Fans of The Wire no longer have a raison d’etre (reason for being). The series came to an end last night after a five-year run on HBO. At a time when American network television catered to the lowest common denominator with its plethora of reality programs and crime dramas whose titles begin with three distinctive letters, The Wire represented a true paradigm shift. The police were not necessarily the good guys. The men and women involved in the drug trade, both as dealers and users, were not necessarily the bad guys.
The genius of the show is its refusal to coddle the viewer. Characters spoke in the vernacular of their surroundings. If something was unclear, it was up to the viewer to figure it out. Storylines that came to an abrupt end at the finish of one season were not explained the following season. With The Wire, nothing was promised.
Here are the top four reasons, in no particular order, why The Wire was the best show on television:
1. Omar Little
- Some fans likened him to Robin Hood. Omar only robbed the dealers, believing it wrong to steal from those who weren’t in the game. A thug with a code, he was. A thug with a boyfriend, he was as well. Therein lies the fascination. Omar wasn’t one of these guys who was on the down low, faking his way through a lifestyle that demands machismo. Omar was black and gay, respected for his fearlessness, feared for his ruthlessness.
2. Bunny Colvin’s Legalization of Drugs
- City Hall demanded a reduction in crime rates . . . again. Major Howard “Bunny” Colvin, disgusted by the unrealistic demands of the powers that be, decides to make it happen. He puts the word out on the street: the dealers may hawk their wares within the confines of a run-down, mainly deserted neighborhood. If they assent, the police will leave them alone as long as they vacate their current locations. This, in turn, does lead to a drop in crime, but at what cost? Colvin’s plan was brilliant, although short-sighted. The fact that it worked speaks volumes about this country’s War on Drugs.
3. Randy, Michael, Namond and Duquan
- What better way to indict a city and its failing infrastructure than to examine the lives of the children it wounds? When we meet these four teenage boys in the fourth season, their spirits are surprisingly strong given what they’ve lived through. When we meet the sweet-natured Randy, his easy smile is indicative of his stable home life with his foster mother. When the season ends, his foster mother is dead and he is in a group home, both the result of promises made and broken by a police department that left him without protection. The fifth season provides the viewers with one last glimpse of Randy. Now cold, bitter and angry, the once-easy smile is gone, never to return again. Anyone looking for a happy ending need apply elsewhere. It’s not the job of The Wire to make America believe that those born without boot straps can easily pull themselves up and out of the mess they had no hand in creating.
4. The Cast
- Clarke Peters? Domenic West? Snoop Pearson? Who the hell are these people? You’ll probably never know unless you watch The Wire (although Peters was frighteningly believable in The Corner and West, like most others in the cast, is no newcomer). By casting lesser known actors in every role, the producers made a decision that would never be allowed in Hollywood: they allowed the show to be the star. Hence, each character, each actor was of equal weight. (And I swear to you the actor who played Gordon on Sesame Street made a few appearances on the show this season. His character, when on-camera, was constantly under-lit, but that voice is unmistakable.) What a treat it’s been to watch a show and know little or nothing about the people on-screen. The acting is all that mattered.
Sunday nights will never be the same. And for that, I blame and thank HBO.
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1 response so far ↓
1 Grace // Mar 14, 2008 at 9:35 pm
I don’t have cable, so I’m waiting impatiently for the last season to be released on DVD.
And this week was hell trying to avoid spoilers for the show. I glanced through your article with one eye closed hoping I wouldn’t see any I didn’t want to know!
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