Gibburt

Baltimore, Maryland, is one of the most crime-ridden cities in the United States. The rampant drug trade, above all, continues to keep its murder rates at more than five times those of New York. Journalist David Simon has gained deep insights into this quagmire. Not only was he a long-time police reporter at a local newspaper, but he also spent a year each following the city’s homicide department and observing a drug corner. These two projects both led to a book and a television mini-series. In 2000 then, Simon finally got the chance to amalgamate all his experiences into a long-running show: “The Wire”.

On the surface, the series is a crime drama chronicling police investigations into Baltimore’s drug gangs. However, “The Wire” hardly follows any conventions of the genre. Instead of being a string of self-contained episodes, it tells a long, complex story without any neat resolutions. It humanises the criminals and portrays the cops as flawed individuals motivated more by career advancement and personal satisfaction than by altruism. In later seasons, the scope of the series is expanded further and “The Wire” becomes an epic visual novel of urban degeneration: political corruption, the struggle of the working class and the failings of the school system and the media are all depicted in depth.

In doing so, no concessions are made to casual viewers or the faint of heart. Sex, drugs and violence abound. The dialogue is dense with subtext, almost entirely devoid of exposition and thickly laced with slang and swearing. A dazzling array of characters and sub-plots is intricately woven together and no easy solutions to the problems presented are given. Most of the series’ protagonists simply try to get by in the failed institutions they are trapped in. The few who genuinely attempt to shake up the status quo are quickly thwarted by political games and often have to pay a heavy price for breaking the unwritten rules of the system. No flashy camera work or music is allowed to distract from this stark realism.

Despite being so uncompromising, the makers of “The Wire” managed to keep the series going for all of the originally planned five seasons. Even more remarkably, the quality of the writing is highly consistent. In all of the 60 episodes produced, there is hardly a single weak scene. Just tight, gripping, complex storytelling with interesting, multi-dimensional characters, flawlessly directed and acted. And oh so many moments of pure and utter brilliance. A chess game that becomes a metaphor for the drug trade, a meaningful dialogue spanning several minutes that just consists of variations of “fuck”, a robber whistling “A-Hunting We Will Go”, likeable characters being mercylessly killed off, and let’s not forget the stylish title sequence accompanied by Tom Waits’ “Down in the Hole”.

“The Wire” is one of those works of art that should really never have happened. At so many stages in its realisation, it should realistically have died a quiet death like the police investigations it portrays. But somehow, it did get made, and I, for one, am grateful for the many hours of sublime entertainment and unsettling insights it has provided me with.

Buy the series on DVD from Amazon

Filed under: Leisure by Ralf Damaschke | Social tagging: crime > drugs > police > television