell Pierce (who plays "Bunk" on The Wire) and Clarke Peters (who plays "Lester" on The Wire) in it along with Melissa Leo (who was in Homicide). It's set in New Orleans and I hope HBO picks it up and that it's awesome.
There are many great articles and interviews about the show and some of the commentary tracks and extras on the DVD sets are cool-- though I recommend waiting on that stuff 'til you finish the series as I think spoilers for this show can wreck some things. 'Course milage varies.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-30 09:35 pm (UTC)We just watched the end of S1, so I will want to talk about at least that much when I see you at Minicon, if we get the chance. Maybe some of S2 as well. Maybe all of S2. Hard to say, nor, as my grandpa would have asked, can I spell it.
I can't bear commentary tracks, usually, but DVD extras after watching the main thing are fine with me.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-31 12:05 pm (UTC)There are so many fabulous characters, both major and minor, during the run of the show.