My Appreciation of The Wire

A couple of weeks back I finished watching a programme suggested to me by a friend. A programme called The Wire. I have to say, after forcing myself to view the first few episodes; The Wire is the single best piece of writing I have ever seen. As a series on TV, I can say there is no other equal to the brilliance of The Wire.

The Wire is an American television drama series set in Baltimore. Its creators and producers, David Simon, the series is broadcasted on HBO. The Wire first premiered on June 2, 2002, and has come to an end in March 2008 with 60 episodes covering the five seasons. Each season is seen to focus on different aspects of Baltimore. They include the government, the port, the drug trade, and the school system and media industry. I have to confess, despite my first hesitations on watching the Wire; it does brilliantly portray the lives of the people in Baltimore, both the arm of the state, to those simple poor drug dealers, in the city of Baltimore, Maryland.

The best portrayal of any character in my belief is, Micheal K. Williams, known as Omar Devone little in The Wire. In The Wire he is conveyed to be a stick-up man, with a strict code. He robs drugs dealers, and by living by a code, he is seen never to be a menace to those who aren't involved in the drug trade. Omar is gay within the Wire and has three partners throughout the course of the five seasons of the Wire. His characters portrayal is pure brilliance showing that his legendary character, often associated with his famous trench coat, shotgun, facial scar and whistling “The Farmer in the dell”. His role and character in the Wire is seen to propagate a sense of freedom. Omar little is shown to no be institutionalised within the Wire, and this I believe conveys the highest form of freedom. Also with the strict code, and gangster lifestyle, Omar little is the best character portrayed in any programme. This isn’t however saying the Wire only has one good character portrayal, in fact every single character within the Wire, is brilliantly portrayed, from Dianglo Barksdale in season one, to Felicia “Snoop” Pearson in season five. You should also know, the person who plays Snoop, was born in the crack dens of Baltimore, and having being brought up a butch lesbian, she got the role of the character, Snoop, who is also Snoop in real life, through meeting the creators of the Wire in a bar. Among this all the characters carry a sense of authenticity, and there characters morals are seen to be questioned throughout the Wire.

The Wire also brilliantly portrays many different themes throughout the seasons. These are from Realism to Institutional dysfunction. The realism comes from the writer and creator David Simon’s past police career. In the aim of creating something truthful, they have succeeded. It’s simply is so great; I have no criticisms to make.

The Wire is acclaimed as the most accomplished TV series ever. I can totally agree with this. Not only that, having seen many other HBO productions, I can say, the directors and producers of such programmes, as the Wire, the Sopranos, Generation Kill, etc. are by far the current bests out there. So if you have the time, I do suggest it, no in fact I say you must find the time to watch it, otherwise you will miss out on the best, and then I would feel like I let you down, so watch it! 10/10