Inside The Wire
The Wire.
Oh my, what a show it is.
The mantle of Greatest Of All Time (GOAT) is an endless debate in every field of endeavor – and television is no exception. It’s a delight to banter back and forth as to the merits and flaws of the top shows. There will never be an definitive answer of course – that’s part of the fun.
For what it’s worth, IMDB ranks four scripted shows (excluding documentaries and anime) at the pinnacle of the public’s eye.
Highest of all is Breaking Bad (9.3) – worthy of much respect but is slightly overrated in my view. Walter White too often betrayed the intelligence his character was supposed to possess for me to uncritically enjoy it. BB was more successful with supporting characters, cinematography, and direction.
Next up is the Sopranos (9.2) – which deserves a spot in the pantheon just by redefining television as an art form that could compete with film.
Then there’s Game of Thrones (9.2) – which contended with BB for GOAT, but utterly collapsed in its final seasons. It’s dropped two points on IMDB and deserves to drop much further. I’ll save GoT’s monumental insult to the fans for another post.
Which brings us to The Wire (9.2). The Wire is the second-oldest show at the top, running for 5 seasons starting in 2001.
Whether The Wire is the GOAT is for each fan to decide, but it is indisputably the most honest.
The Wire is a pitch-perfect depiction of life in Baltimore from the perspective of the police, the street gangs, the schoolteachers, the students, the dockworkers and the reporters. The language, characters, plots and themes are spot-on – ringing with authenticity and respect.
Contemporary shows wear their woke politics on their sleeve. From excellent work (The Boys, Peaky Blinders, Mindhunters) to the merely good (Evil, Upload, Umbrella Academy), the social commentary is not the least bit subtle. All of these shows take great care to ensure the racist/sexist/incel phenotype; the rural/religious/patriotic Trumpian is ostentatiously put in his place.
Make no mistake, these are good shows, and I recommend them highly. But as one blogger noted, at the end of many episodes I expect a voiceover to say “I’m Joe Biden and I approved this message.”
Not so The Wire. The Wire engages in no such overt manipulation, and yet is a far more effective commentary on social issues than any current Hollywood production. Despite being two decades old, The Wire’s portrayal of the politics, the corruption, the bureaucracy, the system as a swamp entangling the righteous and wretched alike remains unmatched.
Docu-fantasies like the West Wing served as incubators for today’s woke-driven television. In these shows, issues are framed as simple morality plays, where what is easy, what is effective, and what is moral all conveniently intersect – forming the “wokespace”. Characters are then crafted to either be in the wokespace (good guys) or outside of it (bad guys).
Hollywood can still tell good stories under this model, as today’s television often demonstrates. But woke art is ultimately self-limiting, unable to go beyond proselytizing to the hipsters and millennials; spawning memes of snark on Twitter but leaving the deeper themes of the human condition unchallenged.
The Wire avoids that trap by showing the complexity of it all; showing how every issue, character, and agenda has nuance that defies simple sloganeering. There are no easy answers, no “just so” moments where we the audience are expected to nod in approval, satisfied that our preset positions on immigration/climate change/white supremacy/transphobia have been validated.
On The Wire, all the players are sophisticated, depicted with depth that drives their evolution over time. Characters seeking to improve the system find themselves mired in unintended consequences; characters striving to escape find they can never quite break free; characters that are indisputably sinister can still command respect.
And then there's the superb acting - as demonstrated by The Wire's brilliant alumni and their subsequent successes ranging from Game of Thrones to Luther to Bosch.
In terms of pathos, humanity and integrity, it is my view that The Wire is television’s GOAT.
And so it is my opinion that The Wire should be required viewing by every public official in America, across the entire political spectrum. I cannot recommend it enough.