The Wire is epic. Sometimes I wonder if I would value my life at all if I hadn’t seen it. Sometimes I wonder if I would value human life at all if it hadn’t been created. It is the first artistic masterpiece to have been created for television. You must watch it.
When it comes to this Baltimore based cop-show there are essentially two groups of people. Those who absolutely love it and those who haven’t seen it. The Wire’s novelistic density is unrivalled in the medium heretofore. Each show is a labyrinth packed with an array of plots and sub-plots that would make a palace-coup seem simple. The characters without exception have an epic depth to their personality, customs and even language. No two individuals will react in the same way to a given scenario and by the end of a few episodes you will have grasped the intricacies of each protagonist.
Ostensibly a police drama, The Wire is so much more. It’s an epitaph to American Industry, a sociological study of Baltimore and an induction into the drug industry all in one. The show spans the class divide; it engages with people who we would otherwise find repellent and makes them loveable. And it has what literary critics call ‘negative capability’. The capacity to step into the shoes of multiple individuals and explain life as they see it.
The visuals of the city are also exceptional. It gives a glimpse of the realism this drama generates, when I say I am aware of which season of the year a particular group of episodes has been filmed in. Series 2 for example, which tells the story of a bunch of dock-workers, starts in the depths of winter. The men are as hard as the crates they move and the visuals of crisp winter days radiate this sentiment. There is an atmosphere to this part of the story, something which grows beyond words and speaks to the audience on a level they probably didn’t know television could reach.
Another aspect of the show I love is the drugs and the drug industry. Set in an urban area with America’s highest crime rate, the show doesn’t skimp on the hardships and degenerate behaviour which make up daily life. Having watched five seasons I now feel well-versed in the micro-economy and unique social relations that make up this seedy aspect of society which seldom gets reported. This is real.
Finally, The Wire delights on a verbal and philosophical level. The ironies of life ‘on the edge’ and the absurdities thrust on so many of the characters are often distilled in pithy axioms which help the mind savour each episode. A drug baron lectures a lawyer, ‘I got the shotgun, you got the brief-case what’s the difference’, while the short life expectancy of the low-level drug runners is summed-up at the chess board. ‘The pawns get capped early in the game’.
So I implore you. Set aside the revision books this Easter. Invest a hundred quid in buying the box sets and settle down for a month of exceptional television. The world would be heavenly if people watched a television show about hell.
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