The greatest dynasty in pop culture lives on HBO, where The Wire just completed its fourth undefeated season. A fifth and final attempt at perfection is in the works.
I started to compose a treatise about what makes The Wire not just the most ambitious show on television, but the single greatest achievement in American pop culture. Five paragraphs in it felt like dancing about architecture. So I'll go with this:
- My man Chuck Muncie emailed me this after the kick-to-the-gut season finale: "I want to evangelize for this show. It's like Blue Note 1958-1960."
- Patton Oswalt sez: "It’s the closest thing I’ve ever seen on television to a big, thick, compelling novel, the kind you can’t stop reading... The Wire is one of the few times you’ll watch TV and not feel like the people making TV think you’re a fucking idiot."
- America's best TV critic called this season "the highwater mark of American television." At least.
The DVDs are out there. Warning: After watching a few episodes, all other television shows, movies, and even novels will feel childish. And you might feel depressed about the long off-season until The Wire returns for a fifth championship march.
No doubt.
I don't have anything cogent to add, other than this show has made me think more about class, race, art, institutions, andethics/morality than any real or fictional event I can remember, and yet I feel like an evangelist when I recommend it to friends. Mostly because they act like I am trying to proxy baptize them or something.
Posted by: Andrea | December 13, 2006 at 09:57 PM
(1) Randy in the group foster home was heartbreaking. The show's lack of overt sentimentality makes stuff like that all the more effective dramatically.
(2) Carcetti is a great character. In every other show he'd be a noble idealist or a conniving politico, here he's a little of both. I actually started believing in him during the election campaign and right after it, then he does the wrong thing with the school bailout funding; I love the shades of gray and ambiguities in this show.
(3) The fact that they could make McNulty, who's a likable character and the closest thing to a traditional protagonist, a bit player this season and still make it the best season of the series yet speaks to the strength of the writing.
(4) I watched the "French Connection" last week, which I had remembered from seeing it as a kid as "gritty" and "realistic", and it seemed really broad and corny next to the "Wire".
Posted by: ccw | December 14, 2006 at 07:04 AM
CCW:
(1) I nearly threw up when Randy checked into the group home. Carver's breakdown in the car was a devastating end to a great season for him. But what really broke my spirit was seeing Dukie dealing drugs for Michael.
(2) I'm guessing we'll see Carcetti run for governor in Season 5. "It's a new morning in Baltimore" for five minutes.
(3) I've never seen a series in which the first person listed in the opening credits shows up about seven times over a full season. The best line was when McNulty lent Omar his cell phone during his arrent, and the other patrol cop said, "What are you, some kind of Democrat?"
(4) Yeah, I feel the same way about everything now.
Posted by: seamus | December 14, 2006 at 03:46 PM
I heard Dominic West asked for a reduced role so he could audition for the role of James Bond. He later admitted to botching his audition.
Posted by: Jon | December 14, 2006 at 08:23 PM
Damn, I wish that I had HBO.
Posted by: catherine | December 15, 2006 at 04:12 PM
Word. That show blows my mind.
Posted by: dalton | January 25, 2007 at 04:22 AM