Thursday 8 February 2018

The Wire

There was a time when people would refuse to speak to you if you weren’t watching The Wire.  It was a remarkable achievement, as it wasn’t exactly readily available in a primetime terrestrial slot.  Between 2002 and 2008, when its five seasons first aired, the viewing population was just getting their minds around the fact that you didn’t have to wait for a channel to schedule your shows, checking the TV guide magazine and asking your dad if he could set the VCR, even though he never revealed throughout your whole childhood that he didn’t actually know how to do this and you mindlessly accepted his apologies for failing to record anything properly.  Or was that just me?


It just showed that quality will find an audience, though this quality didn’t find me till around 2014.  Living in a Brixton boys’ house share, I needed to avoid the evening’s football viewing, as the sound of fans chanting throughout a match makes me feel both seasick and afraid of being lynched at the same time.  As the account controller of our Sky box, I was able to fire up Sky Go on the laptop.  The service was unreliable, but my scrolling brought me to The Wire.  I’d told friends for years I would eventually get around to it.  Now it was time to follow up.

My first response was to be appalled at how dated the show looked.  2002 was a long time before 2014.  Around twelve years for any maths fans out there.  The aspect ratio was tiny.  It wasn’t HD.  They had dated clothing.  How dare they?  I was expecting sexy police drama with nerve-touching social commentary.  There wasn’t even a conventionally attractive cast member.  What kind of TV show was this?

Then I remembered a former dear housemate had tried to sit down and watch episode one of series one with me many years before.  I had been instantly put off by the claim that “everyone says it’s really good.”  Everyone is normally wrong.  I sat through the episode but couldn’t find anything special.  Yet, somehow, in 2014, I managed to re-watch, and then carried on.  And on.  And on.
The point, therefore, is that the characters and plot transcend how much technology has dated the production of that first series.  And pretty quickly, I rolled through from season to season, where the resolution picked up and my modern expectations were met with a more tolerable picture.  I mean, it was hardly a historical artefact.

Each series cycles through a different element of life, crime and punishment in the city of Baltimore, with the show’s name coming from the first series’ drug-busting focus, with a group of misfit cops trying to tap dealers’ phones in order to gather evidence.  Subsequent series deal with the city’s port, schools, politics and the media, with the police there throughout.  As such, the transition between series is particularly satisfying, as you are starting a whole new and fairly separate chapter.
The main conclusion you draw is that Baltimore is terrifying.  But you’ll also want to visit.  The only person I know who’s been is the very former housemate who tried to watch the first episode with me.  He used to have anxiety each winter from not feeling Christmassy enough in the run up to the big day, prescribing himself festive jumpers and excessive flat decorations in order to address the situation.  If he can survive the mean streets of Omar Little and Stringer Bell, then anyone can.  Sorry to shatter the illusion, though I don’t think he dealt any crack.

What else?  Half the cast seems to be British.  In fact, you’ll constantly be recognising people from other shows, particularly in roles that are incongruous with their Wire characters.  I kept expecting Michael Lee (played by Tristan Wilds) in series four suddenly to give the Dixon Wilson chuckle synonymous with his 90210 character.  Too much of the show was taken up by bars full of cops singing Irish funeral shanties.  Bunk Moreland remains one of my favourites, if only for his response of “shiiii-iiiit” to situations.


But mock as I may, The Wire shines a light on unfair systems and societies that still exist.  This alone makes it important viewing.  Add in the great writing, performances and plot, alongside the breakout roles for Idris Elba (from those Sky adverts – how funny) and Dominic West, and you can’t help but conclude that you really should listen to everyone that tells you to watch something.

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