Why The Wire is the Greatest Television Series Ever Made

It's no secret that most critics are well aquainted with hyperbole. If you've bought a dvd in the last 10 years, you know that some guy at either Ain't It Cool News or Dark Horizons will spray their name on just about anything, even if it's really crappy. This is a bit of a shame, because in the rare cases a real masterpiece comes along, it's hard to differentiate an undeserved superlative from an earned one. HBO's , which finished it's 5th season last year, is one such masterpiece. Taking place in inner-city Baltimore, The Wire is a heartbreaking dissection of crumbling American institutions. Over 5 seasons, the show's unparalleled ambition focuses first on the complicated ecosystem of urban drug kingpins, police departments, and junkies before expanding its scope to cover the docks, the government, the schools, and the media. The Wire's astonishing scope and near-flawless execution has earned it extraordinary praise from some of the most respected critical institutions:

 

"...must be considered alongside the best literature and filmmaking in the modern era." --San Francisco Chronicle

 

"The greatest dramatic series ever produced for television." --Newsday

 

"This is TV as great modern literature." --TV Guide

 

"When television history is written, little else will rival The Wire." --Variety

 

"One of the finest TV shows ever made. " --New York Post

 

Despite all of the tearful superlatives from the reviewing press, The Wire has been largely ignored by the general public, enjoying only a small audience when it was broadcast on HBO. Here are a few reasons to skip lazy reruns of The Real World this summer and watch The Wire.

 

Most television shows merely seek to find and regurgitate a winning formula. Television shows on network or cable television exist for the sole purpose of selling advertising. As such, they tend to be written in a way that will deliver the same audience from the previous episode, while not having too much confusing backstory should someone unfamiliar with the show tune in. Since HBO does not sell advertising space, their shows tend to have more freedom. As a result, The Wire is a single, self-contained story arc that has more in common with a good novel than television. Just as events in Lord of the Rings are referred to throughout the trilogy, events in The Wire continue to impact characters and situations seasons later than they occur.

 

The characters come across as deeply authentic, often because they are based upon real people. Before writing for television, David Simon was a police reporter for the Baltimore Sun and spent a year observing the daily grind of a Baltimore police department for his book . Many of the characters featured in The Wire are based directly upon, or are amalgamations of people he met during that time. On top of that, several of the actors featured in The Wire are former criminals themselves.

 

The show's deep cynicism is eerily relevant to the times. As the unemployment rate races toward 10%, the institutional corruption on display in The Wire bears a striking resemblance to the self-interested, ethically bankrupt institutions that brought about this global recession. So if you are looking for a show that reminds you of your own life where the good guys lose, incompetence is promoted, and talent punished, look no further than The Wire. It should give us all hope that it's also Obama's favorite show.