Andrew
01-14-2010, 04:21 AM
David Simon is the creator of the critically acclaimed HBO drama series “The Wire”. A former police reporter at the Baltimore Sun newspaper, it seemed logical that Simon would write about a police show based in the city of Baltimore. The Wire is a five season series about, what seems on the surface, as a story about the drug war between the police and drug dealers. However, the show in its entirety examines issues in politics, institutions and society in America.
Although based in Baltimore, problems brought up by The Wire can be seen in most major urban cities in the United States. The story revolves around social groups that include cops, drug dealers, dockers, teachers, politicians, teenagers, working class and starving class. How these people interact with each other in the society of Baltimore successfully creates a sense of the fall of the American empire, where the social order is unable to create an effective system in governing itself and individuals in it. The Wire is therefore less like a traditional police drama in this sense, and more like a story about the current issues facing America, told with political cynicism and moral ambiguity.
The Wire is non-traditional in every sense of the word. Often hailed by critics as “the best show in the history of television” its complexity and width of discussions rival that of academic literature on sociology. So in touch with reality that it can be considered a detailed study on the subject instead of entertainment alone. Not only does it navigate horizontally across the spectrum of social groups and institutions mentioned, it also examines those organizations vertically, from the head to foot soldiers of the drug trade, the chief of police to majors to lieutenants, teachers to students, unions to dock workers, even the mayor and council representatives. David Simon, being from a journalist background, undoubtedly contributed to the journalistic style of The Wire, in the sense where current issues are thoroughly researched and discussed. However, in a final thank you letter to his fans on the HBO website, Simon addresses that The Wire is fiction and should not be confused as journalism. Events that took place are not real. That said, it could be argued that the content in The Wire is very representative to real life. So much so that it almost seems like a documentary. Although the stories may not be real, they might as well have happened because somewhere at sometime something like that would have taken place in Baltimore.
In this respect, The Wire is non-traditional compared to its predecessors and current police dramas. This ties in with the notion of quality television and long story arcs. Quality TV is defined as shows that have sophisticated content and targeted at the most wanted audience. Shows like The Sopranos, ER or The West Wing, are programmed to attract the most prized market: ‘the 18-40 year old urban, educated, up-scale viewer.’ (Hammond and Mazdon, 2005, p.211). Instead of trying to satisfy the mass audience, television companies have began to think about classifying audience into groups of identifiable unique characteristics. For example, Hammond and Mazdon (2005) writes, ‘ER possesses a recognizable internal formula: a unique visual style, dense narrative plotting and a combination of episodic and accruing storylines.’ (p.208). The combination between storylines that are summed up in one or two episodes and other long story arcs about relationships, is another characteristic of quality television. This ensures that new viewers are able to immerse themselves in the story quickly, and also ensure repeated viewings of the show to find out more about the long story arcs. Police dramas often present the viewer with shocking crimes like rape and murder, however, due to the structure of television historically, these crimes are usually tied up with the arrest of the criminal at the climax of the episode. There is a clear resolution of the story, usually summed up in a court trial. This approach, while effective at attracting and retaining audiences, is not a realistic portrayal of reality. Hollywood in this way is making the most brutal and violent crimes seem mundane and fixable. While quality TV shows like NYPD Blue and Law and Order: SVU paved the way for other dramas like The Wire, David Simon’s creation was an innovation that took television to the next level.
The Wire is less predictable, matched with a conflict that never seems to have a resolution. A good example of this is the symbolic meaning of the case board in the police headquarters. The board lists all the current cases pursued by the Baltimore police department. When a big case e.g. Barksdale is cleared, more cases take their place. It is a never-ending cycle of crime. The narrative of The Wire is non-traditional in the sense where all the episodes tell a continuous story that accumulates to a final ending at the end of the season. Instead of a case running during a single episode, cases in The Wire run throughout the whole season. The show makes use of long story arcs exclusively without shorter storylines between each episode. The entirety of The Wire itself is one giant story where issues and characters brought up by previous seasons interlink with each other over the course of the show. It has been often described has having a novelistic quality to it due to the length and complexity. In fact, the only recap method utilized is a series of shots in the opening sequence of each episode comprised of what happened so far and what would happen in that particular season. This, coupled with one-hour episodes without commercial breaks, shows that The Wire is an unconventional drama. It also explains why the show was not a huge commercial success.
Although a critical success, The Wire never gained much support during the time of its broadcast on HBO. It didn’t have poor ratings, as it continued to its fifth season, but it wasn’t a hit either. There has been much speculation around the reasons why this was the case. One probable reason was because the cast of the show was predominantly black. While this may sound odd in today’s society, it makes sense that black culture is negatively stereotyped by most white culture. When a viewer turns on his or her TV and sees that the show is about blacks in rough neighborhoods, they instinctively switch the channel. The Wire requests time and attention from its viewers, which is something the average viewer does not have due to the conditioning of commercial television. The story of The Wire has no happy endings; it provides little entertainment and avoids cheap victories at all costs. The language of the show is rich and dense. It makes use of neighborhood slangs and drug talk that the average person would not understand most of the time. One can argue that the reason that The Wire was not popular was because of its own innovation in TV.
The realism of The Wire is something that is communicated through the show’s narrative style. Its characteristics challenge the classical narrative that is present in most other TV shows. It is something that sets The Wire apart.
To begin with, the music other than that played in the title sequence is mainly diegetic. This means any music heard in a scene is actually from a source on screen. In fact, this rule is applied to all sound design of The Wire, allowing the fourth wall to remain intact and realism maintained.
The Wire, in comparison to other police dramas, underplays the stylistic aspect of its narrative. This means that the show has almost a low budget appeal to it. There is little use of special effects or stylish edits, unlike shows such as Crime Scene Investigation.
The recurring characters are psychologically complex and deal with real problems in life. In other words, they have a greater depth in their personality that is also riddled with flaws. Even the police, who are suppose to be the “Good Guys” struggle with bureaucracy at work and personal relationships in life; finding it hard to balance the two. For example, the detail has to crawl through miles of red tape just to get a wiretap authorized on the drug dealers. McNulty, who is the “protagonist” of the series, is an alcoholic cop who has problems with insubordination but is brilliant at his job. Lieutenant Daniels faces problems dealing with his career and the politics of the high command and also the relationship between him and his wife. Kima has problems with her girlfriend who wants her to quit the force etc. Even the drug dealers have problems other than the police. D'angelo is torn between playing “the game” and his devotion to his family. Stringer wants a way of transformation of his drug business into a legitimate business. We can see here that the characters in The Wire are three-dimensional; lost in life and work but unable to change anything for the better.
The length and the continuity of the plot provide a better understanding of the time it takes in reality to wrap up a case. It also gives more time to really dig deep and explore the issues it brings up. In season one, the Barksdale case is opened after the arrest of D’angelo as a suspect in the killing of a witness who testified in court against the family. It’s not until much later in the season that the police are able to secure a wiretap on the key figures of the gang and learn about what is actually going on. It gives opportunity for the show to introduce the government housing projects and the structure of government departments in Baltimore.
Resolution of events is never perfect. The show is not afraid of killing off major characters. D’angelo, whose role in the first season is of great importance, is killed off by Stringer while he was in prison in the second. His death is exemplified by a speech he made to a reading group in a library session. The speech marked his revelation to the similarities between Gatsby and his life, where at the end of the day he is still part of “the game” and a drug dealer no matter how far he runs or who he says he is. Dealing with the blame he was not responsible for, D’angelo wanted to turn in Avon and Stringer and get out of “the game”, but because of his loyalty, he takes on the responsibility and is thus sentenced to prison.
Finally, The Wire makes use of real locations and non-professional actors in its narrative. The series is filmed in Baltimore; little of it is shot in a studio or another city. The script has parts for actors who actually are from the projects and use to be former drug dealers. Therefore, it really captures the reality of the city and its inhabitants.
Not only is the narrative structure realistic, but the issues the show brings up is vastly important as well. Violence and crime is depicted as the product of a failing power structure in the city’s institutions.
A large part of the show surrounds the hierarchy of the Baltimore police department and its relationship with the government administration. Although the plot is too detailed to be explained in full, the basic premise of the situation presented in the third season is that the crime and drug rate of Baltimore is rising. The public requests urgent attention to this matter and the mayor, nearing his re-election and desperately needing approval of the voters, pushes down hard on the police to make more media covered arrests and drug busts. Here lies the first of many failures of the power structure. The government is motivated by individuals who have their own goals in their career and is less worried about actual change. The chief of police in turn pushes his subordinates to these goals, which often conflicts with case work that is not ready to make arrests yet. As a result of this, the entire department reacts to the building pressure by cheating statistics in arrest reports. For example, turning an aggravated assault into a misdemeanor. This obviously does nothing to solve the actual problem but only acts as a tool in pleasing the general public.
The Western District of the Baltimore police department is the center of crime portrayed in season three. Coming close to his retirement, Major Colvin saw the disability of his department to up hold the law in the neighborhoods. He devised a plan without the knowledge of his superiors to effectively reduce violence and killings on the street corners of western Baltimore. He understood that the Western District is too big a place to control for his under staffed department. By concentrating all the gangs controlling the corners, the police could facilitate criminal activity. The solution to this was allowing the drug trade to occur in specific locations where there are fewer inhabitants that could be potential victims. The area was nicknamed after the city of Amsterdam. Known as “Hampsterdam”, Drug dealers were free to deal whatever they were selling free from police interference. The police could then monitor these areas closely to ensure no violence would break out. In The Wire, this method proved to be relatively successful and achieved what it was meant to do. Although the drug war was still fueled by the Barksdales, and organizational killings remain unaffected, normal petty street killings did reduce. However, it was unpopular with the officers who ran the operation due to the fact that it was highly illegal and unknown to the heads of the department. The result was that Colvin was demoted and forced to accept a lower wage, and Baltimore police department looking worse than it already did. This is a fine example of how the ineffectiveness of the system led the frustrated individuals who do care to take matters into their own hands.
The “game” is a reference often made by characters in The Wire. It refers to the drug war between the police and dealers and between gangs and gangs. D’angelo describes this in a particular way, comparing it to a game of chess. Two main sentiments of what he describes truly explains the structure of the criminal organization: “The king stay the king” and “the pawns get capped quick”. These statements refer to Avon Barksdale, who is D’angelo’s uncle, as the king of the organization. The pawns refer to the foot soldiers that do the day-to-day drug running of the business. The show uses this speech as foreshadowing for D’angelo’s ultimate death in season two. The character Omar Little also refers to the “game” in the scene of a court testimony. While on the stand, Omar is accused by a corrupt lawyer under the payroll of the Barksdales as “sucking the lifeblood of this city”. Omar responds with “I got the shotgun, you got the briefcase, it’s all in the game”. This describes the issues of corruption within the legal system of Baltimore. Daniel’s wife, who starts off in season one supportive of her husband’s career, said to him in a dinner scene: “if you don’t play the game, you cant lose”, which subtlety remarks that she is getting impatient of seeing him fail repeatedly at climbing the career ladder like most of his colleagues. We can see here that the “game” refers to politics as well.
Season two centers around the smuggling ring in the docks of Baltimore. Over the years the docks have been seeing less and less business and is struggling to stay alive. As a result of this, the head of the worker’s union Frank Sobotka turns to the criminals who traffic people and drugs via the docks. Sobotka is given money for keeping his mouth shut about the workings of the criminals and in helping them disguise missing containers that contain contraband. The season opens with a discovery of a container full of girls who are suspected as the supply of women in the sex trade. The girls have suffocated due to the air pipe on top of the container being sealed shut. The season then continues with the reopening of the detail to work on the case. We can see that The Wire examines the issues relating to the working class and criminal activity that extends beyond drugs and the projects. As mentioned before, the series offers little audience gratification from the problems presented. For example, Sobotka decides to help the police in an effort to save his son from prison, but before he is able to do so, is killed by the smugglers. The Greek, who is the man responsible for the operation, leaves town before the police could figure out who he was. As a result, they end up arresting the middle management of the organization, doing little damage to the root of the problem. The same can be said about the ending of season three, where Avon is betrayed by Stringer and is re-arrested for breaking his parole. With Stringer dead and Avon in prison, Marlo’s gang takes control of the corners, and thus replaces the Barksdales in the drug game. Nothing changes.
On the surface, The Wire is a political and social critique on the state of Baltimore. Unlike most satires, it is told without humor and without hope to its audience. David Simon successfully creates a fictional world where questions are brought up but no one has the answers to. Although fictional, The Wire creates a feeling in the audience that is so in touch reality, it almost seems like the viewer travels straight to a world where little have seen. The show is well researched but refuses to spoon-feed the viewer with information. Instead, it requests our attention to the smallest details and forces us to analyze the issues it presents. Therefore, to truly appreciate this grand piece of work, one must have repeated viewings of The Wire to absorb everything it has to offer.
While there is almost nothing but high praises for the show, one of the few faults of The Wire is that it offers up the problems but refuses to present solutions for them. As David Simon is undoubtedly passionate about the situation in Baltimore, he offers little suggestions as to what can be done to fix the society’s problems. One obvious solution would be to provide young people a chance to be productive members in society. Many of the younger characters in the show often turn to the drug trade because there is no other choice. In the case of D’angelo, he was born into it. By providing more jobs and better education, the issues in The Wire would be less extreme than it actually is.
However, in evaluation, The Wire is a celebration of quality television amongst a sea of mindless Hollywood entertainment it shared the screen with. It is a work of art, and fully deserves all its praise.
Bibliography
Hammond, M. and Mazdon, L., (2005). The Contemporary Television Series. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press Ltd
Jancovich, M. and Lyons, J., (2003). Quality Popular Television. London: British Film Institute
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