The Wire

Katie D.

April 2, 2011 - 9:43 PM

The Wire is my favorite TV show in the history of television. It goes beyond favorite TV show, actually: it is one of my favorite works of fiction ever created. That includes books. For those of you who have been blog readers in the past, you know how I feel about books and literature. The Wire is some of the best literature out there.

My parents gave me the full series for my birthday. I have never been happier about a birthday present. Nor more distracted by one.

The Wire is set in Baltimore, and follows the lives of city cops and the groups they police. It's a story about the modern city, and about the complications and intersections of life therein. It also is the most honest depiction of crime and justice I have ever seen in popular culture. It deals fairly and evenly with both the police force and the criminal elements of the city: on every level of each organization, there are individuals who you love and those you despise. There are those who are honest and those who compromise to help those around them. There are violent individuals you root for, and acts of injustice that make you furious. All in a context that is both horrifyingly familiar to me (ie the modern world) and is surprisingly foreign to me (an inner city context on the East Coast).

The first time I watched The Wire, it was with a group of friends, and we stretched the series to last most of the year. Each episode was discussed, dissected, and eventually became a central part of my friend Miles' Honors College thesis, in which he explored narrative structures and life choices.

I've given this some thought, and I think I can honestly say that the fourth season of The Wire, which deals partly with the Baltimore public school system, is one of the most important narratives I have ever seen.

I've heard of a variety of academic implications of The Wire. Criminal justice classes, Film courses, and sociology classes all use this as a discussion text. I've even heard rumors of an entire course devoted to the series: The Geography of The Wire.

Television matters on campus. It matters because it's popular culture, and as such infuses our daily lives and personal narratives. It also matters because my generation was raised on TV and not on books. It also matters because, if done well, there is the opportunity to create a story that continues for enough time that you believe you know the characters: you enter into a world and can engage in a narrative you might never otherwise hear.

For you other fans of the show, I'm sure you understand what I'm talking about when I say I've been sucked back in, and am consumed. I'm watching the cops chase wire taps and follow the money. I'm witnessing shoddy journalism and dishonest political campaigns promising systemic change. I'm pulled in by the language, the inside jokes, the standardization of violence, and the evidence of the collapse of a city beneath the weight of competing bureaucracies. Plus, it's been almost a year since I finished the season. I'm excited to see these folks again: Kima, Proposition Joe, McNulty, Bunk, Omar, Bode, Randy, Stringer Bell, Poot, Bubbles, Avon, Horseface, Snoop, The Greek, Freeman, and the whole gang. All the gangs, actually, whether they be on the streets or in the detectives units.

Aside from all the narrative importance, and the cultural significance of this show, it's also just darn good as entertainment. As the fans out there know, it's all in the game.