Don't go in expecting non-stop action, or fast-paced plotting, or cliffhangers at every turn.This is not that kind of show.
This is not your normal cop show.
This is The Wire.
I'll admit it, I wasn't ready for this show the first time I tried it out. I was a big fan of The Shield, another great (and smart) cop show, but it leans a bit more toward the "fast-paced" end of the spectrum. There's a new case (or two or three) every week, heads are busted, shots are fired, and things get resolved in pretty neat packages.
So I heard about The Wire as the OTHER great cop show on cable TV. So I picked up Season 1.
Then I watched two episodes and unceremoniously threw it aside.
My main complaint? Not much happened. There were a lot of conversations (and they were INTERESTING, well-written conversations) but it didn't seem to be going anywhere.
Boy, was I wrong.
When I finally got my head on straight and started up again fresh, many months later, something finally clicked. The Wire got its hooks in, and it would not let go.
This is the closest thing to real life that you'll find on television. The creators have always called it a "televised novel", and it's true. No other TV show has managed the level of depth in terms of characters, story, and setting found here.
"A Network of Conversations"
A friend of mine by the name of Tina Olivero has said that "business is a network of conversations", and that is so true in the business world and in everyday life as well. Everything we accomplish, every plan, every strategy, every success, and every failure stems from a conversation. And the most important don't always seem it at the time.
The story of The Wire begins with a seemingly innocent conversation. A smart but cocky police detective by the name of McNulty (a charismatic Dominic West) is at the courthouse and sees a local gang member get away with murder. Literally.
The accused is D'Angelo Barksdale, a relative of Baltimore drug kingpin Avon Barksdale. And unfortunately for the justice system, the Barksdale crew is intimidating enough to make the key witness change her testimony mid-trial and say she DIDN'T actually see D'Angelo Barksdale murder a man in cold blood.
This turn of events disturbs McNulty, who is usually the smartest guy in the room (both his greatest asset and his greatest fault). He wastes no time talking to the judge about the Barksdale gang's hold over much of the city's drug trade. The judge is shocked that Mr. Barksdale has managed to stay under the radar, since there is no active investigation into his gang.
McNulty's "innocent" conversation with the judge in the first episode of Season 1 is the basis for the rest of the season, and, eventually, the rest of the show as a whole. Like the tiniest pebbles that can start a huge avalanche, this simple conversation spawns an entire complex detective story. If the first episode seems slow, don't do what I did my first time trying out The Wire. Trust the writers! It takes a while to set up a true masterpiece.
So, back to the story. The judge starts shaking things up in the Baltimore Police Department, forcing the creation of a special detail tasked with investigating Avon Barksdale. And this is where we get our first (and not last) dose of reality.
You know how in most cop shows, detectives get a case handed to them and they work that case like the very fires of hell are nipping at their heels, compelling them to solve the thing (usually in the span of 44 minutes)? The Wire ain't like that either.
"When it ain't your turn to give a f**k"
Everybody in the police department HATES the fact that McNulty laid this doozy of a case at their feet. They don't even have a PICTURE of Avon Barksdale to start with. The police department (for obvious political reasons) needs clearances (a.k.a. solved cases!) in order to look good in the stats. The fact that this Barksdale character is corrupting the very city they live in matters little to the men in charge of the police department because they have their own job to do, and they need to look like they're doing it (superficially at the very least). This theme of politics contrasted against what is morally right is a driving force of the series, and is introduced in this very first episode.
So nobody likes this new case, not even McNulty's partner and best friend, "Bunk" Moreland (a world-weary but always funny Wendell Pierce) who delivers the best quote of the series opener describing McNulty's situation - "giving a f**k when it ain't your turn to give a f**k." The detail assigned to the case is made up of McNulty, a few good narcotics officers ticked off that they've been taken off the streets, and then an even higher quota of useless old clock-watchers waiting for nothing more than their retirement pensions. The detail is stuffed in a basement and, for all intents and purposes, forgotten about. At first anyway.
"The King stay the King"
Meanwhile, The Wire shows us just as much about the Barksdale gang these cops know so little about. For a while, the audience knows a hell of a lot more about what's going on than the police do, which also makes for interesting viewing. We're introduced to the major players of the Barksdale gang through the eyes of D'Angelo Barksdale, the young man on trial in the first part of the pilot episode, and this is no stereotypical TV gang-banger. It's a very nuanced performance by Larry Gilliard, Jr. and he eases us into Baltimore's underbelly by being a bit of an outsider himself.
His uncle Avon relegates D'Angelo to a "management" position in The Pit, a housing project where teens hand out drugs, watch for cops, and take the cash like old pros. We soon realize that these are not your stereotypical one-note criminals either. These are smart men running a successful business. The hierarchy is much like a chess board (a metaphor from a little later in Season 1) where the "King" (a.k.a. Avon) is protected at all costs. This means that Avon is so far removed from the actual drug-dealing that, as you watch the first season, you'll start thinking that our down-and-out detectives are NEVER going to take him down.
The writers take us deeply into both sides of the story and the fun is in watching it all play out.
I was considering writing a few essays, one covering each season of The Wire, but I quickly reconsidered because, frankly, anyone who has read this far just needs to watch the show and be as surprised and enthralled by the twists and turns as I was. You will not regret it!
"And all the pieces matter"
This is a cop show that starts at the bottom (way, WAY at the bottom) and works its way up to show you the WHOLE scope of a case over an entire season, something every other cop show before this one was afraid to do. And they don't just retry the same formula with the following four seasons - quite the opposite, actually. Each season wrenches open the world of The Wire even further, showing us the drug dealer's supply chain (Season 2), their political ties (Season 3), the school system's relationship with the drug trade (Season 4), and finally, the effect of the media on the whole mess (Season 5).
Entire books can be (and have been) written about this multi-layered show. I haven't even mentioned some of my favourite characters, including the mild-mannered genius Lester Freamon (Clarke Peters), the drug addicted police informant Bubbles (Andre Royo), and Baltimore's "Robin Hood" style stick-up man Omar Little (Michael K. Williams), just to name a few. I haven't mentioned how the first case goes from "forgotten in the basement" to a sophisticated surveillance operation. I haven't mentioned some of the great moments in the first season (all of them pitch perfect because they are set up so well by the amazing storytelling), simply because I want you to discover all this for yourself.
This could be the most challenging show you will ever watch, but I guarantee you it will also be one of the most rewarding. And if you want to discuss it afterwards (and you will), you know where to find me.
