the creator of the show has noted that not many people want to watch it because its plots are "complex" and the dialogue between the criminals on the show consist of "esoteric slang"-- whatever that means. either way, he's partly right. actually. he's totally right.
on the outside, the show is about cops trying to bring down a drug organization/organizations in the city of Baltimore, Maryland. on the inside... it's about the shades of grey between both the criminal world and the justice department. everyone on the show has their flaws... and everybody is effected by the institution they are a part of. it's funny... even some of the criminals are more human than the people on the "good" side. its style of writing has been compared to that of a "visual novel"... and i read an interview between the creator of the show and Nick Hornby (author of High Fidelity and About A Boy)-- Hornby stated that the show takes on a very Dickensian approach to street life. *i can't say that i can agree with that, only for the fact that i've only read one story by Charles Dickens and it involves ghosts and Jesus' Birthday.* though, the fact that it's being compared that is cool in itself.
i'm not gonna suck the show's dick any longer. all i'm gonna do is write a couple of reason why the show is amazing.
reason number 1:
Senator Clay Davis.
he's the senator of maryland (in the show, obviously) and he might just be the most morally complex/corrupt character ever. but the reason why he's so awesome is because the only word in his vocubalary is the word: "shit".
and i don't mean just the word in itself. the way he says it: he elongates the word and makes it so that it sounds like Shaft or Superfly was saying it.
here's an example.
are you not laughing? because every time i see his face-- i want to laugh my ass off, or lmao.
reason number 2:
Detective Bunk Moreland
he delivers the best monologues/dialogues ever. every line uttered by him is calibrated to either be the funniest thing you've ever heard... or the most insightful.
he also gets drunk all the time and thinks he can get any woman he wants. i mean why wouldn't he? he's bunk.
now that's both funny and insightful. btw, somewhere in this show-- he actually does really good police work.
reason number 3
Omar
omar is pretty much the most badass character in this fucking show. he's pretty much like robin hood... except instead of stealing from the rich and giving to the poor... he steals from drug dealers and gives it to nobody-- he does it to fuck with the drug dealers. he's got his own agenda on the show. he has no flaws... only that he's a human being, and not a machine. he's a huge gay... but that doesn't stop him from killing a couple of corner boys with a 40 calibur pistol. he's one of the best things about this show.
it's a long clip, i know. but if you watched the whole thing... you would have seen that omar goes to jail, straps on some phone books around his belly, and fucking stabs the shit out of some guy... just to get respect. this show teaches you about life. if it's your first day of school... you obviously have to stab someone to show everyone that you don't take shit from nobody.
reason number 4
the show contains a considerable amount of crackheads
i think that's enough to want to watch it, right?
this clip is from the third season. one of the main arcs of the third season is the creation of this little area in Baltimore where it's legal to do drugs. they called it "hamsterdam". i sometimes found this story arc to be utterly ridiculous. but most of the time it was really interesting.
i could go on and on with reasons. but the main reason that i like the show a lot... is that it seems very realistic. it's not like Lost or fuckin' Heroes (btw, i love these shows dearly). there are answers in every episode and people die. there are no monsters and there are no japanese time benders. just cops, crackheads, and Senator Clay Davis.
shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittt.
***
I'm coming back to this blog about 2 months later from when I wrote it initially on myspace. Reason? Well I wrote the blog while i was viewing the fifth and final season... and I felt if I really loved the show, I would voice my opinions on how it ended and whether or not i loved the way it ended. i will be revealing many important and heartbreaking details of what occurs in the final episodes of the series... so beware of said "spoilers"
I watched a video on youtube where David Simon was invited to some journalism lecture at USC (he used to be a crime reporter for the Baltimore Sun), and he revealed that The Wire takes many elements from Greek tragedies as the backbone of it's overall story arc. He gave examples-- people like Stringer Bell and Bodie meeting their demise should come as no shock if you have the Greek tragedy notion in mind.
But the death of Omar Little, the show's most beloved character, met his demise in such a way that was so tragic and so subtle... that it was almost unfair. While trying to bring out Marlo to the streets, he walks into a bodega for his Newport Soft Packs, where a little fucking asshole, Kernard, shoots him in the head. He doesn't go down in flames... he just gets shot out of nowhere. Why is this so unfair? Because Omar has dodged death in so many more dramatic ways... I mean for fuck's sake, he jumped out of the 5th floor of an apartment building to escape the firefight between Snoop, Partlow, and Michael-- and he still came out alive! What was interesting though... was how my the next episode, I've already forgotten about Omar.
Statement being made by Simon-- once you're dead, you'll be remembered... but you're not a legend, you're just another dead guy. The police didn't really seem surprised to see Omar dead... he was just a dead body with evidence to incriminate Marlo. His status is nothing to them after he's dead. Every season Omar gets more badass and loveable because of his Robin Hood mentality and it's sad to see that Omar is just a forgotten figure in the streets and in the justice system.
R.I.P. Omar
Continuing.
The final episode of the Wire was about 90 minutes, 30 minutes longer than it's usual running time... making it seem like a fan's dream movie. Something that's great about the ending is that there's complete closure... yet it ends in a real specifically intentional way. What Simon is illustrating with the show is the theme of Cyclical-ity. Gabriel Garcia Marquez uses the theme a lot, especially in his book One Hundred Years of Solitude-- but Simon spent years developing that theme for The Wire. The show ends in such a way that Season 6 would just be the start of a "season 1". Ending with Michael having killed Snoop and now robbing drug dealers in a manner that Omar would have done-- with shotgun and all. Tragic Duquan following the path of Bubbles, who has actually been rehabilitated and now is on good terms with himself and his sister.
McNulty being forced to resign in one of the most bittersweet moments in television history, along with Lester Freeman's demotion to the pawn shop department. The whole homicide and major crimes unit gathering together at the local bar to celebrate his departure in a wake-style party. A beautiful moment. Marlo released from jail, goes legit, yet in one of the most satisfying scenes in the show, goes to a corner and starts shit with some corner boys and comes out victor, illustrating that, yes, he is still a hard-ass gangster. Partlow in jail hangs with Wee-Bay, muscle hanging with muscle. The New Day Co-Op still in action with a new leader, Slim Charles. Thank God he shot Cheese-- because he was fucking annoying the hell out of me. All is good... at least in terms of the way of things.
The show makes a couple of statements. The war on drugs will never end. The reason why? The institution in which one belongs to is always getting in the way of the problem, only to abide by the bigger picture-- that goes for the justice & education system, as well as the media, and definitely the streets. I already mentioned the cycle theme. All you can do now is watch the show for yourself. And if you don't like it... I won't hate you.
here's a video from youtube. it's the ending montage with a different song (gay) but it still looks pretty cool.
R.I.P. The Wire
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