Spring Break
'The Wire' shows a dark side of Baltimore on HBO
Nadum Fernand
Issue date: 4/6/07 Section: Arts & Entertainment
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"If Charles Dickens was alive today, he would watch The Wire, unless, that is, he was already writing for it."
-New York Times
Television has long been cast into the shadows of the media, viewed as the inferior offspring to film. Three years after HBO put television on the map with The Sopranos (1999), they would revolutionize the medium by green lighting a criminal drama set in the parts of Baltimore that shared more in common with the war torn streets of Baghdad than Tony Soprano's plush North Jersey existence.
With no interest in providing a light-hearted voyeuristic journey into a world of organized crime, this was a show about the piece of America we left behind. Uncompromising, unapologetic, uncomfortable, horrifying, heartbreaking and brilliant, this was The Wire.
The partnership that pitched The Wire was far from the standard fare. David Simon, author of the award winning non-fictional look at the Baltimore City Homicide Division titled 'Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets' (which later spawned the NBC series) had been a crime reporter for the Baltimore Sun for twenty years. Ed Burns, Simon's co-author on the award winning book and HBO mini-series 'The Corner' was a war veteran turned homicide detective turned inner-city public school teacher.
As it slowly gained momentum in critical circles, The Wire was able to draw critically acclaimed novelists Richard Price (Clockers, Freedomland), Denis Lehane (Mystic River, Shutter Island) and George Pelecanos (Soul Circus) to its writing staff. Spike Lee, a huge fan of the show, is projected to direct the first episode of season five, due out in early 2008.
What is The Wire exactly? With each season focusing on a different aspect of the American city, David Simon's ultimate premise is that, "...capitalism, without social restraint decreases the value of human beings. Human life is simply less valuable in the America we've built."
The first season examines how the war on drugs transformed into a war against the underclass and the way that it has destroyed police work. Following a police detail assigned to chase down the fictional Barksdale drug organization, the show wastes no time in destroying the dichotomy of right and wrong. Without the preconception of good versus evil we are able to see that both the police and the dealers play their part in this destructive war, leaving the city as the only truly innocent victim.
-New York Times
Television has long been cast into the shadows of the media, viewed as the inferior offspring to film. Three years after HBO put television on the map with The Sopranos (1999), they would revolutionize the medium by green lighting a criminal drama set in the parts of Baltimore that shared more in common with the war torn streets of Baghdad than Tony Soprano's plush North Jersey existence.
With no interest in providing a light-hearted voyeuristic journey into a world of organized crime, this was a show about the piece of America we left behind. Uncompromising, unapologetic, uncomfortable, horrifying, heartbreaking and brilliant, this was The Wire.
The partnership that pitched The Wire was far from the standard fare. David Simon, author of the award winning non-fictional look at the Baltimore City Homicide Division titled 'Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets' (which later spawned the NBC series) had been a crime reporter for the Baltimore Sun for twenty years. Ed Burns, Simon's co-author on the award winning book and HBO mini-series 'The Corner' was a war veteran turned homicide detective turned inner-city public school teacher.
As it slowly gained momentum in critical circles, The Wire was able to draw critically acclaimed novelists Richard Price (Clockers, Freedomland), Denis Lehane (Mystic River, Shutter Island) and George Pelecanos (Soul Circus) to its writing staff. Spike Lee, a huge fan of the show, is projected to direct the first episode of season five, due out in early 2008.
What is The Wire exactly? With each season focusing on a different aspect of the American city, David Simon's ultimate premise is that, "...capitalism, without social restraint decreases the value of human beings. Human life is simply less valuable in the America we've built."
The first season examines how the war on drugs transformed into a war against the underclass and the way that it has destroyed police work. Following a police detail assigned to chase down the fictional Barksdale drug organization, the show wastes no time in destroying the dichotomy of right and wrong. Without the preconception of good versus evil we are able to see that both the police and the dealers play their part in this destructive war, leaving the city as the only truly innocent victim.
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