About a year ago i was introduced to what is now one of my favourite-EVER TV dramas....THE WIRE. It has recently become more popular and well-known as it has moved from a niche audience on SKY, to the mainstream audience of BBC 2. I found it highly addictive and incredibly watchable...watching the first three series in about a month, which equated to roughly over 30 hours of viewing!!
The 5 season show is centered around the police and their ongoing efforts to curtail drug crime and its spin-off problems in the city of Baltimore, Maryland, USA. The creator of the show David Simon describes the show as "really about the American city, and about how we live together. It's about how institutions have an effect on individuals, and how whether you're a cop, a longshoreman, a drug dealer, a politician, a judge or a lawyer, you are ultimately compromised and must contend with whatever institution you've committed to."
The style of the show does not make it easy for the viewer to just drop back in at any time. Much like The West Wing, one must watch and listen extremely carefully throughout. Missing even one minute could lead to missing one chunk of information vital to the storyline. The verbal language used throughout, introduced in the first series is new to us and therefore takes time to get used to. The way shared vocabularies define groups and structure worlds is shown through the language also.
The realistic and gritty script writing is a key part to the success of the show. The creator of the show spent a year with the Balitmore police, driving around in the cop cars to gather hands on research. The realism and authenticity are enhanced with the casting of real life gangsters, policeman and politicians into the roles that they have lived in real life. In fact, many of the former criminals who act on the show were previously arrested by the real-life cops who also act on the show.
The structure of the show becomes more and more complicated as the series go on. More characters are introduced throughout and hardly any of the previous cast leave.
The theme song to the series is "Way Down in the Hole". It is a gospel/blues, inspired song, where in each season a different recording and style of it against a different opening sequence is played. This small detail is something I look forward to at the beginning of each series.
One of my favourite characters in the show is Clay Davis, who is a corrupt Maryland State Senetor with a reputation for pocketing bribes. I find his elongated manner of cursing “sheeeeeeeeeit” very comical… you can see an example of this in the link below.
The key elements of the show including the gritty and authentic dialogue and verbal language, authentic and realistic storylines, ultra-realistic characters and complexity of stories, are designed to draw the viewer in and make you really live and breath the drama. If you haven’t seen it yet, I really recommend you do…it really is some GOOD SHEEEEEEEIIT!!
I only just got into the wire at the end of the last series/ start of this series but was hooked on it instantly. Unfortunately I haven't seen all of the episodes on over the summer period due to being at work so have missed and great deal of the story and didnt get to see the final episode . ill have to catch up bbc i player :)
ReplyDeleteIt is easily one of the best programs on Tv and it is a shame that was the last series. I'm going to have to find the first three series' on dvd now.
As the Times said, "Even people who don't watch the wire can tell you how good it is."