The Wire

We’re done! Getting through all five seasons of The Wire in one massive binge took weeks & weeks out of our usual movie-viewing schedule, but it couldn’t have been more worth it. Instead of yet another paean to “the best show on television” (which, in fact, isn’t praise enough), here’s a quote by David Simon from an interview by Nick Hornby, followed by a mess of links.

The Wire is a Greek tragedy in which the postmodern institutions are the Olympian forces. It’s the police department, or the drug economy, or the political structures, or the school administration, or the macroeconomic forces that are throwing the lightning bolts and hitting people in the ass for no decent reason. In much of television, and in a good deal of our stage drama, individuals are often portrayed as rising above institutions to achieve catharsis. In this drama, the institutions always prove larger, and those characters with hubris enough to challenge the postmodern construct of American empire are invariably mocked, marginalized, or crushed. Greek tragedy for the new millennium, so to speak.

• The Wire at Wikipedia
• A Final Letter to The Wire fans by David Simon
• The Wire’s War on the Drug War – TIME
• The Believer – Nick Hornby interviews David Simon
• David Simon Profile in The New Yorker
• Interview with David Simon – Salon
• Matthew Yglesias: David Simon and the Audacity of Despair
• The Wire: How sheee-it started – Slate
• Everything you were afraid to ask about “The Wire” – Salon.com
• Why The Wire is the best show on television – Jacob Weisberg in Slate
• What’s Alan Watching? “-30-”: Farewell to Baltimore – David Simon Q & A
• Thoughts on the ‘Wire’ finale? – baltimoresun.com
• It’s a Wrap for Gritty TV Series – washingtonpost.com
• Vulture: Ptolemy Slocum on the Emotional Last Night, Sternbergh on ‘The Wire’ Finale, ‘The Wire’: One Last Long, Boozy Irish Wake for David Simon’s Accidental Masterpiece, ‘The Wire’ Finale’s Montage: A Shot-by-Shot Commentary, Ten Questions Left Unanswered by the ‘Wire’ Finale
• Metafilter: The Wire as Institution -  The Wire: 4 seasons in 4 minutes – Who Gets to Tell a Black Story? - playing with the tuning knobs… – Shiiiieeeet – The Wire’s over

The Wire. David Simon, 2002-2008. *****