The Wire

I read an article a while ago that wondered whether the more challenging and complex screen-based work was in fact not appearing on cinema screens but on its smaller cousin, the humble ol' TV. On the strength of my just-completed viewing of Season 3 of HBO's The Wire, I would be tempted to wonder the same thing.

That The Wire is superb in every conceivable way is I think uncontestable. I'm fairly unanimous in my review of this, based entirely on 20% of its content. (I still haven't seen Seasons 1, 2, 4 and 5).

Here's Charlie Brooker's view on it. "I reviewed The Wire on my low budget, miserabilist BBC4 show Screen Wipe, calling it "the best TV show of the past decade" in the process. I was wrong. I hadn't seen the fourth season then, which subsequently convinced me it's the best TV show since the invention of radio" he says.

Here's another bit of praise: "If Charles Dickens were alive today, he would watch The Wire," ran one plaudit, from the New York Times. "Unless, that is, he was already writing for it." That gets at the immense view of the interconnectedness of society The Wire has, but I would also add that Shakespeare would be sitting next to Dickens at the story meetings, creating not only lines to sit alongside his more famous "hits", but making sure that HBO's series had the majestic, all-too-human sweep of his plays.

Take a look at this confrontation between Omar and Brother Mouzone:



Or this war speech from Slim Charles:



Or McNulty getting "schooled" by Freamon:



There are countless examples like these. This show just blows everything out of the water.

And, right now, I feel a bit like the first coupla paragraphs of this, ya feel me bro?

UPDATE: There's an interesting article in the May issue of Sight & Sound (bizarrely in the shops but not on their website as yet). It's a little over-harsh on some of the acting, but it does place The Wire in the right context, and doesn't give too much away.