David Simon & The Wire

Saturday, February 09, 2008

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Fantastic piece by Mark Bowden in Atlantic Monthly about The Wire - the greatest TV drama ever made - and the brooding personality of its creator David Simon. A former reporter on the Baltimore Sun, Simon (and his "chief collaborator", former cop and school teacher Ed Burns), cover a different aspect of their home city in each season of the show.

In the first, it was the drug trade - the futile cat and mouse game between the police and the dealers; the second homed in on the port, painting as powerful a portrait of the decline of industrial, blue collar America as has ever been shot; in the third, we see the city bureaucracy - and the politicians - in their full cynical glory; in the fourth (and the best, I think), it's the school system and the lure of easy money and respect to be found on the streets for African American kids; and in the final season, which I've yet to see, it's reportedly the spiritual bankruptcy of his former employer, the city's newspaper.

With its sprawling Dickensian narrative, searing language, beautifully-drawn (and largely African American) characters and extraordinary depth, The Wire is simply the greatest TV fiction I've ever seen. It's tough to watch, the plot meanders and you certainly don't watch it for the twists and turns - you watch it because it feels like you've strayed into a world that is as far away from TV Drama-land as it's possible to get. It's life lived hard; as it is lived by millions. And the truths it tells are universal.

Among its many great tributes was this from trade journal Variety: "When television history is written, little else will rival "The Wire," a series of such extraordinary depth and ambition that it is, perhaps inevitably, savored only by an appreciative few."

Posted by James Silver - On Saturday, February 09, 2008

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