Friday, 03.07.08
Farewell to The Wire
Photo by flickr user hk7 under a Creative Commons license
The Angriest Man In Television
January 2008
Mark Bowden describes David Simon as brilliant yet bitter.
The Story of a Snitch
April 2007
Jeremy Kahn delves into the anti-snitching subculture of the inner city.
The Reactionary Radical
January 2008
Matthew Yglesias ponders Simon's anti-politics.
The Power of Pessimism
January 2008
Ross Douthat argues that the show's despair is crucial to its artistry.
Untangling the wire
March 2008
The Wire is the best program in television history by such a wide margin that even though its final season has been a huge disappointment, compromised by creator David Simon's grudges, it still stands up well against virtually every non-Wire season of television out there. As it draws to a close, fans are of course eager to see the last installment, but it's a mark of the series's unique approach that few of us are on the edge of our seats, eager to see "what happens."
Nobody knows, of course, but by now it's clear that no real good will come of it. Such is the nature of Simon's vision: A modern-day tragedy in which human beings are dashed on the rocks of impersonal institutions that make a joke of any efforts at reform. This bleakness, in combination with intricate plotting that makes it impossible to watch the show out of order, has not been kind to The Wire's ratings, but it's garnered the show a devoted fanbase and unprecedented critical acclaim.
Here, though, in a somewhat Wire-like irony, the show's very success may be television's downfall. After all, it's hard to imagine any future show securing substantially more free publicity in the form of critical and media attention - and yet the show was a commercial failure anyway. The very same show that taught us that, yes, episodic television can be great drama also teaches that there's no business sense in bothering to try. This is television, where greatness will not save you.
The Ahab of BaltimoreDavid Plotz worries that David Simon's "monomania" about the Baltimore Sun is compromising The Wire's last season ... |
The auteur speaks... and earns a furious response from none other than David Simon himself. |
Going out on topAndrew Johnston, Time Out New York's TV critic, argues that the penultimate Wire episode was the show's best. |
Masterpiece theaterThree critics debate the relative merits of HBO's three greatest shows: The Wire, The Sopranos, and Deadwood. |
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The Wire breaks my heart with every episode. It's Baltimore, but it's also Philly, my adopted home. Almost every episode of the Wire I've seen leaves me devastated and occasionally in tears. It's so painful because it's so true to life. Laura Lippman said that loving Baltimore was loving a flawed place: "Anyone can love a perfect place. Loving Baltimore takes some resilience." But it's really loving a shattered, broken place.
I love these cities so much it hurts. I love the Wire for showing, with a lot of love and empathy, just how broken things are.
" ... even though its final season has been a huge disappointment, compromised by creator David Simon's grudges ..."
This piece of quickie conventional wisdom was based mostly on the fact that journalists who had widely praised the series didn't like the heat, not least the (at least admitted) skewering of the friends of the author of the Atlantic piece you site. Where, I ask, did the Sun plot go wrong? Was the depiction of the smarmy editor, the cheating reporter, etc., off the mark? Not according to reporters I know.
This season was, more than anything, different, necessarily so, I think, because of the mirroring nature of newspapering; it's the telling of the telling, not the telling. Maybe not the best season (and man can you get an argument on that one), but certain not a 'huge disappointment' or anything resembling it.
"...few of us are on the edge of our seats, eager to see 'what happens.'"
Speak for yourself. I'm very eager to see what happens next.
"...and yet the show was a commercial failure anyway."
It's far from a hit, sure, but I think it's pretty hard to make it to five seasons and be a "failure."
I completely agree with drinkof.
I will be the first to admit that due to this season's abbreviation, the first few episodes that introduced the major themes for the season were clumsy and a bit more synthetic than previous seasons, but to call this season a huge disappointment is ridiculous.
Ever since Omar's return, this season has produced a constant string of breathtaking moments, moving characters, heartbreaking redemption, and jaw-dropping surprises.
Not much can be asked for from a television show, but of course this season (when viewed through the lens of previous seasons) has produced so much more. I think one motif that gets overlooked from this season is the supposition that no one is in control of himself or his surroundings. Even cold, calculating Marlo is susceptible to outbursts of rage; even the mythic Omar can't protect the ones he loves; even Gus can't produce a decent newspaper. We're just powerless. It's tragic; it's beautiful. It's only ever been shown on the Wire.
This show's great.
The thing to know about the Sun plot is that what we see happening is not the point of covering the media in season 5.
The point of the Sun stuff is not to see what corporate ownership, differing agendas between outsider management and insider newsmen, and reporting not entirely tethered in reality are doing to our news coverage. Although those are meaty topics in and of themselves.
The point was to see what the news industry is NOT doing. Did they know who Prop Joe was when he died? No. WE know that he had the whole connect for all of B'more. They had no clue.
Simon constantly asks us what have we been paying attention to while our cities have been in decline and while we've waged a self-proclaimed war on our own people. Face it, the Sun didn't have homelessness on the radar until McNulty made it the story that can't be ignored AND they realized they could benefit by way of Pulitzer.
In other words, the Fourth Estate is no longer willing or capable of really examining and explaining to us what he feels are the issues that will cause the decline of the American Empire.
It is notable to me, that the most vocal complaints about this season have come from people in journalism, while for the most part fans seem okay with it.
This interminable war, the deceptions and the lack of consideration leading us here don't exactly lead me to think harshly towards Simon for ripping into the news industry.
Margaret, I totally agree. Baltimore City is really the main character.
I live in New Orleans and it might as well take place here for all the parallels. The drugs, blight, port, corruption, third-world feel... I drive through NOLA's version of "West Baltimore" on my way to work, and when I see the kids on the sidewalk, I cry, wondering which one of them is another Wallace.
I love this show - I think it is the finest show that has ever been on television. Someone once said that when people 50 or 100 years from now want to understand our times, this will be the source they refer to. I agree.
Are there any Baltimore Wire fans here? I've always been curious how people from B-more feel about the show. It doesn't cast the city in a good light.
The criticism of the Sun storyline by newspaper people baffles me. They say the storyline is unbelievable and simplistic.
But let's consider what's happening in the real world of corporate ownership.
Dean Singleton, owner of MediaNews Group, purchased the San Jose paper. In lieu of buy outs, he informed the newsroom that anyone who didn't receive a phone call by 10 a.m. one morning to not bother showing up for work.
You can't make that up. But if you had and included it in "The Wire" Atlantic and Sun writers would've cried foul.
It's almost as if we have become apologetic of our corporate masters. Shame.
Chris Conrad Mail Tribune Medford, Oregon
The sun plot is terrible. Is it unrealistic? Who cares. It has nothing essential to do with any other plotline on the show. The treatment of the docks and Baltimore schools at least showed you an important side of the city. The newspaper plotline tells you nothing you didn't already know about Baltimore, except that its newspaper is low quality and has some f'd up internal politics. Not exactly the hard-hitting social illumination of seasons 1-4.
I'm a journalist, and I love the fifth season of The Wire. The newspaper plotline takes the Baltimore tragedy to a whole new level. Newspapers are supposed to speak truth to power--to call public officials on their bulls* like the mayor crippling the police force with budget cuts after campaigning on a tough on crime platform. The sad state of affairs in Simon's Baltimore is due in no small part to the newspaper failing to do its job -- because a greedy reporter cares more about the spotlight than telling the truth, because editors have lost sight of what newspapering is supposed to be about and because greedy corporate owners want to squeeze every last dime out of newsrooms, whatever the consequences. Unfortunately, the plotline is very realistic. It's playing out throughout the country. The tragedy in season 5 is that the Sun could have made things better, and instead it became part of the problem. How's that for hard-hitting social illumination.
Former Baltimore resident here, but I was a student there, so that only partially counts. I started watching the show off of bittorrent since moving to Beijing after graduation and I have to say it's a lot more accurate from what I've seen than most things. People I knew would just go missing and never turn up again. I saw some Baltimore city political corruption a lot closer than was probably good for me. It makes me a little homesick now to never hear gunfire and that worries me that I got used to it. I complained a lot about problems in the city while I was there, but watching The Wire makes me miss a lot of things about Baltimore, especially the scenes shot at places I used to go to a lot. The one thing that was missing was "Believe" or "B'lieve, Hon" signs, part of former Mayor (now Governor) O'Malley's campaign to revitalize trust int he city. Those signs always seemed to simultaneously hopeful and tragic to me. I met some great people and also saw some bad shit, like a large crowd of cops just wailing on one guy on Halloween.
I'm an almost life-long resident of Baltimore with the exception of the first year of my life and six years of college and after. I love The Wire. As I said at Ygleisas's other post, I feel like I'm watching the results of a video strapped to my back. I also think the city films well -- as Simon said on Fresh Air the other day, it has a beauty in its decay. The vacant rowhouses in the bright sunlight --- that's a very Baltimore type of beauty.
The stories depicted are things that happened here, period.
The thing about the Sun is that it's not a low quality newspaper. The writing and layout are second only to the Washington Post and the New York Times. I go off on a trip to Seattle or Chicago and I can barely stand to read the local papers there. The Sun is like every other institution in the show: everyone is just punching a clock, trying to make the stats not go bad before they've moved to the next level. That's how O'Malley, a talented man, got to be governor, and not following that rule is why the equally talented Kurt Schmoke, a Rhodes Scholar and the first elected black mayor of Baltimore, isn't where Obama is today.
Reality Man, I recall seeing at least one "Believe" sign in a Wire episode. It's early in Season 4, when Herc is working the security detail for Mayor Royce (probably the episode when Herc accidentally walks in on Royce while his assistant is fellating him). Herc is standing in front of City Hall next to (I believe) a trash basket with a "Believe" poster on it. It was disconcerting when I saw it because "Believe" is so closely associated with O'Malley (i.e. Carcetti).
As for the depiction of Baltimore and Baltimore as a setting, I think that The Wire is about Baltimore in about the same way that Henry V is about the Hundred Years War.
Daniels and Pearlman tell Carcetti about how the homeless killings were a fraud, Carcetti keeps it quite so it won't hurt his gubenatorial bid, Rawls is persuaded to keep it quite by being promised to be new head of state police when Carcetti becomes governor.
Levy figures out that the police got the info on Marlo through an illegal wiretap, but is also caught buying sealed grand jury testimoney. Because Carcetti needs the wiretap info to be kept quite, he has Pearlman get Levy to agree not to look into the wiretap in exchange for dropping everything on the grand jury leakes. As part of the deal Marlo walks but is forced to give up crime, Chris on the other hand pleads to all the vacant murders and recieves life without parole.
Daniels is made new commissioner, but refuses to juke the stats to make the crime rate appear to have dropped when it hasn't. As a result the mayor forces him to resign. He leaves the police force and becomes a defense attorney.
Marlo sells the greek connection to the Coop members for 10 million; retires from the drug game, but has no idea what to do with himself.
Slim Charles kills Cheese in revenge for Joe
Michael having become a wanted man becomes the new omar, and robs drug dealers.
Dukie becomes a dope fiend along with his fellow junk traders.
Carcetti wins the election, promotes Rawls to state police chief, Campell becomes the new mayor, promotes Valchek to police cheif.
McNulty and Fremon are fired from the police department because of the fake homeless killings, but are not arressted because it would draw attention to the fake, which no one wants.
Templeton wins a pulitzer prize for his reporting
MINOR SPOILER ALERT- I'VE SEEN EPISODE 10 -
The parallels between the paper, the police and the politics are have led to a depth of irony that The Wire had not yet plumbed, and it's magnificent, particularly in episodes 9 & 10.
The newspaper shows another arena in which the game of institutional power is anti-societal, and that "winners" are generally sociopaths. Prop Joe, Haynes, Omar, McNulty, Freamon, Daniels- these characters who fought for something more, something nobler- they never get to be on top.
Whether it's Templeton & co destroying the credibility and reliability of the newspaper, Carcetti crippling the city with his political games, or Marlo with his drug game, those most seflish and skilled in lying are those who win the game.
The bright note is that precisely because of their methods, the winners never achieve true greatness. Marlo is unrecognized and nearly killed by two kids on a corner while Omar's mythology grows. Rawls leaves for greater things without as much as a handshake (one would presume,) while Freamon and McNulty are forced to leave the job, but become legends of the police force. Beadie's speech to McNulty at the end of episode eight applies to everyone who destroy what's around them in a quest for power.
The message from the final season seems to be that truth is the opposite of power, and power is the opposite of greatness.
The Wire shows the truth about those who value power.
And you know, Law and Order is forgotten in 50 years while growing numbers pass down and copy their Wire DVD sets.
From Ep. 10: When Templeton describes his piece as Dickensian, he doesn't understand what it means, he just does it because it's what his boss wanted. Imagine the decline in intelligence when he's the boss. It's the same progression as in Daniels' outburst about juking the stats in conversation with Marla. Another reason to love the newspaper storyline.
Actually Gordo, Templeton wins a Pew-litzer. Hilarious that after all that lying and fabrication, he can't even properly pronounce the name of the prize he's after. Really a great journalist.
"The Wire is the best program in television history by such a wide margin..."
I beg your pardon. The West Wing is the best program in television history, and there are other shows that beat out The Wire, all things considered.
"I beg your pardon. The West Wing is the best program in television history, and there are other shows that beat out The Wire, all things considered."
Pray tell, in what way are they better?
The West Wing is great; I've seen all of it. But it's dramatically flawed and inconsistent, and not even close to The Wire.
The show paints a valid portrait of the inner city urban landscape. I worked in that world for ten years in adult literacy and it breaks your heart that most of the problems are far beyond our capability to resolve.
The basis of it all is the fragility of the humans at the bottom who are totally ill equipped and generally illiterate and can be incorporated into any loyalty or effort that can salvage some pride and gain some money.
Above them are the usual arrays of smarter folk who can organize and advise. This is the level of contact utilized by the police and agencies to track and communicate warnings and problems.
It was my experience that many reporters could really analyze events well and discover the truth of things but often the absence of such information from any media was the choice of editors and managers as a priority rather than conscious dictating by budget as portrayed in The Wire.
To have clearly defined discussions of choices and failures would be pretty luxurious discussion in urban police or media coverage. The Wire covered some of this well with most decisions made on the run then the need of theater is required to make a point and assemble all for a chorus number with lots of face shadows. This was very necessary to the narrative and very well done.
But I hope the series alerts our society that within us is an evil empire that may never threaten us but its results sap our vigor and most of its graduates are those one in ninety nine Americans who are incarcerated. Shame on us!
Trust me, The Wire IS Baltimore. While I live in DC, I'm only about 40 minutes from B'more and nothing, I mean NOTHING is inauthentic about this show...from the characters, the music, the style, the language/slang, the landmarks, the "Believe" signs, the THOUSANDS of abanoned (yet occupied) rowhouses. This is the REAL Baltimore people and it's a sad, sad city. When I go to Lexington Market, I'm almost brougth to tears seeing the dispair and hopelessness as soon as you enter Baltimore. Of course DC has drug addicts, homelessness, etc., but NOTHING like Baltimore. It's like stepping into another world- The Wire.
I take my hat off to David Simon, the writers, actors and the city of Baltimore...a truer, more realistic show never existed.
I am torn in deciding if I am disappointed with the season finale or that it was fabulous! I think its due to my own selfish reasons of wanting it to stay on. Although I have played several unfolding scenes that could have played out if it was continued, but how much more can i take of seeing some of my favorite characters living in total despair.
I loved how they brought in the education system and cultivated the growth of michael, duquan, namond, and randy's friendship through the education and family lifestyle. I used to teach in DC and Maryland and I have encountered several Baltimore kids and they embody the boys from the Wire.
I really wish the show would have continued and we saw what really happened and transpired as opposed to the flash forward run through at the end....sheesh!
This is one of the best shows and it is so true and real in the depiction of the inhabitants of Baltimore.
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It's Baltimore. It seems that nearly every main character has said at some point that nobody gets out alive. If Simon is right, why should television (as a philosophical construct) be any different?
Posted by Mr. Mantooth | March 7, 2008 3:45 PM