As a white person, of course I like The Wire, the Baltimore-set depiction of a city struggling against the drug trade and its own systemic inertia.
The show’s title is a reference to the phone taps that the police unit use to crack cases. It’s also, more importantly, a reference to the ethos of the show. The Wire is itself a wiretap, letting us listen in to the conversations that happen behind closed doors, so we can see for ourselves how the business of managing power creates our society.
Also it’s compulsive, thrilling, and often hilarious. Add it to your Netflix queue or whatever.
(Props to my brother for steering me to the Wire. Thanks Nature.)
(Please no spoilers in the comments.)
8 thoughts on “The Wire”
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I’ve started watching the Wire too. I just finished watching the second season. It’s pretty good. I’m not sure if I would watch it if I couldn’t watch the episodes back to back though.
Isn’t it nice to know that, even though it’s on tv right now, Warner Bros. has no intention to release seasons 3 onwards on DVD in Region 4?
http://www.warnerbros.co.nz/forum/read.asp?ID=1284&curPage=1&search=
Region 4 sucks, basically. We still don’t have Homicide available, to mention another not-unrelated example.
There’s a lot of reasons why r4 sucks. Eg no Veronica Mars here because they don’t want to have to pay for the music rights.
Fortunately it’s often cheaper to import stuff.
There have been reports of me turning into a raving lunatic praising the brilliance of the show, when The Wire is mentioned in my presence.
Those reports are of course all true.
Season 2 has been my favourite. I think that was where I felt the show was at its angriest and most cutting. The other seasons are merely awesome. You’re in for a great, great ride.
I would like very much to borrow any of the shows mentioned in this post or comments pertaining to this post at some point.
If my sister ever gives me back VM, you’re welcome to borrow it David.
Please. 🙂