I finally decided to watch The Wire.
You can read all this and it wont spoil anything if you haven’t watched it yet. I was very careful.
I started watching Season 1 on January 1st. Two weeks later I have watched all 5 seasons. This was aided by 1) my being sick last week and 2) I had nothing else to do in Boston. I avoided feeling like a couch potato by doing Sun Salutations every 2-3 episodes. That is a metric fuckton of television.
I can definitely say that this is the best TV series ever made. I enjoyed the first season the most (in order 1,4,3,2,5) but that’s just a nuance they are all absolutely fantastic.
So the first season is one story arc, they are building a case against this drug dealer in Baltimore, no one in the system is interested in prosecuting drug crime, so they are investigating homicides in order to catch the big fish. They do this meticulously and it centers around the use of a wire, basically phone taps, and other surveillance.
It is very detailed and you have to work to keep up with everything that happening. Watching it was not a passive experience at all. I spent most of the time sitting forward on my sofa, leaning towards the television. There is almost no waste, everything is important.
It was funny, once I’d finished watching the whole thing, I read an interview with David Simon, the creator. He said the trick was in not showing the whole picture at once, there might be gaps or the links between characters might not be obvious. He said he wanted people to be leaning towards the television. “Once you’ve got that lean, I’ve got you.” Uncanny.
I accidentally made Season One a bit more complex and involving than it actually was.
I watched episodes 1,2 and 3 in one go. The next day I watched the next 3 episodes but in the wrong order. I watched episode SIX first, then FOUR then FIVE.
I did not realise I had done this until the last scene of episode Five.
So I started my session by watching what I thought was the fourth episode. It was even more dense and complex than the first 3 episodes, I was almost standing up my lean was so leany. I rewound to listen to conversations again, filling in the gaps. It felt challenging but not out of character of what I had seen so far. In a lot of scenes people were referring to things that had happened but I had not seen. That happens all the time in novels, especially as they start out. I was piecing together stories. There was a murder at the beginning of the episode and then it got into all the ripples it caused.
Great episode, I was blown away. I went straight onto what I thought was episode 5 but was in fact 2 episodes before the one I had just watched.
It was genius, all my effort paid off as one piece of the puzzle slotted into place after another. About half of the scenes seemed unrelated, brand new, so I thought the narrative was jumping between post murder and pre murder. Flashbacks and present day. I was really really impressed. It was so satisfying, so meaty. Genius.
I had an inkling something was off when in one episode I saw the low level drug dealer meeting the girl I had seen him wake up with in (what I thought was) Episode 4. “That’s taking it a bit far” I thought. Just as I felt I had started to get a handle on some of the legal procedures (getting the authorization for a wire is a pain in the ass, you have to have exhausted all other avenues of investigation), they started to not make sense now.
Then at the end of episode 5, something happened that brought it ALL together. Basically the whole setup to the murder. It was like I HAD SOLVED THE CASE! Everything fell into place, it was awesome.
Then I realised that it was too awesome. I had watched that episode 3 not knowing what the fuck was going on but TRUSTING that that confusion would pay off. I now saw that it would make much more sense to have it be episode 6. Then I realised my stupid error.
So I made The Wire better. Kind of. Because I’m an idiot.
Barack Obama loves this show.
When asked what his favorite show was in the Primaries he said The Wire. I found this out after I had seen it all and thought holy shit, the president to be has seen this brutally honest, tragic, mostly ugly portrait of an American city. Presidents don’t think about this stuff! It all gets ignored by everyone, the show is partly about how that comes to be, the machinations of politics, media, legislature, law enforcement serve to fuck everything up further.
He also said his favorite character was Omar, a guy who robs drug dealers. He is badass. He walks down a block with whistling “A hunting we will go” his bulletproof vest and his shotgun visible beneath his raincoat.
People shout “OMAR COMING” , corner boys, dealers and junkies run indoors, then the streets are empty.
Omar often talks in the third person. Him and the Queen are the only people that really works out for.
A scene right out of a western. Everything but the tumbleweed and the creaking bar saloon sign. Fucking brilliant. He normally doesn’t need to do anything to work his trade, the dealers voluntarily drop their stash out of the window for him to pick up.
Also he is gay. which isn’t exactly widespread in the world of The Wire. It doesn’t come across as a gimmick either.
So to recap, Obama’s favorite character is a gay stick up gangsta, whose reputation for murder and fearlessness makes everybody scared shitless of him. He’s the guy the drug dealers have nightmares about.
Omar is my favorite character too so you ight Obama.
I didn’t really know about this show, I heard some good things so I decided to dive in. I’ve heard people gush about it, sounded a bit “me too.”
I’m kind of glad I didn’t know about it until all 5 seasons were done. If you can watch the episodes in a season back to back (well not waiting a week in between) you get totally and utterly immersed a world you otherwise would have no way of really knowing about.
Watch it a.s.a.p. I’m not kidding. Unrelentenly fascinating is how I’d describe it.
Lol nobody read all of that.
In the meantime I have cancelled my TV (unrelated) because I don’t ever ever watch it. Apart from LOST. Which starts next week, or the week after I dunno. So I’ve got to work that out.
kisses Teach) . In that moment that you changed the course of history forever.”
